August 4, 1998 - Donaldson - Fort Wayne

DISTANCE TRAVELED: 76.90 Miles

TIME: 6 Hours

AVERAGE SPEED: 16.4 Miles/Hour

TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Hot humid and overcast in the morning. In the afternoon it was hot humid and very rainy. There wasn't much of a wind.

ROAD CONDITIONS: Most of the roads needed to be repaved but they were better than the previous day.

TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Flat terrain that was very easy to ride on.

DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
I woke up at 7:45 to the surprise of a dog just about to lick my face! During the night, we had had severe thunder storms from about 3:00 to 6:30. Because I was sleeping in an area of the house that had just been constructed and the roofing wasn't perfect, I woke up at around 5:00 and had to put a bucket about two feet from me to collect rain. Also, they had just put in the new windows and the one next to me was open but they had not installed the handles yet so I had to search the house for a spare to close it since there was rain coming in. At one time, the thunder seemed to come before the lightening since it was so close. It actually made my ears hurt and everyone woke up during it. As soon as I put on some shorts and a shirt, I came out to get some breakfast and found that we were having pancakes, eggs, and fruit. It was all very good and filled me up very well. I left with Matt and Tom around 9:45 after putting all of my gear onto my bike since I didn't want it to get wet during the night. We rode the first 35 miles with no problems and then had lunch in Warsaw. Along with my peanut butter and jelly, I had a Powerade and some Nerds. We continued on for about 3 miles and then stopped at a McDonalds to look at the directions. When we were about to leave, it started to drizzle so I put on my rain jacket thinking that I would be taking it off in about 15 minutes. Instead, in about 15 minutes, we were in the biggest rain storm of my life. The rain was stinging as it hit my sleeves and sometimes turned into small drops of hail for a few minutes. Typically, when it had rained in the past, the rain would run off my helmet leaving my head and face fairly dry. This time, it soaked my entire head and drenched my face. The inside of my sunglasses was soaked making it hard to see. Unfortunately since we were going about 18 miles an hour, if I would take them off the rain would hurt my eyes and I still wouldn't be able to see. As the trucks went by, we got sprayed with water and then got a nice period where we were able to draft off of their wind. This went on for about 45 more miles and by the time we were done we were wet even inside our jackets. Ten miles from the end, we came to a construction zone and Tom got a flat. It was raining harder than it had for the entire day so far so we stood around for about 20 minutes while he changed it. When he finished, we continued on again and then about one mile from our destination, I got my 4th flat of the trip! Fortunately it wasn't raining any more so I was able to change it fairly easily. I rode into the YWCA at 3:45 and the SAG had just unloaded all of our gear so I changed clothes and squeezed all of the water out of my clothes. I also put paper into my shoes to help dry them out more quickly. After this, I went over to one of the couches and ate some food before lying down and unexpectedly falling asleep for two hours until the second group of people arrived. I got up and talked for a while before going to Friends Of The Third World for dinner around 7:00. We had some foreign food that had lots of curry in it and although it was good, it was a little too spicy for me. After eating, we talked to the people and then looked around their shop which had works of art from all of their partner countries. Matt and I left around 9:30 to go back to the YWCA where I ate some more, typed on my laptop and went to bed around 12:30.

TRIP ROUTE:
Get on old highway 30 and follow to Warsaw. Get on new highway 30 and follow signs to Fort Wayne. Get off at second Fort Wayne exit and follow road to YWCA.