Yesterday we had an 85 mile ride into Indiana. We've only got 2 days in Indiana and that is plenty for me. The roads are awful! Yesterday was the first day I was just not really in the mood to be riding. We were up at 4, so I was tired and usually wake myself up by the time I reach the first checkpoint, but I was dragging all day. Laura was feeling the same so we took it easy and rode together. Chocolate milk has become the official drink of the trip, and as soon as I got my IV of choclate milk when I got in I felt much better. We stayed in dorms last night and I got a much needed wonderful nights sleep and felt totally refreshed for our big day today.
Today we rode 110 miles through cornfields and Amish country. We encountered a lot of folks riding their horse and buggys which is not something you see everyday. It's very interesting to me to see them, but also to observe how our group reacts to them. It's just that's it's so different than any of us live, so it's like they're a whole different species when really they're just people too. It got me thinkin about something we talked about in one of my human rights classes in terms of where the line is drawn between religion/culture and oppression. We were discussing it in the context of muslim women, but that could apply for Amish folks as well. Do they only follow all these rules because they feel that not doing so is not an option or do wach and every one of them truly believe in it and consciously choose to? I'm not Amish (obviously), so I don't know but I am curious. Tom and I rode together today and were talking about what kind of stuff we think about when we ride. We have like 6+ hours to let our minds wander everyday, so I'm curious what everyone else thinks of and have started asking people. My thoughts mostly consist of stuff like the Amish thing, and a whole lot of "what am I doing with my life?" hah! Another thing that I think about while riding through endless fields of corn is how funky it is that our food has turned into science experiments. One of the slogans on a lot of the corn marker signs is "serving with science". All the fields are named like XX13859-HPJ and I'm not sure where these mass food experimentations fit on a scale from bad ideas to really bad ideas. I have seen one organic farm this whole trip! Eek! Speaking of food, there was a bangin ice cream shop perfectly situated at mile 100 today. Just what we needed to make it the last 10 miles! And since we missed national ice cream day yesterday, we had to make up for it today.
We crossed into our third time zone today so we're back on normal time for me. Tonight we are staying at a campground and it's perfect camping weather!
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