DAY 19
We started the day off having some pancakes and eggs, courtesy of Kevin and Owen. Kevin also made us some breakfast fruit bowls, arguably our favorite part of the meals both days.
Not much happened, we had a fairly regular day of riding. Owen's tire started acting up towards the end of the day and we called it a little shorter than originally planned. We ended up stealth camping for the night. We set up camp in Milford, Indiana.
Stats for the day:
DAY 20 (Fourth of July!)
Our first order of business for the day was to get Owen's tire fixed. It was lopsided and kept bumping as he was riding. But none of the bike shops nearby were open since it was a Sunday and it was the 4th of July. So we were kind of in a rut. We got riding anyway just to see how far we could make it but Owen kept getting flat tires, most likely as a result of the lopsidedness of his tire. At one point we were stopped for nearly 45 minutes on the side of the road. And for whatever reason after being there all that time, within 3 minutes a crowd of people assembled around us all at once. One man from the trailer campsite nearby, another man who pulled over after passing us for the second time in his car, and an Amish family of 5. The older fellow driving the car offered to drive us anywhere if it would help. The man from the trailer park offered for us to work on the bike under the shade of his trailer and use his tools if needed. The Amish man even offered to go home and take off the new tube from his bike (that he'd just gotten replaced the day prior because he too caught a flat). It was a very nice gesture but Owen had been putting tubes in his tire practically all day at this point. We were fairly confident that the problem with the tire would continue to persist and ruin any tube that is installed within the tire. Everyone wanted to help which was really nice, but it honestly didn't do much for us as none of those things were the solution to our problem.
But it just so happened that when we explained the issue in more detail to the Amish man, he knew exactly how to fix the problem. He took Owen's tire and essentially just pulled out portions of the tire that seemed depressed compared to the rest of the tire. He fixed it in under five minutes. Something we spent nearly two hours stopping for throughout the day was fixed in just minutes by this man. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have been able to continue riding for the day and barely would've covered 20 miles.
Once that was all sorted were got riding again. The next town we arrived in was Walkerton, Indiana. We didn't get there until around 4. The blistering heat combined with the bike mishaps wore all of us down quicker than normal. We decided to call it a day at 36.8 miles. We subsequently set up camp along some train tracks and attended the firework show at the high school football field in this small town of 2,100 people.
Celebrating America's birthday was a nice way to wind down the tough and unfruitful day. There was a bunch of food tents set up, so as soon as we got to the field and ordered some burgers, hot dogs, and popcorn. It was all delicious. As we were sitting down waiting for the fireworks to start I was just thinking to myself. I realized a few things while thinking and looking at the people and families in attendance. First off, I was kind of realizing for the first time that we've biked pretty far from home already. And somehow we ended up in a random town of less than 3,000 people in Indiana on the Fourth of July. How cool. Secondly, I realized that despite being far from home, this town and the people in it felt all too familiar. Yeah, maybe the people didn't look like the average people in my town back home, or have the same accent. But they all have nearly the exact same reasons. Same exact reasons in that they love fireworks too, and spending time with friends and family and eating good food. We all have pretty similar reasons for the decisions we make in life when you think about it like that. It allows us to see that the basics of peace, joy, and love are simple. I believe this is what produced that familiar feeling I felt amongst the people of Indiana.
After the parade Tom asked if I or Owen knew if the dollar general in town was open. We were pretty sure it was closed as it was after 10 PM at this point. We then joked with each other saying that probably no where in town is open because the entire town is currently walking home from the firework show.
As I mentioned earlier, we set up camp along train tracks for that night, about 60 or so feet away. Poor decision making there. About every hour or so a giant freight train going about 60 mph would fly by on the tracks, causing what felt like a mini earth quake. This combined with the loudest horn I've ever heard in my life and the sound from when the train actually passed us startled us more than a few times throughout the night. Lesson 6: Don't camp near train tracks unless you want ultra loud train sounds entering into your dreams at night
Stats for the day:
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