Wednesday, July 01, 2009

16: "Tandems Can Get You Pregnant"

Stoker's Log Day Sixteen

7/01/09

From Richmond, IN

To Indianapolis, IN

73.3 miles

12.1 avg mph

After our difficult discussion last night we needed an uplifting ride, which fortunately is exactly what we got. We started our day with an amusing bit of encouragement: enthusiastic fist pumps from a graying man carrying his groceries home. Better yet, my body was miraculously pain free all day. My legs felt fresh, my joints moved fluidly, and my feet were as cool as a cucumber.

We made our first stop of the day in Richmond's historic district. I started to photograph the old buildings but soon became more interested in the squirrel cavorting on a steam powered tractor.

We then passed through commercial districts with some of the most unfortunate business names I've ever encountered. Raper's Rentals and the Butcher Chapel of a funeral parlor topped the list, though Mr. Faultless the lawyer was also amusing.

We actually spent a great deal of today laughing; the isolated and exhausted are easy to entertain. At one point I suddenly felt the bike's resistance disappear and yelled out "Oh Blimey!" I thought Kyle was laughing at my British exclamation but it turns out he was laughing because the chain was off but for some reason I was still spinning the pedals as quickly as possible. We almost tipped over because Kyle couldn't extricate his feet while I was still pedaling, and then we almost fell over again because we were laughing so hard. Also whenever Kyle sang or hummed an old television theme song that I didn't recognize (which was often since I was never a fan of cartoons) I would chime in with the line "Saviour of the Universe!" from Flash Gordon at the top of my lungs. It may not seem hilarious, but I'm pretty sure it will amuse us for days.

We also revisited the more serious topics from our discussion last night. It was depressing to talk about the daunting challenges of the west but hopefully if we keep going over the problems we'll come up with a solution. As we talked I got the germ of an idea that just might work: maybe we could have a friend fly out west to drive a rented truck or UHaul as our support vehicle. That way we would have someone to carry supplies and to rescue us if we became stranded or just needed to be driven to the nearest bathroom, and if we couldn't make it to the next hotel by nightfall we could always sleep in the back. We're not sure if we can afford it and we're also not sure who would be willing to sacrifice two weeks of their summer to camp out and drive a rented vehicle very slowly across the west, but it's something to look into, and something to give us a bit of hope.

Another realization we made as we dissected our trip was that we wanted to spend more time talking to locals and really getting to know each region through its people. So this morning we were excited to chat with David, who pulled over to check out our bike, as well as the delightful owner of Cinnamon Spice Bakery.

We stopped there for a delicious breakfast just before reentering rural nothingess. I had to diverge from my usual bakery plan when I found out that all of the croissants were both glazed and fried (welcome to the midwest) but Kyle was a very happy man with his two giant donuts.

Cinnamon Spice was not only a bakery; it also sold every decorative concrete entity you could imagine: lions, guard dogs, gnomes, those creepy fishing boys that seem to haunt every pond we pass... When an Animal Control truck pulled up behind a line of concrete carnivores I couldn't contain myself. Unfortunately the driver didn't get the joke and was very suspicious of my photograph.

For the next several hours we rode through farmland and small towns, ducking under trees or into buildings whenever the light but persistent rain decided to intensify. At one of our gas station stops we met an energetic man in overalls with a very important message for us:

"My wife and I tried a tandem once and only once. We rode to her parents' house a good distance away and when we finished she felt horribly sick for days and it took a while for us to figure out what was wrong. This taught us a very important lesson: tandems can get you pregnant."

Good to know.

This week I also discovered a business that was entirely new to me: drive-thru and drive-in alcohol stores. Some are super snazzy and some are glorified garages with shelves of beer on the walls. They could never exist in PA because of the state's liquor laws, but I swear I've never seen them anywhere before. Here they seem to be everywhere.

About halfway through our ride today the nearly empty country roads were suddenly replaced by heavily trafficked roads with little or no shoulder. Kyle's stress level shot through the roof as he danced the bike on the white line or skidded through gravel. It was a nightmare for a while but finally we hit better roads and flew through the rest of the ride. We arrived just outside of Indianapolis in good time and checked into the La Quinta, which instantly became our favorite hotel ever. Even if it hadn't been the least expensive hotel in the area we would have fallen in love with the plush bedding and the perfect shower. It even had guest laundry, which we sorely needed, and next door was a restaurant with ample servings of delicious food and a wonderful waitress named Shelly who was really excited to talk about our trip. It was the perfect evening after an overall great ride, and we couldn't stop smiling. Yesterday half of me wanted to go home... today, maybe 10% tops.

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