Saturday, June 6: Today was one of those days where I had a couple choices, a menu so to speak, and I based my choice on where I’m at in this thing, specifically TIME. So when I put together my cue sheet for the trip (itinerary of sorts for directions) I usually gave myself a couple options for certain segments. Today was one such day. I had really a couple choices or combination of choices. Now I needed to get to Kokomo, IN so I could reach another pretty good selection of rail trails, so I need a bridge from Muncie to Kokomo. Now I could paddle the White River for 46 miles and then get on an abandoned RR line, or on county road berm - the old RR line is a nasty, overgrown tangle of vegetation; Or I could just go on some county road bems. The longer choice, by far,  was the paddle and the RR bike-a-hike. And the more time conserving choice was the county road berm. At this stage in the game I’m like 7 days behind schedule. And that weighed heavily on my decision today - county road berm all the way!

I’d pick up 2 days by doing the berm, and quite honestly, it’s pretty damn good out here in the flats of IN with respect to grass/gravel berm. Compared to the hell I endured in Ohio, this is just caviar! So we needed a chance to kind of get back to putting this thing in a realistic time schedule. So We got going at the western end of the White River Trail in downtown Muncie today, this so I could navigate Judy there. Then I would ride to where I left off yesterday, ride back to today’s start, and then continue west on a series of county road berms towards Kokomo. I did the “back to yesterday’s end section” in American Dirt style, staying off the asphalt trail. 

And tell you what, this area is a big greenspace, and it had been flooded recently by the White River, thus - the grass was soft and there was a ton of junk along the berm on both sides of the trail. It was just a major tough time to ride on. Then, when the trail goes through this really upscale section where there’s nothing but asphalt, I Xed over to the Ball State U campus and rode this long levee parallel to the river for 2 miles then rejoined the trail back where I ended yesterday. Worked out ok, but took about 45 min to do those 5 little miles. Then I rode back on the asphalt to where we began this morning. Judy, meanwhile was just riding on the trail for an hour or two. I had given her directions, in addition to actually driving with her earlier on the first 4 miles of county road berm I would do just to make sure she was dialed in, so I continued past the end of the trail and onto River Rd. 

River Rd was a breeze and I zipped down that WAY faster than I could have paddled the White River, which runs parallel to River. Next up was a short stint on a local bike-hike trail, and then a long and very nice stint on CR600N, a county road that just sliced through pure farm country. LOVED IT! It’s just so peaceful out in this part of the US. The berm was usually good, sometimes bad, but I could always maintain at least 8 mph, and usually 10-12 mph. Now that’s about 3-4x faster than paddling, and I was cognizant of that each and every mile I pedaled west. Now our one snafu was when we came to a Road Closed sign, and rather than me go through and Judy go around, I went around with her, and that cost me a good 30 min, in addition to putting me on some Godawful berm, just highly angled weeds that were  crazy hard to ride on. But I got through that only because I was pissed off. 

On one section where they’d just cut the weeds on the berm, with the weeds all clumped up on the side of the asphalt, I couldn’t even delineate where the berm was and where the asphalt was. Caused me to have a very close near biff when my front wheel caught the lip of the asphalt and just began to twist to the left, bulldozing forward. The bike was going down to my left, and I guess out of instinct I disengaged my left foot and kind of stutter stepped for about 10 yrds trying to keep the bike and me from going down to the left - my bad knee side. Don’t know how but I saved it. 

Then, about 30 min later I noticed my rear end getting squirrely, and damned if it wasn’t a rear flat. That makes 2 flats in 3 days. So we had a long support stop with a flat fix. Turns out that my kevlar tube protector had put pressure on the tube and rubbed the tube raw in one area. Fixed that, with a TON of work to pull the tire and then reset the tire. 

Did a right on Rt 213 berm and just sailed north to just 2-3 miles south of Tipton. Called it a day there after loosing about an hour for that flat stop. My intent was to try to make Kokomo. But it just wasn’t in the cards today. Ended up with about 47 miles today - a massive, I mean massive day compared to most. Maybe I’m getting my legs back! I’d love to think we can make IL in the next 3 days. 

We got this little efficiency in the middle of Tipton, cooked dinner and then just sat out in front of our abode and watched life go on in the town of Tipton. I absolutely love small-town America. It’s so different when you get a local slice of life. No chain hotel/motels right off the interstates, no camping out in the middle of nowhere. I mean we’re just a block from main street. People were walking to and fro going into and out of town on a Saturday night. That’s one of the things I so love about riding across America, especially across rural America - because you see what this country really is about. I love the local flavor, the local accents, and the friendly people. It’s just very comforting.  

You pass all these little hamlets, and burgs, and towns and cities on the interstate and main roads so you never really SEE what it’s all about. These places are the heart and soul of the country, and I just love them. So on a warm, sunny summer evening, we spent a couple hrs this Saturday evening just sitting out in front of our efficiency watching life unfold in the Tipton, Indiana - anywhere USA! Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday evening.