Our night at Salamonie State Park was not good - no failure on the side of the park, just people slamming car doors at 1am and 4am, while muttered conversations took place. Normally these are hours I sleep right through. I think they'd been to a bar, perhaps working, and came to the campsite when the bar closed. It's a cheap place to stay tho' I heard hoovering - the tent was flimsy, were they hoovering water at dead of night? Anyway, off by 9.40am then via Lagro (great place for trains) then over to Denver - no food apart from a cafe who's sheer porky meatyness repelled the vegetarian in me. The a touch of off road bike route before reaching Fletcher - hmm no food. My supply of energy gels was no substitute for proper food. Guy refused even the energy gummies. So we detoured to Royal Center - not just food (Family Dollar) but also a bank to replenish our cash. So we did about 50 miles with morebor less no food. On the way there we saw a bit of wildflower prairie - echinacea, monarda, and that's the photo.
Then on to Buffalo using the State Route 16. We met transam cyclist Mike outside the filling station, rather neatly he has cycled from home in Wisconsin to Anacortes near Seattle thus doing a large chunk of the route going West, then trained back home and is doing the other chunk going East to Bar Harbor on the Maine coast. So he has done the Northern Tier partially westwards and partially eastwards and with a nice week off in the middle (I am starting to dream of the sofa and bed at home). Just beyond Buffalo on the 16 we found the Dollar General where we found coconut icecreams in a six pack. They are small enough to eat three. And finally we wound up at Dream Acres Campground - on the 16 just a bit before Monon. It's superb being only $10 for a tent with bikes, and having a swimming pool open until 7pm and good showers and toilets. Mike also turned up here since his more easterly campground was flooded. We have seen flooded areas of fields and even went through a small flood on the way here....