Much of the Wabash & Erie canal has been filled in and essentially erased from the landscape. There are, however, a few structures remaining that show just a small part of how immense was the effort of building the canal. Here's a photo of Kerr Lock (Lock # 14 in Lagro, Indiana). Thomas E. Castaldi in his series of notebooks about the W & E Canal, published by Parrot Printing Inc., Fort Wayne, details the people and the work that went into building the canal. His notebooks are very detailed and meticulously referenced and interesting to read.
According to Mr. Castaldi, Lagro is a bastardization of the french "Le Gros", or "big body" which french fur traders called Chief O-sah-la-monee, a Miami.
I cheated here by not traveling to Lagro on my bike, but in my truck. Some day I'd like to ride the entire route from Toledo, Ohio, to Evansville, Indiana. I have mapped a route on roads that I think are relatively safe from Toledo to Delphi, Indiana, a distance somewhere around 200 miles. I plan to do some of this in June, 2009.
A blog I just found is Two Wheels - a blog about fixed wheel bikes. I have a Schwinn LeTour III I am thinking about making into a fixie as a result of Jon Grinder's blog grinderswheels.blogspot.com. This blog has opened a whole new world of biking to me. I like the simplicity.
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