Day 47: August 1, Wabash, IN -> Fort Wayne, IN

Posted on by

Start: 8:02 AM

Finish: 12:45 PM  

Saddle Time: 3:50

Ascent: 193 feet

Descent:  228 feet

Miles: 46

Total Miles: 2,845

Highlight: Short day with favorable weather and continued quiet roads.

Lowlight: Getting to my motel early (Comfort Suites) but couldn’t check in early without paying a $35 before the 4:00 checkin (I didn’t pay).

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

Today is a short day, it wasn’t intentional just how the route mapped out with accommodations. I could use a half day for route planning, anyway.  I don’t know where I’m staying after tomorrow so I’d like to plan out the rest of the trip.

Another great Indiana road but notice the haze, it’s not humidity it’s smoke from the fires out west.

Last nights hotel was far too nice for a bike tour.  It was just a Hampton Inn but much nicer than the Super 8 and Motel 6 places I’ve been staying, it was all I could find on a weekend.  I haven’t mentioned camping lately because I haven’t done any.  I was camping a couple weeks ago until the weather turned super humid. It’s cooled down and dried out now but the tour end is in sight so I don’t see myself camping again unless I have to.

I guess they must pump in fertilizer through pipelines. First I’ve seen of this but I just didn’t notice.

Hampton Inn has a real breakfast with eggs, sausage and potatoes which was nice to start the day and I had plenty of time. After a good breakfast I set off around 8:00. There was a haze to the sky which was weird because it wasn’t humid. I looked at my weather app which showed the air quality as “unhealthy for sensitive groups”, must be smoke.  I can’t smell it but I can see it.  Otherwise it was a great morning, cool and dry.

I wonder if this was an old fertilizer tank.

I’m following Google directions again since the northern tier maps to 56 miles while Google can get me there in 43. I don’t really need to make a short day shorter but why ride extra miles? 

An old cemetery in front of a large egg operation.
Industrial egg farm. Hard to capture how large these buildings are but each looks the size of several football fields and there are five of them.

The ride was same as the past several days, super quiet and even more so since it was a Sunday morning. I even had some beneficial tailwinds at times. I made a change to Googles direction by stair stepping north then east rather than diagonal northeast which avoided a main road.  Turns out my route was of course longer but also on a small but heavily traveled road.  I should have just trusted Google.

Methodist church in the middle of nowhere.

I made it to the area of my hotel by 12:30 but stopped for ice cream then coffee at Starbucks just to kill time, don’t want to show up crazy early.  Almost everywhere I’ve stayed has allowed me to check in early if I arrived before the 3:00 checkin. I chanced 1:45, maybe I have to wait a little while. Apparently Comfort Suites only allows you to checkin early for a $35 fee and checkin is 4:00 not 3:00!  I’m not paying their extortion fees so I setup shop in their lobby, tore into my bags, plugged in my extension cord to charge my devices and work on my computer. It’s what I would do in the room anyway so really not a big deal just annoying.  At least I have a couple warm beers and a single serve wine in my bags.  Maybe they will get annoyed and let me check in early or more likely they’ll just call the police for public drinking. FOX news is on in the lobby and it’s just making me angry so I looked for a way to turn off the TV, more reason for them to just call the police. I need another warm beer.

I’ve seen a lot of old brick buildings which I guess where the original farmhouses in the area. Most were half this size.
I have to say people out here get creative with lawn ornemants.