Day Seven- Done (Over 550 miles)

July 27th- I rode as fast as I could today because I wanted to make it to Gary, Indiana early the next day. I hadn't even crossed into Indiana yet and it seemed like the cornfields were just repeating themselves.

I got to the Ohio/Indiana border after around 30 miles of riding. It was around lunch time, so I stopped at the Subwayand proceeded to devour a foot long cold cut combo. It was the first time I had a sub on the trip. Normally, I eat at McDonald's because I can use the internet while I eat. I did get to charge my laptop, camera, and phone while at the subway. I met many people as I was sitting there for over an hour. Jeff and his daughter had driven from Illinois across Indiana into Ohio just to say that they have been to Ohio. Jeff also loved what I was doing and donated.

Another family of three had me take a picture with"Flat Andy," I beleive. They said it was a thing the children at school were asked to do over the summer to show where they've been. A group of teens from a band camp were there as well. Some of them said they were going to do a trip like this in the future. Hopefully they will.

I left Subway recharged electronically and physically. As I started off, I realized my front tire was flat. It took over a week for a tire to go flat. Not bad! There is an Auto repair shop right at that stop, so I tried my luck and asked if I could repair it in their shop. Sure enough, they let me.

As a matter of fact, Matt helped me most of the way through it, even giving me some pieces of patch and pointers. Mitch stood by and offered advice, too. We patched the tire, reinflated it, and I was on my way. I left the border heading inward toward Angola, Indiana. I saw an American Legion (Post 31) off the road a little. It was beautiful, so I had to stop in. As soon as I walked inside, they all asked me, "why are you wearing that get-up?" After telling them most of the story, I was told not to go anywhere because they were getting the newspaper to come and take my picture at the Legion. I waited with a group of three who were playing Gin Rummy before the Bingo game at 6 pm. The paper showed up, took my picture and asked me the normal questions again: "Why?" "From where to where?" "Where do you sleep?" and so on.

I left and headed up a long hill. That's when I saw the McDonald's that my brother looked up to find out if they had WiFi. He was getting sick of not being able to read what was going on in the trip and wanted to find a place for me to download my writing. I did and then I rode, right after getting bumped in the bathroom door as I opened it. I have a lump on my head tonight. Oh well. I took an energy shot to get my butt in gear, since I had many miles to travel. That energy shot did it's job because I rode over forty miles in under four hours before stopping for the night at a truck stop. I think my top speed was 27.3 MPH.

Daily Lesson: Help will show up in the most random of places. It's amazing how much more people know than just their job.

Look for the WEEKLY BONUS titled "The Cause"

And as always, feel free to donate to eradicating Polio at http://www.rotary.org/en/endpolio/Pages/ridefault.aspx