Riding in Indiana - some new discoveries

Saturday, July 24, 2010.  Hot day for a ride (temp 97, heat index 107).  Great as long as you're riding, but oh so hot when you stop (jeans, boots = hot hot). 

Took the backroads of east central IL to Indiana.  Rode through Hillsdale and Montezuma.  Stopped in Rockville ("Covered Bridge Capital of the World") for lunch.  Was very quiet on the square of Rockville - unlike the craziness of the Covered Bridge Festival.  Had a decent lunch, then rode around the corner and discovered where all the bikers were eating.  Next time....

Route 231 south led us to a town named Cataract.  Saw a big sign - Cataract Falls (state sign, indicating it was a state park of some sort).  When I'm riding solo, I generally take frequent detours to check out these sorts of things.  Didn't stop on this ride but did check it out on the web when I got home.  Learned this is the location of the state's (Indiana) largest natural waterfall.  2 sets of falls on Mill Creek.  There is a covered bridge.  On my list for a future ride.  Note:  one reference said its a very romantic spot.  Maybe this could become the new Turkey Run for high schoolers post prom (where we always went when I was in high school).

Passed a sign "Miami Nation of Indians".  I wasn't aware there was such a location in that area of Indiana.  Another Google search - learned they aren't  federally recognized but they are recognized by the state of Indiana.  Migrated south from Wisconsin mid 17th to mid-18th century.  "Miami" = downstream people.  Not sure I need to make that a future stop, but it was some interesting trivia to learn.

From 231, we took 46 and headed south to Bloomington.  During the ride, near Bloomington, we saw a large man-made stone structure (was a Kodak moment....I missed it!).  Learned Bloomington is home to the highest quality quarried limestone in the U.S.  They started the quarry in 1827.  The limestone from here has been used to build many famous buildings, including the Pentagon, Empire State Building, Washington National Cathedral and  35 of the 50 state capital buildings.  The picture below is the quarry where they obtained the limestone for the Empire State building.

We saw some small limestone structures decorating the landscape around the Bloomington Harley-Davidson shop.  Reminded me of pictures of Stonehenge.

Rode back towards home on 46 to Terre Haute where we stopped to check out the radar. 

Rather than head west into the storm, we decided to head north and, hopefully, make it to the Beef House in Covington, IN (just a little east of Danville on the map) to sit out the storm while having dinner.  We made it, barely, had a great dinner, then had a nice break between two storms for the ride home.  It was a great ride in spite of the heat.  Out maneuvering the storms made it all the more interesting.  Riding with radar has sure changed things!

Favorite signs:

"Happiness can be taught, caught, sought, but not bought"

"Pasturized chickens - no antibiotics, no hormones".  (now I'm assuming this means the chickens are running around free, not in cages or small chicken houses.  In the big cities, they would be referred to as "free range".  I think this farmer is meaning to convey these chickens are in a pasture, not that they are actually "pasturized" like milk.  Pretty cute.

More missed Kodak moments....gotta get the other riders to slow it down a bit.

County Fair - Champaign, IL

Summer in the midwest brings many traditions including county fairs.  Since my two sons were little, we've been going to the Friday night demolition derby at the Champaign County Fair.  Now I'm repeating the process with my two grandsons.   Tonight was derby night.

We headed to the fair with the temperature in the mid-90's and a heat advisory (heat index 105).  Truthfully, staying home in the air-conditioning sounded pretty good but I was convinced otherwise.

Part of the "going to the fair" tradition is eating a variety of typical fair food.  For me, it's always a corn dog (the only time all year I actually eat a hot dog), hot french fries - only from Culler's (some people like them topped with vinegar  - I just like salt), and a lemon shake-up.    In essence, the whole meal is a bunch of grease and sugar.  But there's something about eating it at the fair that makes it delicious.

After consuming our fries and corn dog, we headed to the grandstands.  The fair has a really nice grandstand, but there was no breeze and it was soooooooo hot.  How hot was it?  Garrett and Evan were sweating just sitting - wet hair and wet shirts.

In case you've never been to a demolition derby, here are a few basics.  Drivers enter a car with the intent to destroy it by driving it repeatedly into the other cars that have been entered.  Last car still running (engine running, able to actually move it) wins the heat.   You can tell some drivers really get into prepping their cars with extra metal, revamped exhaust system etc.  They've also removed all glass.

They start out with a fairly intact vehicle (see below).

However, by the time the heat is finished, they often look like this (same car as in the above picture)

We enjoyed the derby but weren't quite finished with our fair activities.  We had to ride some rides!  I was recruited to ride bumper cars with Evan as neither he nor Garrett were tall enough to ride by themselves.  What is it about bumper cars that brings out your evil twin?  Who can I plow into with my bumper car?????

The Champaign County fair has a really great selection of "kid only" rides and we've been very impressed with how nice the people are that manage them.  There's a little dragon roller coaster, a teeny ferris wheel (couldn't talk either one of the kids into riding the big ferris wheel with me).  Garrett enjoyed the dinosaur ride

While Evan preferred the motorcycles (hmmmm...future riding buddy?)

The evening was topped off with a funnel cake....if you haven't every had a funnel cake, its essentially pancake batter that is swirled into a deep fryer and covered with powdered sugar when its done cooking. Trust me when I say this....one of them is more than enough for 5 or 6 people.  You DO NOT want to eat a lot of this!

So, depending on how you look at it, this was either an evening filled with violence and food that couldn't be more unhealthy OR it was a great way to spend an evening with a couple of handsome/fun dudes.  If you haven't taken your kids there, give it a shot.  Only warning...take cash.  They don't take credit cards and between the food, the grandstand activity (there are different options each night of the fair), and the carnival rides, you're going to spend a little cash! 

I loved creating these memories with my kids and am enjoying repeating that with Evan and Garrett. Thanks, Matt and Jennie, for letting me tag along! 

Public restrooms - designed to contaminate?

Are public restrooms designed by people who give little or no thought to the actual purpose of the handwashing areas?  Are they trying to make us sick?  Now before you leap to the conclusion that I'm referring to the actual "toilets" themselves as the source of exposure (side note - discussed those in a previous blog),  I'm referring to the handwashing facilities - everything from the sinks to the faucets to the hand drying devices. 

Am I a "germaphobe"?  I don't think so.  However, I do travel a lot so am in and out of public "facilities" on a regular basis.  Given the big concern about healthcare costs in this country....my thought is if we spent a little bit more to prevent exposure, we'd have healthier citizens and therefore spend less trying to get them well after they become sick.

 I also should point out that we healthcare professionals have it pounded into our heads that the number 1 way to prevent infections is hand-washing. Perhaps that's what drives these observations.

Let's start with the sinks.  Its pretty common for the surfaces around the sinks to be very wet.  A breeding ground for bacteria. You might want to consider this when you're ready to lay your personal belongings on the wet area.   I like it when there are automatic faucets so you don't have to touch faucet handles.  Here's a well-designed sink - essentially a trough.  (Champaign/IL airport).  (side note:  don't you hate  faucets with sensors that no matter where you place your hands, you can't seem to get the water to come out?) 

The soap dispensers become another source of contamination unless they, too, are automated.  Anytime you have to push a lever on a dispenser, you're more than likely picking up bacteria on that hand.  Some places have installed automatic soap dispensers, but not many.

Then there are the various options for hand drying.  The worst are the cloth ones ...where you pull on both sides of the cloth to get to a dry section.  The problem is, you've just washed your hands and now you're potentially contaminating them by having to touch a wet section of cloth (where someone else just dried their hands) in order to get a fresh/dry section. 

There are lever- operated paper towel dispensers...also not good because invariably the lever is still wet from the previous person.  The longer the lever stays wet, the higher the likelihood its contaminated.  An additional issue as displayed in the picture below, not only is there a lever, there's also very little space between the waste container and the paper towel when it is dispensed so unless you use your other hand to grab it as its coming out, it too gets contaminated.  Terrible design!  Ideally, you should first get the paper towels out and ready so that when you're finished washing your hands, you don't have to touch the lever.  Can't tell you how many times I've done that only to see another person come along and take what I just dispensed.

My preference are the dispensers where you don't touch anything...just "wave" your hand in front of a sensor and the paper towel is automatically dispensed.  (side note:  have you ever noticed that some of these are set to dispense a small section of towel so you have to wait a few seconds and repeat the process so you get a large enough section to actually dry your hands?  I assume this is a cost control measure....so it always makes me wonder if they are actually using more rolls of towels because people generally wait and add a second section???)

This one had both an automatic soap and towel dispenser.

The air dryers are better although they often take longer. Recently I encountered an unusual air dryer..it was at the Hyatt Hotel in Chicago.  Honestly I wasn't quite sure what it was at first...and I wasn't sure how it worked.  You just place both hands inside the slot and the air starts blasting.  Rapid drying.  The most high tech hand dryers I've seen. 

Last, your final exposure comes as you leave the restroom IF there is a door that you have to open using your hands.  One thing I like about O'Hare airport is the bathrooms have no doors...they are designed so  you walk in and out through an open doorway. (Detroit's newer airport is also like this..).  I ate at a restaurant in Florida a few weeks ago that had an electronic door opener...wave your hand and a sensor opens the door. 

At the Pittsburg/PA airport there are signs posted in the bathrooms with some basic handwashing instructions.  Seems silly in some ways but if you've ever watched people wash their hands in public restrooms, they do need the reminder.  Notice how it not only tells you how to wash your hands, it tells you to use the paper towel to turn off the faucet and to open the door.  Of course this is the home of the paper towel dispensers that require you to use a lever to get the towel so they aren't making it easy.

Seriously, how often do you see someone wash their hands in a public bathroom for 30 seconds?   

Here's a sink from the Jacksonville, Florida airport. Actually, I'm not sure you can even call this a sink...it was simply a flat piece of Corian (or a similar material) that was slanted so the water ran towards the back and fell into a trough. 

There were small openings evenly spaced on the surface for the disposal of paper towels - very nice as it prevents people from walking across the floor with water dripping off their hands!!  Everything automated.  The faucet, the soap dispenser and the towel dispenser.  No need to touch anything.  First public restroom I've been in that had everything designed in a way that avoids contamination!!

I hope some bathroom designers read this......we need better handwashing facilities.  In the meantime, if you don't want to get sick, pay attention to the possible contaminants in public bathrooms.

Moonshine, IL - Home of the Moonburger

Saturday, July 17.  Great day for a motorcycle ride despite the forecast:  heat advisory with the temperature forecasted to be in the low 90's, heat index 100 degrees.  A group of 9 bikes/11 people hooked up at a central location,  Andrae's Harley Davidson parking lot (Urbana, IL).  We were supposed to leave at 9:30am but Andrae's was having a sidewalk sale and we got distracted!  So we didn't get out of there until around 10am.

We headed south on US 130, and rode through a lot of small towns - some I knew (Philo, Villa Grove) but most I did not.  Then east on route 133 to route 49 where we headed south.  We took a break in Casey, IL, then headed east, again.  One of the guys says "human GPS from here"...it was a matter of watching for a teeny little sign as Moonshine isn't really a town but rather a "wide spot in the road" - per the locals.  When I say "teeny little sign", it is exactly that.  So small our "leader" missed it but our second rider spotted the sign so the rest of us turned on the right road, then sat and waited for Rooney to figure out we weren't following him.

We arrived at Moonshine in time to order our Moonburgers (they turn the grill off at 12:30pm, so if you go, make sure you get there in time!).   The process works like this: you get in line and order your food  (they do serve a variety of sandwiches, not just burgers).

Then while you're waiting for your sandwich, you pick out whatever you want to drink and chips if you want those, then you get in a different line to pay. I'd recommend paying before you pick up your burger so you it doesn't cool off while you're standing in the pay line.

There are interesting signs and shelves full of old "stuff" so while you're waiting in line, you're entertained.  This was one of my favorite signs - behind the cash register. (hey, I didn't hang it...I just read it)

Once you have picked up your burger, you head outside where there's a condiments bar (ketchup, mustard, pickles, onions etc).  Then find a seat at one of the picnic tables and enjoy a great burger.

I have to admit I expected rubbery burgers....as many as they were cooking, how could they not cut corners and use what's  most convenient.  However, to my surprise, the burgers were actually great.  One note - there are no indoor "facilities".  If you need a bio break, there are Porta Potties.

There is an organized ride to Moonshine every April. This year there were 1100 motorcycles and 1400 people. They gather in Casey IL - coming in from all over the country.

To finish up the day, we rode to Mattoon to check out Bagelfest. For those of you who don't know this, Mattoon, IL is home of the largest bagel factory in the world (Lenders). I sat next to their PR person on a flight on Friday - she was coming into town specifically for the festival.  All I can say is that it was a bust.  It didn't help that it was 90+ degrees with a heat index of 100, but it was pretty lame.  There were a few food vendors (I had a really good ice cold lemon shake-up) and a handful of arts/craft vendors.  Very few people (probably all home in air-conditioning). No bagels - apparently they give out free bagels for breakfast, but not other times during the day.  To be fair, they were having a band or two in the evening, so maybe things pick up after dark. That said, I still won't be putting Bagelfest on my list of festivals for next year.

We had a great ride through some scenic country (more than corn fields and bean fields). We saw several beautiful horse farms - a couple of them looked a little bit like a Kentucky farm only smaller.  It was a great day!

Dominique Wells - Navy: Serving our Country!

O'Hare airport - G concourse
Friday, July 16

Dominique Wells hails from San Diego, California. She attended "boot camp" at Great Lakes Naval Base - started in February, graduated in April. (imagine living in San Diego and then having to spend February north of Chicago!).  She then attended TSC training and will now be an Operations Specialist (ship navigation) on a destroyer.  She will be stationed at Norfolk, VA and will be joining her ship, which is already at sea, very soon.

Thank you, Dominique, for serving our country and keeping us safe!