Matter of time

Today was a very special day on my bike trip, that I should experience only three times along my way: I lost one hour. As the country is rather big (this, I really start to understand it), it is divided in four time zones. And I just switched from the Eastern time zone to the Central time zone.



The interesting aspect is that it did not happen as I crossed the border between Indiana and Illinois; it happened within Indiana, leaving Jasper county and entering Newton county.

Hum, let's look on the map a little closer. Counties are more or less square-like shapes. The county right south from Newton country, Benton county, is in the Eastern time zone whereas Newton county is in the next time zone, the Central time zone.

When you have only this to think of as you are pedaling thru the fields, you imagine that there could be some kind of a political statement there. First, a county can decide on its time zone, which reminded me that each county has its own Court and is an important component in the making of the US democracy. Then, Newton county decided to stick with Illinois time and not Indiana time.

As I rode thru, and that was not just the effect of the heavy sun today, I noticed that the fields were getting even larger and I saw large dairy farms like never before. Of course, I am getting to the wide open fields of Illinois and its mass production of cereals!



I crossed the border from Indiana to Illinois and got into a small village by the name of Hopkin Park. It looked like a rather poor neighborhood. As I rode by, I waved hello to these peasants working in their fields:



More info:
* After a quick check on 'What time is it in Indiana?', it looks like the proximity of Chicago attracted some of the northern counties on the border with Illinois to use the Central time zone.
* Counties in the US

Our daily breakfast

As I ride quite a bit, an ideal start of the day is to ride around 20 km and stop for a good breakfast in a place where I could get a 'Lumber Jack'. That's at least how they call it New York but I've seen it also called 'Big B'. Essentially it's few pancakes, the big thick american ones with maple syrup, sausage, eggs and you can add coffee and orange juice.

Unfortunately, I don't get to find it each and every morning as I had it this morning. I stopped in Silver Lake and at the crossroad was that good place "Kieffer's Iron Skillet".



Some local people have their breakfast there; have a talk before heading to work. And it tastes the good old food of the countryside, where the pancake are twice as wide and thick as what you would get in New York.

At the end of each table, against the wall, there's a little wooden case with a booklet: on the cover, it reads "Our daily bread". I pick one and open it. Each day has a page so I open it on June 22nd and read:

"Versailles was made the capital of France by Louis XIV in 1682 and remained the capital (except for a short time) until 1789 when it was moved back to Paris. [...]"

Oh you were expecting me here today; I guess we had to meet. It carries on explaining how Louis XIV was difficult to access whereas God invites His people openly to come to his throne.

No direct information about the church issuing the booklet. Yet the coincidence was amusing enough for me to take this little "daily bread" booklet with me on my journey.

A milestone on Lincoln highway

As I rode towards downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana, I came across several times with memorial signs of the Lincoln Highway. On the Harrison Street Bridge, a milestone invited me to my weekly status on the way to San Francisco:



Let's look at it a little closer: the Lincoln Highway is the first coast-to-coast highway originally established in 1913 and it would link New York City (Time Square) to San Francisco (Lincoln Park). In Fort Wayne, the milestones shows that New York is 724 mi (1,165 km) away whereas San Francisco is 2,660 mi (4,280 km) away.

But of the I do not plan to ride on the steps of the Lincoln Highway as it runs thru southern states such as Colorado, Utah, Nevada that are not on my projected itinary.

Nevertheless and according to this milestone, San Francisco is 3,384 mi (5,445 km) away from New York City. As a comparaision, my estimate with GoogleMaps on my projected itinary makes San Francisco 3,100 mi (5,000 km) away from New York City; still a little shorter.

The original Lincoln Highway had to wind quite a bit around the country and it had been realigned in many places to shorten it.

Nevertheless, tonight I stay in South Whitley, a little west from Fort Wayne, which ends my progression for this second week:

View Larger Map

So eventually, according to my definite benchmark Googlemaps, I should have ridden 1,080 km (671 mi) and I would still have 4,000 km (2,486 mi) to go; that's roughly 20% done.

Yesterday I had to take care of the bike (realign some breaking pads, look foor tires I still haven't found). Today, I started to take care of the biker as I feel a little pain behind my right knee.

"Qui veut aller loin ménage sa monture"
(if you have an equivalent in English for that, Claire?)

More info:
* My detailed mileage day after day
* Everything about the Lincoln
Highway
* The Official Lincoln Highway Association

Not just a park, an open church

In the center of Fort Wayne, Freiman square is both a square and a nice park, with a Calder sculpture on one end.



Yet on sunday morning, at around 10:30 am, it also becomes a church where Pastor Ron Bodendorf has been offering prayers, hot dogs and soda pops for 7 years. When I rode in, they were also putting away the equipment of a little band that had been playing.



Intriguing enough, I talked to Pastor Ron and some of his folks helping him. They offered me to share some food with them and, as he did it for this young man coming to him, Pastor Ron gave a word of prayer, wishing me a safe and sucessful trip to San Francisco.

No riding today

"It is found again.
What? Eternity.
It is the sea,
Gone with the sun."

from 'Eternity' (Arthur Rimbaud)

On the road

We played hide & seek today, the rain and I. It was expected around 03:00 am but I only heard it come around 05:00 am, still in the distance. I was counting the delay between the lightning and the sound to evaluate the distance of its rumbling advance (number of seconds x 300 m = estimate for the distance of the storm).

As hail was expected, I had been recommended to set my tent under a tree. But with lightning, it's not that wise... What a dilemma? I folded everything and found a hard shelter to finish my night on a bench. I was already on the road indeed.

So the rain did not get then and when I escaped at around 08:00 am, I spent my morning in some kind of a race against it, trying to catch up with the blue sky in the distance.



Got caught a little before 11:30 am, on road 613 between Leipsic and Continental. Not much though. And after lunch, I was on the road again, I mean THE road:



There I was, a few decades later, on the steps of the beat generation, reading Jack Kerouac in one hand, steering my bike with the other hand and declaiming 'On the road':

"The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great, that I thought I was in a dream."

Except that this road 66 is just a State road and not the mythic US Route 66 that for the most part does not exist anymore. It would not even run thru Ohio, nor Indiana where I ended up tonight.

More info:
* Jack Kerouac
* Quotes of 'On the road'
* US Route 66