Day 9 - Riding 50 miles to Columbus IN without back slump issues
One of the reasons I wanted to try to continue this tour was to visit family graves
The Dupont graveyard from IN 7 just before Dupont IN which is a small town about a dozen miles from Madison and quite near the Boyd family farm . Boyds came into this area from what is now KY in the 1750s and bought land. The central room at the Boyd family farm, which was the original cabin on the farm, had hard stone bottoms in both door ways and those stones were worn down from centuries of use.
The Dupont IN Cemetery which is where my father, his parents, and his brother and sister-in-law are buried. The only one of these people I really knew was his sister-in-law - i have really good memories of her - who visited my family in Florida after the rest of them were dead. I think my bicycle is parked on the city limits line.
His brother died in a car crash in his 40s and his sister-lived into her 60s. She visited us several times in Florida. They had an adopted daughter who I met when long after Cleon died. I assume she is the one that put the flowers on their grave.
My fathers parents died shortly after he died. I never really knew them. Until today, I didn't know my father had the same names as his father. I always assumed that my grandfathers first name was Hooker and that is my father was given his fathers first name as his middle name just as my middle name is my fathers first name.
This is an image of Google Maps Altitude profile for riding from Columbus to Bloomington. It is for out a third of the distance. The finger is pointing to Nashville, KY which is where the mountains start!
Yesterday I was dismayed when I couldn't rent a car to get home. Today I made yet another attempt to figure out how to ride with out having back problems. I figured, back problems or not I could get to North Vernon which had an expensive motel. If I could find a way to avoid the back problem I would be able to ride to Columbus IN today. Columbus, as shown in the Google maps graphics above, it the flattest way, with placed to stay along the way, to get to Louisville.
There was a time conflict that developed recently with my friend in Bloomington who has other very good friends coming to visit this Friday. I did not want interfere with that visit. Even today when my back feels better, I think it would be, at best, very hard on it to do the ride from Nashville In to Bloomington. It might be impossible because that ride is one on the hardest rides I've ever done.
My plan tomorrow is to ride five miles or so back to US 31 which I have ridden down before and ride 40+ total miles down to Scottsburg IN. If the wind is good and I'm feeling strong there are motel options down near Louisville which would be a 70 mile day.
Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km) Total: 321 miles (517 km)
