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Day 36
What's a Hoosier anyway?

ROUTE: Champaign IL to Crawfordsville IN DISTANCE: 82 miles WINDS: South 10
WEATHER: Sunny and mild...rainy at departure TERRAIN: Flat to gently rolling TOTAL CLIMBING: 1000 feet

DAILY DOINGS: Today we entered our 7th state...Indiana.  Yes, today we crossed into the Hoosier state...my home state, or at least where I grew up.  What's a Hoosier you ask?  According to my childhood Indiana history classes, the term Hoosier came from the phrase "Who's there."  A phrase used by early French frontier settlers to query visitors outside their lonely cabins.  Hey, that's the way I remember it...works for me.  We also entered the eastern time zone...they've moved it 4 days closer to us than it used to be.  Indiana just recently voted to go to this time zone to make the whole state one time zone.  In rides past, we didn't enter the eastern time zone until entering Ohio.  I always hated that zone, now we get to be in it longer...geeze.

Today, we got well into "small town America."  Out west, we sometimes went 60 miles without seeing any signs of civilization and even in Illinois, there were some long stretches where we didn't see much more than the ever present grain elevators and a few houses.  Comparably, when we crossed into Indiana, there were many stretches where all you could see was flat terrain with corn growing in the rich, black soil of the "Corn Belt."  In spite of that, if you don't stumble into a small town about every 5-10 miles, you are going in circles in the Hoosier state.  Some of them are a bit run down but they are still the center of things in this rural state.  Family values are paramount and community pride is ever present in all but a few of these small towns.  Many homes had little signs in their front yard that said, "We Stand For The 10 Commandments" or "Support Our Troops" or they'd be flying an American flag.  Yards everywhere were precisely manicured (all the way to the road in many cases), fence rows were clean, and all the homes seemed to have a fresh coat of paint.  Every town we rode through would somewhere display the local high school's mascot with a spirit statement...that's life in the mid west and this sign coming into Hillsboro is a good example of the mid west sense of humor (left).  Hillsboro also had a great 50s joint that served the best banana split I've had in a long time.  There were several bicycle art displays on their outside wall that one lady in the restaurant wanted to trade for my bike...she said she'd even throw in the greenery...sorry lady, I love the art, but I like my bike too.

This morning some ate at the motel and some went to Bob Evans for breakfast which made us a little more spread out that we usually get.  The easy riding made it fairly easy to support them even though they were scattered more than normal.  Mary got a few "extra" miles when she missed one turn.  Luckily, most of the roads in this area are set out in square patterns so if you miss a turn, just go to the next one and take it...they all parallel each other so it just depends on what you want to see.  Our route today is mostly state roads that are a little busier than the quiet country roads we've been on for the past couple of days, but the shortest distance between our motels are not county roads in most cases.  By the time we'd get through zigzagging in the country, we'd add over 30 miles to our day, but we did take some back roads out of town and to the first SAG that were mostly easy to navigate and very quiet.

Although we thought we'd stay dry today (that was the forecast), there were some surprise showers in the area when we went to breakfast.  I think a few of the early riders got a bit wet early, but by the time most everyone was on the road, the showers had passed through leaving just a wet road for the first 30 miles.  Of course the bikes got just about as dirty as if they were in the shower itself.  We're supposed to be in an area of sporadic thunderstorms for the next few days...hopefully they've missed that forecast as far as they missed this morning's.

Tomorrow we have a big day...tour the Roark bicycle factory, tour the Indy 500, tour the Major Taylor Velodrome, and just get to Indy safely.  I think everyone is looking forward to a change in the routine and to see the bicycle assembly process.  Hopefully, the weather will stay dry until we get in even though we'll be loafing throughout the day a little more than usual.  See you tomorrow...thanks again for checking in with us.
DAILY DISCERNING DIALOGUE:

"I think the state flower of Indiana is corn."

"I have 23 parents looking after me."

"What state is the area between the Indiana welcome sign and the Illinois welcome sign?"
"The state of confusion."

"I think Scott let the air out of my tires."

"Can't believe we've only got 16 more days..."

"Did anyone count the bumps on highway 136?"

"Mike, do you think it's going to rain today?"
"Is the ground wet?"
"Yep."
"Is the sky dark?"
"Yep."
"Does the Weather Channel radar show green globs passing through our area?"
"Yep."
"Well, what do you think?"
"Not sure...maybe I'll go outside and check for myself."
"Let me know what you find out."

 DAILY DUH:  Just too busy having a good time riding to notice...Clarence didn't lose anything today, Alan wore his helmet all day, and Scott didn't have a flat...life is good.

DAILY FUNNY THING HAPPENED AT McDONALDS:  David and Herb were at McDonalds having a shake after dinner when a man walked up behind them and said, "Herb, David...how's the ride going?  I've always wanted to do something like this...you guys sure are lucky!"  David and Herb were a bit taken back, but the guy said he had googled "Cross Country Tours" and had found my website and was following us across the country.  He wanted to do a ride like this soon but for now, he's just following us.  He's just one of the 500 that check us out everyday. 

 

DAILY DIGITAL DELIGHTS

I don't know why we didn't think of this sooner.  All it took to keep Clarence from forgetting his water bottles today was a simple bungy cord attached to the bottle on one end and Clarence on the other.  We didn't have enough bungy cords for the rest of his stuff though.

David was relieved that no one was standing around trying to sell him something, but after hanging around long enough at the SAG to eat 3 packages of wafer cookies, he was on the verge of violating the town ordinance himself.

To impatient to wait for the floor pump from the van, Larry began inflating his tube orally.  He got it up to 1.3 PSI...hardly enough to support his weight on the bike, but plenty to turn his suntanned face 3 shades brighter red.

Greg had been missing all morning but we finally found him riding in a corn field.  "I'm thinking of developing a series of bike trails in this field," he said.  "Build it and they will come."  Now that's what I call 'going against the grain.'

Our second SAG was on a slope in Veedersburg...after a couple bikes rolled through our snacks sans riders, everyone got creative in developing chocks to keep them in place...gloves worked well.

What a find in Hillsboro...a 50s restaurant complete with a large selection of ice cream...but chocolate was the only flavor I was interested in.

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