Day 15 The Gee Brief: Indiana wants me! Lord I can't go back there!

Day 15: July 5th
Fort Wayne, IN to Valparaiso, IN

The title of this post comes from the music I first heard this morning as I headed out in the truck morning ritual to Micky D's. Lots of retro 50's, 60's and 70's music was playing as I went for my . The Night Chicago Died, The Clean-up Woman, and Indiana Wants Me were playing on the radio.

I figured something out this morning. Ohio may have heart, but Indiana's got SOUL! Mo-Town is ooozing everywhere.

Doing Things is what I like to do!

Another first impression was the fact that they let me have a SMALL iced coffee at McDonald's without trying to sell me on a medium. Remember, CT Micky D's won't even LET you get a small iced coffee even if you want to pay for it. So when Ohio allowed us to get one, we were blown away. Ohio, however, made you listen to the schpeel on how a MEDIUM would be cheaper. Not so in Indiana.

Ethan

 No schpeel, no declaration of "We don't serve SMALL". I ordered it. They gave it to me. Done deal! I'm liking the no-nonsense way of doing things here. Don't get me wrong, I miss the, "How can I make you're life more pleasant today dear?" attitude of Ohio.  However, "Doing things is what I like to do!" seems to be the battle hymn of Indiana and I'm lovin it! Speaking of the Dunkin Donuts theme, I found the one worker who seems to exemplify the friendly, yet no nonsense way of doing things in Indiana. His name is Ethan. He works at a Dunkin Donuts that shares a building with a Marathon gas station. I know I've raved about the Marathon friendliness, but Ethan is not a product of the Marathon company. He's a product of Indiana.

Dunkin Donuts has a strange way of training people. In almost EVERY D&D I've been to, I've barely gotten the words "iced coffee" out of my mouth, and the worker has taken off to go make me an iced coffee. They never wait around to hear, "with regular cream and sugar, blueberry and vanilla flavoring AND a turbo shot." I shout the rest of the order after them as they frenetically make my beverage.  Sometimes they get it right, but sometimes they don't. And then there's Ethan.

Ethan, waited patiently as I rattled off EVERY ingredient in my unique concoction rather than running away as soon as I said "coffee." He also did not register the usual, "Huh?" or "Whoaa, what did you say?!!!"  " A Blueberry what???!".  He just took my order, took my payment, and then calmly said, "I've never considered using blueberry in that combination before, I'll have to try it sometime." And THEN he went off to make my coffee.  I'm telling you, Ethan is going places!!!

Ethan is a microcosm of the same matter of fact efficiency yet friendliness I experienced from almost everyone else I met today in Indiana. This attitude rubbed off on me. I knew I had a long ride to do, but still wanted to be able to blog tonight, so I took less pictures, hoping to convey all I saw and felt through my words.

So here goes:
-Signs I saw, but didn't stop to take a picture of: 1) Saving legs when others can't.  2) I love you. Let's talk....God.

- How to wave at a motorcycle from a bicycle: You have to raise your hand UP. I know this sounds obvious, but I ride a motorcycle, and the usual "wave" you give or receive is more of a sideways or down toward the ground affair.  When I tried this from my bicycle, the motorcyclists either ignored me, or just flat out scoffed as if to say, "Dude, your a BICYCLE come back when you get a hog." However, when you raise your hand UP as in a real wave, you get good results.  The wave conveys, "Hi, I know I'm not a motorcycle, but we're sharing the road, so, HI!" It works!  As a matter of fact, a motorcyclist initiated the wave thing today to me!  Indiana is proving to be just as awesome Ohio!

Anyway, it's getting late, and I'd like to bust another century tomorrow, so I'll leave you with a few pics from Indiana. See you tomorrow!

These things are prevalent in Ohio and Indiana. They remind me of the Starwars walker things that were attacking a rebel base. I saw one spraying fertilizer or bug spray or SOMETHING on the crops.

Selfie of Rootbeer visiting an aluminum clad diner.

If you took my economics class, you'd probably shy away from this place, however, I'm sure the Bruno in THIS picture, is a wonderful chef.

I didn't see many pools attached to the houses, but I did see a LOT of these mini-ponds. One of them that couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 hundred feet in diameter had a full fledged pontoon boat in it. And there were PEOPLE in the pontoon boat with life preservers as if they were about to go out on a major tour of their 4 or 5 hundred foot diameter pond! Some of the ponds had floating decks with ladders, which suggested that to the Ohio/Indiana people these are not only very small lakes, but also rather large swimming pools.

This reminded me of Memorial Boulevard in Bristol, CT.

This is one of my favorite pics so far. It's on Maumee trail in Fort Wayne, IN