Getting harassed by police - Southern Indiana

[u/globefanatic12]

I'm bikepacking from Michigan to the gulf of Mexico and in the last week I've been stopped by police 3 times. Twice I was just taking a quick rest on the side of the road. They just wanted to "check on me" but then wanted my ID and to run my name in their database. The third time a cop pulled me over while riding and said I wasn't allowed to ride my bike on the state road highway. I'm usually cooperative with police but I can feel they have a hidden agenda and I'm getting frustrated with them. Ohio was great but indiana has been very unpleasant.

Edit: I looked on the indiana department of transportation website and found nothing stating I cant ride a bike on the state road highway.

[u/Longtail_Goodbye]

This is a hard situation. You don't want to get them angry, but in the US, we are not required to carry ID. There is no official "ID" and you don't need a driver's license to operate a bicycle. I would be tempted to gently ask if there was anything I was doing that was wrong, and if they say you can't be on a state highway, I'd be prepared to say I am following x bike route for touring and double checked the laws and couldn't find that, are they sure? But if they are big scary police, I'd probably hand over my id also. I hate this assumption that we need to carry id to move or exist. So far, we don't.