Hittin' Up the Hoosier State
A drive from Ohio to Indiana was pretty familiar for me. After all, I had lived three places in Indiana during my college years (Marion, Albion, and Anderson). While the drive between the two states was not always the same route, the cities and roads in between were nothing new.
We left Delaware State Park in Delaware Ohio on Monday morning and arrived at the Indianapolis KOA in Greenfield, Indiana in the late afternoon. After turning “Charlie” back into home after preparing him for travel earlier in the day, we settled in for the night. Time to rest up as we had planned activities for the next couple days.
Tuesday morning, I headed to a friend’s house on the West side of Indianapolis. I hadn’t seen my friend, Hillary, in 6 years. I played softball with her in college so we were used to spending quite a bit of time together. After all, she was a pitcher and I was a catcher so lots of hours were spent warming up in the bullpen. Lucky for me, Hillary had plans for her kids to get together with another college teammate, Britney, and her kids that very same day. We spent the day decorating sugar cookies for Halloween, catching up over pizza, and painting pumpkins! While the five hours we spent together were wonderful, it’s never enough time to catch up on years worth of stories. So lets plan to get together again before 2023!
When Wednesday rolled around we had a day’s worth of stops and visits planned. Our first destination was the Hoosier Gym located in Knightstown, IN just about 25 minutes from our campground. The Hoosier Gym is most famous for being the location for the 1986 basketball movie Hoosiers. If you aren’t familiar (Netflix it NOW), it is the greatest basketball movie of all time. The movie tells the story about Indiana’s obsession with basketball and was inspired by the true story of the 1954 Indiana State Champions - the Milan Indians rather than the Hickory Huskers portrayed in the movie. Due to the popularity of this film, the old Knightstown gymnasium is now known as Hoosier Gym and has been turned into a museum and community center. The two volunteers who were working that day took us around and gave us all sorts of history about the movie as well as the gym itself. After the tour, we hit the hardwood for some photos and to shoot around. If you are a sports enthusiast, the Hoosier Gym is definitely worth a visit.
After shooting hoops and rehashing movie quotes, we headed toward our next destination of my alma mater of Indiana Wesleyan University. However, we couldn’t stop there before checking out another college town of Anderson, Indiana where I got my teaching license. This is where I lived when I first met Russ in Indianapolis! Awh! We enjoyed seeing all the things that had changed, but even more so all the little places that are still around, including the incredibly cute little place I called home. While the old beauty shop turned one bedroom house was in need of a little TLC, I’m glad we took them time to drive by. After that quick detour, we continued to Marion, Indiana. After getting a bit disoriented on the campus of IWU which had changed drastically since my last visit at least ten years ago, I found our way around and pointed out a few key places to Russ - the softball field, my dorm, and the student center. The student center is where we met up with my college softball coach, Sue Bowman. Coach Bowman visited my cupcake shop in Pennsylvania a few times over the last several years, but we still had a lot of catching up to do. Thanks Coach for a fun afternoon.
Even though we were headed to do a mystery shop at one of our favorite restaurants in Indianapolis, I couldn’t pass up a chance to take Russ to my favorite ice cream shop in Indiana. Ivanhoe’s is located in Upland, Indiana and is famous for its 100 flavors of sundaes & 100 flavors of shakes. Making it a bad place for people who have trouble making decisions, such as me! However, when it comes to ice cream I am pretty quick decision maker! I opted for #30 (Cookie Monster) on the sundae menu, while Russ went for #92 (Trojan One) on the shakes menu. I joked with him that he wouldn’t have been able to get that one when I was in college as the Taylor University Trojans were one of our big rivals. But I understand him not wanting to say no to Peanut Butter, Nuts, & Chocolate. And don’t worry, Mom, I ate an extra spoonful of hot fudge just for you!
While we didn’t get to spend any time to explore downtown Indianapolis (a city which we love), we did get to check out some new sites and spend time with old friends which makes any stop on a road trip well worth it! Twelve years ago, Russ and I met in Indianapolis so it will always hold a special place in our hearts.
