Welcome to Indiana

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

October 2 and 3, 2022

After attending church in Celina, Ohio, we weren't in a big hurry to leave our comfortable camping site at the fairgrounds. This is one of the few campgrounds that doesn't have a check-out time, and they encouraged us to stay as long as we wanted. So we enjoyed the electric hook-ups until 4:30 in the afternoon before we hit the road. That's because we are headed to an overnight spot with no electricity about 80 miles away. But first, we crossed yet another state line into Indiana--the crossroads of America. Their welcoming sign also pointed out that this is the home state of President Benjamin Harrison, as well as Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home. Welcome to Indiana!

The drive was flat and uneventful--just the way we like it. We met some big-wheeled agricultural vehicles . . .

as well as some narrow-wheeled buggies on our drive into Indiana.

We arrived at Harrah's Hoosier Casino not too long before dark.  This is our first casino boondocking stay for the entire summer. We walked from the RV parking lot to the casino to let them know that we were spending the night, and to see if they had any freebies for new members. We got player's cards, and spun the wheel to see if we would win up to $1,000 in free play money. For both of us, the wheel stopped on the minimum prize--$5 in food credit. So we left the casino with two free pieces of pizza and no great gambling winnings. We did win a quiet night in the parking lot, and spent the rest of the evening making reservations for the remainder of our path to our oldest son's home near Kansas City. Speaking of which, we also got a phone call from that household this evening. Our almost two-year-old grandson requested a call to Doo-Dude (his way of saying Grand-dude). The facetime call ended with him holding his arms up for us to pick him up, and then he kissed the telephone screen to tell us good-bye. That's one of the reasons we are picking up speed as we are nearing the end of our summer's journey.

The next morning we left the casino parking lot, and made the 43 mile trip to a Walmart in Indianapolis. We wanted to avoid rush hour because we had heard that I-70 going through Indy is closed, so everyone must take the outside loop. We were in heavy traffic even at 10:30, when we parked the motor home at Walmart and then drove the pickup into the city center. We drove by the stadium where the NFL Indianapolis Colts play their home football games.

We got to downtown, which is an interesting mix of modern tall buildings that mirror the old green domes of historic buildings nearby.

We were lucky to find a good parking spot on the street near our destination--the Indiana State House.

It's hard to get far enough away to get a picture of this impressive building, made of Indiana limestone.

We got a private tour of the interior of this state house that was built in 1888. It's one of the few state capitols that still hosts all three branches of state government under one roof.

The Senate chamber looks more like a hotel atrium. But instead of hotel rooms ringing the chamber, behind the windows are the offices of the Senators.

When viewed from the upper gallery, the most impressive part of the House chamber is the giant chandelier that hangs precariously overhead.

While the legislative chambers have been updated over the years, the Supreme Court still looks just like it did when the building opened in 1888. Even the chairs inside the court are original. When this state house was built, it used gas for lighting. It was wired for electricity because the architect knew that option would be available soon. If you look closely at the light fixtures on the wall, you can see upward facing gas light fixtures, that are coupled with more down-ward facing electric bulbs.

The third member of the government branch trifecta is the governor. He still does business in this large office in the state house.

Old pay phones are long gone from the state house, but their private cubicles are still available for a more private cell phone conversation too.

While the state house was lovely, the crowning jewel had to be the stained glass window in the dome.

Before 1980, visitors would have looked up into dome to see a blackened ceiling. Because of the steam heat and the gas lights that had been used for almost 100 years, the German stained glass had turned to black. So a very careful cleaning process started in 1980 that cleaned every single piece of glass to its original glory. What a beautiful dome!

While the interior of this state house included its share of impressive statues and paintings, our favorite piece was this bronze copy of the state of Indiana poem. We encourage you to read about "Ain't God good to Indiana?"

After we finished our private state house tour, we wanted to do a little exploring in downtown Indy. The center point of interest has to be the Soldier and Sailor Memorial in the busy central traffic circle. It was beautiful against the perfectly blue sky, ringed by the downtown skyscrapers. If you look carefully, you can see Mark standing at the base to give a little bit of the scale of size to this tall memorial.

The elevator that takes visitors to the top was not running today. So we were limited to views from the bottom of the memorial. Indianapolis has one of the most impressive veterans memorials we have ever seen, taking up prime real estate among the big buildings.

We found another memorial nearby--the 9/11 memorial that features two 11,000-pound beams from the World Trade Center.

We had planned to move the pickup to the nearby White River State Park, but we found that our metered parking spot near the capitol was cheaper than the park's. So we unloaded the bikes and set off to explore Indianapolis on two wheels.

We rode the 3.4-mile canal loop, plus part of the White River Trail. 

The canal trail took us to the museum zone, and a photo op to become the "I" in Indy with a back drop of downtown.

In front of the state museum was this unusual steam-powered clock. We waited around to hear its steam-powered chimes.

We rode our bikes by this tall tower of colored tiles named "The Tent" (we don't know why), as well as the NCAA Museum, the children's museum, and the art museum.

The bike trail also took us beside the White River on our right, and the tall walls of the Indianapolis Zoo on our left. There are no cracks in that tall wall that allow a peek into the zoo--ask us how we know.

It was a lovely weather day to enjoy a very nice urban bike ride. We're pretty impressed with Indiana's capitol city--except for a big homeless camp we found when we tried to bike away from the tourist section of the trail.  

We also found that Indianapolis doesn't have any good camping options. So we loaded our bikes back onto the pickup, and drove back to the Walmart where we had left the motor home parked. Then it was an 82-mile drive on to our next camping spot--but that's a story for the next blog.