Road Trip! We decided that 500 miles was as far as we could drive in a day, spun the dial, and ended up planning a trip to Indianapolis. Pack our trusty Seven Tandem, a bunch of cycling outfits and our sense of adventure into the mini-van, and a vacation happens!
I want to be up front about the fact that there was no ice cream, but there were lots of fun rides, good food and treats along the way.
We stayed in Carmel, a northern suburb of Indy. It’s a lovely town built up around the Monon, an outstanding bike trail. And there are quirks: apparently the mayor is a fan of everything European and is the driving force behind replacing almost all of the traffic lights with…traffic circles. Sources tell us there are over 130 roundabouts in town.
The Monon trail is about 20 miles from Indy to Sheridan.
The Big Four trail in Lebanon seems like a work in progress.
A rainy day washed out one of our five planned rides, but we used that day for sightseeing in downtown Indianapolis and a visit to Shapiro’s deli.
Lunch was right in downtown at a famous spot called Shapiro’s.
After our rain day, the skies cleared and we were able to enjoy two more rides. One took us to an unbelievable coffee shop (that was really a community center) in a place called Arcadia. And to the tiny town of Atlanta (who knew?).
For our last ride of the trip, we drove to Kokomo, home of Kokomo Joe, a world-famous blues musician. The Nickel Plate Trail was our destination, and we rode to Peru and back. Fun fact, according to the locals, Peru is the amateur circus capital of the world!
Our reason for going to Peru wasn’t the circus (although it was circus week), it was for the bakery at the end of the trail. The only thing that beats a bakery at the end of the trail is SPRINKLES!
People “in the know” told us we shouldn’t leave Indy without a visit to St. Elmo steak house. We listened, and we were rewarded with an incredible meal. Although we didn’t see him, it’s apparently Peyton’s favorite place and it’s easy to understand why. Great food and great service – and the shrimp cocktail is swimming in horseradish sauce (consider yourself warned)!
We enjoyed our week in the corn fields and flat terrain.
Next up, a long weekend in Athens, GA featuring heat and hills.
Eve and Roger's Cycling Adventures 
🙂 🙂 love the trail review and the f.o.o.d/treats! Yummy.
I have been reading your posts for a couple of years, and really enjoy reading them. I’m in the Nashville area, we have great riding in Franklin and south if you ever want to come and check it out.
Also, I would be interested to read about how you guys travel, meaning pictures and explaining how you get the bike into the minivan, do you use a mount? or tie it off? Can you get luggage around it? do you guys stay in hotels or airbnb type places? Really looking at the logistic part of the travel.
Thanks in advance and keep riding.
On Fri, Jul 30, 2021 at 8:54 AM Eve and Roger’s Cycling Adventures wrote:
> evekofsky posted: ” Road Trip! We decided that 500 miles was as far as we > could drive in a day, spun the dial, and ended up planning a trip to > Indianapolis. Pack our trusty Seven Tandem, a bunch of cycling outfits and > our sense of adventure into the mini-van, and a vacatio” >
So many questions! You would be amazed at how much stuff we get into our minivan! I’ll try to remember to get a pic for you (especially when we travel with 2 tandems). This trip was all hotel but we went the air B&B route during our big trip in Florida this past February, it was a great way to travel and still isolate before the vaccines were available for our age group.
Glad you got away. I always enjoy your posts and your amazing collection of jerseys.
Sounds like a fun and as usual yummy bike trip! Looking forward to seeing you both again!
I see that you both have Mont Ventoux jerseys. Did you climb to the summit on your tandem? If so, my congratulations! Seth and I did it (with another friend, Fred) on rented singles when we were in Provence several years ago. No way would either of us have attempted it on a tandem with our wives. We bought jerseys too.
Hey Steve, Yes we climbed Ventoux for the second time in June of 2019. You can read about it here (and even see your comment from two years ago)!