Hoosier hospitality can't be beat! 

 

We have been fortunate to meet some wonderful people during our trip, but Hoosier Hospitality will be tough to beat! Hoosiers bought us meals, opened their homes to us and gave us "short cuts" to our destinations.

 

One day we were riding along a hot country road near Royal Center, IN when Brian pulled the bike off under the shade of a big tree.  He walked up to the house to ask a woman, watering her flowers, if we could fill our water bottles from her hose...well, that turned out to be the start of one of the best afternoons of our trip! We were the guests of Frances and Paul Kiser who brought out fresh lemonade too cool us off.  If that wasn't enough, Paul brought out a cold watermelon, too! We spent an hour or so talking about life on an Indiana farm and our adventures so far. It was a wonderful break for us and we made some good friends in Paul and Frances.  We will definately keep in touch with the Kisers!!

 

Later in the week, we were lying on our backs (after lunch) in a town park and saw storm clouds rolling in. We quickly threw our gear into the trailers and started riding fast the last 15 miles to the campsite.  About half way to our destination, the lightening and thunder got too close for comfort, so we pulled up to the next farm where we asked the owner if we could wait out the lighteneing in their barn.  Again, the Hoosier Hospitality was great and saved us from a possible lightening strike!

 

THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

We camped everynight in Indiana and I didn't get an opportunity to update the web page. Unfortunately, I lost some pictures in another storm, I am keeping the disks and hoping someone can recover the lost images when I get back to Virginia. 

Anyhow, the hills leveled out in Indiana and the weather brightened and we enjoyed the ride.  The weather was hot (95+ degrees) and cycling was difficult but we made it to Markle, IN our first night thanks to our good friends at County Line Pizza. After that, the weather stayed good but the flat ground was tougher to ride on than we thought.  We found that the flat terrain required us to generate our own momentum (instead of getting it from the occasional hill) and it was sometimes tough to do in the heat & headwinds.

 

 

 

Crossing into Indiana. Unfortunately there was no sign to take a picture of, but trust me...this is Indiana!

 

 

 

 

Taking a break in the shade near Yoder, IN. It was about 95 degrees during this part of the day and Carrie is pouring water on her face to cool off!

 

 

 

 

Forever on a quest to find the best pizza the country has to offer, County Line Pizza in Zanesville, IN is another contender! Janet and Holly (pictured here with Rachel & Carrie) served us some GREAT pizza and cold drinks in an air conditioned store!! Their place is right on the Northern Tier cross country bicycle route and is a place everyone must stop! Thanks to both of you for the great chow, the great company and the fantastic directions to our next stop!