Day 32 Newton to Bloomington, IN (vic) (90 bike miles; 2228 cumulative miles)

Because of the rains, we spent two nights parked at the River Park motel, with only Jay actually sleeping in the room. Overnight, there was an incredible display of thunder and lightning, hail and torrential rains. Fortunately the roof patch held and Tiggy stayed dry.

Immediately next to the motel was
the Burl Ives bridge, named after the Newton native. The motel owner explained that Burl Ives returned to the town to speak at the high school a few years before his death and his widow decided that he should be buried there.

The results of the torrential storms from the prior day and evening were quite evident as I crossed the bridge. The Embarass River had overflowed its banks and much of the flood plain was under water. Much of the low lying fields were underwater and every stream was raging!

I passed by another Drive-in Movie, the 2nd one that I saw...and then came the town of, believe it or not, "Oblong." Oblong was a cute town that also had an oil museum.

Soon thereafter, we reached a new state; clearly the rains had hit Indiana as well. I was struck by the beauty of the flooded fields and woodlands, a few of which are below:

After 90 miles of biking the consensus (aka Charlie) was that we had enough. But what were we to do with no motels or campgrounds within 20 miles?

No problem! Charlie begins chatting with Buck of Grubb's Garage and asks if he knows of any campsites nearby. Buck thinks for a while and says no. Charlie than asks if if would be ok for us to park for the night. Without any hesitation, Buck says sure. Later I speak to him and ask if we could have some water from their hose, which they graciously provide. Up the road a high school baseball game was about to begin. The home team lost 8-2.Then it was back to Tiggy for a dinner of spaghetti and meat sauce, with allegedly semi-dry Illinois wine, and mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert.

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