Bishop Bike Adventure Day 44 August 13, 2010

Today, albeit hot, was a beautiful day. We started with a nice big breakfast at McDonald’s, where Tim loaded up on carbs as the accompanying picture testifies.

We rode along much of Adventure Cycling’s obscure roads and stumbled onto a miniature donkey farm. The donkeys were small, not necessarily the farm! Debbie could not contain herself, and so leapt over the fence for a closer view and chat with the farmer. The “kid” shown here with her mama was well protected. It was fun to watch the small ones run. They were attracted to Debbie’s voice and made a steady parade toward the fence before we got our cameras ready.

Down the road, we were beckoned by a lady who lived on a farm to come inside for watermelon and lemonade. We chatted with her and one of her 34 grandchildren for quite some time. Her husband is deceased and the corn and soybean farming is now conducted by three of her sons. She was a sharp and friendly lady. She gave us some ice water and we were off on our late afternoon ride.

We are now noticing that the water towers denoting towns at great distance are now either less visible or nonexistent. The changes to the terrain and town structures are subtle at this rate of travel. Today we did experience more rolling hills toward the end of our ride, like the hills of the Mississippi River valley that we experienced several days ago upon entering Illinois. We also see more trees, which usually surround the fields, although we’ve seen some undeveloped land and river valley tree stands.

As darkness began to fall, we saw three deer along the road, one of which stumbled through a fence falling on the road right in front of Debbie, then righting itself and dashing across the road. We ended the day in Wabash, IN, coming into town after dark wearing headlamps. We do not like to travel after dark and try to minimize it, but the accommodations awaiting us were worth the few miles of darkness.