Pat and Sari's Honeymoon Bike Ride

Sunday, August 31, 2008
West Lafayette, IN to Peru, IN
59 miles (8364 total miles)

Back on the road again! David took some pictures of us, on our rest day and as we were taking off in the morning. He told us there was a 'little hill' as we left their driveway and he slipped ahead of us to get a picture of us going up it. You can tell Pat was working hard whereas I was just enjoying the ride, as usual. Poor Pat. It was a lot less hilly after that, but we did have a series of dips and rises. We also had about 3 miles of gravel road at one point and just at the end of the day we had a few hills. Other than that, it was fairly flat and reasonably well paved. The day started out quite chilly (fall is coming!) but it warmed up quickly and got into the high 80's. It was fairly humid, too, probably because of Hurricane Gustav blowing warm Gulf Coast air up this way. The wind was mostly calm, with a stronger headwind later in the afternoon. We left David & Janet's very reluctantly at 7:30 this morning, after another huge meal, and arrived at our motel in Peru, IN at 3:15, having gone almost 59-1/2 miles in 5 hours and 50 minutes of bike time.

We were mostly on county roads all day, with a short stretch on a newly-paved divided highway, US 31. Janet had told us this was the north-south highway up through the center of Indiana. We went through a few small towns today and one larger one, Delphi, where we ate lunch. The first town was near the Tippecanoe battleground (where William Henry Harrison's battle with the Tippecanoe Indians was fought) and had the unfortunate name of Battle Ground. It was a picturesque little town, though, with historic buildings and quaint houses. We crossed the Tippecanoe River partway between Battle Ground and Delphi. The Wabash River and the Wabash-Erie Canal crossed our road right before we entered Delphi. The canal was once a major transportation conduit between New York and Chicago. We stopped in Delphi for lunch, 25 miles out, even though it was early, since we didn't think we'd find much on the road later and we were right. We went through 3 more small towns - Rockfield, Burrows, and Onward - but didn't see any gas stations or stores. We had topped up our camelbaks in Delphi but were running out by the end of the day.

We saw a number of bikes today - it being a warm, sunny Sunday - including a group of cyclists out for a ride. They all greeted us as they passed (easily) and one of them hung back to chat with us about our trip. We also saw one touring bike as we were eating lunch in Delphi, but we had stopped in the Arby's and he went across the street to the McDonald's. Even though we kept an eye out for him, we didn't see him after that. We have one more night in Indiana tomorrow, and then it's on to Ohio. It will be interesting traveling on Labor Day - we're not sure what we'll run into (parades, other festivities?), but we hope there will be some food places open. We may have to crash a picnic or two!