Bloomington, IN

Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a little while since I posted last!

Yesterday was our longest ride ever at 90.1 miles. We rode from Cincinnatti, OH to Columbus, Indiana! Crossing state lines was excellent!!! There was no sign at the border, so we had to chalk one for the group to take pictures with. I rode with the fast group until lunch and it went quickly. Then I was tired after eating porkchop sandwiches at lunch and had to slow down my riding pace. After lunch we went through Greensburg, IN and there happened to be a strawberry festival going on. We bought 4 strawberry shortcakes that was supporting the local YMCA in Greensburg and started eating. As more riders showed up at the stop, the organizers of the event noticed all 15 of us out in the field and thought our organization was awesome! They ended up giving us 10 more strawberry shortcakes as a donation. (Everytime we stop, we draw lots of attention to ourselves because we don't really fit into society with spandex on). We even made a local newspaper there.. I'll try to find the link to the article tonight. When we got to Columbus, my mileage read 87.4.. So I decided to bike around and look at architecture until my odometer read 90.1! I wish it would've been a century like the website said because it was really flat. OH well.. i'm sure it's coming.



We are in Bloomington, Indiana now and had a 40 mile ride today. Because it was such a short ride, we got to sleep in until 7 (we usually get up at 5) and take it easy. There was a farmers market in Columbus, IN so we all stopped and looked around there. We rode steadily until Nashville, IN and we stopped at a bakery there. We all stuffed our faces with desserts. There we 5 of us at the stop so we each bought at least 1 dessert and shared with eachother. It was amazing. After that I got ice cream and then rode on. It got hilly in the afternoon, but we pressed on. As soon as we got to Bloomington, we found a fountain on the campus and got soaked. There are pictures, but they aren't on my camera.
Some people talked about a quarry that was around Bloomington that was in a cyclist movie called Breaking Away. We got directions to the quarry and 5 of us took off riding. This was the best side trip I have ever taken! We got to the quarry, ran into some locals that showed us around, and then went swimming and cliff jumping. I was one of the first ones to make the ~25 foot jump, but everyone in our group eventually took the plunge! I was really proud of everyone. There was a 65 ft. ledge there that people could jump from, but it was dangerous enough, so we decided against it. Some locals were also at the quarry and one of them did a full gainer off of the 65 ft. ledge. It was intense! Apparently the quarry was on private property and some police officers were coming to bust the people there for trespassing - so we had to cut our visit short. We took off towards our bikes with no legal trouble. When we got back our chicken parm dinner was still being cooked by Nick. It was amazing! Nick is one of the riders that is an amazing chef and he's always helping others out. Thanks Nick!
Well it looks like tomorrow we're headed to Terre Haute, IN, which is our last day in Indiana! I can't believe that we fly through these states so quickly! We're getting close to our 1000th mile! I'm so excited.
Well, I Julie just came up to me and informed me about "Baked! of Bloomington" and now we are ordering hot cookies to the church we're staying at. This means I'm going to go downstairs and wait for hot cookies to get to me! Sorry I've neglected updating.. trying to get back on top of it!!
Thanks for reading! (Sorry about typos/grammar)