Rushville, IN to Bloomington, IN
Many times on this trip the mornings have been much easier than the afternoons. Today was no exception. We were on flats for the majority of the morning passing cornfield after cornfield. I was riding with a great group of 6 girls and we were averaging above 16mph before lunch!
We had another great weather day, and it was pretty cool early on in the morning before the sun really came out. The sweepstakes for today was a strange one--the best holiday/Christmas card. During a break on the side of the road, we started talking about what that even meant and began talking about a website called "Awkward Family Photos". Basically it's a website with tons of really hilariously awkward family photos on it. From there we got to talking about awkward maternity photos and the idea was born that we would take an awkward maternity picture in front of some hay bails using our helmets as bellies. It was hilarious and a lot of fun! Unfortunately we didn't win, we didn't know that incorporating something Christmas in the picture was part of the judging criteria (whose Christmas card picture is actually them at Christmas??).
After our picture we kept powering straight on through to lunch at mile 50. We were all pretty hungry by the time we got there. A few of us had a quick lunch and were back on the road again without everyone from the morning. Unfortunately, the afternoon brought hills. They seemingly came out of nowhere in the flat Indiana landscape, but boy were they long. Nothing too steep like Pennsylvania though. One of the girls I was riding with got a flat tire and we didn't realize it was something stuck in her tire until her tube deflated again about 15 miles after we changed the first one. Stopping to pump up we tire the second time, a larger group of people came by and stopped to help out that joined our group. Together we made it through the last of the hills into Bloomington. Before we got to the host site we all stopped for ice cream and then at a bike shop. They were super nice and helpful and gave us all a discount. When we got to the church, the trailer wasn't there with all of our stuff because it was picking up Alex at the hospital back in Ohio, so we all hung out in our stinky bike clothes for a few hours. Some people went downtown while others, including myself, took some much needed naps on the couches. We ate a delicious dinner provided by the church and then showered once the van got there. After we were all cleaned up one of our hosts drove a group of us downtown to the largest microbrewery in Indiana. On the way there he gave us a tour of Indian University and the surrounding college town. It was such a beautiful campus and looked like a really fun town! Bloomington is definitely on my list of places to come back to and explore more.
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