The Spokesrider

The man depicted in the statue is Menominee, a Potawatomi leader who refused to sign the treaty by which the last remaining land in Indiana was taken from them. He wouldn’t really have worn a headress like that, but this statue is from a time when that was the standard image of an Indian chief.

I stopped to take a snapshot of this barn early in a ride to Bruce Lake.  It wasn’t too many miles south of Bremen.   A dog was barking somewhere in the background. When I got back on my bike, a whole pack of beagle-like dogs came out on the road to greet me.  Suddenly [...]

This is a photo looking north from the south edge of Tippecanoe, taken on my first visit ever to the area in summer 2000. I remembered the railroad tracks, which seemed to serve as a giant speed bump for the road into town. It’s as if the railroad grade didn’t deign to run at the [...]

The first time I had been to Tippecanoe, probably in 2000, it seemed I had stumbled on a place that was far away from everything else and that everything was several decades old. I’ve felt that way in a few other crossroads towns in Indiana. But this one didn’t give that impression this time. Last [...]

I didn’t see any more Amish places south of US-30. Five miles south of Etna Green I turned west on a less-traveled county road. I wanted to see the country that had been part of Che-chaw-kose’s reservation. The above-pictured place is on this land, very near the Tippecanoe River. [Edit & Note: Actually, it may [...]

I should have been motivated to get going sooner, because this was going to be the longest ride of the week. The day’s destination was north of Pulaski, at least 80 miles away. But we first went to get a restaurant breakfast, and it was late morning before I got going. And then the weather [...]