I woke up early this morning and immediately recognized my own need for a rest day. I decided that I would splurge and get myself a cheap motel. I looked on the internet and found a place that offered rooms for under 50 bucks a night. Instead of booking through an online service, I got packed up and headed over there.

Toledo was fairly barren early on Sunday morning an traffic was light for a change. The neighborhoods through which I traveled seemed rundown. but there were few people out on the streets, so I wasn’t worried. By the time I got near to motel, it was only 9:30 in the morning, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to check in, so instead I went to a nearby McDonalds to indulge in my favorite: biscuits with egg and cheese.

After som time reading and relaxing, I gave the motel a call, and they told me that they had no rooms that night. I was bit confused, since all of the online services had offered to book me a room with them. I figured that there must have just been some mistake. Since it was less than a mile away, I bike to the motel and discovered that they were doing some kind of repair that necessitated having decrepit vehicles parked around the place. In addition, it started to rain.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I was still tired, and really wanted to avoid a day on the road. I ended up pedaling vaguely towards downtown. When I spotted a laundromat, I decided to stop since that was a chore I was hoping to get done.

Once my clothes were in the washer the employee on staff harassed me about where I had parked my bike. By this point, I was really hating Toledo and just wanted to get away. Fortunately, another customer started asking me about my bike and where I had come from, and she let me know about another hotel that was inexpensive. I called and discovered that they had rooms open!

With my clothes clean, I went off in search of this place. I made it down to the business district of Toledo and another cyclist overtakes me and identifies himself as a fellow tourer who wanted to offer me hospitality.

I almost started crying. Here I had been incredibly down, just ready to go and hide myself away when things turned around very quickly.

This cyclist was Howard. I followed him home and met his wife Sarah. They had recently returned from a trip across Wisconsin to Minneapolis where they visited their grandchildren. He was a Lutheran pastor and she taught at a local university.

They fed me lunch, set me up a bed, and then showed me how to get to the local zoo.

I realized that I had left my lock back with my other bags at their home, so instead I went across the street and started reading. There were several kids around, so I made a balloon for one kid and soon was twisting for every kid who came by.

Eventually, I pulled myself away and headed back to the house. There were lots of kids in the neighborhood, so I twisted for them as a way to say thank you to my hosts.

This day was a real experience for me. What started with frustration, clouds and tears, ended with many smiles and a lot of faith in humanity.

This morning was fabulously warm and sunny as well, and I was quickly off. The Google Maps biking directions took me right by Lisa’s office, so I stopped in to say hello. Afterwards, I was a bit turned around and had a little trouble finding the Goshen bike path. While I consulted my map, a boy came up with some curiosity about my bike. I explained what I was doing and then made him a T-Rex balloon.

Once that was done, I quickly found the bike path. It was the average Rail to Trail, which I always tend to find relaxing to the point of dullness. In that vein, I made some dull calls to cancel services that I wouldn’t need while on the road. It was a rather uneventful stretch.

I knew that I was going to be entering Amish country, but somehow, I thought that I wouldn’t actually see anything that actually indicated that. However, soon after exciting the bike path I started seeing other cyclists and soon after my first horse and buggy.

I was elated! I wasn’t the only slow moving vehicle! Cars passed with care and I had people waving back at me when I waved. It was terrific. There were a few stretches of gravel roads, but even those couldn’t dampen my spirits.

While my spirits were not at all damp, my mouth and throat were parched. When I finally saw an open business, I got a little excite and took the turn a little fast and slid on the gravel, which earned me a very skinned up knee, and a rather bruised pride. Fortunately, nothing else was damaged and I was able to get cleaned up and to quench my thirst.

Only a few miles down the road, I saw a site that made me very excited…a sign said “Yoder’s Popcorn.” Now, one of my very favorite foods was popcorn and getting to have some really lifted my spirits. Upon entering the store, I was presented with my own bag to sample and I was very happy again.

Since I was on the bike, I knew that I wouldn’t really be able to utilize any of their bulk selections, but I made some selections and feasted on the popcorn a bit before heading back on my bike.

Biking through Amish country continued to be great and by 4 pm, I was in LaGrange, IN. I was riding towards the library and noted the buggies hitched up. It made me want to stay there for the night, instead of pushing on toward Angola, which was my original plan.

No sooner than I thought that, than an Amish gentleman was walking near me and asked about my bike and where I was traveling. We were talking and I asked about places to stay. He invited me to his farm, about 3 miles north of town. He had errands to do, and I still needed to visit the library, but I was very excited.

After checking some email and doing my laundry at the laundromat, I biked up to the farm and got to meet the entire family. Joe and Lenora were incredibly hospitable and their three kids watched me warily as I set up my tent next to one of the hay fields.

While I was setting up, the oldest child, Ida, who was 5, showed off her prowess with driving a cart with a miniature horse. Once I was all set up, I asked if I could make balloons for the kids, and was very pleased to receive permission. I made a chicken, a cow and a dog for them. We had a bit of a language barrier since the kids spoke Pennsylvania Dutch, but they certainly understood what the animals were!

It was quickly getting dark. Joe and Lenora invited me to join them for dinner. Their meal was very simple, and they had grown almost everything right there on the farm. Grace was said silently. The menu for that dinner was bread, sausage (made from a pig butchered that day), fresh tomatoes, musk melon and water melon from their garden plus milk from their cows.

I learned that Joe and Lenora were the same age as me (28), and that they had lived in that home for 3 years and had built it themselves. They had cows, chicken, horses, pigs and many pastures of hay. Both of them came from families with nine children.

After dinner we gathered by a campfire built outside and watched the stars come out while munching on popcorn that was also grown by the family. We chatted about Niagara Falls, Montana, ice cream suppers and camping.

It was getting late, and even though Joe could sleep late (until 5 am), it was clearly time to go to bed. I retired to my tent, very happy with the fabulous day that I got to have there in Amish country.

Sleeping in a real bed was a treat and even better was joining the Wargs for a delightful breakfast on the back deck.  The rain overnight had left this day with perfect weather.  It was partly cloudy with a lovely breeze that would help me out as I traveled east.

I had originally thought that I would be traveling to South Bend to visit my friend Lisa, however I learned that she had moved to Elkhart, Indiana, which was about 45 miles, which made this day a really nice distance.

I was on the road by 9 am, and immediately started enjoying the tailwind.  I also started getting to know my knew friends for the trip, soybeans and corn. They stayed with me almost the whole way, and were joined by their buddies, quiet roads through the fields.

Eventually, my stomach started grumbling as I was passing  small stand with vegetables for sale outside of a home. Fresh picked cucumber was a delicious addition to the Cliff bar and grapes that I had stashed in my pannier.

I wasn’t back on my bike for long, when I heard the ominous rhythmic sound that can only mean that I had some kind of debris lodged in my tire.  I immediately pulled over into some shade and started inspecting the tire. I soon found a small rock, that had embedded itself in my tire, and was getting ready to hop on my bike again, when a gentlemen who had been working on a nearby home, rushed over to talk to me.

His name was Matt, and he had done touring of his own in California and in Europe.  We talked bikes for a while, including about Critical Mass in Chicago and his own Surly Long Haul Trucker.  It was great to meet another citizen of the bike community in a completely random location and that coupled with the beautiful weather, kept me smiling the rest of the way into Elkhart.

I made it into Elkhart around 3:30, and I noticed that I was now in the Eastern Time Zone, so it still seemed early to me.  I headed straight to the Library since Lisa was still at work. While updating blogs, I started hearing thunder. I went out to my bike, and made sure that everything was covered up and closed.  I went back inside and stayed nice and dry while my bike weathered the storm and my Ortleib panniers proved that they were, indeed, waterproof.

After the storm, I biked to meet Lisa.  It was really great to see her.  She is one of the funniest people whom I had ever met and her passion for her work is inspiring.  She is an early childhood expert, and is the director of a pre-school in Indiana. Lisa has a very healthy philosophy towards child-development and is generally a fun person to be around.  She showed me her work, and then we droved over to South Bend, where we met one of her friends.  I got to the see the University of Notre Dame, and some of South Bend, where she had grown up.

By the time we went to bed, I was exhausted, but Lisa was still full of energy. I’m not sure how that works since she had been up since 5 in the morning. Lisa made me feel quite old.

My tent and sleeping pad provided a very comfortable bedroom for my first night out on my own. The only reason I found myself roused in the morning was due to the sun heating up my small home.

I’m often rather groggy in the morning and this day proved no exception.  Also, the fact that it would be a very short riding day didn’t provide me with much motivation to hurry up and get on the road.

My destination this day was LaPorte, IN, the childhood home of my dear friend, Lara. I had been in her wedding a few years before and she graciously arranged for me to stay with her parents.  Lara is herself a budding balloon artist. The day before I left, I gave her an assortment of balloons and pumps and she’s been practicing away at the craft. I’m still expecting more pictures of her creations!

According to Google maps, it was about 25 miles from the Dunes to LaPorte, but I quickly learned not to trust everything the mapping software told me. I first tried leaving the via a back access road, which I soon found was barred by a chainlink fence. I then went back out the regular entrance and tried to take a multi-use trail that bordered the highway. This path was full of mud, puddles, large gravel, and many, many potholes.  It also lacked an exit.  Since I had been eated up by chiggers in the park, the last thing I wanted to do was to get more bites, so, didn’t dare try anything to explore.

Eventually, I found my way off of the path and pack onto the Dunes Highway, which was very nice riding.  However, since I needed to turn south I had to take Highway 20 for a short while.  My phones mapping software suggested that I “walk” on on highway 20 for about 5 miles, but after 2 miles, I was feeling a little frazzled and ready for some peace, even if it meant more distance and more hills.

Once I found my way on the backroads of LaPorte County, the riding became much more enjoyable. I tackled a few hills and then rolled into LaPorte right before a storm broke out and met my hosts, along with some old friends from out of town who were joining them for dinner.

This was my first taste of the great hospitality which I’ve enjoyed on this trip. Lara’s mother Ramona cooked a delicious dinner and I listened to stories of people who had known each other for decades. I even got to sleep in a real bed that night, the first time in over a month, since I’ve been crashing with friends since returning from Washington.

While this day was a bit of a shorter ride, it was my first one fully loaded, and it was sweet.