We are in the heartland. Folks around here like the outdoors. They work in the outdoors and play in the outdoors. Except during basketball. Then Hoosiers have one thing on their mind.
Folks here are also very friendly. Willing to give you anything you need. As we were leaving La Porte, Bill Reilly (no “O”) asked all the usual questions, “where are you headed? Where did you start? How long will it take?” Then he went deeper. He asked about our route, asked about us. He wanted to know know where we stayed, hotels?camp? Bill was a nice guy. He talked of the first cyclist he met on tour who he found in the middle of nowhere looking for a restaurant. There weren’t any, so Bill made the cyclist a sandwich. He just happens to have a camper located at Rising Sun Campground, but he wouldn’t be there to build us sandwiches.
I possibly set a harder pace than I should yesterday, so I was encouraged to plan a couple extra stops today even though they took us off route a bit. So we found the small farm town of Hana and stopped at Rumors Grill. Family owned for, well, ever. Breakfast? Lunch? Whatever y’all want, but mashed potatoes and gravy. They’ll take a bit to get ready. So Laura and Rhonda ordered French toast. I got a BLT and soup of the day. It was 10am so I got another cup of coffee. Very friendly. We weren’t her first cyclists.
Then it was pedaling again down roads as straight as the corn rows they followed. It seemed we were never making much progress except the cross roads kept clicking off miles; W 200 S, W 300 S, W 400 S, Toto Road. What?
Soon we entered North Judson and Mr Fingerhut rode up on a bike to enquire about our comings and going’s. He was instrumental in the development of the North Judson Trail, and the Prairie Trails Club, inc. He was in fact headed to the bank to inquire about the planned expansion of the trail. He is very passionate about connecting communities and parks. We then asked about the location of a local National sandwich chain. He frowned then suggested the local bakery/cafe…Fingerhut Bakery, operated by his cousin and now in its 8th generation of family operation! The family originated from Bohemia, modern day Czech Republic. Of course we had to sample the goods. We also got our pictures taken in front of the store by the 8th generation proprietor. Then we got all sorts of help on directions and a nice tip on a Polish Deli located only a couple miles from our camp.
We have discovered Dollar General. They are everywhere. And they usually have items or something close to what we need. While at the North Judson DG, we met a tri-athlete and her husband. They were pretty excited to see loaded bikes on tour. She didn’t think she could ever do that. Right, she competes in Ironman competitions. But what a nice couple. They offered several times if they could help us out including offering their home for a place to camp. It was early and we had miles to cover and a Polish deli to sample.
We hopped on Mr Fingerhut’s trail. After 10 miles the trail ended, we turned south and found JK Deli. Traditional Polish music was playing in the background and the two gals spoke in their native tongue as they kneaded and mixed and sliced tomorrow’s specials. We each ordered a sandwich to go and something to munch on there. I opted for a traditional Polish Sausage. The deli also had many treats from Europe and some chocolates I recognized from the Czech Republic. I was searching for Kofala but none was to be found.
Then we were off on the final push to camp. We were treated to a quiet corner of the park in some shade with extra portions of mosquitoes.
We are debating the time. Yesterday we left eastern time for central. A few rogue counties in Indiana use central and don’t believe in DST. We know we probably re-entered the eastern time but our phones are in conflict. I understand the series West Wing did a bit on Indiana’s time conflict.
I’m sure the Rising Sun will, regardless of what any clock reads.
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