Bloomington, IN

Today I'm writing from the wonderful Monroe County library (you mean I can use the computer for more than fifteen minutes?) in Bloomington, Indiana. This was an especially exciting stop for me because it turns out that I'm going to be living in B-town, as they call it, for a year after Bike and Build. I'd never been here before so it's been really cool to get to see my future home, as well as meet my future boss for the first time and sign my lease. Bloomington seems to have an amazing cycling culture (have you seen Breaking Away?) and I've been loving the competent bike shops, well-marked bike lanes, and friendly drivers. I'm pretty much really excited to be moving here in two months.

So in between Indiana and P.A., we rode through Ohio and a tiny sliver of West Virginia. I didn't really get much of a feel for West Viriginia during our 4 mile jaunt, but I did like Ohio. First of all, it was pretty flat (well anything's flat compared to the Appalachians). Also, the people we met in Ohio were so incredibly friendly. In Stuebenville (home of Dean Martin), Newcomerstown (home of Cy Young), Columbus (???), and Yellowsprings (home of Dave Chapelle!) we stayed at some very friendly churches and got to meet a lot of cool people.

Ohio was also a bit of a tough state, between the blistering wind, torrential downpours, thunder and lightening, and treacherous gravel. Treacherous gravel you say? Well ... I did manage to wipe out on some gravel thirty miles away from Newcomerstown. I, for once, emerged without a scrape, but my bike wasn't so lucky. My deraileur (the thing that switches gears on the rear wheel and takes up chain slack) didn't so much break, as explode, the metal twisting around itself in a pretty spectacular way. Even the surly bike shop mechanic in Columbus was forced to admit that my predicament was pretty rare. Luckily, I was only off the road for a day, and now, Bobbi Bicycle is back in action.

Tomorrow, to Illinois!