DAY TWENTY-THREE: New Harmony, IN

June 24, 2007
St. Meinrad, IN to New Harmony, IN
~75 miles

By Steven Felix

Today’s forecast: cloudy with a chance of rain

First of all, my apologies for taking over the next few days of blogging, but it’s hard to motivate people to do the blog. And it’s easier to do it myself than to beg someone else to.

The day began a bit humid, as we awoke on the porch of the abbey, some of us more mosquito bit than others. I rode sweep with Colin. Having left about 30 minutes after the last group, we fortunately did not catch any of the other riders along the way (except at lunch). But due to the light rain and the already wet roads, everyone’s feet were soaked within the first 20 minutes. And if you have never had the wonderful experience of having absolutely soaked shoes/socks for 4-5 hours….spare yourself.

The roads were mildly hilly, mostly short, gradually inclined, which made for a fairly leisurely day. Lunch was at a closed gas station/mini-mart, under it’s awning in order to avoid getting even more soaked.

Unfortunately Sam had a small accident, sliding out while going over some slick train tracks. A bit shaken up, he chose to ride the rest of the day in the van.

The day turned out to be beautiful with the sun coming out to say ‘hello,’ and some gentle winds to push us towards New Harmony. Then about 9 miles out of New Harmony, Colin and I approached chalking reading: “Playing in the corn, *insert intials here*. Well, needless to say, we had to seize the opportunity for a practical joke. So Colin and I found these rascal’s bikes and hid them in a different spot in the corn fields. About five minutes later we came upon them, sullen faced and preparing to go speak with the owner of the farm, who they thought confiscated their bikes. Just as they were about to knock on the door, though, we had to let them in on our little prank. And I must say, they took it very well.

New Harmony was absolutely wonderful. So wonderful that I will let someone else have the honor of describing our hosts and their town.