To the tens of thousands of visitors who will be converging on our state capitol this week for the Super Bowl: Welcome to Indiana.

For those of you who want to know more about our state, we encourage you to travel beyond Indianapolis, drive the endless country roads and visit some communities – wander Indiana, if you will (inside joke).

But even if you don’t venture outside of downtown Indy, we want to help you understand a little more about our state. So here’s a visitor’s guide to Indiana.

Our vernacular

•You’ll find out quickly that Indiana is called the Hoosier state, and its residents are Hoosiers. What does that mean? There are several theories, but no one really knows. How could a state that uses this strange word so often not even know what it means? Get over it. We have.

But we can tell you this: Call someone from the state an Indianan, and we will know that you are a stranger who is not to be trusted, even if you do spend a lot of money here.

•If you decide to get outside the comfort zone of Indy and visit some of our towns, you should know there are rules about how many of our city names are pronounced. You may think you know how to say Russiaville, Galveston, LaFontaine, Carmel, Schererville and many others, but you probably don’t.

•We collect Q-pons, not coupons, and many of us warsh our dishes.

•We have numerous expressions for “yes,” including “yepper,” “Is the Pope Catholic?” and a word we cannot print in the newspaper followed by the letter A. Why this means “yes,” I really can’t explain.

Our politics

•Our state Senate leader is really tall, our governor is fairly short, and if you think our House minority leader’s toupee is bad, you should have seen the one he had before.

•You are stepping right into the tail end of a debate about whether Indiana should be the only Midwestern state to adopt an anti-union right-to-work law. Some NFL players may be speaking against the proposed law and for unions. The unionized NFL has a starting salary in excess of $325,000 per year. The only way this proposal will be defeated is if all working Hoosiers can join the NFL Players Association.

•We’re known as a red state, but our governor’s office and U.S. Senate seats have a long history of going back and forth between Republicans and Democrats. It’s not that we can’t make up our minds, it’s just that we don’t like either party getting too comfortable. We’re trusting, but we still lock our doors.

•That awful, noxious smell you detect in some downtown Indianapolis bars is called cigarette smoke, something you probably aren’t used to in the bars back home. We debate banning this every year.

•Indiana has 92 counties, but people in 91 counties might prefer that Lake County secede from the state and move to Illinois.

Our sports

•Many Hoosiers are diehard Colts fans, but many also have a long and deep loyalty to Da Bears.

• There is an imaginary line that crosses somewhere in southern Wells County. Those who live north follow the Cubs; those who live south follow the Reds. And some people around Evansville like the St. Louis Cardinals. You can’t get to Evansville from Indy – but we’re working on it.

•While Indiana is very proud to host the big football game, basketball is king, and the film “Hoosiers” is a fairly accurate description of the sport’s popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. It’s still very popular, but not like it was back then for two reasons: Lots of small high schools have closed, and more families have more members who have to work more hours.

•As much as we like the major sports, we are pretty well-rounded in other sports, too. In addition to its storied basketball team, Indiana University is also known for its success at soccer. Both Ball State and IPFW have nationally renowned volleyball programs. The most popular sports team in northeast Indiana is the Komets hockey team.

And thousands of Hoosiers are quite adept at a game called cornhole – possibly not the greatest moniker for a game, but so what?

Other aspects

Our geography. OK, we admit it. Driving across Indiana isn’t on anyone’s list of top 100 scenic drives. But those flat fields produce ample crops of corn, soybeans and wheat. And we have lots of water. Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams – it’s hard to go more than a couple of miles without finding a place to fish. There are some surprisingly pretty drives along some of those rivers, and just an hour south of Indy, Brown County is practically a miniature Smoky Mountains.

Our transportation. Hoosiers are a self-reliant lot, and public transportation isn’t exactly something we emphasize. Bus systems are spotty, passenger rail is almost non-existent, and we’d sooner move to Brooklyn than car pool. You’ll see a lot more pickup trucks than BMWs. But we are building a top-notch system of bike trails, and our entire state is criss-crossed by countless roads, ranging from recently repaved to barely dirt.

Our music. Scan across the radio dial, and you’ll find surprising diversity – jazz, rock, metal, hip-hop, country, folk, blues. Not only will you find all of that in Indiana, you may find live music of all genres on the same block – or even from the same band. Our musical natives include Wes Montgomery, Michael Jackson, Cole Porter, Crystal Gayle and a guy born in a small town who likes to fight authority and throw cherry bombs. (But please, don’t get us started about the state’s fireworks law.)

Our food. Lots of meat and potatoes. But you’ll find a surprisingly wonderful variety of menu items, and practically every town in the state has at least one restaurant worth patronizing. For something uniquely Hoosier, check out a Pizza King, and that remarkable Indiana favorite, the breaded tenderloin.

Ask a group of Hoosiers who has the best breaded tenderloin in the state, and they’ll be arguing about it until next year’s Super Bowl.

Our beer. If you drive the back roads and go through some small towns, you’re likely to see Pabst Blue Ribbon signs in some of the taverns. You may think that means we’re really hip, but in all honesty, those signs have been there for decades.