Along the ride to Richmond, IN I traveled along a river with a view of some tall buildings which are probably part of the downtown area. I saw people fishing the river and one group riding kayaks with and against an area with a fast river flow. Focus was to get to Indiana and did not take too many pictures. Made good time reaching Indiana. Entry was not demarcated - even Google maps did not flash a notice I entered Indiana. Checked in to the Richmond Inn & Motel and was greeted by the front desk clerk who was happy and able to give me a room on the ground floor. Afterwards I grabbed dinner at a Mexican restaurant with great service and a friendly staff. They were closing soon but did not rush me. After a good night's rest I packed up the bike and checked out. There was a man cleaning rooms with his cart blocking the sidewalk. He went away and nowhere to be found, so I moved the cart up the sidewalk enough for me to get out to the parking lot. Just before I left the man came by before I had a chance to move the cart back. He was upset. Not sure if he spoke English and my gestures to offer an explanation were rebuffed. I moved on. Sunday was a rainy day on and off. At one point the rain was heavy but I was able to keep on trucking... My destination was Greenfield, IN on the outskirts of eastern Indianapolis. Passed through lots of farmland - lots of green crops of corn and other crops, possibly a few parsley crops. Point is Geenfield is an apt name. Saw lots of green fields of early season corn on a race from the ground to become big. The corn was happy and welcomed the rain. I was happy for the corn and wondered if any of my zip loc bags were letting in water. Along the way my Galaxy S20 had problems focusing and I missed a few good photo ops. I decided then to upgrade to a Galaxy S23 with Verizon. Once checked in to the Quality Inn and Suites in Greenfield I unacked the bike to assess any water issues. I decided to replace all the zip locks with new zip locks the following morning being Monday (today as I write). I walked to a restaurant half a mile away. Had dinner and started a chat with Verizon for an upgrade. I fell asleep finalizing the purchase once back to the Quality Inn. There were some long waits with the chat and I dosed off. I was able to resume with Verizon customer service this morning (Monday) and completed the purchase. I rode 22 miles to a store that had my phone and picked it up. The staff at the store were great. Later tonight I will activate the new phone. My old phone was getting to be unreliable, unresponsive and slow. I'm sure soaking in rain water did not help!
Currently I am at McDonald's waiting for rush hour traffic to subside and then I will ride 22 miles to my motel towards the west side of Indianapolis. I was planning on a longer ride but the phone took some time and I wanted to be sure I got everything needed to complete the terms of the upgrade. Hopefully the data transfer will go well. TBD.
I am doing well. A few loose ends. My runners safety light had water damage and needs to be replace. My watch band broke and needs replacement. That's about it. Today there was a strong cold headwind, but no rain which made it acceptable. Will let my battery charge a bit more and head out. While at Verizon I picked up another Mophie backup battery for the phones. During heavy rain the electronics on the bike can get glitchy. If I want to charge a phone I need to do it in a dry place like my handlebar bike bag. Getting water in the charging ports of any of the electronics in or surrounding the bike needs to be avoided.
Will post pictures later. Oh yeah, I wore one pair of merino wool long John's today. Warm and comfortable. I was debating whether to keep them. Have decided to keep both pairs should I get myself into a wet and cold and possible miserable environment. Not going to risk hypothermia.
Comments