Thursday, June 2nd
Wind. Trucks. Farms. Heat. I felt it coming yesterday, but I think today I can say for certain that the honeymoon period of this ride is over as the reality of crossing a country as big as America has set in.
Objectively it was a fine day, just one where a lack of new stimulus caused me to question what I was doing a little too much. I’m also questioning my route, or the lack of one. After deciding on the Northern Tier, and planning to join it after Niagara, i’m now off it again. Travelling roughly parallel, but heading more North right now to reach Chicago, mainly because I don’t know what I’m doing and it buys me some time, or delays a bigger decision.
I spent a long time talking to my host Glenn, last night and this morning, about the route he took from Seattle to Iowa and it’s given me new ideas. Of course the options and routes are limitless in a country this size, so i’m trying to think about why I came here in the first place and what I wanted out of the ride and what combination of states, roads, and other things that will fulfil that.
Today I covered 80 miles, leaving Ohio behind for Indianna, and ending the day at the Chain O’Lakes State Park.
There was little change in the scenery over the course of the 7 or 8 hours I cycled. Farmland and flat fields. I listened to the podcasts ‘Planet Money’ and ‘Fresh Air’ and tried to forget about the wind I had in my face, and the trucks which flew just a little bit too close along the route 6.
At lunch I picked out the state park on the map, thinking it might offer camping, and decided i’d aim for that, which would leave me 160~ miles to Chicago. I could be there by Saturday night.
I cross into Indiana in the early afternoon after Egerton, an ‘itty-bitty’ town according to the nice attendant I speak to at a gas station there as she put up some signs in the forecourt.
I take a combination of smaller roads in the afternoon, the wind and traffic eases slightly and I start to appreciate my surroundings a little more.
The last ten or fifteen miles to the park are the most interesting, and hardest. The scenery becomes more leafy and green and rolling hills replace the flatness which defined Ohio for the last day or two.
I don’t read a lot about the park. But as I cycle in it seems to live up to it’s name. Lots of small pretty tree lined lakes you can canoe or kayak on, or cycle around.
I pay $2 to get into the park, and $12 for ‘primitive camping’ – essentially just a place to put my tent, no electricity. I give my details to the park ranger on the gate and she says I will have seen more of America than she will have once I finish my trip. A little outside perspective like this helps keep me going.
There are showers but they’re a long way away and I can’t be bothered to use them even though I probably should need to. My face feels sticky from the all those hours in the heat and sunscreen has sweated into my eyes which are itching.
I have decisions I need to make but, as I’ve found with all my travelling so far, being able to do whatever on earth I want to, as far as time and budget will allow, can be both a curse and a blessing.
Map
