109.26 mi max 27.0 6:49.57 16.0 mph
Dinner tonight exceeded opulent. There was a pig roast put on by the entire town of LaPorte. In addition to the pig, there was grilled-in-the-husk corn, green salads, pasta and potato salads, chips, desserts and food, food, and more food. And a keg. There was a flute quartet, too. There were reflexologists there, also - free foot massages sounded great to me! And everyone was sooooo nice! Larry, the guy who organized the whole thing, is a former Big Rider, so he gets the whole town involved in laying out a spread for all the cyclists coming through on the Big Ride. It was AMAZING.
The mosquitoes here rival Alaska. Very impressive in their tenacity. Thank god for DEET!! (Better living through chemistry, haha).
The humidity is still nasty, but at least it's cooling down a bit. My riding clothes - non-cotton! - didn't dry this afternoon, from their washing yesterday, even though I hung them on the chain link fence. Ugh.
Today's ride totally rocked, although I didn't see much of it. I started at 6:05, first out of camp. I really wanted to attempt to beat the heat & humidity today (with over a 100 miles to do...right...). Around 30 miles, Christy & Moon caught up to me, and we followed the DRG. It said to turn right, so we did. It should have been a left onto IL 50. For the next 40 miles, I let them pull me. It was awesome - so many times I hardly had to work. Shortly after we crossed into Indiana (there was no sign to take pictures of), there were a couple of small hills, but enough of a challenge that I couldn't keep up with Christy & Moon. About 10 miles later, Justin, Bob & Larry passed me, so I hung onto their train. They pulled off for lunch and I continued on alone. As it turned out, I was the first person into the third water stop, and I had the important position of scoping out the ice cream situation (it was open, and very good - although I think I detected a few ice crystals. I miss BART'S!). As I stepped out of Pat's Ice Cream Parlor, I saw an approaching storm. Looking at it, it was not a question of whether or not we were screwed, but when and to what degree. I rounded one corner and was hit by a full force headwind...but it was also 20 degrees cooler. Not long after, Justin's group came by again, so I latched back on to the train. They pulled pretty hard, and I stuck with it, all 25 miles into camp. Traditionally, everyone takes a turn up front, and when Larry bowed out, I said, "I don't know if I can pull." He said, "Do the best you can." So...I took off. I guess it was a little fast, 20 mph...after, they said they had a tough time keeping up and were about ready to ask me to slow down. I was into camp by 2 pm; we were the 3rd group in. First was Dave, then Moon & Christy, then us 4. Yeeee-ha!!
The only bad thing about today is that I didn't take any pictures during the ride...but there really wasn't much to see, either.
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