Day 5: October 22, 2017
Three Termini

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For the last two days, my breakfast has been made up of fruit and pastries furnished as part of the conference, but today I have to buy my own. Good luck put one of the city's top rated breakfast spots just up the road from my motel and even on my planned path. As soon as I walked in, I knew Sophia's House of Pancakes would have the good sausage, and they did.

In addition to US-35, I knew of two other roads with end points in Michigan. I was not planning the seek out the northern terminus of US-421, but I was happy to snap a picture when I passed it about a half-mile north of Sophis's.

I did seek out the northern terminus of the Historic Michigan Road. It connected the Ohio River and Lake Michigan in the early nineteenth century. Today the last mile or so of what was once the Michigan Road is overlaid by US-12. The old road ended where the intersection is in the first picture. The modern Michigan Road distinguishes itself from other named highways by having a power plant on one side of its former end point and a skateboard park on the other.

I'm 100% certain that I passed through the US-35 northern terminus; I'm not 100% certain where I did it. Until 2009, US-35 ended at US-12. That intersection now has a "TO 35" sign, which I failed to photograph, pointing down Michigan Boulevard. I've included the Michigan Road sign because it is the first I noticed. I strongly suspect that I missed one or more. This one is about 3 1/2 miles south of US-12 on Michigan Boulevard.

US-35 now officially ends at US-20. That would seem to be where it takes off toward La Porte in the third photo. But the sign assembly in the second photo is almost two miles north of there. Maybe it's just left over from the days when 35 went all the way to 12 or maybe not. An article at US Ends indicates that it really is as confusing as it seemed.


These two courthouses do look similar but the first is in La Port (La Port County) and the second in Winamac (Pulaski County).

I encountered the first of the day's two detours between Kokomo and Gas City. It was well behaved and fairly short, and caused me to miss only about four miles of US-35. Gas City gets its name from the natural gas that was discovered there in 1887. Street signs shaped like derricks reinforce the gas theme.

The day's second detour occurred at IN-1 a little west of the town of Economy. It was not, in my opinion, well behaved. It caused my to miss some eighteen miles of US-35 and was a big part of my ending the day where I did. I'm guessing there are guidelines about US route detours that involve using other US routes. This detour started with a four mile run back north to US-36. It then used eleven miles of US-36 to get to US-27 and a dozen miles of US-27 to reconnect with US-35.


I'd actually been thinking about stopping at the Golden Inn and the irritation of the detour helped with the decision. The bird house is across the parking lot from the motel office and I imagine that area is the setting for some of Lea Ann Golden's bird photos. The wagon filled with pumpkins is at the big produce stand on the other side of US-40/National Road. The little orchard is at the east end of the motel. Jeff Golden told me what's growing there but my memory's horrible and so is my ability to identify trees. I know that there are pecan, walnut, peach, and cherry trees and that there are some berries near the small creek that runs through the property.

Maybe you noticed the absence of motel pictures. The only photo that includes any part of the motel is one I took of the car to make a point of it being a gorgeous top-down October day. That's an oversight. The absence of an interior shot is intentional. I've stayed here multiple times and posted interior shots in the past. Since the room was as clean and comfortable as ever and looked basically the same, I decided I didn't need a new collage. Apparently I've thought the same things on other visits since the most recent interior view I can find is from 2008. Yes, the basics are the same but there are updates like refrigerators and flat-screen TVs. A more recent view would be good. Next time.


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