Day 37, Indianapolis, IN, zero miles : - (

If you’ve been reading the blog all along, you know that I’ll ride in the rain. I’ll even ride in a no-shoulder construction zone on I-70. But I won’t ride in thunder and lightening.

It thundered and lightening all night. It was still thundering and lightening at 6:30 a.m., when we were supposed to load. Our ABB guides tried to buy a little time by shuttling (the word for the day) us two miles to the breakfast place we were supposed to ride to. Still thunder and lightening. They shuttled us back to the starting hotel. The weather channel showed a massive storm system one hundred miles wide that had but a few breaks. As riders, our options were limited. ABB was going to hold back all the riders who still had hope until ABB had driven the route to determine if it was safe to ride. Anyone who wanted to shuttle now, could. The rest could stay put and hope that the weather changed, and if it didn’t, get shuttled later. George, one of our strongest and most experienced riders, got on the shuttle. Greg, a professional meteorologist got on the van. I, out of all prudence and caution, got on the shuttle. You guessed it, by the time the shuttle got to Indianapolis, the weather had cleared. So, I’m trying not to beat myself up. I made the best decision I could with the information I had. Yesterday I was 77 miles ahead of the official mileage. Today, I’m only 12 miles ahead. Tomorrow, those of us who shuttled will ride the route backwards to see the Indy 500 Race Track and Velodrome.

In my senior year of high school, the mighty Minuteman Marching Band traveled to Indianapolis to glory in the Indy 500 revelries. The big parade took place over a checkered flag motive street in front of the reviewing stand. I still remember how disorienting it was to march on that. It was not our finest hour. I passed the Indiana State Fair Grounds on drive in and flashed back to the utterly horrible dormitories that we stayed in there. My digs at the Staybridge Suites are 1,000 times better (and are the absolute nicest we’ve stayed in the whole ride. They even have *free* guest laundry). So I’d like to see the racetrack tomorrow. Just to look back into the past. The track is banked so hard to the left, that many of my friends wore out their left shoe, some wore out their left foot, to the point of bleeding.

Downtown Indianapolis seems to have been spiffed up with a football stadium, a base ball stadium, a minor league stadium, and a mall, much like you’d find in Baltimore or even Washington, D.C. Perhaps that’s what has to be done to save urban centers, but I mourn the homogenization of American culture. On the bright side, a few blocks away from the mall, I found “Ike and Jerry’s” “the fun place downtown” which had probably been there for 50 years. The décor was trashy diner, the tables resurfaced pinball machines, and the food, real down home. I had a pork tenderloin sandwich, which Skip tells me you can’t find anywhere but Indiana. They take a chop and beat it until it is a quarter inch thin and the size of a dinner plate. Then it gets breaded and fried and slapped on a fresh hoagie with some mayo, lettuce, and hopefully salmonella-free tomato. The tenderloin hangs off the bread by at least two inches on every side. The picture is what Ike and Jerry’s looks like after a few beers (or using a cruddy phone camera with no flash.)

Finally, Indianapolis is added to my list of state capitals along with Springfield, Salt Lake City, Independence, and Sacramento.