Hello everyone,

Another beautiful day as we left Crawfordsville In this morning. It was cloudy since it had rained the night before and cool. I wore a rain jacket just in case but the forecast was for clearing. Once again we had favorable winds. The night before, I did not sleep well as the room was noisy and the storm woke me several times. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep so my plan was to ride the 60 miles fairly briskly and get in in tome for a nap. Normally, our starting time would have been delayed by an hour but since most of our group was going to the Zipp factory and they were time constrained, we were allowed to leave at the normal times.

I rode fairly fast and spent most of the day riding with Pierre. Pierre is an interesting guy who is an Accenture Executive and is a US citizen via The Netherlands. Very bright and interesting guy and fun to talk to when riding or at dinner. He rides and Eddie Merckx bike and he generally rides fast. Today’s ride also had an abnormal number of turns so it was good to have someone to double check the directions and turns. Some are easy to miss.

Once again most of the scenery was farmland, small towns and some wooded areas. The first and only SAG was at mile 23 . We didn’t linger too long except to add some drinks and a little food.

As we approached Indianapolis, the traffic started to get worse and we hit quite a few lights and stop signs. One has to be careful in riding in this type of traffic as there are many turn possibilities for the cars and multiple lanes of traffic. WE made good time and reached the hotel around 11:00am before the rooms were ready for occupancy.

At dinner, I heard a report from a number of riders on the Zipp factory tour. Overall it was quite interesting from the sound of it. I did manage to take a 2 hour nap that replenished some of the lost sleep from the night before. I probably made a good choice because after a relatively short 75 miles tomorrow, we will average well over 90 for the next 5 days until we rest in Eire Penn.

It was also Geoffrey’s birthday and we sang to him and enjoyed his cake after dinner at a local Thai restaurant. I quizzed Pierre on The Netherlands and he talked about the reclamation of the below sea level land, and the 70 kilometer national skate competition that is revered world round by the Dutch folk. He also talked about some of his time sent in Thailand.

It should be a relatively easy day tomorrow to Richmond Indiana. I have visited the city many times and have fond memories of the Indiana folk.

I’d once again make a plea for donations to the Wounded Warrior Project. I’d also like to thank the kind person who anonymously donated $1000.oo to the cause. However, small donations are welcome. Thanks

Taiulwinds

Chuck