Indiana

Well my Indiana experience (minus the South Bend jaunt earlier) started off with a little wrinkle. As I was driving down the Ohio turnpike – minding my own business (really talking on the phone with my sister) – I heard a crash and looked in the mirror to see my bike landing in the freeway – said a few choice words to Renee and then went to retrieve my bike! Luckily no one was behind me and no one was hurt. The only damage was to my bike and car. Turns out the bike rack I had purchased was faulty and when it was in lock position, it would loosen. The company got me a new rack, fixed my bike and will fix my car’s damage when I get back to Sac.

The people at the bike shop in Fort Wayne were great and I really appreciated all the help they gave me in getting the claim paperwork going with the manufacturer and getting me back on the road. Unfortunately, while I was waiting around the town for 1 ½ days to get it done – a very quiet, not a lot to do town – I thought a hair cut might be in order – I left Fort Wayne looking like a little boy – all my golden locks lying on the floor of the salon -- luckily it will all grow back. I swear all I asked for was a trim, just clean it up a bit, maybe they couldn’t understand my Californian accent!

I decided to head into Hoosier country but stopped by a town I had heard was famous for its architecture – Columbus Indiana. I now have a new leader in my quest to find the best biscuits and gravy in the country. Papa’s Deli in downtown Columbus served the dish on a Styrofoam plate with a plastic fork, but the taste was amazing. They even broke the fresh, homemade biscuit into bite site pieces before pouring the sausage gravy. YUMMM! The artichetiture was amazing – I would suggest goggling it if you want to see the buildings as my photography skills cannot even begin to do it justice. The story as to why it is there is a great example of deciding what you want (or what a town wants) to be and then making the decisions to make it so instead of just letting the pieces fall where they will. My hat’s off to J. Irwin Miller.

From Columbus I headed to Bloomington – home of IU – Indiana University – the Hoosiers. I stopped by the football stadium just to take a peak. There are 40,000 undergraduate students at this campus – gigantic – what an exciting place for a game. The entire campus is beautiful and huge.

IU Stadium

The town is cute with little shops, restaurants and pubs. I met an Irish bartender – at an Irish Pub – go figure. And he really is legitimate – even speaks Gaelic. He was a cartoon and made me laugh for hours.

John, the Irish Bartender!

From there I headed towards French Lick – home of Larry Bird. I thought I would stay there for the night but was a bit unimpressed really. Other than two palatial, fortress type hotels – there was not a lot else to offer so I headed into the Hoosier National forest (accidentally honestly) but it turned out to be a beautiful drive to Louisville albeit twice as long.

All in all – Indiana had a good, wholesome feel about it and some pretty areas in the southern part but nothing that makes you say – “I can’t wait to go back”.

Off to Kentucky – wish me luck in finding my banjo – hee haw!