It was pretty funny listening to people talk about our "short" day ... We'll have so much time ... Piece of cake ... such a nice break ...
When did 82 mile rides start to seem easy?
Anyway - that perception of an easy day combined with a day off after a short ride tomorrow (63 miles) made us more willing to play and less concerned about getting in and getting ready for tomorrow. A bunch of us rode together the first 30 miles to the sag stop. The group I usually ride with spent a lot
of time with some of the folks who pace a little slower and we had a blast. After our 20th mile of corn we decided to practice our CORNOGRAPHY. Many staged goofy corn photos and probably a few damaged corn plants later we headed on east.But the goofing off didn't end there. Photo stops at the Indiana photo that required a bit of slogging through weeds and thistles. Then a retro photo stop at the Illinois border since we didn't have a good sign coming in where there was a convenient corn field and prison framed in the background.
The ride was made even better by a string of small towns that were all interesting and felt like thy had a nice balance of being local and lived and having their own flavor. One thing I've noticed in the countless small towns we've been through is how many towns have succumbed to the fast food chain strips and homogenization that has stripped the character from towns that were once unique.
We had broken up into loosely formed strings of riders by the time we hit Covington, Indiana, a pretty little town with lovely old houses and a main street that looks like it has stores catering to visitors who come in for antiquing. I was navigating through the town trying to follow directions when I noticed a woman hollering out - "where are you going" at other passing cyclists. I had ridden past her, too, before it registered she was talking to us and getting a little discouraged at flagging one of us down. So I turned around and went to say hello and met Murph (a gal) who was helping move a family members antique store to smaller space. She's got the blog
address, so Murph if you tune in tell us a little more about Covington cause it looks like a nice town.Riding on we went through the town of Veedersburg that sported a mighty fine cafe with homemade cakes and pies. I had the black raspberry/lemon cake. Delicious.
Next up was Hillsboro, which had my favorite welcome sign of all time: "Welcome to Hillsboro, home of 600 happy people and a few old soreheads."
Waynetown boasted a pioneer cemetery with graves from mid 1800s, including for William Bratton, a Lewis and Clark Expedition member who successfully completed the journey to the Pacific Northwest and then came back to settle in Waynetown. Several War of 1812, Mexican War and Civil War veterans were buried there. Lots of graves of young people in their 20s and infants ... folks died young back then.
And finally I lollygagged into Crawfordsville, Indiana. I'd heard about an old jail there and set out to check it out. So instead of turning to the hotel I headed into town. And sure enough - it was at the top of the hill and miraculously still open on Sunday afternoon. I walked in during the last tour of the day from the local historical society.
This jail, like the one we saw earlier in Linn County MO, was also the home of the sheriff and his family. But ... this was a jail that was built with an ingenious system that had a rotating cell block. The jail is shaped like a double decker pie chart, with each cell being a piece of the pie. There were originally no doors on the cell, the only door was a the entrance and the entire structure rotates around to rotate the cell in front of the door. The guards could rotate the entire structure with less pounds of force than it took to open a patio door. It was pretty interesting. Here's more info: http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_jailA fun day and tomorrow there will be lots of side trips and interesting stuff to see. I'm looking forward to my day off.
Any suggestions for Indianapolis for food, drink and/or fun?
