Day 32 – Lafayette, IN to Upland, IN

Weather
Temperature: 81°F
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Wind: SE 8 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 880 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 66,870 ft
Maximum Speed: 31.5 mph
Average Speed: 19.5 mph
Distance Trip: 88.3 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,522.1 miles
Elapsed Time: 4 hr 31 min 42 sec

There was extra excitement in the air today as we were all heading “home” in a sense. Today’s trip brought us to Upland, IN, the headquarters of Wandering Wheels. Some people had made arrangements for friends and family to meet them at the finish. A lot of us were also excited because tomorrow would be a rest day.

One funny thing that happened actually unfolded over the course of two days (yesterday and today). For some reason, one of the riders (who was one of the slowest in the bunch) thought that our final destination was Kokomo instead of Lafayette. When he got to Kokomo, he knew that he’d gone too far. It was getting kind of late too. He didn’t know how (or wasn’t able) to get a hold of Wandering Wheels. So he walked up to a farmhouse, explained who he was and his predicament, and they let him sleep on their couch for the night. Fortunately, he knew that Wandering Wheels headquarters was our final destination today and was able to meet back up with us.

My ride wasn’t overly exciting. Roads were flat and the farmland was boring. Besides stopping in Kokomo for lunch, Jim and I rode pretty much straight on through to Upland. I’m pretty sure we had some big shin-dig that night for dinner. Many of us headed over Ivanhoe’s for more food a couple hours after eating dinner.

Day 33 – Rest Day

Today would be the last rest day of the trip. From here on out, we would be riding every day until we finished in Delaware. It sure was great to sleep in! Like I said, some people had friends and family come top visit so we had that extra excitement going on. Wandering Wheels is a prominent fixture in the community so it’s always a tradition for the local community to welcome us and hang out while we’re there. Despite all the “excitement”, I did manage to rest up some and get my bike all cleaned up. Another thing I did (which I almost totally forgot about) is I went golfing with a few other guys. Me and a three other guys went to the local golf course, rented some clubs, and played 9 holes of golf. Really wasn’t much else to do, so I figured, “Why not?!?!” It would be an early start again tomorrow, and we would enter another state – Ohio.