RAPEA - Day 12 - Dayton OH to Dwight IL

Today was a banner day! We traveled through three states - OH, IN, and IL and crossed over from EST to CST thereby gaining an hour. It was all Interstate this time as the trip would have taken too long on the backroads. So the scenery was somewhat similar to yesterday's with a few notable exceptions and a stop along the way.

When we stopped in Aliquippa my brother asked me to be on the lookout for some Buffalo Trace Bourbon during our travels. I don't know if it's Covid related but evidently there's a shortage in the greater Pittsburgh area. Who knew?! So when we spotted a billboard shortly after crossing into IN which said Crown Liquors was one of the largest purveyors of alcoholic beverages in the state and it was just off the next exit in Greenfield, we decided to make a pit stop to see if they had any. 

We passed right by it on the first attempt due to heavy road construction and had to make a u-turn but found it on our second attempt. I asked the clerk and she said they normally stock it but they were out and to try Walmart across the street. Say what?! Evidently in Indiana Walmart has a full liquor license. Will wonders never cease?!

We left the cold weather and clouds back in OH and the temperature climbed steadily as we headed southwest. For a couple hundred miles all we saw was vast farmland on both sides of the interstate occasionally accompanied by a farmhouse and barn along with the ever present silos. There were single silos and silo clusters. Tall narrow silos and short wide silos. But one silo stood out from the crowd. It was massive and very near the road and it had a flat top with a large green tractor on top. How the hell that got up there is beyond me. The side facing the interstate had a large banner completely covering it. The banner read, "Farmers for Trump 2020".

The number of Trump signs had diminished in OH but reappeared in IN and now IL. In IN we added a new item to spot in our car game. Wind Turbines. We drove through the middle of an exceptionally large wind farm near Chalmers IN. We drove through a much smaller one just outside Kankakee IL and there's a single wind turbine on a slight rise behind the motel where we are stopped tonight in Dwight IL.

If you are eager to become one with nature, you're going to want to make a note of these next two points of interest. For the last two hours of today's journey we exited the interstate to travel the backroads the rest of the way. Right off I65 on State Route 10 lies the sleepy little burg of Roselawn IN, population 3,954. What, you may ask, is their claim to fame? Well this non-descript little village boasts not ONE, but TWO naturist camps right across the road from one another! Is that crazy or what? And get this...one of them claims to be a FAMILY camp! The Ponderosa Sun Club is excited to announce they're reopening 15 MAY and the 4th of JULY Celebration includes a golf cart and bicycle parade. They bill themselves as a full on nudist resort. While across the road the Sun Aura Resort is billed as "clothing optional". Come to Indiana and let your freak flag fly, ladies and gentlemen and bring the kids and Grandma too.

To me the greatest sight all day has been when I spotted this one little sign. Running parallel to the road was a short stretch of cracked asphalt under assault by Amazonian weeds intent on its total destruction but it's beacon still shone through. We had discovered the Mother Road. The iconic trail followed by many a wanderer in search of a new horizon. And tomorrow my friends, we join them.

By the way we literally blew into town here in sunny, 77 degree Dwight IL. The wind speed when we arrived was 29mph! The temperature has dropped to 73 now but the wind speed is still at 19mph. To say I am blown away by the prospect of embarking on Route 66 is an understatement right now.