Departed Defiance, IN on Wednesday, made a 6:30am pit stop at my new fav hang-out Cabin Fever Coffee, which helped me knock out 90 miles to Huntington, IN. Along the way, encountered a couple days full of “B’s” including the B&B Purviance House, its innkeepers Barb, Brooks and Ike their little Buddy, their tricked out Bike shop right next door, Bulls in the farmlands, followed by a day on Thursday in the total Boonies!
The Purviance House was near-Mecca. Located in a quaint college town, this beautiful home was complemented by Brook’s bike shop he opened in 2020 after serving as mayor of Huntington. Indiana is well-known for cycling passion and the Little 500, a Bloomington bike race made famous by the 1979 movie ‘Breaking Away’. Brooks even had one of the official racing bikes hung up in his sho. If Barb had an espresso machine installed and played barista, I might never have left. Turns out Brooks was from Emlenton, PA, the gem of a town I thoroughly enjoyed on Day 7 and where he still owns the family farm.
Thursday was a journey…covered 116 miles in order to get to a town that has more than 300 people (seriously!). Passed through Chili, which advertised its population as “One Dog and Two Cats, and That’s About It!” The highlight of the day was meeting Mike, a fellow cross country cyclist, who was going west to east. I was sitting under a shady tree when he seemed to come out of the cornfields. We exchanged stories and I got some valuable intel on the direction I’m going. This is what biking on the Adventure Cycling Routes is all about! Lastly, I magically found an Uber to tasty Embers restaurant in Rensselaer about 5 miles from my hotel. Got some Midwest hospitality when I was having trouble locating a return Uber. The owner overheard me telling my server and offered to drive me. Problem solved and ready for another day!
