Today's pageview zip code

I haven't done one of these in a long time, again due to the combination of not seeing the count every time I'm in here and, when I do, them either not being a valid zip code or not representing someplace I've been. Today's is both, though:

West Branch, IA 52358 - We pass through this zip code when we visit our dear friends in the Omaha area. It's about two-thirds of the way along the drive there.

The (at least temporary) return of pageview zip code posts

Blogger changed their landing page, so I no longer see a page view count every time I log on. When I've thought to check it, my current count hasn't been an assigned zip code. So I'm including the current one even though I've never been there:

Hillsdale, IN  47854 - I started my longest, hottest ever day of bike riding about 23 miles south and 7 miles west of here, The Ride Across Indiana: One day, One way, 160 miles.

Today's pageview zip code

Fort Wayne, IN  46825  The dear reader has probably read enough about my trip to South Bend and my ride in Three Oaks, so I won't bother with another link to them, although I almost certainly passed through this zip code to get to there. I suppose if I'd realized I'd have so many more opportunities I might have saved some of the details for later.

Today's pageview zip code

Laotto, IN 46763, still along the route to my cousin's place in Michigan.

Recent page view zip codes

 . . . have been in northeastern Indiana near, but not on, my routes to and from South Bend, IN and Three Oaks, MI, (Arcola, IN  46704) and also Vicksburg, MI (Auburn, IN  46706; Corunna, IN 46730), or all of these (Albion, IN 46701)

Today's pageview zip codes

Argos, IN  46501, Atwood, IN 46502  I have passed just north of these zip code twice - well, on both legs of round trips on two separate occasions. The first time was in 1988, with our friends Herb and Maureen as we attended the national charismatic conference at Notre Dame. This was my only visit to the campus, and I can understand why people love it. This was just a couple months after my sister had passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly at age 23, due to a drug problem none of us knew she had. I didn't fully realize how filled with remorse I was over the role I might have played in her drug issues in my younger days - by the conference I'd turned 28 (so a dear friend was a newborn!) - and that I'd never really shared the gospel with her following my conversion experience. After the sessions late one night, I joined others at the grotto and felt led to ask for prayer, though I wasn't really sure for what. I was surprised when I heard myself sharing with the prayer team the burden that I didn't even realize was on my heart. As they prayed with me, I had the experience of being "slain in the Spirit" for the only time in my life, as the Holy Spirit brought me God's consolation in my grief and flooded me with a deep sense of His mercy and love. I laid there for what felt like a half hour but was probably only a few minutes, allowing my loving Lord to minister to me, and arose with a deep sense of gratitude for His forgiveness and with a truly peaceful spirit, as the months-long tension with which I'd been unwittingly living was lifted from me. The next day I found myself able to join in the praise and worship with abandon.

My second trip through the area was on my way to and from the Apple Cider Century in Three Oaks, MI. At that point, I still had aspirations of doing a century (100-mile ride) in every state, back before my cramping issues really developed. I'll have to look at my shirt from that ride to see what year it was, or perhaps I have information in a scrapbook at home. Memories of the ride: I overnighted at a motel west of South Bend and drove the last 25 miles the morning of the ride; a pancake breakfast was served in the town firehouse; there was apple cider to drink at every rest stop; the ride was very well supported; route markings were in the shape of an apple, and color coded for the five different length rides; I ended up feeling a little as if I had cheated on my goal, because about 45 miles of the century route was in Indiana; I talked with some folks at both breakfast and lunch who had come over from Chicago for the ride; lunch was at park in a neighborhood with a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. A coworker friend did this ride just a few years ago and lunch was no longer at such a picturesque venue.

Today's pageview zip code

Gary, IN  46403, 46409 - I've definitely driven through these on my way to and from Chicago. I went through the second one on my first trip, on my way around to Oakbrook Terrace, and through the first one when my bride and I made our Chicago trip the following year. We had a great weekend in which we took in a play (Cabaret, with Teri Hatcher) and a baseball game (Orioles at White Sox), and I introduced her to both Maggiano's and Giordano's, as well as had my first Chicago style hot dog.

I just remembered that there was a third trip, too, to set up for a trade show in 1997. In fact, now that I think about the details, I'm pretty sure the trip I mentioned in last week's post actually followed that one, and that this trade show trip was when I visited both Maggiano's and Giordano's for the first time.

Today's pageview zip code

Hammond, IN 46324  I drove through here on my first trip to Chicago, a business visit to train field engineers to use our new knowledge base. I stayed in Oakbrook Terrace and road the El into the city for my first visit. I had dinner at Maggiano's with our department head, and had my first Giordano's pizza. Before I left our local service manager took a few of us to a very foggy dessert at the top of the Hancock building, after making us momentarily fear for our lives by turning the wrong way on a partially closed street.  I'd later return with Teri for a weekend date, but we didn't pass through this zip code together because we stayed in the city proper.

Today's pageview zip codes

Beverly Shores, IN  46301 
Chesterton, IN  46304
I'm betting this is an expensive area to live in . . .

Today's pageview zip code

Indianapolis, IN  46204. We've been in this zip code numerous times, and I've never been there by bicycle. Once when we were heading to a wedding in Illinois, we decided to stop in Indy for dinner. We were in the downtown area, and asked some random local for a suggestion. They sent us to Bazbeaux Pizza - which sounds as incongruous as the new Wei's Pizza just down the street from us that we haven't tried yet - on Massachusetts Ave. With a great selection of artisan pizzas, we have made a couple of returns on subsequent trips to town.

Today's pageview zip code

Greenfield, IN  46140. I've driven through here numerous times, on my way back and forth to St. Louis, Champaign, Omaha (twice), Chicago (twice), and most often just Indianapolis (several times to and from IU Medical Center). And, of course, rode through on that outrageous cycling day.

Today's pageview zip codes

Clayton, IN  46118.  I've definitely passed through this one, several times by car, and by bicycle on my longest, hottest day of cycling ever. Later I'll edit this post to indicate the year I did the Ride Across Indiana (RAIN), with a slogan of One Day, One Way, 160 miles. It was brutally hot, with air temps reaching around 98°F, which made the temperature over the blacktop surface of U.S. 40 close to 110°F. Even the distance seems more than a little nuts now, and the temperature seems totally and certifiably insane.

Also, Coatesville, IN  46121. No drive throughs, only the aforementioned day of madness. And: what a strangely shaped zip code!

Recent pageview zip codes

We're visiting Indiana, including Alexandria, 46001; Noblesville, 46060; and Rossville, 46065. I've physically passed closest to the last of these, on my way to and from Chicago.

Update: Thorntown, 46071. I've definitely driven through this one.

'Nother update: Whitestown, 46075. Have driven through this one, too.

Today's pageview "zip code" . . .

. . . takes me back to Germany, about an hour by train from a place we've visited (also by train).

Today's pageview zip code

New Hampshire, OH 45870  I've ridden my bike nearly to here. We have friends with a place in Russells Point, on the lake, and I rode up there once for a get together.

Today's pageview zip codes

Lima, OH  45804 I've definitely driven through here a couple times, but not very often, and I've never left I75 here. (This one was from last night, actually.)

Cecil, OH  45821  We passed just south of here, through Van Wert, on our way to my cousin's place in Vicksburg, MI. (We'd been through Vicksburg, MS, too, on one of our trips south.) My heart is with my cousin and his family in Michigan this week, as they bury his son-in-law, who died in a motorcycle accident on Friday.

Today's pageview zip code

Vincent, OH 45784 - I passed just south of here on the same cycling weekend that I blogged about briefly last week.

Today's pageview zip code

Ray, OH  45672  I drove along the northern edge of this zip code on my way to and from the Cheat Mountain Challenge in 2009, which was my last cycling century, perhaps ever. Now it looks as if the route through the southwest corner would have been quicker. I'm pretty sure this wasn't the zip code in which I was briefly lost on the way home.  I'm still pretty proud that my friend and I were the last two finishers of this ride ever; 2009 was the last year they held it.

Today's pageview zip code

Franklin Furnace, OH  45629, just north of, and across the river from, Teri's cousins' place in KY.

Today's pageview zip code

Springfield, OH 45501; a pretty small zip