Indiana

Well, for all who were dying to know, the third state we checked off our Bucket List on our crazy roadtrip was Indiana. 

Obviously, we drove through several states on this trip (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois if you must know), but the only three we counted for our official goal to #SeeAll50 were Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. Remember, our parameter for this goal is to actually stop and do a specific activity unique to the state to be able to check it off the list. So in Indiana, we voluntarily spent the night in jail.

I kid you not. The Old Jail Inn served as Parke County, Indiana's jail and sheriff's office from 1879 to 1998 and was converted and opened as a Bed & Breakfast in 2010. The cells each have their own theme and we spent our night behind bars in the Bonnie and Clyde cell.

Not only is Parke County, Indiana home to the Old Jail Inn, it's the covered bridge capital of the world with a whopping 31 covered bridges so we spent the first day of October on a covered bridge scavenger hunt.

How sweet are these bridges?! We found 10 out of 31 and at our 10th covered bridge, we also visited the oldest continually operating sawmill west of the Alleghenies. They sell all sorts of yummy goods and I picked up a bag of fresh ground, whole grain pumpkin pancake mix.

These Parke County people know their market--we found the most adorable little antique shop called Lover's Lane Antiques. To get inside, you have to go through their own covered bridge. Come. On.

As fun as finding each lovely covered bridge was, my favorite part of our quest was driving down streets like this to find them:

Gravel roads, miles of undeveloped land, corn taller than my husband, windmills slowly turning in the sunset: I loved driving through Indiana.

And speaking of the drive, the real star of this insane 6-day, 2,800+ mile roadtrip was our Fit. This was the first big trip we took in our little car and we couldn't be prouder of our Honda. She handled the long days, gravel roads, and countless detours like a champ, and we're ready to take her back out whenever the travel bug bites us next.

Indiana : done.

5 down, 45 to go. And we even have our next trip planned out and ready to go. What are some things we can't miss as we visit the 45 remaining states on our list? Have you ever driven through a covered wooden bridge? Have you spent any memorable nights in jail, voluntarily or otherwise? Tell me all your stories.