An Update on the County Tour Project

I've had an influx of questions lately (in person, mostly) from people wanting to know if we have been to all the counties yet.

That would be a solid no.

But I thought I would pause to update you on this project of ours, including some of our top takeaways so far from the project.

It all began almost exactly six years ago now, when I stole a brilliant idea from a listener who called in to WBCL and said she and her husband had a goal of visiting all 92 counties in the state of Indiana. They were retired schoolteachers with a deep love of history, and they wanted to tour our fine state to unearth all the fascinating historical gems found within its borders.

I wasn't sure about the history part (back then) but I thought the whole thing sounded like a grand adventure indeed, so I immediately concocted a plan for us to take a similar tour. We began about six months later, on the very day of a nasty polar vortex storm, barely arriving back home ahead of the snow dump. Our first county, Blackford, was the 4th smallest in the state of Indiana, and it only had two towns of significant size and not a whole lot to see between the two.

But it did have a fantastic coffee shop, and that was one of our goals: find a coffee shop in every county.

Because Ryan works so many weekends and because I speak so often and because...well...life, we haven't plowed through this project with nearly the speed I'd hoped, but that is okay! As far as I know, the counties aren't going anywhere.

To date, we have purposefully toured 28 counties, which brings us just about 1/3 of the way to our goal of all 92.

(If you want to see the highlights of the counties we've seen so far, go here and scroll to the bottom of all the travels. The counties make up the last list.)

Things We Have Learned About Indiana From This Adventure:

* Indiana is NOT a boring state. I feared it would be. Since I grew up here, I was sort of trained to believe Indiana is the armpit of the USA. (Perhaps most state residents feel that way about their own states.) But Indiana is far from boring! Even in the 4th smallest county, it's not boring. We have seen beautiful landscape, explored some fun cities, uncovered some small-town gems, and learned things (yes, even about history!) that we hadn't even remotely known.

* Indiana is NOT all cornfields. Granted, we do have a good number of them here in our part of the state, but the northern 1/3 of the state is dotted by beautiful lakes and even has some proper sandy dunes! The southern 1/3 of the state is so hilly, you'd be hard-pressed to know you're even still in Indiana, and it's also covered by thick forests. And even the flat, field-y part of the state is beautiful in its own way, with a good number of treasures to be found among the fields.

* Indiana has a lot of good coffee. In fact, so far we've only been disappointed in one county. (It had a Starbucks, so I guess technically it had a coffee shop, but it was the only county where we failed to find a proper local coffee shop.)

* Indiana is proof that you don't have to travel hundreds of miles to find something fun to do. While we still enjoy crossing the boundaries into other states to explore even more options for fun, we have learned there are TONS of fun things right here in our own backyard. (And even if you are not from Indiana, my guess is the same is true of your own state.

* Indiana counties are creative in their tourism. Well...maybe not in all the counties. But many are becoming that way. Some have trails, and I don't mean hiking trails. Barn quilts, statues, food stops...all kinds of trails you can follow to explore the best of what the county has to offer. Some of the smaller towns are upping their game in drawing you in for a taste of small-town life, and it's truly beautiful to see.

Some of Our Favorite Finds in Indiana So Far...

* Shaka Shack Coffee - It was only the second coffee shop we visited, and yet it remains at the top of the list of our favorites. It stays there partly because the coffee was great and partly because we loved the atmosphere and vision of the shop and its owner. I think this is the only coffee shop we've made a purposeful visit back to see - other than the one in our own county, of course.

* Clifty Falls State Park - The state park that DEFINITELY reminds you Indiana is more than flat cornfields. We hiked many miles and climbed many steep trails in this one, but it remains one of the most beautiful parks we've seen yet. (And we fully expected that from pictures we'd seen from our Clifty Falls-loving friends prior to our trip!

* Auburn, Cord, Deusenberg Museum - This was from our most recent county tour, which was rather hastily thrown together, but it was memorable in a wonderful way. This proved to us that we really do like history after all! (And cars, apparently!) All the classic cars in a huge building...beautiful! This was also the day we learned that Indiana has a much richer automotive industry than we even knew.

* The Garfield Trail - This was our adventure in Grant County back when Grant County was our home. We feared we wouldn't find anything fun to do there, since it really was our own backyard. But when you live in the same county where Garfield's creator hails from, you spend the day driving to all the far reaches of the county to find all the Garfield statues! It was so fun (and there are even more on the trail now than there were back then).

* French Lick Resort and West Baden Springs Hotel - More proof that history can be fun! When we visited this area, we couldn't afford to stay at either of these hotels, but we did spring for the tour, and we ended up having a great guide who made history fun. We learned so much about the industry of that area and the history of these amazing hotels - one of which had undergone a mind-blowing renovation to bring it back to its original state.

* Indiana Dunes State (now National) Park - This was one of my favorite weekend trips we've ever done. We actually knocked out three counties in one weekend, and part of our trip involved hiking the 3 Dune Challenge at Indiana Dunes State Park. Just a few months ago, the park was upgraded to a national park - a first for Indiana, I believe! It was a beautiful park I'd love to visit again, even though we've checked off this county for tour purposes!

* County Line Orchard - This was part of that same weekend and was actually an "accidental" find after we started our trip. One of our other stops didn't take nearly as long as we thought it would, and we found ourselves with several hours to spare. We happened upon a postcard for the orchard and thought we'd check it out. It had a huge corn maze, tons of photo opp props, and we had a blast!

That's just a highlight list. We've actually had a great time at EVERY single county we've visited so far. Looking forward to lengthening that list a bit in the months to come!

Here are the first twenty-five counties in a collage:

And then the last three we've done: