Ride Day #14 - 96 miles in the 90's....

Whew!  A big day today.... we rode 96 miles!
It was a lot of fun... but it was HOT HOT HOT!
At one point, I thought I was going to collapse from heat exhaustion. It took a lot of focus, a lot of water, a lot of gatorade to complete the day today. Probably the toughest 96 miles I've ever rode.
Several of the gals actually had to go inside the van because they suffered from the heat.  The last 10 miles we rode in 104 degrees.
Anyhow... it was a fun day regardless of the heat. It was particularly fun because we had a nice tail wind most of the day!  (there's no way we would have finished this ride today if we didn't have a tail wind!)

We crossed into Indiana.  The terrain was somewhat different than Illinois... we saw a lot of farms slightly smaller than the large, mass production farms we saw in Illinois.  These farms were smaller and had a little more 'charm'.  We saw a lot of horse pastures today....and saw alot of cemetarys (seems like there are more dead people out here in these small towns than there are living people). The real small towns are somewhat 'ghost' towns.  Nothing much going on in these towns  (as far as I can see from my bike).

At one point of the ride, we came across a small town cafe.  We were all so excited to go inside for awhile to cool off.  Unfortunately, it was a real bust.....the cafe reeeeked of cigarette smoke.  (Do you know what it's like to ride miles and miles in the HOT humid air and then step into a smoke filled room???).....I don't think the Cafe windows have been opened for the last 50 years!  It was a strange scene.  The waitress was someone you'd see in one of those commericals against cigarette smoking---you know, the gal with the hole in her throat and the reallll raspy voice -- that was her!!!  --  The best part of that experience is that the Cafe owner allowed us to hose down outside with his garden hose (how weird was that?)... We we took him up on his offer, hosed ourselves and cooled down... at least we were in the fresh humid hot air.

Tomorrow is a 'rest day' (we need it).  We're in Logansport, Indiana...we will be heading for Huntington, Indiana the day after tomorrow.  Our direction is now slightly changing to more of an 'north east' direction...so, hopefully the tail winds will be with us for awhile.

A few photos from today....

Me in front of one of those 'charming' farms... this one since 1864....

This is a snap shot of one of the "SAG" (support stops)... the Guides go before us.... stop every 20-25 miles and make water, snacks, fruit available to us... to 'replenish' us for the continuing miles....

An 'action shot'... it was about 91 degrees at this point... the beauty of this shot is that I'm still on my bike and not actually pewking (sp?) my guts out from heat...

Now... off to relax, with my knees up... for a solid 24 hours.. Yeah !