Day 36 - From Crawfordsville, Indiana to Indianapolis, Indiana - 66 miles

Today was quite an eventful day! We awoke in the morning to loud thunder and lightening - it was clear that no one was biking anywhere. So, our leaders drove us to breakfast about 2 miles down the street and then after breakfast we all waited to hear any news. The leaders gave us a choice - we could either sag into Indianapolis and not ride today or we could wait it out and see what happened with the weather. The forecast was rain, lightening, and thunder coming through in waves throughout the day. So, half the group decided to sag and the other half decided to wait. I, of course, decided to wait - I'd ride unless they told me I couldn't. So, the sag vans took half the group to Indianapolis while the rest of us waited for more news. Some of us slept (see picture of Kip), some of us read the newspaper, and others of us just chatted and acted crazy (me!).

About 9:30am, it had been clear for about an hour and Skip talked to our tour leaders and got permission to ride over to Wabash College (about 3 miles away) - it is one of only two men only colleges still in existence (so, this is where to meet men!! :). So, Skip, Fred, Jose, and myself rode over there and took an informal tour - from Skip and Fred who both graduated from there in the 60s. We were there for about an hour and Fred got to see two of his fraternity brothers who now work there. It was quite pleasant and was much better than sitting around the hotel.

So, our sag vans got lost on their way to Indianapolis and by 10:30am, they still weren't there yet - so our leaders told us we could go ahead and start the ride since it was nice and clear out. No thunder or lightening in site. I called the hotel and talked to Michelle, our tour leader, who explained that we could leave from Wabash College, so the four of us headed up the road for a short 66 mile ride.

We had many sites to see today - first, the Roark Bike Factory, which was only 35 miles up the road. At this bike factory, they custom make titanium bikes - we took a short tour. I wasn't too impressed, to be honest. It is basically a big welding plant and they do SOME bikes - ranging in price between $9,000 and 16,000 - definitely out of my price range! The majority of the plant makes other things for other companies - like stuff for the military - I don't even know what it all was and I didn't really care... moving right along...

We rode through Eagle Creek Park, very pretty, and then went onto the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - super cool! All the time, we were waiting for another rainstorm or thunderstorm but it was nice out... very nice out. The Speedway was really big... impressive! We got a lot of information from Skip on Indianapolis, since he lived here lots of his life. That was nice!

Then we went onto the Major Taylor Velodrome. I'd never seen a Velodrome ... it is where cyclists race ... and we were welcomed with a nice sign! I watched a cycling clinic going on and it was neat to see them racing - interesting.. lots of young people in this clinic...

We followed the waterway into our hotel - it was beautiful! There is a riverwalk area that reminded me of San Antonio, Texas's riverwalk. I might take a boat ride through there on my day off. The hotel we were suppose to stay at was a Comfort Inn but it wasn't built in time for our arrival so we got to stay at Staybridge Suites - which is an amazing hotel with huge suite rooms, free laundry, exercise facility, nice pool, amazing breakfast and cocktail hour. Divine! It much needed for two nights and a rest day.

We had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory and I enjoyed a much needed glass of wine. Though the day was excited, it also tried my patience to HAVE to ride in a group the whole day due to the pending weather doom... but it was beautiful and I was excited I decided to ride. Our rest day is suppose to be another thunder and lightening storm but it is blue skies and looks like a nice day (I am writing this on my rest day and it is sunny, sunny, and sunny)! I am excited to have a day of rest in this beautiful hotel right next to downtown Indianapolis... yahoo!

Publishing/comments note: I didn't know how to change the dates of my post, so blogspot automatically puts the date that I write the post as the actually date - I just figured out how to change it, so I'll be sure to keep the days accurate from now on and will change the other ones- sorry for any confusion to anyone (thanks for asking about it though, Lawrence!). Also, I get emailed all comments to me, regardless of where you post them... so feel free to comment wherever you'd like and I'll receive notice of the comment! Thanks for all your commenting... it helps so much to hear from you all and to know you are out there following along as I pedal, pedal, pedal, and pedal some more!