James Day 34 - Haubstadt, IN

This morning I said a very tearful and hug-tastic goodbye to Aaron and Sam. As they went to enjoy the sights, sounds, and pools of the greater Carbondale area, I pushed on ahead alone so that I can make it to Yorktown by July 1st.

For this interested, my route will take me through Louisville (Andy's house), Lexington (Bob's house), a couple nights through KY and VA, then Matt's place in Blacksburg, my own house in Roanoke, Doug's place in Richmond, and finally Yorktown.

Back to today. I went to the post office as it opened at 8:30, where I received an amazing care package from Adrienne (thank you so much, it was perfect). With that to boost my spirits I set off on my way through the heat toward Harrisburg. While I will take the heat over cold and rainy any day, it still isn't fun to have sweaty palms while biking. Not to mention sweat running down your face, or fighting a losing battle with chafing (I won't go in to details).







One more state: check.

Southern Illinois and Indiana are both what I wanted Kansas to be: mostly flat, with a couple turns and cities to keep it interesting. I didn't go up anything that deserved to be called a hill all day, and I loved it. Hopefully tomorrow will be much of the same.

A little after lunch I stopped a Super Wal Mart and bought half of a watermelon. It was so refreshing that it's getting its own paragraph.

A guy outside a gas station talked with me about the trip for a while. He was skeptical that
1. My bike would make it to Virginia (it will)
2. It's possible to bike in these temperatures (clearly it is)
I eventually just left him even though he was still asking questions. He can deal with it.

It was still fairly early when I got to Cynthiana, my original end point for the day, and there were no stores in town, so I pushed on for 7 more miles and saw a glorius sign: pizza buffet. It's easier to get me to eat at a buffet than to get an alcoholic to drink, so of course I went there. I got full but didn't take it to 'thanksgiving uncomfortably hard to breath' full, which is quite am accomplishment for me. The park doesn't have running water, but it has a bathroom and it's actually cool out tonight, so I can't complain. I'm looking forward to a shower tomorrow at Andy's place.