Sunday, July 23, 2000

Today we entered the state of Indiana. We rode from Battle Creek, MI to Lagrange, IN, a distance of 65 miles. Since it was a Sunday morning, we rode from Battle Creek to Mendon, MI on Michigan highway 66 and 60. We had very little traffic on either road. The rest of the day we spent on county roads using the Adventure Cycling road maps.

After we left highway 60, west of Mendon, we traveled on a county road to the longest covered bridge in Michigan. We took several pictures before and after we crossed the bridge. We continued our journey south. After entering Indiana, we noticed that some roads began to have a badly damaged area about 3 feet from both edges of the road. This damaged area was only 2 to 3 foot wide. This was an area with a large number of Amish farmers. They still use horses to do all their farm work and to travel from one place to another. The buggy’s that they use are one horse buggies, the horses wear steel horse shoes which cause extensive damage where the horse travels down the road, about 3 feet from the edge of the road.

We passed one farm after another that did not have automobile tracks but just buggy tracks in the driveway. The houses and yards for the most part were very well kept, the lawns mowed, house and barns very well maintained, and some even painted all the fence posts. At one point we passed a farm with a tent on the lawn. In a field next to the farmhouse were parked several Amish buggies and a number of horses were standing nearby. It appeared to be some type of church meeting. Later we passed three buggies going in the opposite direction on the road. Today we are staying in a town that claims it is in the center of the Amish area of Indiana.