Category: Travel

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7 Things You Didn’t Expect to Find in Madison County, Indiana

House of Glass, Elwood, Indiana

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There’s a view that the middle of the U.S. is nothing but farm fields.

Drive an hour or so northeast of the of the Indianapolis Airport, and you’ll find yourself in Madison County (not the one with the bridges). It has its share of agriculture, for sure, but there are also cultural and historical sites, and people passionate about things they make.

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I bet you didn’t know you could find all this in Madison County, Indiana:

1. A performing arts theater that makes you feel like you’re sitting in a Spanish courtyard under a starry sky. The Paramount Theatre Centre is one of only a handful of remaining atmospheric theaters by architect John Eberson.

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2. Large, 2000-year-old heaps of earth built up by mysterious ancient people(s) to align with heavenly bodies at Mounds State Park.

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3. Free public wifi throughout downtown Anderson (the county seat), thanks to dozens of hotspots. (PDF map)

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4. The House of Glass, a family-run artisan glass studio, which still crafts each piece by hand in the tradition of their French ancestors.

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5. A gospel music recording studio that also serves insanely good house-made cakes, Pure & Simple Restaurant at Gaither Family Resources. (Phillip wants me to add that the pot roast skillet was also delicious. So was the chicken bacon mac and cheese.)

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6. The first historic district to be added to the National Register of Historic Places – West Eighth Street Historic District. (Walking tour map)

7. The world’s largest ball of paint, a baseball that’s been coated in more than 24,000 layers of paint over the last 37 years and now weighs over 4,000 pounds.

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Where to Stay

Our homebase while we explored Madison County was a suite at the conveniently-located Best Western Plus in Anderson, which included breakfast every morning and coffee all day. (Yeah!)

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A big thank you to Anderson Madison County Visitor and Convention Bureau! We were their guests at the Best Western Plus and at Pure & Simple Restaurant. But I wasn’t kidding about that cake.

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From Cheesesteak to Cheesecake: “Local” is Relative

Independence Hall

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“Really?! You want to eat one of those things?”

Until at that moment, I hadn’t thought wanting to get a Philly cheesesteak in Philly was such a crazy idea. But Phillip’s uncles, who we were visiting a few years back, seemed surprised and disgusted at the thought.

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I guess when you have lived your whole life just outside of Philadelphia, you’re over the whole cheesesteak thing.

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More recently, while in line at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, we struck up a conversation with some guys from Germany, who had already been to their bucket-list restaurant for their SoCal trip. It wasn’t a beachside seafood spot, Downtown Disney diner, trendy vegan cafe, or even an L.A. taco truck.

It was the Cheesecake Factory.

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To me, that’s part of a big ol’ chain I could eat at whenever (but haven’t for a long time). To them, it’s the hangout from The Big Bang Theory, and something you can’t experience where they’re from.

Local – and interesting – eating is relative.
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Microblog Mondays: Write in your own space

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Phoenix Classic Movie Nights

It’s not too late for summer movies! In fact, there are some interesting movie events coming up in the Phoenix/Tempe area this week that I thought I’d share.

Since the current temperature outside is officially hothothot, 2 out of 3 are indoors – the other one includes snow imported to cool things down. More of the traditional “movies in the park” nights around here happen in the spring, so I’ve listed those, as well.

Screenings Starting This Week

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1. Heist film series at FilmBar

Today through 9/3

  • Series includes True Romance, The Italian Job, The Usual Suspects
  • FilmBar also features a monthly Arizona Filmmaker Showcase (next one: 9/5) and wine tastings the 3rd Friday of every month.
  • Light rail stop: Roosevelt/Central
  • FilmBar and CityScape (see #2) are each about .5 mile from Civic Space Park and its suspended sculpture, Her Secret is Patience.

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2. Grease at CityScape

8/20 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (Movie at 7:40 p.m.)

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3. The Last Starfighter at Pollack Tempe Cinemas

8/22 9:30pm

  • Cult Classics hosts a monthly screening of classic films year-round with giveaways and commemorative merch.
  • Each screening is announced the month before.
  • VIP ticket packages that include prints, t-shirts, etc. are also available.

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Spring events

Phoenix Film Festival (April 7-14, 2016)

Movies in the park (approximate dates based on past year):

What kind of movie events do you enjoy (in Phoenix or elsewhere)?

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A Mount Lemmon Trip

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Mount Lemmon doesn’t have a website.

Which, I guess, makes sense, since it’s a mountain. Although that didn’t stop Mt. Rainier or even Camelback. Maybe the difference is that they’re both the main event in their respective parks. Mt. Lemmon, on the other hand, is just one impressive part of the impressive Santa Catalina Mountains and extensive Coronado National Forest.

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It’s right outside Tucson, but, as much as Phillip and I like hanging out in that area, I’ve never been on Mt. Lemmon itself. Tucson is a 1.5 hour drive, and then it takes another hour to wind your way up the mountain, so it kind of requires its own designated trip.

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Which is happening soon, because my dad thought we (he, Mom, Phillip and I) needed to take a day trip before Phillip goes back to grad school and disappears for 9 months / can’t do anything fun / gets much busier.

We decided to go to Mt. Lemmon since my mom hasn’t been there either. We’ll drive around, picnic, and maybe take a hike. But probably a short one, because the elevation at the top is about 9,000 feet. That is significantly higher than Denver. It’s actually closer to La Paz, Bolivia’s 11,000+ feet.

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Side note: Thinking about this made me wonder about all the high-altitude places I’ve been and how they compare to each other. So I made a little, roughly-to-scale chart. Maybe I’ll do a better one later, where I actually write legibly and measure the lines. Maybe.

Side note to the side note: I’m thinking of titling my chart “Great Heights” or “Altitude is Everything” or “Elevations I Have Known and Loved” or maybe just “Places I’ve Been High.”

Really, the point is that I’m gonna be moving slow up there in the thinner air.

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Driving from the Tucson desert to the pine-covered top of Mt. Lemmon takes you through climate zones equivalent to driving from Mexico to Canada.

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Mt. Lemmon is one of the sky islands, a poetically-named category of mountains in the Southwest U.S. and Mexico that have dramatically different environments than the areas around them. They have remarkable biodiversity, including plants and animals you normally wouldn’t find in the region.

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My favorite is the coatimundi, a mammal that’s native to Central America but also inhabits the sky islands. When we went to Chiricahua National Monument (also sky island territory) a few years back, I got kind of obsessed focused on trying to spot one in the wild. It hasn’t happened yet, but, during the trip, I’ll definitely be on the lookout.

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PS I’ll be posting info from my Craft Camp presentation soon.

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10 hours to sleep, eat, and sightsee: Indianapolis 2nd lap

Lobby of Fairfield Inn

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The Marriott shuttle we had almost missed drove its very important flight crew passengers to the Courtyard Indianapolis Airport hotel and then took us down the street to the Fairfield Inn & Suites.

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The lobby had a trendy little sitting area off to one side and a front desk with a rad goldfish cracker dispenser. When we checked in, the night clerk told us they’d upgraded our room. Nice but unnecessary, since we really just needed to crash. I was too tired by that time to worry about the details, though.

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Our unnecessarily nice room had the same type of bold-patterned decor as the lobby. Beyond the coffee shelf, couch, and desk was what you’re really looking for after a long day of travel stuff: a comfortable bed.

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In the morning (the actual morning, not our 2am check-in time, which only counts as “morning” on a technicality), we got our receipt and realized they charged us extra for the unrequested upgrade. Phillip was able to get it all sorted out with the goldfish desk. So it wasn’t a big deal in an otherwise good stay. I only bring it up to say this is why I double check everything.

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Breakfast with Champions

Apparently, flight crews stay at the Courtyard; Little Leaguers stay at the Fairfield. Across the lobby from the goldfish desk was the breakfast buffet, and a few tables overflowing with 12-year-old boys in light blue baseball uniforms.

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A couple of them ended up joining our table. They were in town for a tournament. We asked one of the boys what his goal was for the game that day, while he picked at the waffle his mom had stopped by to cut for him. He matter-of-factly answered, “hit three home runs.” His friend said the same. Gotta love big dreamers.

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Squaring Up

While I finished getting ready, Phillip took the shuttle back to the airport to pick up our rental car. We managed to get loaded up and checked out with an hour or so to kill. Which is basically how we ended up in Fountain Square. It looked interesting, was on the way, and it happened to be the day of the annual Fountain Square Music Festival.

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Neighborhoods have their own circadian rhythms. This one felt like it was still yawning and stretching and blinking in the sunlight. With the exception of a couple restaurants, most of the square was closed when we were there. The historic theater stood quiet with a lone employee hosing off the front sidewalk. The festival hadn’t started yet, and a handful of people were hanging banners and setting up. The place would probably be hopping in a couple of hours.

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In the meantime, we had a pleasant walk among the historic buildings with vintagey signs and street art sprinkled in, listening to one of the bands warming up over the rhythmic splash of the fountain before getting back in the car and heading for Anderson.

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– More info –

Fountain Square:

Our Indiana (Heartlandiana) trip

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