June 14 Indianapolis to Richmond, IN: 83 miles

This patriotic scarecrow was standing in its field with a whole crew of friends. There must have been 20 scarecrows in this field! Rural Indiana...

Yesterday our 64 mile ride could have been completed in 50 miles... today's was the same, that is, our 83 mile ride could have been done in about 70 if we had taken hwy 40 instead of hwy 38. This is according to a local we spoke to in a small town. Oh well, the scenery was pleasant, the weather was perfect, and the traffic was not too bad.

We woke to a warm sunny day and it stayed that way! High was 84 degrees, light wind from the SSW. The wind was never strong enough to make us complain, and was cool enough to keep us from overheating. I rode with Bob and Randy again today, and we made fairly good time--in the hotel at 2 PM after riding 83 miles. We stopped at the sag and had another stop for a quick lunch at about 60 miles into the ride. We saw rolling hills and flooded fields--in one flooded field there was a mallard duck swimming... The farmers' losses must be tremendous. Creeks and rivers are still running fast and full spilling over their banks.

Richmond is a larger city than I expected. I thought it was a sleepy little farm town like so many we have seen, but it's large and busy. Tomorrow we leave Indiana for Ohio--the state line is just a couple of miles from here, and we'll be riding 105 miles tomorrow. That will put us firmly in Ohio! Let's all hope for nice weather...