Training Ride

This morning I took a local training ride.  A short one: 24 miles, in a little under 90 minutes.  Nothing unusual, except that my usual training-ride partner skipped this one, and I went by myself.  As a result, I felt free to stop now and then and grab a cell phone camera picture.  Come along with me!

We start and end at Carroll High School.  Here's the route.

I've ridden this one lots of times.  Go early, and there's very little traffic.  Nice.

When I got there, it was still a little dark to be riding.  I waited until about 6:40 am.

A very humid morning, but not too warm.

Northbound on Bethel Road, a photo stop.

The corn's height is a little short of "elephant's eye."  Unless it's just a little elephant.

Westbound on Hathaway, we encounter a tiny bit of traffic, oncoming.

"Car up!", as we cyclists say.  Actually, a pickup truck.

Turn north again on Hand Road.  Let's document the agriculture.

It isn't just corn in Indiana.  We also have soybeans.  Plenty of soybeans.

So we ride on for a while, turning northeast on Shoaff Road, then north again on Old Lima, then west on North County Line Road.  Let's pause momentarily at Critter Haven Farm and greet the inhabitants.

This llama is large and in charge.  We'd best mind our manners.

Reaching the town of Ari, which appears to be population about 25 or so, we turn south on Wappes Road.  We soon encounter a few fairly steep "rollers."  If you put your mind (and quadriceps) to it, you can hit close to 35 mph at the bottoms of these.

This is steeper than it looks.  The short focal length of the cell phone camera has a flattening effect.

When we reach Hathaway again, we turn briefly east, then turn south on Johnson Road until we get to Dupont Road.  Here, Dupont has little traffic.

Those who live around here might say, "That's Dupont Road?"  You know, the Nile probably looks kind of small, close to its source.

Later on, approaching Lima, Dupont's a little less pleasant and more traveled.

We appreciate the motorists' concern for our safety.  The ones who just went by, though, didn't really have to move over that far.

Turning north on Lima (State Road 3, a real divided highway), we come to my church.  I hope you don't mind if I stop for a minute ... I need to check my mailbox.

Doing the sign is one of my jobs.

After turning west again on Carroll Road, we return to the high school, and our loop is done.

Not so dark now.  And it didn't even rain!

Thanks for coming along.  You're more than welcome, any time!