From Ohio to Michigan to Indiana

The last two days have taken us over two more state lines. And today took us from a small town of only 500 to the booming college town of South Bend.

The morning began with a beautiful sunrise over the farm fields of Michigan. The great part about biking so early in the morning is that there is little traffic and you get to watch the world wake up. After only a couple of miles we crossed into Indiana and said goodbye to Michigan.

We rode 36ish miles in to first lunch, which was on a road that took us through huge farm fields. The irrigation systems were turned on so we were refreshed by spraying water several times. Even cooler were the rainbows that were captured in the water.

At lunch we were visited a fluffy black dog from up the hill with a big mustache. He was some kind of terrier/Scotty mix I think. At first he was awful shy but he warmed up to us and I got lots of petting in with him. We tried guessing his name and finally learned from his owner it was Bourbon.

After lunch Nate took the lead in our group and we knocked out a bunch if miles at 20mph. We passed numerous homes with buggies and even saw one in action on the road. The Amish are very familiar to me, but for some on the trip they are quite new and interesting.

We continued to ride into the afternoon with minimal breaks. It helps when our cue sheet has lots of turns because it breaks thing up. For second lunch Nate and I missed the van because it was picking people up. So, we quickly grabbed food as it passed on the way back. I enjoyed a dry cereal mix with peanut butter and jelly stirred in. Yum.

The final part of the day took us in to South Bend and through the Notre Dame campus before bringing us to the church. Our hosts are very hospitable and shuttled us to a pool for dinner. We had the pleasure of hearing a Notre Dame economics prof talk about the morgage crisis during dinner to learn more about the affordable housing curriculum. Dinner itself was full of veggies and fruit, my favorite.

It is still very hard for me to muster the energy and mental stamina to keep going each day. I wonder if I made the right choice to continue onward from Ohio. It feels now as if I am biking away from home, when what I want is to be biking home.