Birdwatcher Update: Day 18 Bicknell IN. 10:30 am.
I left Mt Carmel IN around 2pm yesterday so wound up about losing my wallet that I made great time, headwind or no headwind. Around 3 I came to a sign for the St. Francisville Toll Bridge. It weren't on my maps so I waited a couple of minutes for someone to come along and asked them if there really was a bridge to Indiana there.
Yep, there really was, the old Wabash Cannonball Express railroad bridge, three miles away. So I turned right and rolled into the pleasant old backwater of St Francisville IN.
Right on the river was a free campground with toilets. I was still wound, so I determined to quit for the day and regroup.
A lazy afternoon, at one point I rode up to the cash-only corner store to get the milk to go with the cereal.
Fireworks were up the river at Vincennes last night, and a Redneck yatch club scene was enacted as everyone and their brother offloaded every sort of craft you can imagine at the boat ramp and motorored off upriver.
Actually the Wabash is pretty quick, pulling about a 6mph current on this stretch so that my 2hp outboard canoe combination fer example would be hard pressed. A decent amount of horsepower was required.
Put up my tent, lay on the grass next to it and.... fell right asleep. Woke up at some point and went into tent, fireworks rumbling in the distance. Woke up briefly when the regatta returned around midnight. Musta been quite a scene, slept through it.
First light 5am, get up start to pack up. It was a "pay what you want" campground and I was gonna leave 'em ten bucks when...
WTF....???? Where's my cash?
Holy shemoly, $92 out the window, two losses in as many days. I know I had it, I had counted in, in the campground where I was the only camper, the afternoon before AFTER I had gone for the groceries.
I apparently had entered the Surreal Zone. Clearly I had a problem. I had set aside considerable resources for this trip, having no idea of the cost so these losses weren't a deal-breaker, but neither was it normal for me to go through life just losing stuff like this.
I'm gonna blame the pockets of these light nylon pants I'm wearing. Earlier in this trip I had pocketed my padded fingerless riding gloves and almost lost 'em when they unexpectedly worked themselves up and out. Apparently if you don't pocket stuff just right things can work their way out, being as the trouser fabric is no heavier or stiffer than the pocket fabric. REI included a second, zippered pocket inside the left front pocket, now I'm wondering if that was why.
So my wallet walked and now a roll of bills, both picked up by someone else. Gratuitous racial comment here: in both instances we're talking White folks.
Fortunately my backup ATM card was working....
OK, present arrangement for those contemplating a bicycle tour...
Single credit card and $100 in twenties carried in zippered pocket inside my pants. A pants pocket is the ONLY place to carry important stuff on one's person, right where ingrained habit puts it and where you can feel its there. Me putting my wallet in the handlebar bag every time was awkward and a loss waiting to happen.
Remaining photo ID, ATM card and another $100 in twenties secured inside bags on bike. I rarely need either of these things, neither am I leaving my bike unwatched for any length of time.
Continuing Day 18....
The RR bridge was flat interesting. You cross these spans on two rows of planks laid on the original ties, looking down at the river between the ties. I got pics, will catch up when I can, followed by about a fifteen mile ride through the country northeast to Vincennes.
Vincennes? Small, clean and pretty, and historic as well, the site of George Rogers Clark's astounding Rev War feat wherein the incredible hardships suffered by him and his men just getting there outshone even the important military victory that followed.
I doubt if ol' Rogers Clark woulda quit if'n he lost his wallet. Well, dammit, neither will I
Thirty miles this morning, there's a state park at Spencer IN 53 miles from here up Hwy 67 which has been a good road so far, rolling country but not too bad.
Feeling a tad worn down today but its only 12 noon now, I'm thinking I oughtta make Spencer today.
Birdwatcher
