Indiana Tour 2021 Day 1 - Louisville, KY to Seymour, IN.

 Here we are, ready to set forth.

It's 8:30 in the morning. I've drug Max out of bed. We have not had any breakfast, but at least I am caffeinated from the coffee maker in our hotel room.

We set out across the river, hoping there would be a place we can get food on Sunday morning in Indiana.

This is the magnificent Big Four Bridge over the Ohio River, which was once a railroad bridge, and is now a bike and pedestrian bridge!

At the end of the bridge in Indiana, there is stuff which I am pretty sure is Art.

I mean it must be Art. What else could it be? 

Six miles later, we came upon a Bob, which eventually served us breakfast after about an hour. Even Bob Evans cannot get people to staff a restaurant in these pandemic times. But we all got a nice hearty breakfast. Eventually. And we set forth into the wilds of Indiana. Expectations were low, because it is Sunday morning in very conservative southern Indiana. Max decided to amuse himself by counting churches. (Final tally: 25 in about 50 miles).

Sundays in rural Indiana being what they are, lunch became more and more of a challenge. After 30 miles, all we could come up with was a Subway and a Casey's convenience store in Scottsburg. But at the Casey's, Jim chats up some random woman, who it turns out is from Baltimore, and who tells us there is a pizza place, Marko's, four miles up the road in Austin. Where we can sit and eat pizza in air conditioning like civilized people. It's 90 degrees out.

So we go to Marko's. It's mostly a take-out business in a storefront, but they have some tables, and we can sit and eat our pizza. Which is pretty great midwestern pizza, to tell the truth.

While we are eating pizza, and Gilligan's Island comes on the TV. I ask Max if he has ever seen Gilligan's Island. Answer: no, and I don't care to. Me: you could be more culturally literate if you watch Gilligan's Island. Max: No way Dad.

This discussion causes Jim to strike up a conversation with the lady who makes the pizzas. Let's say she is a bit of a country person. She fondly talks about how she loves Hee Haw, which she used to watch with her grandparents. And Jim gets her to admit that she has a copy of every single episode of the Dukes of Hazzard ever made.

As we are riding away, Max observes that there are a lot of Trump signs in this part of the country. I told him that there is probably a lot of overlap between the set of people who have a copy of every episode of the Dukes of Hazzard and people who like Donald Trump. Max: the Venn Diagram is probably a circle. 

I asked Max if he has ever actually seen an episode of them Duke boys. He said no and he doesn't want to. I explained the basic premise of the Dukes of Hazzard, and about the General Lee, with the Confederate flag painted on the roof, and how it is claimed that every single 1969 Dodge Charger was destroyed in the making of the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. And how he should get a better understanding of the mindset of the Trump vote by watching an episode of them Duke boys and pondering what sort of person would find this entertaining. Max is having nothing to do with this.

Only 20 more miles to our end town of Seymour, and Max gets four, count 'em four flat tires. Did I mention it's 90 degrees out? The first flat is some road debris punctures the tire and the tube. I patch the tube, and we continue on. Five miles later, another flat. The patch failed. I put in a new tube. A couple miles more, and another flat. This time it's a piece of wire in the tire. I patch the tube. Five miles more, and the patch fails. I put in Max's last spare tube, which is already patched. This holds for the seven miles left to our AirBnB in Seymour. I think the glue in my patch kit is way too old, and that's why the patches are failing.

Anyway, here is the scenery coming into Seymour. That's Jim coming down the hill.

There is corn and nice old farm houses that nobody seems to live in.

We got into Seymour about 4:30. Hot and sweaty. Max: "I want a shower." I'm pretty sure he has never spoken these words before!

Our AirBnB is really cool. It's a huge loft over an Edward Jones office in an old building in downtown Seymour. 

The coolest part of it is it has a record player and a bunch of records. I made Max learn how vinyl LPs work! 

Me: "Max, they have an album here which was my favorite album when I was your age. I'm going to play it!"
Max: "OK Boomer. You are so old."
Me: <plays the first Boston album>
Jim: <relays story of seeing Boston at Hammerjacks with unknown band Foreigner opening in the 70s>
Max: <dying inside, I'm pretty sure>

And then it is time to figure out where to get dinner on Sunday night in southern Indiana. Our hopes are low. Here is what is in the neighborhood.

A giant abandoned grain elevator and an historic caboose. There are so many great restaurants by this AirBnB, which I why I stayed here instead of the Hampton Inn five miles away next to the Cracker Barrel, but all those great restaurants aren't open on Sunday.

But the Mexican place next to the grain elevator is open.

And they have really, really big margaritas!

So now Fortuna's wheel is on an upward cycle. After a very tasty dinner of Mexican food, with electrolytes replenished, we wander across the street to the CVS to get some suntan lotion. 

OMG, the CVS stores in Indiana sell beer, wine, and liquor. On Sunday. Who would have ever imagined this. Jim immediately buys a six pack for later. And he tells the cashier that he had no idea Indiana was so civilized. The cashier says she has lived in Indiana for 35 years and this is the first time anyone has told her that Indiana is civilized.

Here is the Strava track.