Day 34 - Thursday, June 14th - Champaign, IL to Crawfordsville, IN

Distance: 80.3 miles

Elevation Gain: 1622 ft. or 20.2 ft./mile

Net elevation change: +3 ft.

Not having a bike, I spent the morning driving the riding route from Champaign, IL to Crawfordsville, IN and then on Indianapolis. The perspective from a car even moving at less than interstate speeds is so different, especially after not having driven a car in the past five weeks.  

Today was another easy navigation day for the group  Go south out the hotel and 2 miles later make a left on US-150 and head east for 36 miles where US-150 becomes US-136. Follow that road until mile 78 and make a left and proceed 2 miles to the hotel. The day itself was really nice, the heat and humidity that the group has been dealing with broke so the conditions for the most part were favorable.  From what I could tell there was probably a headwind for a good part of the day but in the grand scheme I think it was tolerable.

Even though I found a replacement camera, I will say upfront that the photo ops through the balance of Illinois were few and far between. There might have been two. You can only take so many pictures of cornfields stretching over flat terrain to the horizon in every direction. Okay, there was the occasional farm building but they either weren't shabby enough, or  constructed of that prefab steel nonsense that has no character. Where are the proper old barns? This is the closest that I could find.

At mile 4 the group passed through Urbana, a city of about 42,000 people. Frankly it was hard to tell where Champaign stopped and Urbana started. In fact Urbana’s sister city is Champaign and they share the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. When it was first settled in 1822 it was called Big Grove. The name was changed in 1833 and it was named after Urbana, Ohio the home of Joseph Vance, the Whig politician. Urbana suffered a setback when the anticipated railroad elected to lay track two miles west because the land was flatter. West Urbana became Champaign. Several attempts to merge the cities have failed at the polls.

At mile 13 the group reached St Joseph, a small town of close to 4000 founded in 1881 followed by Ogden at mile 18, a village of 800.

Next came Fithian at mile 22 and Muncie at mile 24. Fithian is a village of about 500 people and was named after Dr. William Fithian who donated some of the land for the community some time in the 1830's. Muncie has a population of under 200.

At mile 28 the group passed through the southern portion of Oakwood, a self-described small village of 1600 residents. According to the village website, the first people in the area were the Kickapoo and the Pottawatomies who discovered the salt mines in the area. Fur trappers came next followed by the Army Surveyors who found the salt mines. Settlers started to arrive in 1824 to work the mines. The town really came to existence around 1870 when the railroad came through. Nothing remains of the salt mines today as coal was eventually discovered and was far more profitable.

At about mile 32 the group crossed over to the north side of I-74 and at mile 35 they were in Danville, a city of 33,000 and the county seat of Vermilion County. It was founded in 1827 on 60 acres of land donated by Guy W. Smith and 20 acres donated by Dan Beckwith for whom he town is named.

Just after passing the Danville Correctional Institute at mile 41 the group crossed into Indiana, the eighth state line crossing and ninth state.The farmland continued for the most part but at least there was some variety as it wasn't exclusively corn.

A bit past mile 48 the group crossed the Wabash River and entered Covington, a small town of 2600 and the county seat of Fountain County. Covington is home to the Midwest’s first indoor beach that houses 65 tons of sand. No water mind you…just sand. Available activities include: digging in the sand for shark teeth and seashells, volleyball and playing with a large assortment of sand toys. This place really does exist and I looked at the website. I'm sorry I did. I feel so bad for any of the kids that are in those pictures. I have a renewed appreciation for growing up on a barrier island in New Jersey, three blocks from the ocean and a block from the bay.

At mile 56 the group reached Veedersburg, a small town of about 2200 and the newer name for the old town of Chambersburg when it was first settled in 1823 by Jonathan Birch and John Colvert. Founded in 1871 it is named for Peter S Veeder, one of its founders. In the early 1900s it was brickyards that supported the roughly 1800 residents. The Wabash Clay Company had the contract to supply 3.2 million bricks for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The brickyards are long gone and today's residents are sustained by farming, manufacturing, local businesses and commuting to to nearby cities.

Mile 62 brought the group to Hillsboro, a village of about 540, founded in 1829 as Hillsborough and named after the local terrain. The town’s welcome sign is a classic. It states, "Welcome to Hillsboro, home to 600 happy people and a few old soreheads".  This is based on a google search so I didn't actually see it. I really, really wish I had a picture.

Mile 68 brought the group to Waynetown, a small town of 950 people originally laid out in 1830 by Samuel Mann as Middletown. For the past 70 years Waynetown has held an annual fish fry and carnival. That my friends, is quite a run!

Mile 77 brought the group to Crawfordsville. I'm a sucker for the architecture of older buildings, but you have probably figured that out. These, at least, weren't falling down

Sneak Peek At Tomorrow

For the group, 55 miles to Indianapolis almost qualifies as a rest day. The majority will get there before rooms are ready for check-in. For me it will be another day spent waiting to see if my replacement bike gets here before the shop closes at 8 pm. The local shop is better equipped to assemble it and get the tweaking adjustments done that are nearly always needed. That said, I can't help but wonder if I should have had it shipped directly to the hotel. I refuse to look at the tracking information until tomorrow morning. 

Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana and the county seat for Marion County. With a population of over 850,000 it is certainly large, but it seems massive given some of the places that we have been through over the past five weeks. Coming into town in a car was a shock. I'm not sure how it would feel on a bike, but I'm hopeful that the last four miles on bike paths will make it a bit easier for the group.

The history of Indianapolis is long and deep stretching back to 2000 BC. The Delaware gave up their claim to their tribal lands in 1818 in the Treaty of St Mary's and three years later the city was laid out on a one mile square grid next to the White River.  The city is best known for being the annual host of the Indianapolis 500. The name Indianapolis is derived from the state's name which means "Land of the Indians", and polis, the Greek word for city. Jeremiah Sullivan, justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, is credited with creating the name.

If you are at all interested, I encourage you to pull up the Wikipedia page for Indianapolis. Maybe it is just me, but I found the pretty extensive article to be interesting and difficult to summarize. Here is the link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis.