Pink Houses

I ride with this man each day.

Actually, everyone was asked to decorate their helmets. As usual, Harry went a little overboard. However, he rode like Harry Potter and we were his sorcerers.

We started out from the hotel and I felt great and felt really light. I then realized that the reason I felt so light is that I forgot my Camelbak in front of the hotel. I went back and got it so we started out a little late. Alec needed some cash so the next stop was at a Chase ATM. Apparently, Chase is so concerned with paying their TARP money back they had no money to dispense to Alec. We went to another bank and he successfully withdraw some money. Next we stopped at the University of Illinois where Harry took a few photos of himself. Finally some of Harry's costume above started coming off his bike and we stopped to adjust.

We finally left Champaign and headed into the only SAG of the day at mile 39. When we left, again I felt very light. Once again, I had forgot my Camelbak at the SAG stop. I went back and retrieved it. My roommate, Peter kept on whispering, "throw me away", "throw me away" while I was preparing my Camelbak. Maybe this was the Camelbaks way of agreeing with Peter.

After a few miles we entered Indiana.

For some reason, the song, Pink Houses by John Mellencamp kept running through my mind. He is from Indiana and before I returned from Japan, I would play this song everyday. Click on the link below to listen to what I was singing to myself as I pedaled through Indiana (or not).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q17h75pMQ4

At about the 50 mile mark, Harry asked us if we felt like riding through to the hotel. We all thought it a good idea as we were losing an hour and we could relax a little bit. The ride was mostly flat today so it was not that difficult. It is difficult to see whether the shifting problem was fixed as we had no uphill climbs today, but I did notice that I could actually stand on some of the inclines today without the gears shifting. I will know in a few days when we get to Ohio. We arrived at the hotel and I put my Camelbak to bed so it would have a good nights sleep and would remind me not to forget it.


Champaign, IL - Crawfordsville, IN

Miles 81.167
Ave. MPH 16.7
Actual bike time 4:52:05
Left Hotel : 7:25
Left Hotel second time 7:35
Arrive Hotel 2:42 (1:42 Champaign, IL time)

Tomorrow we ride to Indianapolis. Fred who lives in Indy has told me that one of the bridges that Tracy wants to take us over is out and he has an alternative. I hope we take Fred's route, but that will depend keeping up with Fred and as he is one of the stronger riders that will be difficult.