Day 37: 09 July 2007
Crawfordsville, IN (738 ft) to Indianapolis, IN (708 ft).
63 Miles.
Blog Address
http://bikeboyglovach.blogspot.com
Videos on the WWW
http://public.box.net//greg98266
New Videos:
Day’s Theme:
Low miles, many distractions……….
Weather/Terrain:
Today was a low mileage day, but our route was quite busy and included some attractions, like, the Major Taylor Velodrome and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. High 90s, maybe 100 again today, morning humidity fading to a nice, hot, but doable day. Today’s route was very busy as we made our way into Indianapolis, and included a couple metro parks and some great stuff near downtown.
How I’m/we’re feeling:
All are well. We had a rider who took a few days off due to fatigue that rejoined the peddlers today – all good stuff.
Notable Events:
Indianapolis – I have passed through here once before, but, didn’t realize what a nice downtown this is. Our path in along the river brought us by wonderful attractions and scenery!
Rider Profile: Gary Smith, 65, from Lamar, MO.
As Gary will tell you – fine men come from Lamar, MO, like himself and President Harry S. Truman! Lamar is one of the towns we stayed in on this trip! Gary and his wife Sue have 2 grown children. Gary is a retired attorney, and still works 30-40 hours per week!
This is Gary’s 4th cross-country trip, and he has also done quite a bit of cycling with his daughter before she had children of her own – I have heard him speak fondly of these memories…..
Gary also volunteers his time as a coach for kids’ baseball and softball.
I have hooked on the road with Gary a few times he is fun to ride with and has a lot to say. But, the lawyer in him came out when I asked him for his quote and he said “No comment”…..
Pictures:
What’s Happening:
Our route brought us to this bicycle race track – called a velodrome. This is the Major Taylor Velodrome – I believe it was founded by Major Taylor himself. I haven’t read up on him myself, but I believe this man was a major in the military and an incredible cyclist who was NOT allowed to compete for the US, so, did so for Australia or something.
Some info on Major Taylor is here:
http://www.majortaylorassociation.org/who.htm
Gerard, an AbB Staffer, is a very good and strong rider – here is warming up and going around the velodrome.
Even idiots are allowed in the velodrome, so, I took my few laps before I got dizzy and decided to just record others.
Like this dude and his two beautiful little girls. Very cute!
Eventually the girls, got tired, and Dad did some track work.
Gerard and this guy had a little “ride” around the track – Gerard gave a very respectable effort to stick with this dude, but, with his training and equipment even the mighty Gerard was falling back and dying for oxygen!
From the velodrome, some riders went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – I did NOT as we we’re going the next day (on our rest day).
Our route took us through some metro parks. Here we are along the White River Parkway Bike Path and across the river was a golf course – seemed like there were 2 or 3 right in this area. I am looking forward to golfing again – it’s been a couple months!!!
As we approached downtown Indianapolis, the bike path continued to bring us through all kinds of cool vista and places.
The scientist from the National Institute for Fitness and Sport heard I was coming through, so, they asked for some autographs and if they could put me through some testing.
Since it is my busy season, I gave them one pose only, then continued on my way. Also, as a founding member of the High Fat Society, I am NOT allowed to submit blood, tissue, or table scraps to other health organizations.
Can’t we all just get along?
Bobby and the magic dream coat rode in with me and the Rocket.
As you can see, he has picked-up a sponsorship from McDonalds and is required to insulate his water bottles with french fry holders.
The bike path passed by the NCAA HQers and Hall of Champions.
I stopped and chatted with him for a bit. He was a bit “monotone”, but, I think I got my point across to him.
Just after the NCAA HQs, we snaked down this path and that took us just by the Indiana State Museum and a couple other nice museums.
This is a wonderful downtown area – I am impressed.
Since tomorrow is a rest day, several of us enjoyed a couple “cocktails” at the Claddish Irish Pub. The UK boys were all excited because they had Boddington’s Crème Ale, but, they dreams were destroyed when the taps failed!! L
Left to right, that is T4 (Brian), me, Andrew, Erin Go Bike, Gerard, Arlene, Rocket (Mike), and Howey.
Wayne, one of the CCC Riders (not profiled yet), managed to arrange for us to get one lap on the IMS track! Kids – this is not easy to do. So, about 12 of us took the opportunity to enjoy that and rode out the race track and did our loop.
This is a 2.5 mile track with a few golf holes in the infield!
This is an impressive and important place in car racing.
Nobody crashed, but Cliff did manage to get lost while on the track – he is beautiful!
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