Yesterday we entered our  last time zone change, hello Eastern time. Because of that and a very short 62 mile ride today we had a chance to sleep in later. Our departure was 2 hours later than the usual 7:30 push off. 

Today’s ride treated us to beautiful and tranquil country roads. All lined with meticulous farms and farm houses. I was so impressed with how manicured and well kept all of them were. It was quaint, quiet, peaceful and void of 18 wheel big rigs. 

When we passed a sign telling us we were entering Boone County it all made sense. The name fit the setting,  beautiful farmlands and barns worthy of frequent photo stops. My highlight was crossing Big Raccon Creek,now how rural is that ? I enjoyed seeing folks sitting on their front porches or under large shade trees. All of them enjoying the quiet country life and eager to return our waves of hello. The only thing missing was the smell of someone baking a fresh apple pie. At one point we rode under a full canopy of huge tress branches lining the road on each side. It was a full green tunnel.  It was like a gift to cyclists from Roy Disneys. Thanks Indiana for those memories. 

As we peddled, Debbie and Kristen went ahead to shop in Indianapolis. Yep you quessed it,  they went dress shopping at Nordies. A successful shopathon as Deb found her mother of the bride dress ! 

As we approached Indianapolis, the heat, traffic and pace quickened. As luck would have it we had another bridge closed detour !  We negotiated 7 traffic round about circles cautiously. It seems these Indy drivers secretly all want to qualify to drive around their famous speedway. I think they need to raise the caution flag and pump a few brakes. 

We spotted a familiar yet seldom seen sign and we hit our brakes. ” Boys, is that a Starbucks ? “. What a nice coffee stop it was. The Starbucks was located inside a beautiful huge market all sparkling brand new it seemed. Finally a good cup of Joe !  

Some of you may be wondering exactly how one finds their way to Boston from LA. In the photo you’ll see what we call route, or cue sheets. The tour company carefully fine tunes these each year. There is a column of accumulative mileage and another for ” lap ” or segment mileage. You’ll see all kinds of notes like dangerous railroad track crossings, hard to see road signs for turns, etc. These sheets even tell us where the Dairy Queens are ! It’s all really easy to follow with a Garmin bike computer and or Strava on an I- phone. I use both and haven’t missed many turns at all. We did miss one turn today and 3 guys behind us gave a loud shout out. When we got back on the route Howard turned to me a said how nice it was for them to shout to us. He said ” I’d have let them go on and suffer “. !!!