Sunday, May 27, 2001: Hoagland to Urbana
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Stats
Weather: 50-65 West 5-15+ Rain Mainly Tailwinds
ET: 9:00:00
DST: 120.13 miles
AVG: 17.3 MPH
RT: 6:54:53
MAX: 30.3 MPH
Cities Traveled Through: Hoagland, Decatur, Pleasant Mills, OH, Willshire, Rockford, Mercer, Neptune, St. Marys, New Knoxville, McCartyville, Sidney, Tawana, Carysville, Rosewood, Urbana
Remarks
I woke up around five again and immediately checked out the weather. Last night I did have some hope because the weatherman said that there would be mixes of rain and sun and the chance for rain was only 40 percent. When I turned on the television this morning though, the chance for rain was increased to 70 percent. In fact, it was rainy and about 47 when I first woke up. So I decided to go back to sleep and see if the rain might pass or at least allow the temperature to rise. I did leave just around nine. It wasn't really raining at that time but the sky had that look like it could rain all day. This same weather system has just been sitting and spinning ever so slowly to the east ever since last Sunday. It seems to have taken the same path as me. Around eleven in the morning I made it to Decatur, IN after getting a few sprinkles on me. I stopped and ate at a Wendy's at the time, mainly to just get out of the rain for a while, not really because I was hungry. I went into the bathroom and used their air dryer to help dry out my raincoat a little bit. After stalling for quite a bit I left and made it to Saint Mary's a couple hours later after getting soaked once again. This rain just does not want to stop. This time I made my temporary escape from the rain at a McDonald's. At least the rain is forcing me to stop and eat quite a bit. That can't be that bad. After drying my clothes again and eating I left and got about five more miles down the road where I was completely drenched in the rain. I was able to stand under a building or two in the small town of New Knoxville. I eventually left and told myself I was going to made it to Sidney for the night. When I got there though and biked all the way through town and didn't catch any glimpse of a hotel I just decided to keep going. The winds were pretty strong behind me so it wouldn't take long to make another 30 miles. For a while I though I was going to have to stay in St. Mary's. I would have never thought I'd make it 120 miles today after waking up to rain and cold. I even considered stopping in Decatur at one point. Oh, yes, if you're driving by car, Decatur was the lowest prices I've seen in gas on the whole trip. One station was selling it for $1.679. The highest I've seen was in Chicago at $2.149. Actually the sun eventually came out after I passed Sidney which was a nice ending. I almost forgot the sun existed. I think I must depend on the sun a lot for directions (rises in east; sets in west) because recently I seem to get lost quite often. Overall today wasn't as bad as I initally thought it would be. I hope I can have a full day of sun one of these days.
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