Millersberg to Hamlet: What a place is this?

I am loving riding through Indiana.  It's beautiful up here.  Riding through this part of Indiana is like riding through lakes of super flat crops with islands of forest. The crops and forests are varied, and the routes are fun.

Today I did 68 miles in 5:08 on bike getting done around 4pm. A crazy headwind was forecast for the afternoon (20 mph) so I pushed hard through the relatively light 10mph headwinds for the first 45 miles only stopping long enough to stretch and drink and got them done by 12:30.  Then the winds didn't increase as forecast, so I fell asleep after "lunch" in the parking lot of a family dollar and got back on the road around 2pm.  I can sleep anywhere.

Today's route was all "County Road Roulette" which is a lot of fun.  There are very few places where you can play it without getting terribly lost. Indiana, Illinoise, and Ohio are the best places.  The roads are all mostly flat, dead straight, and laid out in NS grids.  When a road becomes too rough or ends you just jog a bit left or right until you find another road going the right direction.  Basically if the road is big enough to be on my map, I stay off it.  This way I essentially ride on giant bike paths all day, only occasionaly being chased by farm dogs.

This is very different from the west, where there are only a few roads and they don't go straight, so I'd better stay on mapped roads.  But traffic is lighter there, so it doesn't really matter.

Because here I find my route as I go along, I don't know where I'm staying until I'm about 20 miles from it.  I just ride mostly in the direction I want to go for 50 miles and then figure out what town I'm near and plan a stop.  You can't tour like this out west - there aren't enough towns and you could end up stranded or dead.  There routes need to be planned several days in advance.  Both ways of touring are fun.

Today I ended up in Hamlet, a pretty rocking town.  It only has 800 people so there isn't much here because there are so many other towns around.  Out west a town of 50 would have everything (grocery, bar, etc) and serve all the nearby ranchers. In the midwest a town of 800 has almost nothing because people just drive to nearby bigger towns.  Big towns kill small towns like Walmarts kill downtowns.

Anyway, Hamlet may not have much for local business or services, but it rocks in local culture.  It has a decent skate park, throws frequent festivals, and hosts several youth who all know how to ride unicycles.  No kidding.  Much of this is thanks to Jim, a local guy who builds tons of freak bikes, trikes, tall bikes, unicycles, etc.  They have lots of bike contests and some skilled bmx flatland riders.  I had fun hanging out with them and Jim this afternoon.

Tomorrow I head East into more headwinds, the central time zone, and should get into Illinoise.  I think I've gone far enough south to avoid the deadly Chicago sprawl. I'll never bike near Chicago again - I did in 2007 and it was the worst biking experience of my life.  Chicago itself isn't bad, but the 100's of miles of strip mall surburban hell that surround it might as well be lava.  I'll never go there again on a bike.

From henceforth in this blog, in fact, Chicago will be refered to as Mordor.  Tomorrow I will be venturing near Mordor's realm of influence - Gary, IN or "Mirkwood."  I may have to flee farther south out of my way if I start getting sprawl sprinkled on me. 

ILYI!