Tuesday, June 18, 1996
Day 38
Kankakee, State Park Illinois to Tippecanoe State Park, Indiana
Today's Miles: 83
Cumulative Miles for the Tour: 2532
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Terrain: Flat Farmland
Find of the Day: The Backroads of Indiana
Sometimes maps don't show you all there is in an area. You've got to follow your nose and ride in the general direction of where you want to go. It's impossible to get lost. The locals always know where something is. They might not know the best route, but they know where everything is...
I started out this morning carrying a map for the first time since leaving Everett, Washington 38 days ago. I ended up tossing the map in the garbage 20 miles up the road. It's much more fun just to guess and then ask for help. I stopped in Manence for a quick breakfast and to regroup with everyone. The local sheriff suggested we try "Simpson's" if we wanted anything decent. It was a good a call.Nancy greeted us as we walked into the restaurant which was stuffed to the gills with knickknacks and newspaper clippings of all the town's events of importance for the last 20 years. Now THIS felt like a local hangout. The service was great, they gave us a phone line to pickup e-mail and the food was good. What more can you ask for? I'm starting to like Illinois a little more each day.Our entrance into Indiana was 8 miles up the road from Menace. It was a disappointment not to have a greeting sign as we entered the state. I think it's the first time I haven't seen a sign announcing the border as we changed states.
What... no "Welcome to Indiana" sign?
Adam and Ken
Dave Blair had planned out a route for the day, but the blacktop roads looked too enticing. I left the planned route and headed off into the great unknown...Indiana Blacktop. It was a choice that made the "Find of the Day".Riding a bicycle across the country is an adventure. The farther you get from the beginning of the trip, the more astounded people are when they ask where you started from. Now that we're in Indiana, jaws drop when we say we started near Seattle. As I came to a "T" intersection in the middle of nowhere, a red pickup truck carrying one grandmother and four small grandchildren pulled up next to me. I asked for directions to Tippecanoe State Park.Grandma stared at the sky for a couple of seconds...looked to the left...looked to the right. "Well, now, if you go left, the bridge is washed out so you better not go that way. If you go right, turn left at the power station, cross 39, up to 35, take a left through Winamack and that should pretty much get you there. I'm headed that way. You want a ride?" I declined the ride after thanking her for the directions. I was to see her again, about a half hour later coming in the opposite direction, after she had dropped of the grandkids. Such a small world...Little did I know, Ken and Adam had taken the same route I had. I turned left at the power station as grandma had said. Four miles up the road, Ken and Adam were stopped, waiting for me to catchup. "Grandma" had pulled them over and told them I was coming up behind them. As I said...small world.A quarter mile before I caught up with Ken and Adam, I passed a firing range where some guy was unloading thirty shots into a target that was about 200 feet off the road. The state of Illinois has set aside places along the road where you can fire off your gun to your heart's content. I guess it's better than blowing off steam at the local bar.We continued forward, came to another intersection and were deciding which way to go, when a car pulled up behind us. I asked for directions, figuring the park was only about 5 or 10 miles away. Remember, now, we all ditched our maps hours ago when we had breakfast at Simpson's.Instead of turning right or left, the woman suggested we continue straight, do this, do that, turn here, turn there kinda thing. To make a long story longer, we ended up on back country gravel roads that took us through the heart of Indiana farmland. It was a blast. We got chased by dogs. We saw redheaded woodpeckers. We saw our first cardinal of the trip. We stopped and talked with farmers to confirm directions. In general we rode the next 20 miles just asking as we went. The surprise of the day was to see Dave Blair waiting for us at the top of County Route 500 as if we were all supposed to meet there.Dave's got confidence in us after traveling 2500 miles and not losing anyone. He knows we're going to figure out the best way to get somewhere, so he might as well relax and just let it happen. As the roads get more and more complicated, it's the only way he'll keep his sanity...or what's left of it.12 days and counting to DC...
Bike America Tours
dblair@wtp.net
1-800-738-7271