Hoosierville

Day 22 - Flora, IL to Oakland City, IN (88 miles and 2,000 feet of climbing)

Today, we visited our 8th state on our trip, Indiana the Hoosier state which begs the question, “What exactly is a Hoosier?” According to Wikipedia, there are many suggestions for the derivation of the word but none is universally accepted. In 1833 the Pittsburgh Stateman said the term had been in use for "some time past" and suggested it originated from census workers calling "Who's here?". Not sure how that is connected to Indiana, but there you go.

With another high only in the 80s we were able to sleep in again. I don’t think Mom got much sleep because there were so many dead bugs on the floor of our hotel room. Maude didn’t seem to mind though she snored all night long. Dad and I set off first again today. We had to bike 15 miles through neighborhoods that turned into farms to get to our original route. We’ve been having to stay off our route because there aren’t that many dog friendly hotels here.

Once we made it back to the route we biked through more corn fields and soy bean fields. We passed a few tractors and saw some cows. The middle of the country doesn’t change scenery quite as much as the west did. After 37 miles of biking we met Mom and Maude in a church parking lot to switch off for the day.

Mom and Dad took off through more farm land. I met them at a small college in Mt. Carmel with a McDonalds coke right before they crossed from Illinois into Indiana. Indiana had a few more small towns for them to bike through, but it was mostly farms. It is pretty amazing how much stuff America grows. After 57 more miles we had crossed into the Eastern Time Zone. The last hour we’ll lose for the trip! I met them in yet another church parking lot and we loaded everything up for the day.

It’s already almost five by the time we’ve checked in and gotten settled in the hotel. So we’ll have to find somewhere to eat dinner so we can make our unofficial bedtime at eight.