Hicksville..

Well, I always thought that most places I've been in my life was "hicksville", but yesterday really was!

Nine of us took off for parts unknown, yesterday morning, from our new meeting place at Gabriel's Pancake House in Marion, Indiana.  I led the ride as our usual leader, Merle, was "under the weather".  I had no idea where we were going except north.  First stop was McDonald's at North Manchester for coffee.  Then we headed north for "The Lakes".  I had some idea about touring Lake Wawasee or Lake Tippecanoe but when I got up to U.S. 6,  I decided to go east.  No reason, just "wandering.  That's what I like to do on my motorcycle, wander.  We stopped at Kendalville for lunch and then continued east to St. Rd. 49 in Ohio.  We turned south on St. Rd. 49 and traveled south through Ohio.  My "goal in life" is to lead us to roads we have never traveled.  I'd say yesterday, I completed my goal.  We were all over the Ohio country side on back roads.  That's how we came to be in The Village of Hicksville, Ohio.

http://www.villageofhicksville.com/around-the-village.php

I must say, The Village of Hicksville was one of the prettiest towns I've ever been in.  It has a great downtown with many blocks of small stores.  The entire town is as clean and neat as you could want.  I don't know why some small towns are so nice while others are rundown and dirty.  Hicksville has a new elementary school (being a retired teacher I always notice the schools) that is really magnificent looking.  All brick and very big.

After we left Hicksville we went south down to Payne, Ohio.  I rode past the Wildcat Creek Popcorn Farm before I knew it or I would have pulled in and bought some popcorn.  They sell the greatest popcorn in the world---white chocolate covered almond popcorn!  You have to taste it to know how good popcorn can be!  Here's their website:

http://www.wildcatcreekpopcorn.com/

Anyway, we wound our way down country roads until we picked up U.S. 224 and then headed west to Decatur, where we stopped for gas.  It was a fast run (the sky looked like rain and we did get sprinkled on) back to Bluffton and home.  I didn't realize it at the time but we made a round-robin trip around Fort Wayne.

227 miles in total and I was tired.  Very nice ride and a good day.