Day 36 -- Champaign to Crawfordsville (IN) -- 82 Miles

Great ride today -- said goodbye to Illinois as we crossed into Indiana, and said hello to the "Eastern Standard Time Zone." Other than that, I have nothing major to report.

I rode the first 20 miles solo. After that I pedaled by Larry Frederick, who decided to hold my wheel for the final 62 miles. We worked out a nice deal -- I pulled us along, and he treated me to cold drinks and snacks (we were ahead of the SAG support van, and decided to do our own thing rather than wait).

Larry called us "the old dog" and "the new dog." I am not sure about the adjectives, but we both worked like dogs to make it to Crawfordsville. We really hammered it out, but we enjoyed ourselves too.

Since I am talking about Larry, I figure it's a good time to give a brief background about him. This is Larry's 4th cross country bike trip. In fact, he pedaled across the country with my friend, Dan Hannigan, in 1996. Larry's son, Aaron, also joined him on the 1996 journey -- Aaron was 13 years old at the time (impressive, huh?).

A former Oakland police officer, Larry was on duty one night (in 1982), and was struck by a drunk driver going 65 m.p.h. Miraculously, he survived the accident after receiving 110 units of blood.

Since then, Larry has essentially dedicated his life to raising awareness about the importance of donating blood. It is not uncommon for Larry, who is joined by his daughter, Adella, on this trip, to pedal 100 miles and then go off to a local blood drive and give a presentation. They are such an impressive family. Although I have stolen a lot of its thunder, I encourage you to visit Larry and Adella's website.

After reading more about Larry, you can understand why this self-proclaimed "old dog" gave his "new dog" a run for his money today. The guy has the heart of a lion. Or a dog. Whatever -- you get the idea.