It didn’t take long to set up camp, but it was already late in the afternoon. The wind was from the southeast, so I picked Murray, to the northwest, as the destination. This would be good enough for a starter ride.
I rode mostly on the St. Mary’s side of the Wabash River. The terrain here is mostly flat, much of it very flat. This view from an old schoolyard is a small sample. I never got near my granny gear for the entire four-day outing.
Here’s another view of the school.
More flatness. I got to see a lot of the wheat harvest over the four days, starting here, near Bluffton. (The Amish version of the harvest looked a little different than this.)
I thought the barn in the distance was the most likely place where the Allen Norcross farmstead had been. I learned a couple of days later that it may not be that simple. But when he died in 1879, Norcross owned some of the land seen here.
I rode up and down the streets of Murray, looking for the cemetery. It didn’t take long, but I had no luck. But people were out setting up their holiday barbecues, so I found people to ask. The first person said he was too new in Murray to know where there is one. The second person pleaded newness, too, but gave me directions to a cemetery north of town, even though he hadn’t yet learned the road and street names.
I had no luck finding the Allen Norcross gravestone, but later I learned where it was. I don’t have a good excuse for missing it. The ride ended here, though. Myra came and joined me in the search, and then we drove to the site of one of the other early settlers who had also fled at the time of the Black Hawk war. Then we got a bite to eat. All in all, it was fine for a starter ride. In the evening there were 4th of July fireworks at the campground.
[...] Spokesrider entries about Allen Norcross are here and [...]