What Is It Like to Ride a Bicycle Across Indiana?

Two Saturdays ago (July 15, 2017), I rode my bicycle from St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana (near West Terre Haute), all the way to Richmond, Indiana. I started on the west side of the state (close to Illinois) and stopped on the east side of Indiana (near the Ohio border). The whole trip was 159 miles, and I finished in 8 hours and 42 minutes. The purpose of this blog post is to explain to children (and to adults) what it is like to ride a bicycle across Indiana. So I will post some questions that I imagine a lot of children might have, along with my answers.

Q1: Is it hard to ride across Indiana?

A1: It's actually not as hard to do the ride itself as you might think. What is harder are all the miles that I have to ride by myself in getting my body ready for the big event. There were three weekends right before the ride that I used to prepare for riding long distances, since I usually don't ride more than 30 miles on “normal” days. On the first weekend I rode 40 miles without stopping, on the second weekend I rode about 100 miles in a day, and on the third weekend I rode about 120 miles in a day. Those rides were harder, because I was riding by myself and didn't have anyone to draft off of (See the last half of this post for a description of how drafting works). On the day of the big ride, there were over 1000 cyclists starting out, and we rode in very large groups for the beginning of the ride...drafting in those large groups makes it much easier to move quickly. Later on in the ride, I drafted with smaller groups, but it was still a lot easier than riding by myself. The hardest part of the ride across Indiana was the last 28 miles or so, during which I mostly rode by myself, as there were no large groups around. I felt tired, but not so tired that I couldn't go on.

There was also a lot of hard work I had to do before the ride in getting my bicycle ready for the trip, and making sure I had everything I needed. It took many hours to get my bike ready. I had to make sure my bike was ready because I didn't want to break down in the middle of such a long ride.

Q2: Did you stop to take breaks?

A2: Yes, I stopped twice to take breaks. On such a long ride, when I was drinking a lot, I had to eventually go to a restroom to relieve myself. I couldn't have ridden 160 miles with a full bladder! There were five rest stops on the ride, but I only stopped at two of them. I stopped in Plainfield, Indiana (about 63 miles in to the ride), and then I stopped in Franklin Township, Indiana (at the Middle School there, about 93 miles in)--I got a little bit of lunch at that stop, as some very nice people had prepared sandwiches and fruit for us to eat. A lot of the other riders stopped at more of them than I did. There's absolutely nothing wrong with stopping to take breaks on such a long ride, though. Stopping to take breaks doesn't mean you're a wimp or anything; it means that you're smart because you're paying attention to what your body is telling you. If your body is telling you “I'm tired!” then you need to listen. If you keep riding hard when you are very tired, you could easily hurt yourself. I didn't stop very much because I really wasn't getting very tired.

Q3: What did you eat and drink?

A3: When you're riding a bicycle, especially if you're not stopping very much, you have to make sure you get plenty of food, water, and electrolytes. Electrolytes are minerals that your body needs for your muscles and your heart to work right. The two most important electrolytes are sodium, which is also called salt, and potassium. Sodium (or salt) is already in a lot of the food we eat, so if you eat a lot of different foods, then you get more than enough salt for your body to function. (Some people add more salt to their food at the dinner table by using a salt shaker, but your body usually doesn't need all that extra salt unless you're sweating a ton. The food that you eat has more than enough salt for your body). Potassium can be found in fruits like bananas, apples, and in a lot of other foods. If you drink too much water without taking in enough salt, that can cause problems for your body. So I drank about three quarts of Gatorade while I was on the ride, since Gatorade has salt in it (as well as a little bit of sugar). If you drink a lot of water and you don't get enough salt, your muscles can start to cramp and that might even stop you from being able to ride. So I kept some salt with me in a little container, just in case I started to cramp. It only takes a little bit of the salt to relieve a cramp, and I only had to use it once, toward the end of the ride. I had been drinking a lot of water, and I started to cramp in my legs, so I put just a little salt on my tongue and swallowed it. The cramp went away pretty quickly!

I also ate a lot during my ride. Since sugar is a good source of quick energy, I ate candy that had sugar in it. My choice of candy was Mentos, as it is easy to slide the mints out of the long tube and into my mouth. I had 8 packages of Mentos during the ride. I would never do that on a regular day when I'm not riding, and it's usually not a good idea to eat that much candy! But since my body really needed a lot of energy to keep going for 159 miles, I figured it would be okay to do for one day. I also had about one pint of chocolate milk, half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a banana, and a few apple slices. In addition to the three quarts of Gatorade that I drank, I probably drank about a gallon of water during the ride. I carried my Gatorade in water bottles on my bike, and I carried my water in a hydration bladder, which is basically a little backpack that I wear that holds water inside of it.

Q4: Are you afraid of all the cars on the road?

A4: No, I'm not really afraid. But I am respectful and cautious around cars, because I know that they can really hurt me if they run me over. I keep a mirror on my helmet so that I can see the cars behind me. I stay to the far right side of the road, and I ride with traffic (riding against traffic is NEVER safe, and is a good way to get hurt). I also wear a helmet. Because I do so many things to keep myself safe from cars, I don't really have to be very afraid. I just have to be careful and make sure I ALWAYS watch out for cars and give them enough room.

Q5: What does Indiana look like?

A5: Indiana has a lot of beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, when I'm doing the ride across Indiana, I don't get to see as much of it as I would like to. This is because I spent a lot of time drafting in large groups. When you are drafting and riding really close behind someone, you can't really look around a lot. This is because if you don't look at the person in front of you you might crash into him or her and cause a big wreck. But I've ridden across Indiana several times, and a few of the times I was by myself. And I can tell you that Indiana is a beautiful state, filled with rolling hills and stretching hills filled with rows upon rows of corn and soybeans. There are majestic trees, rustic farmhouses, and a lot of nice people. There were a lot of nice people along the ride who made up rest stops for us, and made sure that we had plenty of food and water. And there were lots of nice people who were riding, and who would let me ride with them to make my day a little easier. I wish I could have led the way more, so that they could have drafted behind me. But I'm really not that great of a cyclist, and they were a lot faster than I was. I only got to lead the way twice: I led a group of about 5 or 10 riders for about half a mile the first time, and then toward the end of the ride, I led one other rider for about one mile, before he went on ahead of me (he was a lot faster than I was). Cycling remind me a lot of the rest of life: It is a lot easier when we help each other. If we don't help each other and just try to work against each other, it just makes things harder for everybody.

Here is link to a video that I took on my bicycle during the ride (This was part of the ride during which I was not with a group; it was between Franklin Township and the city of New Palestine, southeast of Indianapolis):

Click here to see the video.

Home!

Content Advisory: This blog post is written and designed with children ten years old and younger in mind. Kids, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph and start reading. Adults, make sure you get permission from your child before reading. If you don't have a child, it's okay to get permission from your niece, nephew, 2nd cousin once removed, or that little girl who lives next doors who's always leaving her toys in your driveway (In all seriousness, I encourage all of you to share these blog posts with your children, maybe even read them to your children who are not yet able to read).

(Click here to find out what this ride is all about. I encourage all who are able to support the children of Ryves Youth Center with a donation. Click here to make a donation.)

I apologize to my readers for the delay in posting this, but as of approximately 5:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on June 7, 2017, I arrived safely back at my dad's house and finished my tour of Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Yesterday morning I started on the north end of Vincennes, IN, and rode all the way through Terre Haute and back to Clinton, IN--a total of about 76 miles for the day. I want to share with you some last thoughts from my trip.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who made my trip possible. Even though it was I who pedaled the bicycle, and I was riding by myself for most of the journey, it still took a lot of other people to make it happen.  For example, I was hungry because of all of the riding and had to eat a lot during my trip, but someone had to make all of the food that I ate; someone had to give me a place to sleep at night; someone even had to build my bicycle in the first place! And obviously, I couldn't have done any of it without God, who made the whole universe and holds everything together moment by moment. I will share a few photographs and thoughts from my last day of riding, then I will get to thanking the people who helped me along the way.

I rode on a few country roads in Sullivan County, about 40 or 50 miles from my home, and I took a picture of these beautiful wildflowers that I wanted to share with you:

The last creek that I crossed over was Bruillet's Creek, just outside of Shepardsville, IN, just 4 miles from my dad's house. Even though some people think we have to travel far away to see beautiful things, I've found that there are beautiful things all around us, even close to our homes, if we will just look. That's part of the reason that I like to be around preschoolers and other young children, because they are good at seeing the beauty and wonder of all that is around them, and of teaching me how to appreciate that beauty. I saw a raspberry bush at Bruoillet's Creek and ate a few of them:

The purple one in the middle is the one that's ripe and ready for eating!

Here is a picture of the creek:

I like the pretty reflections in the creek from the bright sky

And here is the last picture I took on my ride. It's a picture of my bicycle next to the "Welcome to Clinton" sign, about 3/4 mile from my dad's house:

 I enjoyed taking this picture. As fun as it was to travel, meet new people and see new sights, it made me very happy to be home again. Some people think that Indiana is boring, but I don't agree. I've been to several different countries, have seen over 20 different states in my life and have gotten to live in 7 of them, I still haven't found one that I would rather live in than my Indiana home. There is a beauty here not only in the scenery, but there is an even greater beauty in the friends and family I've made here over the 34 years I've been alive.

So with that, I want to thank the following people. I apologize in advance if I miss you, as there are far more that deserve mention than I can probably even remember.  But I want to offer thanks to Father Ron Weber and Deacon Andrews from the St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Lawrenceville, IL for your hospitality in providing me a place to camp that first night, as well as to Bob, Anne, and the other parishioners for kindly providing me with victuals for the next day; thanks to Tristan and Sarah in Harrisburg, IL for the food, companionship, 550 cord, and providing a place for me to stay; the people of Mayfield, KY; thanks to the woman and little girl I met at the Tennessee state line who provided me with information; thanks to the Sheriff of Waverly County, Tennessee for offering me an empty chair at his table in a rather crowded restaurant; thanks to the man who gave me directions to the correct road just outside of Jackson, TN; thanks to my cousin Faith, her husband Tyler, and their son Jax for all of the wonderful food and opening your home up to me as a place to rest and recuperate; thanks the folks at the bicycle shop in Jackson, TN who were very helpful and hospitable; thanks to William--whom I met on the road betweeen Jackson and McEwen, for your helpful tips about surviving life on the road: I wish you the best in your travels; thanks to Officer Hutchison as well as the leadership of the McEwen police department in McEwen, TN for allowing me a safe place to camp for the night; to Scott for your hospitality and kindness when I stopped at your bike shop in Dickson, TN; thanks to my uncle Allen and the whole Purtee family in Nashville, TN for giving me a place to sleep and letting me borrow your van; to Tim for letting me draft behind your and for giving me a nice place to stay and showing me a wonderful time in Clarksville; thanks to Bob, Violet, Drew, Pastor Tony, Kenny, and the rest of those who are associated with the Cross Country Cyclist Hostel at the First Baptist Church in Sebree, KY--you truly do wonderful work, and share the love of Christ with your actions; to Bicycle Outfitters in Vincennes for all of your help, and thanks to Dana for giving me a place to stay for the night on the last leg of my trip and for showing me the neat hub generator that you built.

Also, I thank all of  those who have been following my blog, and all of you who have been covering me in prayer during this trip: All of my cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and other relatives (too many to mention here by name--trust me), Sam, Jared, Brenna, the Kaperak family, and my coworkers at VPCHC. I also want to thank my mom and my stepdad Danny, my dad and my stepmom Beverly, as well as my grandparents--they know all the things they did--little and big--to make this trip possible, so I can't thank them enough.

Finally, I want to thank the kids whom I was trying to (hopefully) benefit by doing this trip: The children at Ryves Youth Center Preschool, and the children of Ryves Youth Center's after school program. Thanks for following my blog and for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. Also, much thanks to Jim Edwards, Jim Pinkstaff, Pam and Stephanie in the preschool, Jennifer at Catholic Charities who helped promote the ride, as well as to all of you who help out at Ryves in any way (once again, too many to mention).

Rivers, Another Traveler Along the Way, and My Last Stop Before Home

Content Advisory: This blog post is written and designed with children ten years old and younger in mind. Kids, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph and start reading. Adults, make sure you get permission from your child before reading. If you don't have a child, it's okay to get permission from your niece, nephew, 2nd cousin once removed, or that little girl who lives next doors who's always leaving her toys in your driveway (In all seriousness, I encourage all of you to share these blog posts with your children, maybe even read them to your children who are not yet able to read).

(Click here to find out what this ride is all about. I encourage all who are able to support the children of Ryves Youth Center with a donation. Click here to make a donation.)

Today I rode 83 miles from Sebree, Kentucky to Vincennes, Indiana. Vincennes is only about 60 miles south of Terre Haute, and 75 miles south of Clinton. Tomorrow I will be riding through Terre Haute and will finish the ride where I started it, at my dad's house in Clinton.

Today I left the cycling hostel at around 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. Before I took off, I told the other three cyclists farewell and wished them well on their journey west as they continued crossing the United States. They still have a long way to go, but I am almost home. I took this picture with Stephen before I left:

Today while I rode, I prayed for safe travel for all of these cyclists still heading west toward the Pacific Ocean.

I crossed the Ohio River again today, and right after I crossed it, I also crossed the border from Kentucky to Indiana. The part of the Ohio River that runs next to Indiana is not nearly as wide as the part of the Ohio River that I crossed when I left Illinois; it's still a lot wider than the Wabash River, though. I went through the city of Evansville, which had a lot of stoplights. I had been through Evansville in a car before, but I'd never been though it on a bicycle.

After I got through Evansville, I met a man who was walking the other way. I don't know if he wants me to use his real name on my blog, so I'll just call him John. It was very hot outside and he didn't have anything to drink, so I gave him a bottle of Gatorade, since I had an extra bottle and still had plenty enough for myself. John told me that he had just gotten out of jail and was trying to get back to Evansville. I was glad to be able to help him out with something, but I couldn't give him a ride since I was just on a bicycle and not in a car. I was glad to be able to help him.

It's important to know that just because someone has been to jail, that doesn't mean he or she is a bad person. We all do bad things and make mistakes sometimes, and people who go to jail usually end up there because they made the mistake of breaking a law. But they can always learn to make better choices so that they won't end up in jail again. I have met a lot of kids who have a mom or dad who is in jail, and all of them are good kids. It's not their fault that their mom or dad went to jail—things like going to jail happen because of the choices that grown-ups make. I hope all of those kids know that their parents still love them, even though they might be in jail. I am glad that I was able to help John today...It's important to care about people and help them, even though they might have made wrong choices in the past. Even though I have never been to jail, I have made wrong choices in the past, and God still loves me—when I remember that, it helps me to be kind with other people who have made mistakes. If people know that they are loved and cared for, that can often give them hope that they can live a better life.

I wanted to share some more pictures. Here is a picture of my bicycle at the Indiana State Line:

Here is a picture of what appear to be animal burrows next to a creek. What kind of animals do you think might live in these burrows?

This is the creek that was next to the burrows

Here is a picture I took of the White River. You will notice that there are a lot of birds flying around. If you remember my post from day 6, there were a lot of birds flying around on the bridge that crossed the Tennessee River, too. I have a theory as to why there are so many birds next to these bridges. I think that they like to build their nests underneath the bridge so that they won't get wet from the rain. Do you agree with my theory? Or do you have a different theory as to why there are so many birds flying around next to these bridges?

Just north of the White River, I crossed into Knox County (the county that Vincennes is in). Knox County is very flat and open, with huge fields stretching in every direction. Here is one picture I took:

I stopped at a bike shop in Vincennes, where I bought a new tire and put it on the back wheel of my bicycle. Tonight I will be camping just north of Vincennes and will be starting the ride home to Clinton first thing in the morning. As fun as this trip has been, I do miss my family back in Clinton and Terre Haute, and it is good to know that I will be home soon.

Stay tuned for my final blog post of this trip, which I plan to post tomorrow evening.

Rain, a Flat Tire, and a Holy Cyclist Hostel

Content Advisory: This blog post is written and designed with children ten years old and younger in mind. Kids, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph and start reading. Adults, make sure you get permission from your child before reading. If you don't have a child, it's okay to get permission from your niece, nephew, 2nd cousin once removed, or that little girl who lives next doors who's always leaving her toys in your driveway (In all seriousness, I encourage all of you to share these blog posts with your children, maybe even read them to your children who are not yet able to read).

(Click here to find out what this ride is all about. I encourage all who are able to support the children of Ryves Youth Center with a donation. Click here to make a donation.)

**If your children have any questions or comments for me about my ride or about anything I've written, feel free to comment on my blog, and I will do my best to respond within 24 hours.

Today started out rainy and dreary, but it turned out much better than I had ever expected. I got a late start from my buddy Tim's house in Clarksville, Tennessee, because it was raining and I wanted to make sure all of my gear was waterproofed. I carry waterproof panner bags on my bicycle, but just in case any water gets in, I like to seal up all my clothing and most everything inside of the bags inside of freezer bags or other plastic bags. 

I started out my ride at around 9:45 a.m., which was much later than I'd wanted to start. I quickly crossed into the state of Kentucky (Tim's house is very close to the Kentucky border). I rode in the rain for the first few hours. It wasn't that bad, though, because I was wearing a poncho and the weather wasn't very cold. After a few hours, the rain stopped and it didn't rain for the rest of the day. I passed through a little town called Crofton to get some snacks and drinks, but I had to stay there longer than I expected because I got a flat tire on my back wheel! It's a good thing that I brought the extra tubes and the pump that I told you about yesterday. I figured out how I got the flat, though: There was a little, tiny piece of wire sticking through my tire! Thankfully, I found it and pulled it out before I put a new tube in; otherwise, it would have punctured the new tube as soon as I put it in! So I put in the new tube, aired it up, and got back on the road. Here are a few pictures that I took while I was in Crofton:  

I started back on the road and went as quickly as I could, because I wanted to get to my destination before the end of the day. I already had planned on stopping in Sebree, Kentucky, but I didn't know anything about the city other than the fact that around 1,500 people lived there. I was able to ride at a pretty fast speed for most of the day; I think the wind was at my back, which made it a lot easier. I rode through Madisonville, which is a medium-sized city in Kentucky, and at around 4:35 p.m. I arrived in Sebree. I wasn't sure where I would stay for the night. Usually when I get to a new town, I will go to the police station or the fire station and ask if they know of a place where I can lay out my sleeping bag and stay for the night. I found the city municipal building in Sebree where the volunteer fire department was, but I didn't see anyone there. Just then, I saw a man pulling up to the building in a pickup truck. I told him I was looking for a place to lay out a sleeping bag and stay for the night, and he said, "Well, I go to the First Baptist Church here in Sebree, and we have a place in the basement of the church for you cyclists to stay!" I thought that was rather odd, because most towns don't have a lot of people travelling through them by bicycle. But I followed his directions and found the church. Here was the sign that greeted me:

A "hostel" just means a place for people to stay at night, and a cyclist is a person who travels on a bicycle--so this was a hostel for cyclists. There was no one at the church, and the pastor who lived next door wasn't home, so I wasn't sure what to do. A man who lived across the street called me over. His name was Bob, and he used to be the pastor of the Sebree First Baptist Church, but he is retired now. Bob told me how to get into the hostel, and told me that there was another cyclist there name Stephen who would show me around. He also said that his wife Violet would have supper ready for us at 6:30 p.m.

I went into the hostel where I met Stephen, and I quickly found out why there is a cycling hostel in Sebree. There is a popular bicycle route called the Trans-America Bicycle Trail. It is a route that goes all the way across the United States from east to west, following a lot of major highways as it goes across. Hundreds of people right the Trans-America Bicycle Trail every year. That is how the church ended up starting a ministry to help cyclists. It was by chance that I happened to find this place, and I'm not going east or west like most of the cyclists who stop here; I'm going north.

I took a shower and changed my clothes, then Stephen and I headed over for dinner. We met Bob's wife Violet, and his grandson Drew. Violet fixed us a wonderful dinner and made sure that we were well fed. She had a wide variety of food available, and I ended up eating macaroni and cheese, pulled pork sandwiches, corn on the cob, tomatoes, ice cream, sweet tea, soda, orange juice, and some broccoli. That's a lot of food, isn't it? I usually don't eat that much food on normal days when I'm not riding a bicycle a lot, but when I have ridden 82 miles like I did today, it makes me very, very hungry.

Violet told me that she and her husband have been giving cyclists a warm meal and a place to stay for 37 years now, since 1980. She said that when Bob started out as pastor of the church in 1980, they didn't even know what the Trans-America trail was. But a lot of cyclists kept passing through and, whenever the city park was closed, they would knock on her door and ask for a place to camp for the night. I know that some people think that the way to serve God is to go out to some faraway place and find people to help, but Bob and Violet found a way to serve God just by helping the people who happened to knock on their own front door. They did so by giving them even more than what they asked for. The people asked for a place to camp outside, but Bob and Violet gave them a place to take a shower, a warm meal, and a bed to sleep on inside. Eventually, they dedicated a whole section of the church basement as a place for cyclists to shower, do laundry, and have a warm place to sleep. Even now, they help out a few hundred cyclists every year.

Two more cyclists joined us for dinner before I left, and Violet made sure that they, too, had plenty of food. I thanked Bob and Violet for their work, and told them that I would pray for them. They need someone to pray for them, because they do a very important work. Before I left to go back to the hostel in the church, Bob and Violet prayed with all of us. Violet showed us pictures and postcards from the cyclists she has met over the years, and said that she prays for the cyclists constantly, especially when there are storms or other weather than can make it hard to travel by bicycle. Not only do they pray for the cyclists, but they do what they can to help them, sometimes driving them to the closest bicycle shop if they need something fixed on their bicycle.

I have been to church a lot over the year. I've heard a lot of sermons about the love of Jesus--how Jesus loved us so much that He died on the Cross to forgive our sins. As a Christian, I think that's an important message. But that message shines even brighter when someone lives it out, when someone loves other people the way Jesus did. I want to be like Bob and Violet, who give of themselves to help other people, through prayers, through work, through loving care, and who never ask for any money or other reward in return for what they do. By helping the cyclists, they are showing the same love that Jesus did when He died on the cross. Jesus is doing His work in them and through them. Even though they don't preach a sermon to the cyclists who come through, I know that the message of Jesus' love is still ringing through clearly. He is using these two humble servants to help a lot of people. I'm blessed to have met them. Tonight I pray for the safe travels of the three cyclists with whom I had dinner this evening, and a special blessing on Bob, Violet, and their grandson Drew, as they continue to perform the work of God by helping other people.

I would ask all my readers to think about what you can do to help those whom you meet every day. What are some ways that you can give to others, without expecting anything in return? Giving to other people without getting any reward for yourself is a hard thing to do--it's something I need to work on, too.

This beautiful piece of artwork is on display at the cyclist hostel in Sebree, KY where I'm staying tonight

A Second Day of Rest: More Repairs, and More Tools!

Content Advisory: This blog post is written and designed with children ten years old and younger in mind. Kids, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph and start reading. Adults, make sure you get permission from your child before reading. If you don't have a child, it's okay to get permission from your niece, nephew, 2nd cousin once removed, or that little girl who lives next doors who's always leaving her toys in your driveway (In all seriousness, I encourage all of you to share these blog posts with your children, maybe even read them to your children who are not yet able to read).

(Click here to find out what this ride is all about. I encourage all who are able to support the children of Ryves Youth Center with a donation. Click here to make a donation.)

**If your children have any questions or comments for me about my ride or about anything I've written, feel free to comment on my blog, and I will do my best to respond within 24 hours.

Today's blog will be short, as I still have some getting ready to do for tomorrow. Today is the ninth day since I left my hometown of Clinton, Indiana. I have completed 7 days of riding, and I have 3 more days of riding until I am done. It is good to be headed home.

Today I went to church in the morning, and for the remainder of the day I rested, ate a lot of good food, and got my bicycle ready for tomorrow. I put some new brake pads on the back of my bike. Brake pads are just rubber pads that rub against the rim of the wheel to make sure that you can stop the bicycle. Here are two views of one of the new brake pads; the first view is a close-up (the brake pad is on the left, and the rim is on the right), and the second view was taken farther out:

The new brake pads really work well, and help me to stop very quickly if I need to. My friend Tim also helped me adjust my front brakes so that they would work a little better--(it's always more rewarding to do that kind of work when you have somebody helping you--thanks, Tim!) Being able to stop quickly is important, because you never know when you might need to be able to stop very quickly to avoid running into something in front of you.

I also wanted to show you some more of my tools. This is my air pump that I use to put more air in my tire tubes. The first picture is what it looks like when I am not using it and it is attached to the top tube of my bike. The second picture shows what it looks like when I am actually using it to air up a tire:

I have to carry spare tubes with me, in case I get a flat tire during the trip. The tube is actually inside of the tire, so when I say "flat tire," it actually means the tube is flat; when a tube is flat, I keep the same tire on the bike and just take the old (flat) tube out, and put in a new tube and air it up. Here is a picture of one of my spare tubes, and my tire pressure gauge:

 (I brought six extra tubes with me on this trip, and so far I haven't had to use any of them, because I haven't gotten any flats yet)

Finally, I wanted to show you a close-up view of my tire pressure gauge. This is a special gauge that I use for the tubes I have on my bicycle, because they have a valve that is different from the valves used on car tires, so I have to use a gauge that will fit the tires. This gauge is important because it helps me to know how much air is in the tube. If I have too much air in the tube, I can get flats from things poking through the tire. If I don't have enough air in the tube, then I can get flats when I hit a stone or something in the road and the tire "pinches" the tube. 

Note: Tire pressure will vary depending on the type of bike. Tire pressure is measured in units called "psi", which stands for "pounds per square inch." During this trip, I have kept my front tire at 70 psi and my rear tire at 90 psi, and that has seemed to work for me. However, that kind of pressure would be too high for a children's bicycle, and might even blow the tire off of the rim. Children's bicycles are usually set to handle between 35 and 40 psi.

This is what my tire pressure gauge looks like. Can you tell me what pressure it is showing here? (see bottom of page for answer):

These are some more of the tools I have to carry with me everywhere I go, because I never know when I will get a flat tire or have other problems. I might be 10 or 20 miles from a store or gas station when I get a flat tire, and that's just too far to try to walk with my bike to get help! Thankfully, I have all of these tools and know how to use them, so it's very easy to change a flat tube if I need to (I also have special tire levers that I use to take the tire off the rim and to put it back on when I am changing a tube; those are the two pink tools that you can see in my tool inventory picture that I posted on day 5). It's good to learn how to fix a bicycle, and most of the basic repairs are pretty easy. I'm not a person who is good at fixing a lot of different things; for example, I really don't know how to work on cars very well. But I learned how to work on bicycles and you can learn how to work on them, too; you just need to have someone show you and teach you to do the basic repairs. It's a good feeling to know that you can fix something like a flat tube on your own.

***Scroll down for answer to the gauge question above***
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Answer: The gauge above reads 82 psi. 

Skyscrapers, Another River, and Drafting Behind a Friend

Content Advisory: This blog post is written and designed with children ten years old and younger in mind. Kids, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph and start reading. Adults, make sure you get permission from your child before reading. If you don't have a child, it's okay to get permission from your niece, nephew, 2nd cousin once removed, or that little girl who lives next doors who's always leaving her toys in your driveway (In all seriousness, I encourage all of you to share these blog posts with your children, maybe even read them to your children who are not yet able to read).

(Click here to find out what this ride is all about. I encourage all who are able to support the children of Ryves Youth Center with a donation. Click here to make a donation.)

**If your children have any questions or comments for me about my ride or about anything I've written, feel free to comment on my blog, and I will do my best to respond within 24 hours.

Today I rode 68 miles from the south end of Nashville to Clarksville, Tennessee. I rode 41 of those miles by myself, and for the last 27 miles, I rode with my friend Tim. Tim lives in Clarksville, Tennessee, and he rode his bicycle out today to meet me. Once we met, he turned around and we rode back to Clarksville together.

Before I could get to Clarksville, I had to ride my bike all the way through Nashville. It took me about 15 miles or so to get out of Nashville and back out into the country. In downtown Nashville, they had some really tall buildings. Those buildings are called skyscrapers. Skyscrapers cost a lot of money to build and they have a lot of rooms in them, so they usually are only built in large cities that at least have a few hundred thousand people living in the city. Here is a picture of the skyscrapers in Nashville from far away:

There is a river that goes through Nashville called the Cumberland River. It is smaller than the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers that I crossed a few days ago, but probably a little bigger than the Wabash River that goes through Terre Haute. I crossed the river on a pedestrian and cycling bridge. Pedestrian means a person walking on foot, and cycling means that someone is riding a bicycle. So no cars were allowed on the bridge, only people who are walking or riding bicycles are allowed to cross. Here are some pictures I took from the bridge. Notice in one of them, there is a big crane that is being used to either build or repair a building:

There were a few people walking on the cycling/pedestrian bridge, so I had to slow down and be careful to keep from running into anybody. Here is what it looked like going across the bridge:

Here is a picture of the beautiful Cumberland River:

When I met my friend Tim around the 41^st mile of my ride today, I was glad to have someone to ride with. First, it gave me someone to talk with and to keep my mind off of being tired. Second, I was able to go a little faster during those last 26 miles because I was able to draft behind my friend Tim. I will need to go into some science in order to explain what “draft” means.

Drafting is an example of how we can use science to help us in our daily lives. Some people think that science is just something boring that we learn in school, but science is actually fun because we can use a lot of things from science to help us out in real life! Drafting means that one person rides closely behind another person who is in front. When the person in front rides, his/her body and his bicycle are hitting the all of the air that is in front—this makes it so the air in front of the lead cyclist is at a high pressure and the air behind him/her is at a lower pressure. When I say that there is “higher pressure” in front, that means that the person in front has to pedal a little harder to go a certain speed, because he/she is breaking through the air that is in front. When I say that there is “low pressure” in the air behind the lead cyclist, that's a fancy way of saying that it will be easier for the person behind him/her to travel through the air at a certain speed.. Thus, even with my big, heavy bike, I was able to follow Tim and it was easier for me to go faster than if I were riding on my own. In fact, my average speed for today for the last 27 miles of the ride (when I was riding with Tim) was 16.3 miles per hour, which is much faster than the parts of the ride I did on my own (during which I averaged 12-14 miles per hour). Drafting is a good example of teamwork and one person helping another, but it is important for both riders to follow safety rules while drafting. The person in front must let the person who is behind know about trash or potholes in the road, and also must tell the person behind when they are about to slow down. The person who is following should give the person in front enough room so as not to hit the person in front, and must pay close attention to make sure that he/she does not run into the back wheel of the person in front.

Bicycle riders who are in races use drafting a lot to help them go faster than they could on their own. Racecars also use drafting to save gas by riding close behind other racecars as they go around the track—if you like to watch car races on TV, you might watch for them drafting behind each other next time you watch a race.

Note: If you ride a children's bicycle, drafting will not help you. It only really helps if you are going 15 miles per hour or more, and children's bicycles generally cannot move that quickly. Drafting should only be done by adults who have had practice in doing it and who know the safety rules—children can easily be hurt if they try following each other too closely on bicycles, so please do not try drafting if you are under 18.

Here is a graphic that shows how drafting works. Notice the arrows showing how the cyclist in front breaks through the air, so it is harder for him/her to pedal, and the air pressure behind the lead cyclist is less, which makes it easier for the second cyclist to pedal:

(Image was borrowed from: http://pad1.whstatic.com/images/thumb/9/99/Draft-on-a-Bike-Step-1.jpg/aid141638-v4-728px-Draft-on-a-Bike-Step-1.jpg)

I want to think my friend Tim for coming out and riding with me! It really helped me out a lot and made me feel less alone while I was on the road. Sometimes we all need someone to help us out on the road of life—sometimes we are the one who are helping someone else, and sometimes we are the ones who need help. Today I was the one who needed help, since I was carrying the heavy load. Here is a picture of my bike (in the front) and Tim's bike (in the back):

You will notice that my bike has a lot of heavy bags on it, and Tim's bike doesn't. Because his bike was so much lighter, it made more sense to have him up front and me drafting behind him.

Today and tomorrow I will be visiting with my friend Tim, and getting my bike ready to start the trip back to Indiana on Monday. I will post something tomorrow to let you know how I am doing.

Bike Shops, Cliffs, and Hills(!)

Content Advisory: This blog post is written and designed with children ten years old and younger in mind. Kids, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph and start reading. Adults, make sure you get permission from your child before reading. If you don't have a child, it's okay to get permission from your niece, nephew, 2nd cousin once removed, or that little girl who lives next doors who's always leaving her toys in your driveway (In all seriousness, I encourage all of you to share these blog posts with your children, maybe even read them to your children who are not yet able to read).

(Click here to find out what this ride is all about. I encourage all who are able to support the children of Ryves Youth Center with a donation. Click here to make a donation.)

**If your children have any questions or comments for me about my ride or about anything I've written, feel free to comment on my blog, and I will do my best to respond within 24 hours.

Today I rode 63 miles from McEwen, TN and ended up in Nashville, TN. I will spend the night with my uncle in Nashville and leave tomorrow headed toward Clarksville, TN.

About 18 miles into my ride today, I saw a bicycle shop on the side of the road. I stopped in and met the owner of the bike shop. His name was Scott. Since it was such a hot day, he gave me a bottle of water and I told him that I was doing this ride to try to help the kids at Ryves Youth Center in Terre Haute. I showed him my bicycle and when I tried to buy another new water bottle cage from him (a black cage, to match the black one I bought the other day, and he went ahead and put it on my bike for free. I guess that was his way of helping. It always makes me happy to meet people who want to help.

This is Scott, the owner of Road and Track Specialities Bicycle Center in Dickson, TN

Today I got to a part of Tennessee that is really hilly. I felt like I spent a lot of time either pedaling slowly up a hill, or zooming quickly down a hill. The good thing about the bicycle I have is that it has 12 different gears. If I'm going up a hill, I shift into one of the lower gears that make it easier to pedal up the hill. If I'm going down a hill, I shift into one of the higher gears, because the hill helps me to go faster so I can use the gears that are a little harder to pedal in. I wanted to show you an elevation graph that shows the last 22 miles of my bike ride today. Every time the line zigs up and then down again, that means I went up and down one hill. As you can see, I sent up and down a lot of hills (Remember, this is only the last part of the ride, so I went up and down a lot more hills earlier in the day). How many hills do you see on this graph? (See bottom of this post for the answer that I got).

Today I drove down some sections of highway that had high cliffs on one side and had a river on the other side. Here are some pictures of the cliffs:

Here is a picture of the river that was on the other side of the road opposite the cliff. You can't see it very well, because there were so many trees:

In Indiana there are not a lot of roads that are right next to a cliff like this one, but there are a lot of them in Kentucky and Tennessee. There are even some roads that have cliffs on both sides. When people were building these roads, sometimes they had to clear away parts of the big, rocky cliffs so that they could have enough room to put in a road. The way that they did this was to use dynamite, or some other kind of explosives. When I was a kid, I thought that people only used explosives to hurt other people or blow up buildings, but that's not true. There are a lot of good things that explosives can help us with, like building roads or helping to get coal out of coal mines (Of course, they have to be very careful while using the explosives so they don't get hurt). It's nice to know that we can use the things that we have to help other people and not hurt them. I would like to think that I am helping people by riding my bicycle, because I get to share these blogs with you, and because I get to tell more people about Ryves Youth Center so that more people might give money to help the kids at the center. Can you think of something that you have, and how you can use it to help other people?

Tomorrow I will be riding into Clarksville, Tennessee. My buddy Tim, who is an old friend that I met in the Army, will be riding with me for part of the way, and I will be staying at his house tomorrow night. I can't wait to tell you about it!

**I counted about 24 hills on this section of map. It's hard to get an exact number because some of the zigs and zags on the map are so small.

Meeting a Fellow Traveler, Nature Scenes, and Bird Songs

Content Advisory: This blog post is written and designed with children ten years old and younger in mind. Kids, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph and start reading. Adults, make sure you get permission from your child before reading. If you don't have a child, it's okay to get permission from your niece, nephew, 2nd cousin once removed, or that little girl who lives next doors who's always leaving her toys in your driveway (In all seriousness, I encourage all of you to share these blog posts with your children, maybe even read them to your children who are not yet able to read).

(Click here to find out what this ride is all about. I encourage all who are able to support the children of Ryves Youth Center with a donation. Click here to make a donation.)

Today I traveled 75 miles from Springbrook, Tennessee to McEwen, Tennessee. 

McEwen is about the same size and has about the same number of Rockville in Indiana—there are about 1,700 people who live here. That sounds like a lot of people, but it's really not. In the city of Nashville, where I am going tomorrow, there are 684,000 people; that's a lot more than 1,700!

Today was pretty easy riding overall. I haven't told you this yet before, but the wind makes a big difference whenever you are riding a bicycle a long distance. If the wind if behind you and pushing your forward, then it's a lot easier to pedal. If the wind is coming straight into your face, then it pushes against you and makes it a lot harder to pedal. When the wind is coming at you from the side, it makes it a little harder to pedal. Today, I think I was going the same direction as the wind, so it was pushing against my back and making it a lot easier to go. So I'm not even really that tired, even though I went 75 miles. Of course, it does help that I got some rest yesterday!

Today I met an interesting person in my travels. About 16 miles into my trip, I saw a man walking the other direction on the road. I stopped to talk to him, because I wanted to make sure he was okay and that he had everything that he needed. The weather was very hot, and it would be very bad for someone to be walking in that heat and get sick from being so thirsty. The man's name was William, and he was headed to Memphis, Tennessee. William was homeless, which means that he doesn't live in a house like most people do. Some people think that people who are homeless got to be that way because they are bad people or because they are not very smart, but that's usually not true. William was a nice fellow, and he knew a lot about how to survive on the road, he told me about how to look out for wild animals that live out in the woods, and he warned me about some mean dogs that were just down the road. Because I had a lot of supplies and he had very little (he was only carrying a little shopping bag with a can of chips and a few other things), I gave him a drink to take with him and few other things to make him comfortable. He told me he didn't want to take anything more from me. I feel like William helped me just as much as I helped him, because he warned me about the dogs and he taught me some things I didn't know about living on the road.

There are a lot of reasons why it's good to be kind and help out those who don't have very much, or who are homeless. One reason is that all kinds of people can end up without a home, whether they're good or bad, old or young. I know if I didn't have a home to go to, or very much to eat or drink, I would want somebody to help me. Another reason is even more important, though, for those of us who are Christians. Jesus, when He was on the earth, often traveled with his friends and had no place to sleep. He said “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). He also told his friends, when they were traveling to preach, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics” (Luke 9:3). That means they had nothing, but they trusted God to take care of them. Since Jesus often traveled and had no home, nowhere to sleep, I think He wants us to be especially kind to those who have very little. In fact, sometimes people who don't have very many things can still have more trust in God that people who have a lot, because the people who have very little know that they need to trust in God to take care of them.

I want to show you some neat things I saw today. I saw another house shaped like a big, tall triangle, but the picture I tried to take didn't get saved to my phone. It was a beauty parlor. It was shaped like the house that I posted on day 2 of this trip, but it looked a lot nicer. I'm sorry that the picture didn't save.

Here is a picture of a creek that has some plants growing in it and sticking up out of the water. I think that they might be lily pads, but I'm not sure:

And here is the beautiful Tennessee River. It was pretty far across, but not as wide as the Ohio. The bridge had a big shoulder (shoulder means a clear area on the side of the road) where I could get out of the way of cars and take some pictures. This part of the river has an actual island on it—this is not a sandbar like I talked about in my post on day 1, but it is a real island. All of the trees that you see are actually on the island. It probably floods when the river gets really high, and it looks like some of the trees that were close to the edge of the river might have been in a little bit of water:

Do you see the birds flying around over the water next to the bridge? They were all over the place next to that bridge. I took a video of the birds that I am posting below. I hope that it will play on your computer. You should be able to see them flying and hear them singing:

God willing, I will post to you tomorrow from Nashville, where I am going to visit my uncle!