Day 54 (7/25): Bloomington, IN; 60 Miles

Woke up this morning to the wafting smells of a home-cooked breakfast…man it feels good to be staying in an actual house. The Pontius’s cooked up the best eggs I’d eaten all trip and had gotten some square donuts (quite rare apparently) form a local bakery. Took a nice group pic and hit the road.

Easy riding today…Indiana is actually pretty flat, though it wasn’t without its share of issues. Ezra did a ride along today so we started out with a van four memorial paceline: Me, Jake, Jay and E. So there we were cruising through town when a none-too-happy guy in a truck passes by pointing (which we figured meant he desired us to get off the road)…a little ways up he comes to a stop in the shoulder, presumably to say something?? Then all of the sudden slams on the gas to try and kick up dirt and rocks at us…thaaaannnks. Fortunately we were all unscathed after passing through the nice cloud of dust…yay Indiana drivers!! Not long after that I suddenly pop a wicked flat…only to discover that a huge nail had driven right into my tire…wonderful! So I dropped into the back group where none other than alpha-male Geren Brown himself was doing his first Sweeps ever, quite a momentous occasion.

Despite all the issues we were all staying pretty close together…caught back up to poor little E who was complaining of stomach issues, then vom’ed everywhere hahaha. Trooper got back on the bike though! It was starting to look like rack point was going to be an issue, and, not wanting to ruin Geren’s so-far accomplishment of riding every mile we let him bump up to the front. Some how I got roped into cruising with him and Britton, and we pretty much flew the rest of the way. So with legs on fire we pulled into stage up at Indiana University pretty quick-like. Hung out in the shade of a tree while the last groups were still coming in…bout 45 minutes later there was E huffin and puffin but he made it! (sidenote: Ezra looks absolutely hilarious in a helmet…kind of like a toad from Mario haha)

Hopped into our double paceline and did an awesome arrival at the Stone Belt organization…tons of friends outside, along with sweet old Ledford Carter, a Pi Kapp initiated in the ‘30s at Mercer in Georgia who had brought us some “chilled Gatorade” We all went inside for some awesome sloppy joes and a great friendship visit. Got to hang out with Sandy and Joy and Babet and Mary Jane for lunch…all sweet as can be and eager to show off their truly awesome artwork they had made. Had a little carnival of sorts going on after we ate so I got to play some bingo, some volleyball, even took some tosses at a dunk tank…all in all a really great time.

After the visit we headed over to the Alpha Psi Chapter house…a huge mansion for a huge chapter (over 160 men strong!) Super nice common area downstairs…rooms were a bit more frat-like in their state of disrepair but the really interesting part were the “sleeping chambers” …no one actually sleeps in their room, rather, about 50 guys sleep in a room full of bunkbeds! (we all wondered how that impacted certain aspects of college life…apparently the Indiana boys have found creative ways to cope.)

Dr. Phillip Summers, an Alpha Psi alum and all-around Pi Kapp legend was there to greet us and show us around, as well as Tommy Eckerle, a good buddy from my GUF team last year. They both took a group of us to see the campus. Indiana has a really strong Greek community…tons of huge houses, lots of Greek markings around campus…even the big event of the school, the “Little 500” bike race is predominantly a Greek event with the main competition being among chapters. After out tour we headed back to the house for dinnertime.

The dining room was definitely my favorite part of the house (even had cool chairs with Pi Kapp letters engraved in them!) The boys that live-in here eat 3 square meals a day prepared by the house cook. A great time to bond with each other: an aspect of fraternity we don’t have at our chapter. Cooks came in specially for us today and served up some awesome ribeye steaks. We all ate like kings while Dr. Summers gave an extensive rundown of Indiana U and the Pi Kapps here…man is he proud!

With the rest of the night off Tommy took a small group of us downtown to a local bar called Nick’s. Played some “Sink the Bismark” where you fill a little bucket with beer, float in an empty glass, then take turns pouring beer into the glass until it sinks…he who sinks it drinks it! Pretty fun game and all in all a good night out. Had to be quiet getting back with everyone in the same “sleep chamber”…haha I can’t imagine trying to sleep there during the school year with guys coming in and out.