Saturday, May 19, 2018

Day 21 – Wabash,IN to Monticello,IN

Date: 19.05.2018
Altitude: 1033.5 ft (315 m)
Distance: 69.34 mi (111.59 km)
Total Altitude: 37660.7 ft (11479 m)
Total Distance: 1275.17 mi (2052.19 km)


Today I surpassed the 2000 km mark, after not even three weeks on the road. I keep making good progress and are a little bit further along the route than I had planed. My 19th day on the road was going from Wabash,IN to Monticello,IN. Both towns are not directly at the Northern Tier route, but I needed to do a bit of detour to Wabash, yesterday and to Monticello, today in order to find an accommodation for the night. In the area I'm currently in, there are not as many towns with Motels on the route.

Today I was sure I was going to get wet. When I got on my bike in the morning, there were thick gray/black clouds covering the sky and the weather report predicted a chance of thunderstorms throughout the day. But surprisingly, there was only a really short drizzle during the ride and the rest of the day stayed dry. In the afternoon, the sky cleared even a bit and the sun came out. Unfortunately, I didn't have as much luck with the wind today. I head to deal with headwinds today. At least it was only a light wind, so it was still okay to cycle against the wind.

Just as yesterday I stayed on small roads through most of the day until I reached Buffalo,IN and turned south to Monticello,IN. From there on I had to drive on a heavily frequented road, especially since it was a Saturday and the area is an quite touristic area. The road to Monticello passes along Lake Shafer and the Indian Beach Amusement Park. The rest of the day I did hardly see any car, there was the occasional car passing me or driving the other way. Most drivers were waving there hand to greet me when they drove by. Since I stayed on the back roads, I didn't pass through too many towns on my way. The only Town I passed through after leaving Wabash and before I reached Buffalo was Denver,IN, here I got on a bike path for a few miles. The bike path was great, because it meant getting a change in the scenery. Instead of farmland besides the road, here I had trees on both side of the bike path. As mentioned, the rest of the day I drove through farmland. Although it stayed quite flat again throughout the day, for the first miles after leaving Wabash there was a noticeable constant up and down. This took away the rhythm a bit, but still there weren't any real climbs. So that the ride even with the headwinds, wasn't too hard.

After I didn't have any problems with dogs for quite a while now, today must have been hunting season for cyclist. I had been chased four times by dogs today. Most of them just chased behind me for a while, but one came right up to my leg and I wasn't sure if he's going to bite or not. Really not a great feeling, I didn't really know what I should do. For the rest of the day, I was always expecting a dog running after me, when I heard barking.


Conclusion for the day:

Traveling through a less populated area, means a lot more planing ahead! (Where will I spend the night? Do I have enough water/food for the day?)





















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