Phase 4, Day 6. Princeton - Tell City, IN

78 miles. Took the scenic route.

Got the heck out of creepy Princeton at 630am well before the rest of 'em woke up and soon was back on familiar ground and tooling though the pretty countryside.  Early Sunday morning is always the best time of the week to ride a bike...especially in the Bible Belt.

Because I didn't have to cover so many miles today and had a ton of extra time I figured it would be nice to find a very random back road route. Paved roads, sometimes barely, crisscross the landscape in a 1 mile grid pattern so options are many. If the road ends at a wood or creek then things meander around a bit until the road can continue straight again. It made for a fun tour. In fact, if I was ever going to plan a scenic bike ride through southern Indiana I would do the exact same thing. It was gorgeous.

I don't navigate with GPS, I sit down with a map and make notes on paper about turn cues. I like basic..it's reliable. Works great most of the time, waterproof, and doesn't require batteries. Sometimes the road names aren't marked or the road name is different than on my notes requiring a stop to check the road map. Occasionally I'm stumped and go with the gut. That nearly always works but when it doesn't I soon discover something else interesting...like a massive open pit mine.

"Good for gettin' shit done!  Bike rack included"

A day of this. Very nice. 

Today mostly wandered up and down slightly hillier slopes and between empty fields (where's the corn?), through thick woods, past many farms, an occasional small lake and the pit mine.

Farm dogs are predictable. They always give you a warning shot, one loud bark, and then the race is on. It's not hard to outrun them, unless they catch me on the uphill, and even then I know farm dogs are always out of shape and at 10 seconds they run out of gas and give up. Happens every time. They're good at doing their job though. I imagine they trot on back to the house with their doggie chest all puffed out. "You guys see that? That's how ya do it!"

Tell City city hall. 

At about mile 50 picked up the first good tailwind of the week and the last hour flew past. Destination today is Tell City, IN on the banks of the Ohio River.  Tell City was settled by Swiss immigrants and named after their Swiss folk hero William Tell. Of course Walmart is down the road but Tell City has outsmarted them with a nice repurposed riverside warehouse district featuring brewpub/restaurant/shopping that makes for a lively place...even on a Sunday afternoon when everything else in Indiana is shut. Tell City is hopping and it's a perfect place to enjoy a warm Sunday afternoon. I even washed the bike...looks like brand new again.  Wet riding and the Katy Trail dust took a toll.

Tomorrow 100 miles to Louisville, KY (say Loo-ville) and the end of this week's adventure. The route crosses the Ohio River a couple of times in and out of Kentucky, and then back in again to Louisville.