Day 5: May 5th, Friday

The map I attached yesterday was my pride and joy.   It had every turn, it had directional arrows, in was fool proof – I thought.

Thanks to my Aunt and Uncle, packing was easy and I was out the down at about 6:00 a.m.    I had a choice of going down major roads to downtown Louisville or go through Cherokee Park.   I decided to go through Cherokee Park.   This is the park that I would ride through with Uncle Frank and his Saturday bike group every now and again.   The last time I rode with him was a couple of years ago when he was 80.   Isn’t he an inspiration to us all?

In any case I knew the park pretty well and even if I made a wrong turn I could easy get to downtown.   Came out on Lexington road and it took me right to the first check point on my Google Map – Liberty Street.   I should have known the morning was going to take an ugly twist when Liberty was a one way street going the wrong way for me.   Oblivious to the galactic forces working against me I merely moved over 1 street and continued to downtown.   My target was the 2nd street bridge.

Some background – My uncle, his 3 sons, and my brother confirmed that the 2nd Street bridge was the proper bridge for a bike crossing (Miracle Go can’t swim).    I preceded down 2nd street where I was met with a sign that said “Bridge Closed Pedestrian Traffic”.   I didn’t have an alternate route and wondered if the bridge was just closed or really “closed, closed”.   I proceeded through the sign and up onto the bridge to check out the “real” bridge status.   After going about 100 yards I met a board across the sidewalk with another message, “if you continue crossing you will be arrested”.   I immediately decided that the bridge was “closed, closed” and appreciated them putting up a sign for me.

I tried to go West and there was no bridge crossing that way so turned around after 4 miles and returned East to find the “bridge by the ferris wheel”.   It had a huge route spiral up that allowed us to cross into Indiana and our third state (Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana).   Since I went over a different bridge my directions were worthless until I found US-150 W.    Using my now honed navigational skills I basically went South and West looking for a major street.   Finally I found US-150.   However it was one of those “bike can’t enter” streets.   I eventually found 64W and have been on it ever since 9:00 or so this morning.

64W is a nice quiet (most of the time) that meanders through the hills of Indiana.   None were particularly large but there was one downhill where Miracle Go achieved a personal best and clocked in at 47.7 MPH.   The old girl was movin’!   Will continue on 64 tomorrow with the next city being Princeton that is about 36 miles away.

You may look at the pictures and notice Miracle Go being in front of a town’s sign, Birdseye.    We are not in Birdseye however.   I had a choice of stopping at 75 miles in Birdseye or continuing 15 miles past Birdseye to Huntingburg.  Birdseye didn’t have many eating places so I gambled, and won, that Huntingburg would be bigger.   So we are now safely in a Subway (the McDonald’s of the West so called because they are everywhere) writing this post.

I am now going to visit the police and fire stations to see if they have some ideas regarding me getting a shower which is sorely needed at this point.

My best to you all!

The “Goldenrod” picture was just a great picture of a field filled with goldenrods.   One of the many splendid nature scenes to which I was treated today.