Dark Meat Snack and I loaded up and left Pittsburgh at the crack of late morning today.

I had a little trouble with the goofy eBay camera trigger I bought for the trip, but I finally got the damn thing to work:

Pittsburgh is a fun city, with a lot of bridges.

Our plan was to take it easy today, thus the late start. We got on the highway, which is good for two things. One, getting from place to place as efficiently as possible, and two, to bore people senseless.

When faced with a day of tedium, you have to invent your fun when you can. For example, when was the last time you passed a gigantic strawberry on the highway?

As we were cruising along, I noticed a cluster of four motorcycle headlights coming up behind us. They were riding faster than us, so we pulled over to let them pass. Out of habit, I waved, then realized my mistake.

The bikers were Outlaws, most likely riding to Milwaukee for the Harley hundred fifth anniversary, or possibly to go rape, plunder and pillage an unsuspecting town. When I waved, the lead Outlaw looked at me with the same look of contempt that I give to scooter riders that make the mistake of giving me the rider wave.

Needless to say, I didn’t bother to snap their picture, because I want to live to ride another day.

At lunch Abi and I decided that if we were to start our own motorcycle gang, we’d call it the Inlaws. And we would wave at everyone, except scooter riders. They’d get the finger.

Ohio allows triple decker train trucks on the highway, which is a pretty scary thing. These gigantic vehicles are hard to pass, and weave around like snakes on the highway.

We stopped in a rest area to grab a quick lunch, and my ever-so-thoughtful riding partner gave me a gift:

It’s a flattened penny that says, ‘Cleveland West Lighthouse’. Abi handed it to me and said, “There you go. Now we don’t have to stop there.”

What a guy!

One thing Ohio has is corn. A LOT of corn. We must have passed at least five-trillion, seven-hundred-billion, fifty million ears of corn on that flat, boring highway.

And barns. Lots of barns. Naturally. Where else would you put all that corn?

While riding on this straight, flat, boring highway, my mind began to wander (as it often does, boring highway or not) I started to think to myself; if only I could figure out a way to make something really useful out of corn, like whisky or cigars, I could move to Ohio and become a billionaire.

The highway, consistently flat straight and boring led us straight from Ohio and straight into Indiana.

Indiana has the most unique animal warning system I’ve ever encountered. All along the highway are these solar powered sensor devices, spaced every couple hundred feet or so to warn of animals in the road.

My mind wandered again. I couldn’t help but wonder if a good old fashioned analog fence wouldn’t work just as well…

We arrived in Elkhart, Indiana at five PM, happy to be off the road early, so we can rest up for tomorrow; ‘The Big Day’ when we attempt to ride one thousand more miles through more corn fields to Rapid City, South Dakota.

Should be interesting… hopefully.

Track our progress on the SPOT tracker page, and leave us some comments!

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