Day 47: Mary Who?

Course: Chicago, IL to South Bend, IN
Distance: 95 miles
Conditions: Construction, Bad roads
Terrain: Mostly flat

In the morning we gathered at the giant fountain in the park for a group picture. Then, Travis, Reggie and I headed out for a long ride. We started out on a really fun bike path that wound around the city and bordered Lake Michigan, so the view was great to begin with. After the bike path ended and we rolled into Indiana, the roads were unbelievably bad. Pot holes were every which way, and the cracks were endless. Indiana definitely doesn't have new roads in the budget plan. After mile 10 and about to mile 30 we rode through Gary, Indiana. It isn't exactly where you want to be at night, but we were saying good morning to just about everyone we saw to make sure they didn't want to hurt us. We got a lot of weird looks since pretty much no one bikes through there in spandex, but most people were friendly and would wave back. We rode 45 miles and then stopped for a sponsored lunch with a Pi Alpha on a beachside of Lake Michigan. It was a nice break, and a few guys even went swimming in the cold.

Afterwards we got back on the bikes to finish the ride. The roads got a lot better and we were able to finish the ride smoothly. For dinner we went to a Knights of Columbus organization's meeting hall. They're a Catholic service club similar to the Lions Clubs and Elks Clubs that we've visited with. One woman there stopped me and knew who I was, claiming that my friend Mary had just met her. I do have a friend Mary, so I was eager to speak with her at dinner. I came to find out that the Mary she was talking about was riding her bike across the country as a part of another service project. She also told me that I had gone to high school with Mary's brother. Since neither of those conditions were true, I realized that I had no connection to this Mary. However, I had no idea how to tell the woman that. Thus, I just sort of went with it that I knew her. Oh well.