The first thing we did after checking out this morning was call our friends Teri and Bruce in Bloomington, Indiana. We were supposed to meet them for lunch, maybe in Indianapolis, but the Indianapolis 500 starts tomorrow, bringing something like 350,000 people -- and, more importantly for us, their cars -- to the highway we were planning on taking today. They advised us on an alternate route to see them in Bloomington instead of Indianapolis, and we were off.

We were off, and I was driving. Yeah, that's a weird one. I drove for the first hour or two of the day. It wasn't *that* bad. (I do have a valid license, it's just been a decade since I used it as much as I did today...) Rick wanted to teach me how to pump gas in Columbus, but I weakly protested that driving itself was enough information for one day. Once I learned how to change lanes without turning Rick's knuckles white, things were pretty smooth. He's a patient man.

A few things have started happening since we hit Ohio and the midwest: lower prices, more churches, more Bible verses on gas station/motel/restaurant/store signs, and more of those weird poles with restaurant/hotel/gas station logos on top that you only seem to see between the two US coasts. It occurred to me to make the entire mid-region of the country into one state named Logos-on-Poles. We've also started sharing the road with weirdo farm equipment, like tractors. Then there was this scene:

Me: [pointing at oncoming traffic] "What the %#@&ing *%^@ is that?!"
Rick: "That's a combine, Jen."
Me: "A what?"
Rick: "It cuts the hay."

Oh.

The Indianapolis-avoidant way to Bloomington took a while, plus we got lost. But now we feel that we've fully bonded with small-town Ohio and Indiana, plus we got to stop for some hilarious, if not nutritious and delicious, heartland chain food and beverage. Lunch was from White Castle, a chain best known for teensy tiny burgers. (Serving size appears to be four, but then, we Americans eat too much). We got coffee at Frisch's Big Boy, where Rick posed for a photo with the mascot and we started to hear thick southern accents, though we weren't actually in the south. About ten vehicles got speeding tickets as we drove by at limit+5, including two truck trailers. It's Memorial Day weekend; the highway patrols aren't messing around.

We did reach Bloomington eventually, at 4pm. We called Teri and Bruce and they agreed to meet us. Then Rick noticed his cell phone said it was 3pm. Turns out Indiana ignores Daylight Savings Time, so the time change, which would normally happen at the time zone line between Indiana and Illinois, happened after Ohio. Having gained a random hour, we decided the new hour should replace the hour we spent lost and backtracking :) At least the weather was nice; no torrential rain like the route to Columbus, OH.

Teri and I had half-jokingly discussed going to the midwestern chain "Steak and Shake," but they had a better idea: get us the hell out of highway culture and into downtown Bloomington, the one liberal enclave in a conservative state and the home of the University of Indiana and a few tens of thousands of students. It was definitely a college town, even after the students have gone home, as evinced by coffeehouses, ethnic restaurants including a Tibetan place owned by the Dali Lama's brother, and an average of three political bumper stickers per car. Apparently there's been a big to-do about the building of a new McDonalds, and the Bloomington Starbucks keeps getting bricks through the windows. Ah, to be young and have nothing better to be outraged about than the already irreversible chain-ing and corporate-ing of America. We also got one of the two most elusive links in License Plate Bingo, an Alaska plate. C'mon, Hawaii...

First, our local guides gave us some of the native microbrew -- we just had a bottle in the hotel, by the way, and it's good! (Upland Amber Ale, for you beer nerds). Then they took us to Soma (a joke for you Aldous Huxley nerds), a funky caf