Wabash to Monroeville, IN

70 miles. Before I comment on the ride today I want to say something about our experience last night. Before yesterday, we had never met Don and Barb, our overnight hosts in Wabash. We knew of them only because they had rented our Florida home (the double wide trailer) for the past couple of years. We showed up in their driveway late in the afternoon, looking rather bedraggled. I hadn't shaved in at least a week and we had just completed a 60+ mile day after having camped the night before. Don and Barb warmly greeted us and invited us to stay in their lovely home. We had a really nice time visiting and after we showered and I shaved, they took us out to dinner and insisted on picking up the tab. Also we did a couple loads of smelly bike clothes in their laundry. This morning, Barb prepared a massive breakfast for us and stuffed some bananas and homemade brownies in our packs as we were leaving. What
gracious, wonderful people! For us this episode was another reaffirmation of the basic goodness of most people.

The ride today was our longest so far in terms of mileage, but thanks to yet another tailwind we cranked along at a good pace. And the weather again cooperated; it was overcast and cool for most of the morning and a few drips of rain fell. But by noon the clouds had moved on and we had sunny skies the rest of the day.

South of Fort Wayne, we met Steve, another cyclist out for a training ride. He was only a few years younger than us but was training for a series of competitive races. We were impressed while he thought we were the bomb. We took pictures of each other and then rode together for a few miles. After we watched Steve fend off a German Shepard that came after him from an adjoining house, Steve told us that another large dog actually ran into him recently while he was on a ride - nearly knocking him off his bike. We've started to encounter the Fido problem pretty much every day for about the past week. Most of the time we are able to simply outrun the dog before it ever gets close enough to do any harm. But stories like Steve's are not uncommon, with riders often being knocked to the pavement and sometimes suffering serious injuries. Our big fear is not being bitten by a dog, but that the dog would get under the wheels or in front of the bike, causing us to go down. One crash on this trip is enough.