Monday, July 24, 2000

Today we rode from Lagrange, IN to New Haven, IN, a distance of 72 miles. For a good portion of the day we continued to ride our bicycle through areas where Amish farm. As a result we continued to ride on roads degraded by the horses. The beginning of the day was spent going up and down one hill after another. These were truly rollers. You would fly down the hill on a very steep but usually short decent and then you would be immediately be confronted by a very steep but short up hill that would require the granny gear to get to the top. It also meant that you had to shift through almost every gear to go up and down every hill. After doing this for a couple of hours, your legs are so tired that they feel like they are going to fall off and the person doing the shifting begins to have a sore wrist and hand.

At one point we took a rest break beside an old church. The church was no longer being used and was in very bad condition (some of the bricks in the wall had fallen out). However, it was a very pleasant place to rest. While we were resting, a rural mail carrier stopped to talk to us. He wanted to know where we started and where we were going. After talking to him for a few minutes, Mary Kay handed him a post card, which he accepted and said that he would make sure it was mailed--an example of the excellent service of the US Postal Service.