The Strom has been a fantastic partner over the years and carried me to some great vantage points. This one at Aurora, Indiana, looking upstream on the Ohio ranks high on the list. Photos by the author.

Despite being a lifelong Hoosier, I hadn?t spent much time riding in the southern part of Indiana. This year would be different — I had a family reunion coming up in Bloomington, only four hours away from home in Valparaiso. I also had some rare extra days off from my mill job, so I thought I?d meander my way there instead of taking the direct route. Using secondary roads exclusively crossed my mind, but I didn?t have that much time.

A map of the route taken. By Bill Tipton/compartmaps.com.

I headed east on U.S. Route 30, then south on U.S. Routes 35 and 31. Thankfully, the rains that plagued us for weeks had finally stopped. Indiana is squarely in the Corn Belt, but the crop in our part of the state was pretty much toast due to the wet conditions. This was painfully obvious mile after mile, as stunted seedlings were barely at the ankle. The old saying is “knee high by the Fourth of July,” but with modern hybrids, most years the stalks are at the shoulder or better by late June.
North of Indy I jumped on State Highway 38. I?d noticed a scenic route designation on the map for State Highway 1, starting at Hagerstown, less than 20 miles from the Ohio border. The town is also just above the imaginary line that separates the state into north and sout...