Day 63: Short-haired Germans, Scooter-Commuter

Day 63:  Thursday August 7th, 2014.
Rensselaer, IN to Salamonie State Forest near Lagro, IN. 91.9 miles.

I woke up on the living room couch to the sound of my cell-phone alarm at 6:40 am.  Mike was in the room getting ready to leave.  Still trying to wake up, I thanked him one more time before he left.  It must have been obvious that I was  out of it, as Mike encouraged me to sleep in.  But, I was anxious to get moving.

After Mike left, I ventured out the back door into their yard to investigate the source of whining that had been occuring for several hours in the kitchen during the night.  Lucy, a beautiful German Shorthair mother of six, somehow locked herself inside, with her six puppies outside, which explains her cries in the night.  

The puppies, with their blue eyes, were painfully cute.  It's a good thing that I was on a bicycle thousands of miles from home with no way to take one off Mike's hands.

I rode a few blocks to the business district of town in search of breakfast before moving on.  The only options in front of me were fast food chains.  I avoid them like the plague for many reasons - the food is loaded with sodium, the bad oils/fats, GMO ingredients, and generally low-grade meats and meat-fillers, and they generally don't pay a liveable wage to their employees, to name a few.  But, I was ill-prepared on this morning to make my own breakfast, and I was in a hurry to get moving.  Reluctantly, I headed into one of the chains for some calories, the first fast-food chain I've visited on this trip (and hopefully the last).

I leaned my bike against the window outside.  Sitting down to eat at an inside table, after a few minutes one of the employees came up to me and said, "Here you go!", handing me a bag with 2 chocolate chip cookies inside.  "A woman that came through the drive-thru bought them for you and asked me to deliver them.", she said.  I thanked her.  I wanted to speak to the person behind this gesture of kindness.  But, they were gone.

I noticed that the vast majority of folks eating inside this place were well into their 60's and beyond.  Apparently, the senior citizen pricing is enticing, and may be the easy affordable option for many trying to survive on social security income.

A few minutes later, one of these aging beauties headed out the door by herself.  I watched her glance at my bike before stopping to stare at it, looking it over.  She then turned around, appearing to be contemplating something.  Setting her purse on the nearby concrete table, she began digging, looking for something.  "Did she misplace her car keys?", I wondered.  Then, she came back inside and headed right for me.  "You're the gentleman with the bicycle outside?", she asked.  "That's me.", I replied with a smile.  She followed up with, "I would like to buy you breakfast."  Flattered, I thanked her, but then began to tell her that her kind offer to give me money was not necessary, and that...  She interrupted me, and told me with a noticeably more-stearn voice, "No, I would really like to buy your breakfast."

She told me that there was a gal who came through Rensselaer a year ago, walking across the U.S., traveling with a walker of sorts that was equipped with a seat that she could use to rest.  "I bought her breakfast, and I want to buy you breakfast too - I think it's such a wonderful thing - what people like you are doing."  There was no way I was going to have a chance to explain to this woman who I was, or why I didn't need her money.  That would only disappoint her.  There was something about her desire to help that wasn't as much an urge to provide to someone in need as it was to support something that she believed in.  I took the five singles folded up in her hand, extended out towards me, and thanked her.  "What's your name?", I asked her.  "Mary Lou", she said.  We chatted briefly before she headed out the door.  I decided that I would give the $5 she gave me to someone in need along the way.

Heading out of town, I had 3.5 miles to go before rejoining with the Adventure Cycling Route, completing my Chicago detour since Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin.

Just outside of town, while riding down the road, I thought I heard a high-pitched motorized puttering sound.  Sure enough, as I looked over my left shoulder, almost right alongside me, and moving at about the same pace, was a guy cruising the highway on his... well..  persimmon-colored scooter.  It may have been red - at one time.  But, it has since faded to persimmon.

"Whereya goin'?", he asked with a smile.  "Portland, Maine!", I replied.  He looked confused.  "The Atlantic Ocean!", I said in anticipation of his geographic deficiency.  Still no reaction.  Desparate to find some sense of scale in his brain, I followed up with "New York!"  "Geez! - That's far!", he exclaimed.  Then, after a bit of contemplation, he said, "I'm gonna ride my scooter to Wisconsin."  His name was Jason, pronounced, "Jaé-sun" with a hard "e".  We chatted for a bit while cruising down the road together.  With my turn approaching, I said goodbye to him, and full-throttle, he sped off with trailing clouds of white smoke behind him.

Crossing the Tippecanoe River, I reached Buffalo, IN.  

The town had a one-pump gas station with a convenience store inside.  I bought lunch here, and sat across the street at some picnic tables next to the fire station.  While dining on fried chicken strips, I perused the free August edition of the "Weekend Times".  In it, I found some fascinating content.  Under the "Home Remedies" section, a piece titled, "Duct Tape - Use it for Warts", citing a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.  Further down, "Licorice: Use it for Calluses and Corns".  Other topics in the newspaper included how to select the best watermelon, NASCAR 2014 races and winners, and Humor Headlines.

Also included, a section titled, "Redneck Speak - How to Understand It", with definitions of commonly used words.  

Thinking that this section was derogatory, I then came across a schedule of area events that included a town celebration called the "Redneck Festival".  I guess it's a culture, and its acceptable in these parts.

Another interesting article in this paper, "GMO Foods - Ways to Avoid Possible Danger."  In the article, it provided tips on how to avoid consuming GMO foods.  I was surprised to find this article in a local publication, serving communities surrounded by GMO corn and soybeans.  The article quotes an estimate that 91% of soybean and 85% of corn is genetically modified.  The article concluded by providing 2 links for more information:  www.responsibletechnology.org

www.nongmoshoppingguide.com

Further down the road, I came to a large hill on my left.

The topography has been flat throughout Indiana, and this seemed out of place.  It turns out that the large semi-trucks reeking of garbage that have been passing me for the past hour at 3-5 minute intervals were headed straight for this man-made mountain.  It is the Liberty Landfill.  I was curious to know where all of the trucks were coming from.  Is it trash from Chicago?

I was heading for a campgound in the small community of Fletcher.  But, when I got there, the campground, and the town, didn't have much to offer.  I was tired, my legs sore from jumping back into riding after 2 weeks off.  And, today was a battle with steady East winds blowing in my face all day long.  But, I didn't want to stay in Fletcher.  So, I continued on to the next campground that was over 30 miles away.  I knew the sun would set before I got there, but the quiet farm roads I was on were smooth, and quiet.

I ate Dinner in Denver, IN, then road on to the small town of Lagro.  Just across the Wabash River from Lagro is the Salamonie River State Forest.  I pitched my tent in the primitive campground within the park.  It was here that I realized I had crossed into the Eastern Time Zone at some point today, and lost an hour.  So, I retired quickly, hoping for a good nights sleep.