Day 7: Bridgeton, IN to Turkey Run State Park

June 22, 2012

(By Joy)

Well, Jeff didn't sleep quite as well as expected on our gym floor since the space amplified every little noise in the building, including my persistent cough. I've promised to hit up the cough medicine again tonight so we can both sleep better.

We attempted to get up early to beat the heat, but we didn't get out quite as early as planned. I had a problem with my rack mount that I had to fix, and since Jeff hadn't eaten anything the night before, he was famished. The dogs that belonged to the people who owned the school where we stayed had been desperate to get inside all last evening, even though they knew they weren't supposed to be there, and they were happy to see us emerge in the morning as they once again tried to slink past us to get inside. They were funny dogs—chasing each other and play fighting with each other, partly to get our attention, I think. However, when I put my helmet on, the fun and games stopped. They hadn't been friendly with us the evening before when we arrived until we ditched the helmets, and they weren't too happy with us again when we put them on.

We made a quick jaunt into Bridgeton to hit up a pop machine and eat snacks, but before we finished, the worker at the local general store came to open early and offered to make breakfast. Jeff had already scarffed a bunch of Nutella and decided he probably wouldn't be hungry by the next town, where I thought we were going to get breakfast, so we just stayed put while I got a breakfast sandwich there.

I was a little frustrated we were still in town nearly 3 hours after the alarm went off since we were wasting a cool morning, but it didn't matter that much anyway since when we started down the road, it was clear my muscles didn't want to work so well anyway. I was pokey, but Jeff patiently waited for me to catch up every once in a while between Bridgeton and Rockville. It was a nice ride, too. Shady and curvy with a few nearby covered bridges.

In Rockville, we went a block or so off route to see the old town square and get some Gatorade, but Jeff was getting really bothered by the traffic noise on the busy highway nearby and we probably should have left there sooner, but I was trying to get some juice in my legs and wanted to finish a snack first. We had a nice shady spot on the post office lawn, and while I finished, Jeff tried to call Turkey Run about whether we could get a room. Since it was the weekend, I wasn't sure, but he found out they were totally sold out, which was a big disappointment since he'd been looking forward to the possibility of staying there and soaking up some AC, getting caught up on the journal, and sleeping in a real bed (I'm not sure the Shakamak Inn counts...). That's one of the troubles with bike touring, though. It's hard to know exactly what day you'll be somewhere very far in advance, so making reservations is almost impossible.

His day went downhill from there as the road between Rockville and Turkey Run got a bit busier with weekend camping traffic. I was feeling a bit better (mostly because I knew I was almost done for the day) and riding faster (that's relative, of course) but we stopped in Marshall for a drink, anyway.

Looking back, we should have just gone straight to the campground at that point, but I thought that just maybe there would be a cancellation at the Inn, so we went there first. You have to go on a busy state highway to get into the park, and while there's a small shoulder and traffic was polite, being around that many cars had made Jeff nervous, so he was less than happy to find that we had to go back out on that road to get from the Inn tot he campground with our bikes since the hiking trail between the two is too rugged for the bikes.

We did it, though, and didn't get passed by too many cars. Camping isn't Jeff's thing to begin with, and a weekend at a busy state park isn't his idea of a good time, so he asked for a primitive site to at least be away from Rvs, but there weren't any. In fact, the campground was full except for one site that they lady kept saying she wasn't supposed to rent out but that she would to us. Her explanation was convoluted, to say the least, but we just paid the big camping fee and went to find it.

Jeff seemed sort of out of it at this point, but I think a combination of a lack of sleep the previous night and a lack of calories was contributing to his bad mood. I left him to rest while I checked out the bathroom situation and got the tent set up. He felt a little better after a nap and a good shower in one of the better campground showerhouses we've seen, but it soon became clear that what he really needed was a lot of food since he hadn't eaten much since lunch the previous day. The heat can be a funny thing because it makes you have less of an appetite, but we still have to eat because we're burning the calories anyway, so it was time to make our way toward the park's restaurant.

Our hike through the ravines of the state park was quite a bit longer than we expected, but we got there despite a wrong turn on my part. We were pretty famished after our 40 min. walk, but it wasn't yet 5:00 yet, so we turned on the computer to see if we could get online. As soon as it hit 5:00, though, we were through the door and headed for the buffet. Jeff was craving fries and added them to our order, and we plowed through a good number of Diet Pepsis and platefuls of food. Jeff credited the mac and cheese for reviving him—it's probably what he needed—and we were both happy campers again.

Not so happy that we couldn't enjoy the amenities of the Inn, though...After dinner we took up residence in the lobby-ish area of the Inn to work on the journal and get caught up on some online chores. There was free coffee there, so I started into that, got a big burst of energy, and started writing like crazy while Jeff took pictures around the Inn and started sorting through pictures from previous days to post here.

We stayed there as late as we thought we could before it was too dark to do our hike back to camp, but the trip back was much faster since we knew where we were going and had been revived by dinner and caffeine. When we got back, the laundry we'd washed at a nearby spigot was nearly dry, our neighbors seemed quiet, and we were ready to sleep. I gave Jeff a little dose of my NyQuil to see if it would help him sleep (we could hear lots of road noise from our site), and we went to bed.

It wasn't long, though, before the clatter of some tent stakes we'd left on the picnic table woke us up. We had company, though I couldn't tell right away if it was possums or coons. We didn't have any food around, but they must be used to coolers because they headed straight for our tiny one, even though it's never held anything but ice, and tried to carry it off. I got out of the tent in my underwear, yelling at them to go away and grabbing the bags off my bike to put in the tent in case they decided to investigate those, too. I didn't want their grubby little hands on my stuff.

Jeff was fully awake by then and was worried the little buggers would try to claw through the tent to get to our Nutella, but I yelled at them again before going back to bed. They hadn't gone far, though, and were chittering and chattering to their friends. I guess they were trying to decide if we had anything good. They quieted down after a bit, though, and I went back to sleep.

They came back about an hour later, though, still intent on dragging that cooler away, which I had moved right by the tent. I heard the tent stakes clatter to the ground again, bolted up, unzipped the tent, sprayed our Halt! dog repellant in their general direction, and told those little buggers to go bother someone else. So they did.

Back side of the school building that is supposedly haunted by "the Lady in Black" (or so we were told by one of the local teenagers hanging around.)

Where we slept last night - the floor of the old high school's gym.

The most disgusting chips EVER (says Jeff).

This struck me (Jeff) as funny for some reason - do you really need to be "authorized" to sell corn?

Interesting moth, which Joy moved to a hopefully safer location.

Hiking from the campground at Turkey Run to the Inn.

I was near collapse at this point, after forgetting to eat a meal the last day and a half. Soon, I would be revived by approximately 5,000 calories of macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread, fried catfish, french fries, pudding, and chicken gumbo.

Taking advantage of the more expensive "electric" site we were forced to buy. (The campground was supposedly full, and we were sold a site that wasn't even on the campground map.)

Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 319 miles (513 km)

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