Indiana - Day 3 - tour of far north Indiana

Middlebury KOA
Monday, 3 June 2019

today's route

I didn't really want to leave the campground today - because I don't have a 2nd vehicle, even running an errand involves packing everything up and stowing everything in the cabin so it won't be flung around - but I was nearly out of both dog food and milk, which constitutes a near crisis situation.  So off we went.

I figured I might as well get more than groceries out of this trip, so I drove over to a rest area that's billed on the map as a welcome center.  I noticed the difference when I was in Ohio, where I never found a welcome center so didn't have any of the informational brochures and maps I wanted.  Since the center I'd hoped to stop in on my way into the state was closed for road construction, I wanted to make another try.

What I didn't do was look at the mileage I'd be traveling.  I guess I just thought that Indiana is a smaller state than - say - Ohio or Virginia, so I wouldn't really be driving all that far.  But I was.

At first I was just enjoying the countryside and the sights.  It's clear there's a strong Amish presence in this part of the state.  On this drive I saw 2 horse-and-buggy outfits and a number of people dressed in Amish clothes riding bicycles.  One couple was on a tandem bicycle.  It hadn't occurred to me that they'd use bicycles, but they quite clearly do.

There's also a strong RV presence in this area.  A huge part of the local economy comes from the multiple RV manufacturing plants nearby, and there are many RV sales and supply businesses, too.

And there are many farms.  Some have herds of cows (I think they were dairy cows), some sheep (which had been sheared and looked really thin), and many plowed fields on rolling hills.

I'm sorry to say I've also been finding the roads I've met so far in Indiana to be just as bad as most of those in Ohio.  And the broken pavement gets so tiring to drive on that the distance seems longer than it is, which was longer than I'd expected anyway.

I found the visitor center - unstaffed but full of pamphlets and an official state of Indiana map and so on - all of which were welcome.

It was on the way back that I realized how much time this drive had already taken and decided to forego the drive along a local road back to the campground in favor of the toll road/interstate along the north border.  Much as I dislike toll roads, and much as I prefer local roads to interstates, they've got their uses, and I figured today was a good time to avail myself.

And it was on the way back that I realized just how far I'd come.  I had almost 45 miles to travel on the interstate, which was just as plagued with broken pavement as the free roads, and therefore just as tiring to drive on.  But I had to get back, so onward!

I saw a marmot sitting on the shoulder of the road.  At first I was afraid he was dead - I've been seeing a surprising number of dead critters on the roads - but then he moved and I realized he was very much alive.  I sure hope he wasn't planning to cross that highway because it'd really shorten his life span.

And the 45 miles of toll road cost me only $2.20, which was a pleasant surprise.  The toll booth was unstaffed, so I inserted my $10 bill in the slot and got back a bunch of $1 coins.  When I first pulled them out of the slot I was afraid I'd been paid in tokens that could only be used on the highway, but then I saw what they were.  Hope I don't end up spending them as if they were quarters, but they're neat to look at.