Monday, 12Jul10, Indianapolis, Ind
It was a great day … only 65 miles and through some very scenic and gorgeous countryside … it was foggy this morning when we started … yet after the long night of thunderstorms and heavy rain, we were very happy that it wasn’t pouring!
Adella had a tough start when the room key would not work .. so she went to the front desk and their “master key” wouldn’t work either … and her bicycle was still in the room … so they called maintenance and he was there in a few minutes and everything worked out OK. We were loaded and on our way.
She was feeling good today and we decided to try to catch up the the first group of cyclists. It took us awhile yet by working together we were able to catch up with Phil, Tony, Wade, Fran, Kiwi Rick, Mark, George and Joe.
We were then able to relax a bit and give us a chance to “recover” from the chase.
The rest of the day was awesome … we rode together and then stopped at the “Roark” Custom Metal Fabrication factory where they make “ROARK” bicycles. We were given a tour of the factory by Charles “Ted” Roark, President of the company, it was very interesting to see how their bicyles were fabricated and assembled. (check out the pictures on the album on Facebook)
We then rode our bicycles over to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and after sharing the Life Across America nation wide blood drive and what we and our ABB cyclemates were doing … we had the opportunity to take our pictures with Rick Phillips, Security Supervisor with 34 years of experience in law enforcement and the offical Brickyard 400 Pace Vehicle. (check out the pix on Facebook)
After that we rode together over to the Major Stanley Velodrome and all of us cyclists had a blast pretending that we were more than “wannabes” on the banked track! It was awesome! (I’m sure my son, Aaron, will remember his day on the Velodrome in 1996)
I was very proud of Adella … even though at first she was very apprehensive about riding on the Velodrome … she did it anyway and found out that it was a lot of fun and I was able to watch her self-esteem and self-confidence grow by leaps and bounds as she became bolder and bolder!
Finally we finished our 65 mile ride by cycling into downtown along the canal area … it was a very pretty ride.
Adella had one of her best days yet … 16.8 mph average and her most enjoyable part of the ride was when she was able to ride with and paceline behind Phil (one of our strongest and classiest cyclist on this tour) … and she was in cycling heaven!
ABC update:
- I received an email from Marsha S., in Bethelem, PA., letting me know that she was putting the final touches on our scheduled visit there.
- I rec’d an email from Betty B., in Pensacola, FL, letting us know that Pensacola has some incredible things planned for our 17Aug10 visit there.
- I received a phone call from Danny at Indianapolis Blood Center … confirming the time 9:45 a.m. pick up time for the blood drive tomorrow.
After route rap and mechanic’s hour … we all went to eat dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown … it was very good although they were very packed!
Talk to you tomorrow on our rest day.