Covered Bridges and Indy Speedway !!!

Yesterday was an amazing day.  We went out in search of the covered bridges I wanted to see so badly.  Parke County was supposed to be the place to see them.

For some reason, these old structures have some sort of charm for me.  It's such a piece of history and if they could speak they would tell us  about all the horse and buggy carriages that came through with the ladies in their finest and the men all dapper and having just had the weekly bath!

Yes, I do have a vivid imagination!

Just look at this, isn't it beautiful?  Can you hear the horses hooves? (hoofs?)
Aw c'mon, you can imagine can't you?


The reason they built covered bridges,  is that the roof kept the beams and timbers from being hammered by the weather.  To see the inside of one, you would wonder if it will ever come down.  They are as sturdy and strong as can be.

We saw several of these beautiful structures within just a couple miles.  Each bridge had the same thing painted above the entrance:  The year it was built; the name of the builder; the name of the bridge; and the instruction to "walk" through the bridge.  Obviously meaning to walk your horses.

This was the last one we saw and probably the most beautiful one.  It was certainly the longest one and was painted red.  It is over a beautiful river and the falls you see in the picture just add to the ambiance.   It is a beautiful setting for sure.

After leaving the area of the covered bridges, we encountered a sign on this very small badly paved road that said "Barn Sale"....being the nosey one, I said to Wayne, "let's stop there"....

We got out of the car, walked up to this huge white barn with 3-4 people inside.  Just outside the entrance was an old fashioned metal tub filled with a burning fire.  I stopped  just for a minute and warmed my hands, felt good.  The guy walked up and said "feels good don't it?"....my thoughts exactly!   He said he'd come on down here about 5:00 this morning and started it up.

We went on inside and there were table after table of the usual garage sale stuff but in these parts, it was a Barn Sale.  They had an old fashioned, I mean REALLY old fashioned stove they wanted $250 for and the note said "Firm".  I'm sure it would have been a good buy, but what would I do with it?

We bid the guy goodbye and asked if there were a nice place to spend the night somewhere nearby.  Well, that started a long conversation about how we could "go on down to the county line, over to ....."  none of which was either intelligible  to us or informative so we thanked him and got back into the car.

Then, after a few miles, we began to hear banjo's playing if you know what I mean.  Our GPS lady we were sure had lost her electronic mind since she had us driving on gravel roads only slightly wider than our car and badly paved roads.  After what seemed like an eternity, we finally found a real  road with real civilization and off we went.

It turned out we got a room in Indianapolis at the Hampton Inn.  We were really tired after our adventure that day.

Then, this morning, our GPS lady led us to the Indianapolis Speedway and boy what fun we had there!

We drove and drove and drove alongside the speedway, only to see the back of the stands.  Had no idea it was so big! Wow, it just went on forever!

Look!  There is an open gate!  Turn in, turn in!  The stern guard at the gate when asked if we could just come in for a minute to see the track responded with a very determined "Nope, not from this end"......she then went on to explain how we could get into the inside so off we went back to where we were to begin with.  Although her instructions were a bit confusing at first, they became crystal clear when we got to where she told us to go.

We went thru a tunnel, under the speedway and up into the inside of the track.  There was a huge building that housed a museum and two gift shops.  Reading the signs, we see there is a tour we can take ON the track!  How exciting.  

We go into the building and buy our tickets for the ride!  The tickets were a whopping $3 each!  Can't beat that price!  It's now 11:10 and the lady says the next ride leaves at 11:30.  Wow, not only accidentally finding this place but also our timing was  perfect!

We got onto the shuttle type bus thing, one of those 10-12 passenger vans you see taking people to and from airports and hotels.  We were the first on so we sat right in the front where I could video out the front window and the side too.

What a thrill that ride was!  They told us all sorts of details about the racetrack and history of it's drivers.  One of the things I found interesting was that to illustrate the speed the drivers are running, it would be like going the length of a football field in  .9 seconds!!  That is, less than one second to cover the length of a football field.  Now that's fast!!!

Entering the track

   Into turn one

                                                         The straightaway to the finish line.

The famous "Gasoline Alley"

The bricks remaining in the finish line.

I didn't know this, but they said that the original bricks were not taken up, but covered and are still there below all the  surfacing that has taken place since.

They left the ones in a few rows only at the finish line.

It was a thrilling morning for us and we are not even necessarily race fans!  It was an impressive place for sure.  

We left Indianapolis and headed west for the first time since we left home almost a month ago now.  We plan to go back and see Mt. Rushmore on the way home and of course we are going back through Yellowstone one more time!

You cannot absolutely cannot spend too much time in Yellowstone!

We are staying tonight in a place called Ottawa Illinois and I must say not to impressed.  We got into our room at the Holiday Inn Express and freshened up a bit.  We left to go find a nice place to have dinner.  Well we drove and drove and drove around and around and could not find anything but fast food places.  No "hot food you eat with a fork" as we used to say during baseball season.  

After spending too much time driving around, we just gave up, went to McDonald's and brought our "dinner" back in a paper bag!

Tomorrow will be another exciting day, I'm sure.  What will we find tomorrow?

More later.....

Love to all

Wayne and Colleen