We're currently parked near Shipshewana, Indiana, which is heavily populated with Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites, many of which use real live horses to pull their cultivators and plows and carriages here and there. It's the 30th of June and the corn is almost head-high with no tassels or silk showing yet, and the weather is hot and HUMID. I've been more actively riding my bike-trike recently, but much of the time the radio-GPS tracker doesn't hit any relay stations so no tracks on the map have been available. I rode the trike almost 5 miles yesterday up in Scott, MI, before the sun got up too hot and before we packed up the RV and rolled out.
The reason we stopped near Shipshewana (Look it up, it's named after a peaceful Indian Chief Shipshewana) was we had been hearing wonderful stories about all the shops and repair facilities here and the "Cheap" RV repairs available.
So far, I'm a bit underwhelmed. The so-called RV shops all seem to be backlogged with work and cannot find time to work on my roof or other RV concerns. So I have no idea how affordable they may be. I'm now told "in the summer season" all hands are busy with crops and those involved with the RV world are loaded with work in the nearby RV factories in Elkhart and surrounding areas. The RV factories are so desperate for help they hire teens and high schoolers to assemble houses with motors and wheels. In addition to anyone else they can find to work.
It's always impressive to see the Amish and their related brethren go about their business. When we first arrived in the area we of course noticed the horse-drawn buggies clip-clopping along. Nowadays there seem to be more Amish cyclists than carriage operators, often pulling home made looking small trailers carrying everything from kiddos to groceries.
In spite of the suffocating heat and humidity lately, I determined to ride at least a few miles early in the morning this morning. It was stuffy all night and already uncomfortable as the sun came up, but I wanted to get a ride going before it got REALLY hot and humid, as per the forecasts.
Instead of riding into Shipshewanna, where it undoubtedly would have been more fun mingling with all the Amish cyclists going to and fro, I rode east on nearby Highway 120 to see what I could see. I thought there must be another village or small town down that-a-way, but in my short ride all I encountered was farm fields and rural homes. The title of today's epistle sprung to my mind as I "enjoyed" the aroma everywhere emanating from piles near the road marked "Free Manure" and barns piled high with the stuff nearby. Having grown up smelling such smells in my youth, I didn't find it all that distasteful. At least here there were no large feedlots or dairies in the area with the absolutely horrible smells of rot. One impressive bearded farmer was pulling a rather large combine with 2 Percherons or similar huge horses. They were really throwing up the chaff and dirt and making that machine spin impressively. The terrain is largely flat with very low rolling hills or rises, and the only minor difficulty I encountered was dodging the several crushed critters along the otherwise wide shoulder. Traffic was light - and friendly - but several times I had to gauge whether to swerve out in the main road to dodge a squashed squirrel or pile of horse poop or if there was room on the right to go around or if I just had to run over the stuff. I have a rear fender on the trike, so no brown stripe resulted on my backside.
I had, as all to usual, run off without any camera or phone, so no pictures to enliven the post today.
We found a nice looking bike trail today that goes cross country called "Pumpkinvine Trail". Looks like we won't be around long enough to explore it, as it was too hot and late in the day today and we plan to leave for Danville IL tomorrow after Church services up in Sturgis, MI, the closest LDS meetinghouse.
Ride Started: 8:41 AM Ride Ended: 9:42 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage: 12.9 Ending Voltage: 13.0 Lowest: 12.7
Beginning Blood Glucose: 156 Ending BG: 77
Lowest Temp 75 F Highest Temp: 82 F
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 7.12
Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
7.4 MPH 8.4 MPH 12.4 MPH
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour 50 minutes 7 minutes
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