Day 59 started as a cloudy day in my tent. I was camped in the Bethel Bible Church's yard in rural Indiana, about 7 miles west of Winamac, Indiana. As it was Sunday morning and there was a service at 9:30, I wanted to be sure to be out of there before anyone started arriving. I didn't expect there to be any problems with my being there, as I did get permission to camp from the janitor the night before, but I didn't want to risk being invited in for service and proselytized to for an hour. Breakfast was the remaining reconstituted lasagna from last night and gatorade. Mmm...
I broke camp around 8:00 and knew I had about 90 miles to cover before I got to Fort Wayne. I passed through Winamac, taking the opportunity to both refill my fluids and toss out my trash from the night before. I see plenty of trash along the side of the road, carelessly tossed out by people in cars. It would be easier for me too, if I just didn't care and cast aside my trash wherever it was that I was done with it. But that's not right, it's bad for the land, plants and animals, not to mention just plain ugly. You might not care if you live in a trash can, but I'd prefer not to. So I carry the burden of my waste until it can be disposed of properly. It's really not that hard for me, but clearly too much to ask of some people in cars.
I continued along highway 14 as the sky cleared slightly and the temperature started rising. After the two solid weeks of low to mid 60's I dealt with back in the west, I'm happy to have days in the mid to upper 80's. I'm one of those people who functions much better in hot temperatures than cold. I'm solar powered, I can't help it.
I started the day about 1/3rd of the way across Indiana and I was looking to wind up in Fort Wayne, about 15 miles from the Ohio boarder. I soon came to Rochester and went along the shore of scenic Lake Manitou. At this point, 14 goes southwest and then takes a swing due north for a couple miles. Heading east again after that, I passed through several small towns as the day started to get hot. My water levels started to drop again and it was now getting to be lunch time.
I arrived in the town of South Whitley. Here the highway turns south again to cross the Eel River. I looked north and south to see which seemed to have better options for lunch. Arbitrarily choosing south, I crossed the river and found JD's Riverside Cafe. In the parking lot was a couple who had just emerged from the restaurant and were about to get onto their motorcycles. Immediately, I asked if this was the place to stop for lunch and they emphatically assented. We talked for several minutes, comparing the maintainance needs of bicycles and motorcycles. They informed me that the cafe was owned by a Mexican family and not only was the food good, but the service was the best to be found anywhere in town. I went inside to see for myself.
As I sat down, the chips and salsa and water hit the table. Good start. Looking at the menu, I decided on the Reuben sandwich. Maybe it didn't quite go with the chips and salsa, but whatever. As I was eating my sandwich, the woman who was quite clearly the matron of the family was clearing a table nearby. She looked out the window at Penny, then looked back at me. She asked one of her daughters nearby 'El muchacho venga con bicicleta? De donde?' I both saw the exchange and understood the question, but waited for the girl to translate her mother's question. I responded in English that I had started in San Fransisco and was making my way to New York. She smiled widely and said in broken English that that was fantastic. She seemed really happy to see someone riding a bike so far. She offered to refill any water that I might need before I left.
Finishing my sandwich, I went up to pay my check. One of the daughters looked to her mother and asked how much she should charge me. 'Nada' the mother replied, waving her off. The girl shrugged and said that my lunch was free. I looked at the mother and asked 'Esta seguro?' 'Si, si, si'. Thus, after nearly 3600 miles of riding across the country and telling waiters and restaurant managers about my trip, finally here, in a smallish town in central Indiana, from a woman who spoke very little English, I got my first free meal. I tipped 30% of what the bill would have been, then brought in my water bottles to be refilled. When I next come through South Whitley, Indiana, I will surely eat there again.
As I was getting back onto the bike, I saw on my phone that I had gotten a message from the producer calling me back about a time to meet up with her reporter once I got into Fort Wayne. I called back and told her that I expected to be in town soon and gave her a rough time and location for a reporter to meet me. Continuing on, I got back onto 14 and headed toward the city.
I reached Fort Wayne, and suddenly a bike path appeared alongside the highway. It looked like it had been recently installed or upgraded from a sidewalk. There were a couple other cyclists and pedestrians on it, but it was wide enough that three or four cyclists could comfortably ride abreast. I crossed over interstate 69 and entered the real city. For a while I was elbow to side mirror with the traffic, but soon enough I had gotten to one end of the River Parkway. Checking my phone, I saw I had a message now from the reporter, so I called her back and we decided on a nearby playground to meet.
I crossed a street to Rockhill Park and waited for the reporter to arrive. There was an older man with a metal detector scanning the playground. Finally, the reporter arrived, set up her camera, and started the interview. I talked on camera for about 10 minutes, explaining what I'm doing and why, what I've seen and what I'd like to see in the future. The reporter was suitably impressed and I passed her one of my cards so she could check out my blog. She needed to get back to the studio so she could get this onto the 6:00 news, barely an hour in the future. I wished her good luck as she drove off.
I called Ben and found out where to meet him. As it turns out, he was working on one of the few streets in downtown Fort Wayne that actually has a bike lane. I got to him easily. He is working for a tv production company that creates a lot of commercials. In the studio, there were a couple walls and the floor painted in bright green. We decided to go check out Greekfest that was winding up that evening at a park not far away.
We got down to the park and were disappointed to see that they were packing up already. I was hungry, as usual, and really would have enjoyed some kind of food there. We met up with Ben's housemate and decided to go try to find food. The first place we went to was not open on Sunday. We walked around to a pizza joint a block away, but found the tables all full and the line pretty long. So we walked down to a bar called Henry's and established ourselves at a table in a corner.
A dinner and several beers later, we went back to the studio where Ben had left his car and I had left Penny. We took a couple pictures of me on Penny in front of the greenscreen. Instead of the laborious loading of my bike into the back of his car, I rode behind him to his place a couple miles away. Here again the cruel reality of real estate prices of new york vs the rest of the civilized world hit me like a metaphor. Ben and his housemate share a large three bedroom house with a back yard and blah blah blah and pay pretty much 1/3rd of what I pay for my half of a little Brooklyn condo. We spent a couple hours on his back porch catching up. I was aware that, as I sat there talking, words I had spoken into a camera several hours earlier were now being played on the evening news for an audience of a half a million people in the greater Fort Wayne region.
From Indiana's News Center's website:
http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/home/97272464.html
Day 59, Bethel Church Camp, IN - Fort Wayne, IN
93.0 miles in 7:34:24. totals now 3620.7 in 283:24;13 and a top speed of 28.0 mph
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