Monroeville, IN

Monroeville is an Allen County town in southeastern Indiana, platted in 1851 and still working from a compact town center east of Fort Wayne. Its most unusual local role comes from the cycling map: Adventure Cycling Association routes pass through town, and the Monroeville Community Center provides cyclist-only lodging, showers, and laundry. That turns a place of about a thousand people into an overnight stop for riders moving across the region.

ATTRNyttend / Public domain

The local week has more than bicycle traffic. East Allen County Schools serves the town through Heritage Elementary and Heritage Junior/Senior High, while the Monroeville branch of the Allen County Public Library provides books, programs, and a gathering place. The community center and library give the town two different kinds of welcome — one aimed at travelers on a long route, the other at residents' ordinary routines. Monroeville feels like a crossroads with a service instinct: school buses and local errands during the week, touring cyclists passing through on the larger Indiana road network.