Day 35: Crawfordsville to Indianapolis, IN

56 miles, 627 feet climbed

No pictures from the main part of the route today as I was trying to get to the hotel in advance of potential rains which, as so often happens, did not come. It was a day of more frequent towns, a lot of industry and broken roads to show for it on the edge of Indianapolis, two detours, and a surprise.

The surprise was an email that I needed to moderate a comment on yesterday’s entry. I have moderation turned on because at least half of the comments have been attempts to post spamming or phishing messages to harrass you all. This one was real, from Mike Munk, tour leader of two of the ABB rides I rode, my first, the North in 2004, and then the East in 2018. It turns out that he saw some of our riders, perhaps even me (that part is unclear) riding by a golf course in Pittsboro he was playing this morning. One of my trip habits is to photograph a course or two but, as I said, I was trying to make time. Otherwise Mike might be there in the background somewhere (waving?).

Mike said he was using Karen’s phone to post the comment; was that Karen Bauer, who staffed three of my ABB rides, the two mentioned above and the North again in 2019? Both have retired from ABB. Mike now lives in Brownsburg, which we also passed through this morning. What a small world!

The two detours were a house fire which closed a street and a fundraising party for the local zoo which was setting up on a walkway over the White River, closing it to us. The alternative route around the fire shaved a mile or two off of our route. We backtracked about a quarter of a mile from the zoo closure and made it to the hotel just fine. Rooms were even ready a little after noon. Finding the front desk had us trooping up escalators that serve an indoor mall across several buildings in the downtown area. Like so many malls, vacancies abounded.

After cleaning up, I wandered out and most of the photos below are from that walkabout.

Downtown Indianapolis from the west side of the White River. The Lucas Oil Stadium, home of football’s Colts, is at the right.
Embassy Suites atrium
State Capitol
Soldiers & Sailors Monument
Washington Street from the overhead connecting walkway to the hotel