50 States in '08: #40 INDIANA

The Indiana quarter features an Indy car. The 2.5 mile oval Indianapolis Motor Speedway is could accommodate Vatican City, the Roman Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, Churchill Downs and Wimbledon’s Centre Court. It’s the world’s largest spectator sporting facility with more than 250,000 permanent seats. Today the Indy 500 is billed at the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”. You can check it out and actually take of a bus tour of the track when it’s not otherwise occupied and visit the Hall of Fame Museum.

Indianapolis is 13^th largest city in the nation, with a greater population than San Francisco, Boston, Seattle or Las Vegas. Somehow it seems much smaller. I was here visiting family in Oct. 2007 and really like Indianapolis. Carolyn and Marilyn were terrific tours guide and justly proud of their city.

This time around my sister & I agreed to meet at the Indianapolis airport and planned to get to know the Hoosier State a bit better before dipping up into Michigan on our way to Chicago. She drove from Chicago and I flew in. We had a plethora of Road Food options in the Indianapolis area and were weighing the pros and cons of our selection for a Saturday night dinner. The best laid of plans… for once it was not the fault of the airlines but the highways. Crissa was delayed about two hours so I set up camp in the TGI Fridays at IND to wait. When she finally arrived instead of making her drive another 45 minutes to a different restaurant she joined me in my booth and we had dinner there. There’s a distinct difference between “road food” and food on the road. Sometimes this is the best option all around. Rested, relaxed and fed we continued out journey to our home of the night in Carmel (pronounced like the candy, not like the coastal California home of Clint Eastwood), just north of Indianapolis. The first automatic traffic signal in the county was manufactured and installed here. It also was the scene of the only crime mentioned on the 11 o’clock news that evening. I suspect that Carmel is normally a quiet, safe community, as is most of Indiana but felt it was ironic that here we were tonight.

We left the next morning driving past cornfields and smiley-face festooned barns towards Kokomo, home of Old Ben, a taxidermied 4,700 pound steer. Gotta love the taxidermist!

We continued our way north along highway 31 stopping just north of Rochester at the Fulton County museum. The joint was jumping because this weekend was the Annual Trail of Courage Living History Festival. A “Pre-1840 event held on the banks of the Tippecanoe River, shows frontier life with historic encampments. Foods cooked over wood fires, 2 stages with music & dance, canoe rides, traditional crafts, cannon demo, frontier blab school (????), post office, muzzleloader shooting, storytellers, Indian dancing and FREE PARKING.” How could we resist? Truthfully, we did resist. We toured the museum and the adjacent Round Barn Museum but left the muzzleloaders and frontiers-people to their own devices. Did you know that Fulton County, Indiana is the Round Barn Capitol of the world?

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore lies between Gary and Michigan City, IN on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. The surrounding communities are reportedly desirable vacation property for Chicagoans. I find it hard to image cottage on the lake nirvana when one is tucked in-between the smelly steel mills and industry of Gary and the power-plant of Michigan City but I’ve not been to any of the gated communities with private beaches so I could just be misinformed and excluded. We did visit the Lighthouse Outlet Mall in Michigan City and had a great sisterly shopping spree. Sales tax here is considerably less than that in neighboring Chicago making this a shopping destination. Incidentally, the steam-spewing cooling tower that dominates the Michigan City skyline looks nuclear but it’s actually a fossil-fuel power plant. The Michigan City Generating Station natural draft, hyperbolic cooling tower is enormous (361 feet high, 252 feet in diameter.) The tower cools and re-circulates water pumped from Lake Michigan for reuse like a car radiator. It’s ugly. Carlson’s Drive-in is supposed to be good stop for hot dogs and homemade root beer, Bubbles Ice Cream Parlor for a sundae but we opted for a diet coke out of the machine at the mall.

For the proverbial next time I am interested in visiting Nappanee’s Amish Acres, a 19-century Amish town with hotels, live theater, and family-style dinners and farm wagon rides. Sounds fun doesn’t it? Columbus is an architectural mecca with building designed by Alexander Girard, Robert Trent Jones, I.M.Pei, Eero and Eliel Saarinen and Henry Weese. I’d like to go there too.

The 9^th U.S. President, William Henry Harrison was governor of the Indiana Territory before making it to the White House. His grandson, Benjamin Harrison was a local Indy attorney who became the 23^rd U.S. President.

Santa Claus, IN postmarks over 500,000 holiday cards each year between Nov, 15 and Dec. 20.

One of the largest Amish communities in the world is Shipshewana, IN

One can’t forget the 70’s sitcom One Day at a Time set in Indianapolis. Wonder what Schneider is doing today?

David Letterman, Jane Pauley, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, architect Michael Graves, Red Skelton, author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. came from the Crossroads of America. As do outlaw John Dillinger, novelist Booth Tarkington, poet James Whitcomb Riley and vice presidents Charles Fairbanks, Thomas Hendricks, Thomas Marshall and Dan Quayle.

James Dean hails from Grant County, Indiana “Where Cool Was Born”. So, too, does Garfield the Cat creator Jim Davis.

Of course there’s the Indy Wine Trail comprised of seven Indianapolis area wineries. The oldest and largest winery in the state is Oliver Winery in Bloomington. Again, I sample no local winery but I am considering collecting as many state samples as possible and having a 50 States in ’08 tasting. Beware family and friends!

On May 4, 1871, the first professional baseball game took place in Fort Wayne.

Of all the 50 states, Indiana contains the most miles of interstate highway per square mile.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their expedition from Fort Vincennes.

Indiana is listed 24^th out of 50 as a bicycle friendly state by the League of American Bicyclists. Interestingly Carmel and Bloomington were listed as the most bike-friendly communities. The rest of the state must score quite poorly to bring them down to 24^th. I did enjoy the 10.5 mile Monon trail in Indianapolis which connects to Carmel. I’m surprised that Indianapolis wasn’t rated bike friendly.

The Indiana song just HAD to be John “Cougar” Mellencamp’s Small Town. The Bloomington resident has Indiana in his blood and sings proudly of his heritage. Crissa & I listened to Mellencamp’s Greatest Hits all the way through the state.

I’ve struggled with a book for Indiana. The Omnivoracious Books of the State Indiana post (thank you G!) listed several of which I’ve selected three: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, The Magnificient Ambersons by Booth Tarkington and A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel. All authors are products of the state and all three promise to be diversely good reads. I plan to read all and will report back.