Terre Haute – It was onto another state for the TransAm team, yet sadly once again no state sign to be found based on our route. Our three stops in Indiana all involved accommodations in and around state university campuses. The first was Indiana State and we were fortunate enough to have lodging at the beautiful (and historically restored) home of one of the school’s deans. After fortunately snagging a bed and partaking in one of our routine Walmart runs, I was on to a friendship visit at the interestingly-named organization Happiness Bag. It turns out there could not have been a more fitting name, as the joy and enthusiasm of the clients there was contagious. Another top notch dance party ensued. We were all bummed when it was time to go, but the truly awesome neon shirt parting gifts we received made us feel a bit better.
I forgot to mention earlier about the injury of my teammate (and big bro in the secret Pi Epsilon society… long story) David Stinnette, which took place following an unfortunate fall in Colorado. He ended up significantly damaging his shoulder and, despite attempts to stick it out as a crewmember for several days, he had to make the tough choice of returning home to Indiana to take some time to heal. While away from the team, he has been sending us text messages featuring encouraging words and biblical passages to keep us pedaling. He is a standup guy and we were all very excited when he rejoined the team for the stretch in his home state!
Bloomington- I was having a solid day on the bike on the way to the home of Indiana University, until only a few miles outside of our friendship visit arrival. I was leading my pace line at the time, cruising downhill on a relatively busy road. We were approaching a right turn lane and so, in order to continue heading straight, it was my job to navigate us from the shoulder back into the middle lane on the road. The problem was that there was a “lip” of about two inches that existed between the shoulder and the road. In a regrettable split second decision, I decided to attempt to cross the lip. My back tire got caught and immediately set my bike off balance. While I was told I nearly regained control, I ultimately wiped out in the lane. Luckily, no one in my pace line collided into me and they were able to signal to traffic. I hopped up almost instantly after my fall and ran to the shoulder. My adrenaline was off the charts and all I seemed able to do was apologize and continuously ask my teammates if I had done anything wrong. I calmed down by taking a seat and waiting for the nearest crew van to come check on us. I was fortunate, not only to have an incredible support system with me, but to have simply walked away scraped up in what was clearly a best-case-scenario outcome.
After choosing to finish the brief remainder of the ride, I was feeling a bit shaken up at our friendship visit. While I wanted to be “into it,” it was hard to fake. I was glad to have my friend Terry to take “mom walks” around the facility and help me clear my head. When lodging time came around, we headed to the Indiana U PKP chapter house. This house is straight up beastly and holds the distinction of being the largest in the country. In an interesting coincidence, next door was an equally huge Alpha Xi Delta house – the sorority I was the sweetheart for my senior year at Elon. I obviously had to snap a pic to show the ladies. For dinner we were treated to a sit-down steak meal hosted by Phil Summers, prominent alumni on the national level. An excellent close to a (literally) shaky day for yours truly.
Indianapolis – Time to head to “Nap Town” (although I could have sworn that distinction belongs to Annapolis, MD… hmmm)! I would describe the beginning of our ride as rainforest-esque, which I understand sounds strange. Anyhow, we were basically engulfed by beautiful trees and I was all about it. This soon changed however and we were thrust onto what was arguably the worst road we have seen all summer. Congratulations Indy! I was kind of a mess when this situation came around because the incessant debris and, yes, crazy road “lips” constantly reminded me of the prior day’s big fall. After toning down the freak out, I was happy to see the conditions clear up. This ride kicked off the tradition of crew “ride alongs,” in which crew members took on the role of a cyclist for the day. My pace line enjoyed the privilege of messing with our crew chief Drayton as he rode along with us, but as a cyclist on last year’s South route he more than held his own (stories on some of the more humorous ride alongs to come).
Once in the city we arrived at lodging at IUPUI (pronounced, seriously, “oo-ee-poo-ee”), which is basically a fusion of Indiana and Perdue. Our two-day stint in town brought some excellent sponsored meals, including one at the home of legendary pool boy David Stinnette. We all learned a game there called Kupps (??), which hails from Germany and basically involves knocking over wooden blocks. I enjoyed it, but was assured by an older gentleman there that the game really ought to be played with beer. Touche. We did end up going out on the town that night, but to be honest I’m pretttty sure what I’m saw of the Indy nightlife is not for me.
Our friendship visit on our off day was structured nicely, and we were able to interact with local clients in a variety of different specialty rooms – including a music room and an “art Olympics” room. Two of my favorite interactions from that day included playing bean bag toss with a really friendly blind man named Adam and listening to one of the clients play me some of Barry Manilow’s greatest hits on a record player. It just goes to show that you can never exactly know what to expect on any given JOH day!
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