COLUMBUS, OH – At a little after 5 AM, and on an hour of sleep, it was time to continue west.  First stop was Hoosier Hill, Indiana’s highest point.  Patrick and I parked on a dirt road next to a cornfield, got out and hiked the remaining 50 feet to the summit.  By 10 AM we were in Indianapolis for a drive-by of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  It was the day before the Brickyard 400, and the place was abuzz with race fans.

By 12 noon, we found ourselves enjoying a 5.10 sport route on Indiana sandstone called “Little Breed.”  The “Unlikely Wall” – considered by those in the know to be the finest rock climbing crag in the entire state – is about ten miles south of Bloomington.  It allowed me to check off Indiana as my 11th state with technical rock climbing.  The wall is mostly man-made, formed when highway 37 needed to blast through the surrounding hillsides.  We met a climber from Pennsylvania already on the wall, a wall that definitely exceeded expectations.

Patrick rapping off Little Breed

From there, it was on to the Land of Lincoln and more climbing at Jackson Falls State Park in south central Illinois.  But it was here, about 50 miles north of Jackson Falls that that we suffered our first defeat.  Skies darkened and afternoon thunder scuttled our rock climbing plans.  The rain also spoiled plans to climb in Missouri’s Ozarks and visit Taum Sauk, Missouri’s highest point.    Ever resilient, we formulated a new strategy which took us to the banks of the Mississippi River.  On the opposite shore, shimmering brilliantly in the evening sun was the iconic Gateway Arch.

Patrick and I spent a good hour snapping pictures and craning our necks to glimpse this most imposing structure.  After a quick drive-by of the new Busch Stadium, we drove into suburbia to meet up with Josh Turner of CampingGearTV.com fame.  Josh showed us a night on the town which included the local punk rock scene at a bar with the most eclectic sampling of humanity I have ever encountered under one roof.