Indianapolis, IN

Today began as any other day on the Journey of Hope with an early wake up, packing our bags, and eating breakfast to fuel up before our ride. Today’s breakfast much like last nights dinner was an unusually awesome meal for us because the house cooks prepared another delicious feast including my favorite, chocolate chip pancakes.

The house, or Frat Castle (sleeps 100 guys, awesome!)

After breakfast we took a photo in front of the house and saddled up for the ride. I’ve begun putting my tires to a higher pressure (130 psi. when the max is 120 psi.) in hopes to avoid flats on the road; it had been working quite successfully until today. The beginning of the ride was really fun with freshly wet road from an early morning shower and canopy covered roads that kept the overcast skies out of view made us feel as if we were riding in a rain forest for the first part of the morning. Once out on a main highway the shoulder quickly became a mine field and the team was plagued with flats. About 5 miles into our terrible excursion on Hwy. 37 going about 25 down a hill I heard a sound that no cyclist wants to hear at that speed, PPPSSSSHHHHH!!! A rear side wall blowout quickly put my rim on the ground and I let my paceline know that I had a flat, after examining the sidewall I realized this wasn’t a replace a tube type flat, but instead replace the tire.

Racked!

The rear tire failure

Today was my first day racking the bike for a non-construction related reason. I was disappointed because until today I had ridden every mile fighting through aching knees, saddle sores, and fatigue that I didn’t know was possible and a silly tire kept me off the bike. On the bright side however today was only a 52 mile ride of which I only missed 24 miles. I put my bike on the back rack of a crew vehicle that was jumping up and joined the crew to help the cyclists finish there rides. I directed the cyclist into stage up and gained a new respect for the crew position and all the hard work they do everyday. The day wasn’t all a loss since I was able to get coffee and an ice cream cookie sandwich for second breakfast at 9 AM. I rode with the lead vehicle behind the police escort and snagged some awesome photos and video of the guys riding in arrival formation.

Arrival paceline

On the other side of things

We arrived at IUPUI, Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis to a warm welcome from some IUPUI Pi Kapp’s and school faculty. The team showered up at the dorms and ran to the bike shop quickly before dinner. We headed to David's home for dinner and enjoyed spaghetti lasagna and some delicious carrot cake that I could not stay away from. Since we had the day off some of the team decided to go down town. Colin and myself decided to go for an adventure and hiked the 3 mile walk from campus to down town and saw some really neat war memorials as well as found a Starbucks that was still open.

An attempt at a cool photo at a fountain that failed miserably
(not easy with a point and shoot)

Sweet hotel in the circle with the fountain and giant obelisk

Excited for a day off in Indianapolis tomorrow and another awesome friendship visit!