For the last few years I have been lucky enough to take a bicycle oriented vacation with my by brother Steve. 2023 saw the big Dolomites to Venice tour, but most years we meet in Indiana and plan 4 or 5 days of rides. Our 2024 bike-cation centered on Bloomington and points north, and then a couple of days exploring Indianapolis and the Monon trail.
I’m writing this several months away from my trip, so many of the details are fuzzy. However, the first few days were spent taking day trips from Steves house in Bloomington. Bloomington has a wonderful bicycle trail called the B-Line. We took advantage of riding on that to get our feet wet and prepared for longer, and hillier, rides in southern Indiana.
Our first bigger ride of 50 or so kilometers (30ish miles) was north of Bloomington through the little town of Ellettsville. The town is sparsely populated, but there were interesting old buildings on the once active Main Street through town. Rural Indiana roads can be really beautiful, and we had plenty of scenery to keep us entertained.
The Monon Trail is one that we have booth been very interested in for a few years. It starts near downtown Indianapolis, and continues out of the city beyond the city/county limits into neighboring Hamilton county.
We both grew un in Indiana, and Steve still lives there, however we both know very little about Indianapolis and its geography. Riding the trail was definitely an interesting experience and gave us a unique view of the city.
We stayed in Indianapolis in a hotel on the Circle because I had an early morning flight the following day. it gave us an opportunity to wander around the city in the evening where we stumbled upon a Bike Party Indianapolis social ride. We had already locked our bikes in the hotel room, and were walking to have a meal so we didn’t join. But they certainly looked like they had fun.
I love Bike-Cation. I hope we can keep it up long into the future.
