Indiana Tour Day 6 - North Judson to Crown Point

 It was a short day today, only 41 miles. We didn't need to go any farther.

We are at a Hampton Inn in Crown Point, across the street from the Off Square Brewery taproom. We could have gone farther, but that would have made the next day just as short, and we would be eating at a Cracker Barrel instead.

Jim is done, he is now gone to visit his friend Murray, who lives south of Chicago. Murray came and had dinner with us, and took Jim away.

It was overcast with temperatures in the upper 70s, and a light headwind. It was comfortable riding.

However, we are off the USBR 35 route now, and traffic was pretty brutal. The morning started out OK.

It was all empty roads and corn and soybeans. Really nice. 

Believe it or not, somehow we managed to get stuck behind a train out here!

This is a little short haul railroad called the Chesapeake and Indiana. I was talking to the flag man who was working the intersection. I said we are from Baltimore, and I am pretty sure this railroad does not go to the Chesapeake. He said that was true, it is just local. I said maybe they can grow the business and expand and someday make it to the bay.

After the train, we decided to get off the zig zaggy farm roads, and go for a more direct route, which was State Route 8. That was bad. Two lanes, no shoulders, fast (but light) traffic, many trucks.

Lunch was a big win, in Hebron Indiana. Check this out!

Perch! Yummy delicious perch! I can never get perch at home. I can get walleye all the time, but not perch, which doesn't make sense since both of them live in the same places. I can't recall getting perch anywhere that was not within 25 miles of one of the great lakes.

After the miserable experience on SR 8, we decided it's back to the rectilinear back roads, even though there is a diagonal road straight to our end town. So after lunch we head out and after a few miles we find ourselves in the middle of massive new housing developments. Max looked it up and said it's a megadevelopment called Four Seasons, with 8000 homes. 

Did they build the roads for the traffic generated by these 8000 homes yet? Ha ha ha. Nope. In fact, they are currently rebuilding the main road that connects these homes to I-65, so it will be a big four lane boulevard, so that road is closed, and all the traffic has only one road out, which is two lanes, curvy, and had us pedaling slowly along into the headwind. There were cars backed up behind us for miles.

Here is the Strava track.