We awoke Saturday morning to find clear blue skies and a brilliant sun, indicating that at last the weather was starting to warm up. With no basketball today we set out to explore the city a bit more. Indianapolis, known locally as the "Circle City," is actually laid out in quadrants, which converge in the traffic circle at the center of downtown a few blocks from our hotel. At the center of the circle is a striking monument to the Indianapolis Volunteers, men who fought in (as described on the monument) the "War for the Union", pictured in the lower photo to the right. Within a very few blocks there are other almost-as-impressive monuments to those who have served in various conflicts, including one dedicated to Hoosiers (the unofficial nickname for Indiana residents) who have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. A few blocks to the west is the impressive Indiana state capitol, pictured at the upper right. These handsome public structures combined with the stadiums and convention center also located in the city core make for a very vibrant downtown. Our first stop was to tour the Oldsfields-Lilly House, the palatial home of one of the descendants of the founder of Eli Lilly Company, the drug company that is still headquartered in Indianapolis (another Lilly descendant was a classmate of Max's at Duke). Unfortunately the door to the building bore a sign indicating that it was closed until April 1st for renovation, so that effort was foiled, although we will try again on Monday on our way out of town (the website says the house is closed on Mondays, so we're not optimistic that this effort will be any more successful). On the other end of the cultural spectrum our next visit was to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of the Indianapolis 500 and several other major automobile races. Although neither Max nor I have any interest in car racing, it was kind of fun to take a bus ride around the track,as well as wander through the display of cars and motorcycles of various vintages, and of course the gift shop presented many options for souvenirs to bring to the grandsons. The day had warmed up quite nicely, and by mid-afternoon we were ready to take a break from playing the tourist, and took in a movie, Admission, which was an entertaining and pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. After having dinner at a local sports bar we returned to the hotel to watch the last few minutes of Ohio State's loss to Wichita State (way to go Shockers!) on TV and then retired to get ready for Sunday's big game between Duke and Louisville, which in the opinion of the sports columnist for the Indianapolis Star will determine the ultimate national championship. Wish us luck here and in Texas, where shortly before the Duke game Michigan will be playing for a trip to Atlanta as well.
Max, still suffering from her cold, slept later than usual on Friday morning, and after breakfast we set out on some shopping errands, primarily to buy a replacement for my gloves, one of which had disappeared somewhere between Richmond and Indianapolis. The temperature had risen into the mid-40s, almost balmy by comparison with what we had encountered a week earlier in Michigan, but by this time we were neither of us willing to assume that the cold would not return. We came back to the hotel mid-afternoon, and while getting our game togs on encountered the first good omen of the day. Flipping TV channels we came across a hockey game between a highly ranked team from the University of Minnesota and one from Lara's alma mater Yale. Because they do not offer athletic scholarships, the Bulldogs were considered to be the underdogs, but notwithstanding their amateur status they managed to beat the Golden Gophers 3-2 in overtime. We left soon thereafter for a party organized by the Duke Alumni Association at a local hotel. We sat with a number of people of various ages and backgrounds, including one woman who had been at Duke during part of the time Max was there and then attended law school at Michigan a few years after I graduated. We had dinner of sorts at the party, and then took the short walk to the Lucas Oil Stadium, the covered stadium that is the home field of the Indianapolis Colts where the evening's games were being held. The north half of the stadium was curtained off and the basketball court turned sideways, thus allowing more than 35,000 people to have seats for the two games of the evening. The vast majority of the people there seemed to be wearing the red of the number 1 seed, the Louisville Cardinals, located a short two hour drive south of Indianapolis. The Cardinals took on the Ducks from the University of Oregon in the first game of the evening, and although the Ducks fought valiantly and we and most of the non-Louisville fans in attendance were cheering for them, they were clearly out manned and ended up losing 77-69. Trust me, it wasn't that close. During the break between games came word from Arlington, Texas that the game between Michigan and the University of Kansas had gone into overtime, which was quite a surprise because the Wolverines had trailed by ten with less than 3 minutes left. I found out there was an area on the other side of the stadium where that game was being shown on TV, and arrived in time to watch the last 52 seconds of the improbable 87-85 Michigan victory. You can read a complete report on the game in the Detroit News here. By the time I got back to our seats the Duke game had begun, and we were relieved to see that the Blue Devils were playing much better than they had when we last saw them in person in Greensboro. The Spartans were a tough opponent, and although Duke led throughout the game, it was never a commanding lead, so we weren't able to relax until the final seconds started to count down with Duke ahead 71-61. We walked the few blocks back to the hotel after midnight, but the combination of the elation over both our teams' victories, the adrenalin from the games and the caffeine from the Diet Coke and other junk food consumed during almost 5 hours of watching basketball, I didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m. But oh, what a day it was! (Unknown to either of us until reading Saturday morning's newspaper, it turned out that the Michigan men's swim team had built a comfortable lead in the NCAA Champsionship meet being held in Indianapolis this weekend as well--go Blue indeed!).
Thursday we had a leisurely morning and then loaded up to head west, stopping first in downtown Columbus for Max to pick up some additional ammunition against her cold. This gave me the opportunity to take a picture of the Statehouse, the headquarters of Ohio's state government. We proceeded west across the state -- as flat and windy as it had been on the south-to-north part of our trip -- and stopped for lunch in Richmond, Indiana, located just west of the Indiana-Ohio line. Among other things Richmond claims to be the smallest city in the nation to have supported both an opera company and a symphony orchestra. The former is no longer operating by the symphony is apparently still going strong. Richmond is also the home of Earlham College, where our friends Lyn and David Kratz went to school. Unfortunately we didn't realize that until we were on our way out of town; otherwise we would have stopped by to see if their considerable aura was still evident. We arrived in Indianapolis and were relieved to discover little evidence of the 9" of snow that had fallen four days earlier. I had not been here before, but Max had come here three years ago with our friend Becky Bogard to watch Duke win the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, and as soon as we were checked into our downtown hotel she was quite eager to show me the around.
When we awoke Wednesday morning we realized that the snow must have returned in the night, because there was a light covering on the bluff above the Monongahela River opposite our hotel. Neither Max or I had been to Pittsburgh before, although I believe my parents lived there briefly early in their marriage. After doing a little research in our AAA Tour Book, and with our next overnight stop in Columbus a reasonably short drive that could easily be traversed in the mid-to-late afternoon, we decided to explore the city a bit. We left with the conclusion that it is a most interesting city, and one we might want to revisit sometime when we have more time. Pittsburgh, not unlike Seattle, is a geographically challenged city, with the downtown circumscribed by the two rivers and the steep inclines on their respective opposite sides, and especially the Monongahela side, rising sharply so as to make development impossible. The city is known alternatively as the "Steel City" and the "City of Bridges" (there are reportedly 446 of them in the city). However the major bridges across the Monongahela lead directly into large tunnels, so maybe a reference to them should be added to the latter appellation. Because of the cold weather and Max's now-in-full-throttle cold we decided not to take the 30 minute ride up the bluff on one of the city's two operating inclines, but did drive to the top of the bluff over the Monongahela to take in the spectacular views of the downtown area that they offer. The picture at the left above is of a bronze that, according to the plaque posted nearby, depicts a 1770 meeting between George Washington and a leader of the Seneca nation at which they discussed the future of the region, and you can probably guess how that turned out. After lunch at Primanti Brothers, a restaurant near the University of Pittsburgh recommended by Robyn based on an article from the New York Times, where all sandwiches come with french fries and coleslaw built into them, rather than on the side. Max liked it, but I found it tasty but a bit weird, although certainly an efficient way to eat. Following lunch we headed west to Columbus, arriving just in time for dinner at the Cap City Diner, recommended by our token Buckeye friend, Linda Drygas, and then settled in for the final leg on the trip to Indianapolis.
The most direct way to drive from Buffalo to Indianapolis is to go back along the south shore of Lake Erie to Cleveland, and then head southwest to Columbus and then due west to Indianapolis. Naturally we didn't go via that route. Instead, when Robyn reminded us that we were within striking distance of Fallingwater, Wright's most famous design, we decided to take a detour to try to take it in. Our initial thought was to have a leisurely drive on Tuesday, and then tour the house on Wednesday morning; however when we called ahead to make a reservation we discovered that it is closed on Wednesdays. As a result, we had to make a hurried trip to catch the last tour of the day, which meant only a couple very brief stops for gas, lunch, and other necessities. Built as a summer 'cabin' for a Pittsburgh department store magnate, the house is located in a very remote and hilly area southeast of that city, and of course as soon as we got close, it began snowing. Notwithstanding the travails of getting there, and a not inconsiderable trek on foot to get to the house itself, the effort was well worth it. The external views of the house, and especially the one shown here, are spectacular. That said, my overall impression of the interior spaces was that the house is a nice place to visit but not a one in which we would want to live. Not wanting the owners to disturb the views with furniture, Wright designed built-in seating along the lower exterior walls, which had the positive effect of allowing unobstructed views of the beautiful outside scenery. On the other hand, the seats and chairs were so low that if we had been allowed to sit on them, I'm not sure I would have been able to get up. There were many other interesting and in some instances ingenious design features, too numerous to mention here, and overall we were glad to have made the visit--thanks Robyn for the suggestion. As we made the one-hour trip to Pittsburgh the snow showers returned intermittently but didn't pose a real problem. We checked into our hotel on the north shore of the Allegheny River, which joins with Monongahela to form the Ohio at Pittsburgh. During the afternoon mad dash Max started to develop a cold, and by the time we got to the hotel it had settled fully in, so other than an unsuccessful trip to try to find an open drug store, we didn't venture out in the evening.
Buffalo, it turns out, is a very interesting city with lots of sights to see, and we spent most of Monday seeing them. First stop was the Darwin Martin House Complex, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's earlier design commissions (pictured left below). Constructed in 1906, the complex includes a home built for the family of a local businessman, a conservatory connected to the main house by a long covered portico, a carriage house and separate houses on adjoining lots for the owner's sister and for the gardener. The original house is being restored, and the portico, conservatory and carriage house have been carefully reconstructed having been torn down after the house was abandoned for more than 17 years following the depression. We spent the afternoon driving up the Canadian side of the Niagara River to see Niagara Falls, which I had never seen and Max had seen once before as a young girl but has only a sketchy memory of doing so. The temperature had inched up a few degrees but was still below freezing, so we only got out of the car for a few minutes to snap pictures and then headed back to Buffalo. That evening Suzie and Bob took us on a driving tour of Buffalo, including several other less spectacular houses designed by Wright, and a boathouse that he had designed for the University of Wisconsin but was never built there. Recently funds were raised to acquire the design and the boathouse was constructed in Buffalo in 2007. We finished the day with dinner at the Anchor Bar (where we are pictured above), the restaurant that originated Buffalo wings. There was much more to see in Buffalo, but we needed to get back on the road on Tuesday so we could make it to Indianapolis by Thursday for the games Friday and Sunday.
My theory that Ohio was windy
because of the flat terrain was reinforced in spades by the cold wind blowing
off Lake Erie on Sunday morning as we made our way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and
Museum on Cleveland's lake shore. The hall/museum is housed in a striking new
building (pictured on the right) and includes an extensive collection of
memorabilia of all sorts, including costumes, instruments, programs, posters and
many other items. There's a film at the beginning outlining the development of
rock and roll from its early roots, and I observed to Max that we were probably
the only people in the place who actually remembered most of the events and
entertainers mentioned or depicted in the film. We spent about an hour and a half there,
then again loaded our car and continued east along Lake Erie toward Buffalo, New
York to visit Max's girlhood friend Suzie Neubecker and her husband Bob
(they are also in our wedding pictures as they had made the shorter trek across
the north side of Lake Erie to Ann Arbor for our wedding). They are gracious
hosts, even to the extent of letting us take over the TV for the Duke vs. Creighton game that was
scheduled at the ridiculously late hour of 9:40 p.m. Sunday evening. During
dinner and breaks in the game Max and Suzie had a great time reminiscing about
the good old days in Troy, as well as catching up on friends and acquaintances and
our respective families. As most of you know, Max treats each Duke basketball
game as though it were a life-or-death matter, but in this instance the outcome
would have a direct and immediate impact on us personally. If they won, we
would head to Indianapolis in accord with our (revised) plan; if not, we would
have to revise our plans once again and try to salvage some of what we paid for
the Indianapolis tickets. As it happened, Duke won, although again not easily,
66-50 so we next head to Indianapolis.
Because Michigan's game with VCU was scheduled as the first game of the afternoon doubleheader, we decided to check out of the hotel and head on to Cleveland after the game. Max has been doing a wonderful job of packing so that each day we only have to access a couple of the six suitcases we brought with us. Nonetheless we have been completely unloading the car at each stop, having heard stories of people who lost their belongings when their cars were broken into while parked in a hotel parking lot. After checking our bags with the hotel's front desk, we headed back to the Palace for the afternoon. As you probably know by now, the anticipated battle with VCU never really materialized. Michigan, which leads the country in the fewest turnovers per game department, played almost a perfect game and won handily 78-53. They head off next to Dallas, where they will play Kansas on Good Friday in the South Region semifinals. If they can play as well as they did in Auburn Hills, they could win the entire tournament. We had hoped that Michigan State would have an equally easy time against Memphis, but they were only ahead by a few points at half. Notwithstanding we decided that the lateness of the hour and the prospect of a long drive in the dark dictated that we leave, even though it seemed the outcome was still in doubt (the Spartans took over in the second half and won going away 70-48). We picked up our luggage and headed first south around Detroit and then east along the southern edge of Lake Erie and arrived in a cold and windy Cleveland around 9 p.m. I was delighted to learn that our downtown hotel had its very own Starbucks, meaning I didn't have to venture into the elements for the morning latte!
There was no basketball where we were today, so we had arranged to visit my cousin Vause Carlsen and her daughter Betsy in Flushing, which is near Flint, about an hour northwest of where we stayed in Auburn Hills. We hadn't seen Vause for several years, and as best any of us could remember it had been about forty years since we'd seen Betsy (for those who have seen our wedding pictures, Betsy is the six-year old towhead, the only child present). We left later than planned, and as a result the visit ended later than planned as well, but shortly after noon we were heading back to Ann Arbor, with Max watching the Duke vs. Albany game on my cell phone until we could find a sports bar to have lunch and watch the second half. The Blue Devils played better than they had in Greensboro, and won by a not very comfortable 73-61 score. We spent the afternoon visiting old haunts in Ann Arbor, as well as the new building at the Law School (pictured above), which is an amazing match to the original buildings built 80 years earlier. Friday evening we had dinner at the restaurant where we had held our wedding reception 46+ years ago. Then known as the Lord Fox, it's now Roger Monk's. While the food was nothing to celebrate, our evening was enhanced by a strong dose of nostalgia, and then enhanced again by witnessing the young couple at an adjacent table become engaged, complete with flowers, him on one knee, and two glasses of champagne.
The weather didn't improve
overnight, and when I went out in the morning to fetch our daily Starbucks (my
morning routine when on the road) I found a half full water bottle frozen
solid in the front seat. We had a late breakfast, then headed off to the Palace
of Auburn Hills, the site of the second and third round games of the NCAA
tournament (pictured at right). In the two afternoon games, Michigan State had an easy time of
it with Valparaiso, and it
seemed that Memphis would quickly dispatch St. Mary's, a small school
from Moraga, California that came in second to Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. Behind the entire game,
the Gaels mounted a comeback and had they made a last second shot would have
won, but they lost 54-52, by far the closest game of any that we've seen on the
trip. Michigan opened the evening session against South Dakota State, a team that
I at least was not taking too lightly, remembering the Huskies' fate in losing to
the Jackrabbits during the 2011-12 season. Fortunately the
Wolverines didn't take them lightly either and played well enough to win by a comfortable, if not
overwhelming, 71-56 margin. We stayed for the first half of the last game of
the evening between Virginia
Commonwealth (VCU) and Akron
, a team we later heard was missing two starters due to illness. VCU plays
a very aggressive pressing defense, ranking first in the country in forcing
turnovers, and had the game well in hand when we left at halftime. We should
have called it an evening, but Max struck up a conversation with some people at
the hotel bar, and one insisted that he buy us another round, thus extending the
evening into the wee hours. I've taken to calling her "Miss Congeniality."
After doing laundry at our
hotel (it was somewhat satisfying to leave our dirt in Ohio) we resumed our
northward trek, and it was readily apparent why the wind was blowing so
hard--the landscape is so flat that there is nothing to stop it! One of the
ways we have been entertaining ourselves while driving is to listen to audio
books, and by this time we were well into Prague Winter, Madeleine Albright's stories of the fate of her
Jewish family members in Czechoslovakiaset in the context of the
decade between 1938 and 1948. It's a fascinating book full of many details about
the Nazi invasion and occupation, as well as gut-wrenching stories of individual
relatives and their fate at the hand of Hitler and his minions. Most of these
stories had not been known to her until she started researching and one can only
imagine how difficult it must have been for her to read the original sources,
craft them into the book, and then again read them for the audio book. We
stopped for lunch at a German restaurant in a part of Columbus,
Ohio known as Germantown and no, the irony was not lost on us as we moved
ahead to Albright's next chapter. Although we had made a hotel reservation
Auburn Hills, near the basketball tournament site, we decided to go first to Ann
Arbor, which took us about an hour off of the most direct route. We arrived in
Ann Arbor on the first day of spring to find a high of 22 (according to the
Weatherchannel.com it felt like 12) and snow flurries. Hearing on the radio
that the temperature had been in the 60s on the same date a year
earlier provided little solace. While we had anticipated cold, we did not
anticipate this level of coldness, so the first stop after dinner was the
largest purveyor of Wolverine
paraphernalia where Max purchased a new hat to ward off the cold.
We left Lewisburg in freezing
rain and headed first south and then west on I-64. First stop was Tamarack, an artists center which bills itself
as having "the best of West Virginia" for sale, and in fact does have many
lovely artifacts, produced (mostly) by local artisans. While Max shopped I
visited the first Starbucks we'd seen since North Carolina--needless to say I
was delighted to indulge. From there we went to Charleston where we took a
self-guided tour of the WV state capitol building (picture on right, and yes, that's real gold on the dome). It was
designed by the same architect who, a few years later, designed the U.S. Supreme
Court building, and the WV Supreme Court courtroom (which the bailiff kindly
opened for us) was the model for the much larger chambers in DC. From
Charleston we proceeded west to Ohio, and soon were driving due north on I-75,
stopping for the night in Lancaster, Ohio, where the overnight
low was in the twenties and the wind was blowing constantly. Brrrrr.
We spent the day with Mike
touring family landmarks in north central West Virginia, including a house
where my mother lived as a young child, the elementary school where her mother
taught after her father died, and the grave site of both of her parents, my
maternal grandparents, who I never knew because they both died almost
twenty years before I was born. The photo at right was one of the more
unexpected sights we have encountered on our travels. One of several we saw
in front yards in Buckhannon, WV, it apparently refers to the pending selection
of a new football coach at a local high school and is not--I repeat NOT--another post-retirement
career plan for me! In between family landmarks, Mike regaled us with tidbits
of family and local history, and we enjoyed the beauty of the mountains and at
the same time were chagrined by the evident extreme poverty of
the area. We returned via a twisty two-lane highway down the eastern side of
the state, so far into the mountains that when Max tried to use her phone to
call ahead for dinner reservations she received a message stating "Services used
outside of the United States are charged at significantly higher rates."
According to Mike, cell phone service in the area is prohibited to avoid interference with the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope at Green Bank,
WV. As dusk fell we made what we hope will be the most unusual pit stop on the
entire trip, where among other things the bathroom featured a handwritten sign
reading "Flush" above the toilet (which by the way did not have a cover on the
tank but thankfully did in fact flush).
Our original plan was to stay
in Greensboro for the finals of the ACC tournament, but that was scuttled and
Sunday morning we headed to West Virginia to visit Mike, leaving the Piedmont for the mountains of western North Carolina,
southeastern Virginia and finally WV. The already cold weather grew colder and
by the time we arrived in Lewisburg it was a blustery 32 and there were snow
flurries in the air. After checking into the hotel we quickly changed and went
to the Greenbrier (a five
star resort in White Sulphur Springs, the town in which I grew up) for tea, and
then to a local establishment to watch the NCAA selection show. We were
relieved to find out that Michigan would in fact be playing in Auburn Hills, Michigan,
where we already had tickets, and disappointed (but not surprised in view of
their play at the ACC tournament) that Duke was not going to be in the East
Region in Washington, DC, where we also had tickets. Instead Duke was assigned
to the Midwest Region, and if successful in the first two games, would be
playing in Indianapolis. This caused a major change in our schedule, but we
were able to adapt by buying Midwest Region tickets online and listing our East
Region tickets on eBay, where they eventually sold. We finished the day with dinner at an Irish pub in Lewisburg.
Saturday got off to a better
start. At breakfast at the hotel we were seated next to two men, both wearing
insignia of West Virginia University. Max -- who makes friends everywhere --
struck up a conversation and it turned out that they were both teachers from
the same high school where my brother Mike taught until he retired last year,
quite a small world coincidence. Having decided to skip further basketball for the weekend,
we instead spent the morning touring Blandwood, the 19th century
home of John Motley Morehead, who was Governor of North Carolina from 1841-45
and is given credit for laying the groundwork for NC's education and
transportation systems. Max consoled herself further with a trip to the
showroom for Replacements
Ltd, which, although it does most of its business online, has a huge
showroom south of Greensboro with literally thousands of pieces on display and,
of course, for sale. Although I found it overwhelming, Max was able to find a
few things that she had been looking for. Fortunately the vast inventory does
not include Department 56 pieces for our Christmas Village! Following lunch at
the O Henry Hotel (turns
out he was from Greensboro) we looked for the 3 piece sculpture dedicated to him
downtown (see picture at right) and for the statute of the "Greensboro Four,"
the four students who participated in the first sit-in. Our day concluded with
a lovely dinner at Nico's, an Italian restaurant recommended by a friend from
Chapel Hill.
March 15th has always
been an unlucky date for Max (although not as unlucky as it was for Julius
Caesar) and as it turned out this year would follow the pattern. The day
started off well with a visit to the International Civil Rights Center &
Museum which is located in the former Woolworth's Store in Greensboro, the
site of the first of a widespread series of lunch counter
sit-ins that played a significant role in the civil rights movement of the
1960s. The museum includes the original lunch counter (one section recreated)
and a series of displays depicting the history of the movement and the role that
such sit-ins played. It's well worth a visit if you're ever in the area. From
there we went to the Coliseum, arriving in time to see part of the tournament's
afternoon session -- the second half of the Miami-Boston College game (won by
Miami) and most of North Carolina State's victory over Virginia. We snuck out
early to have an early dinner at Stamey's
a local restaurant recommended by my brother John for its barbecue. As it
happens, the restaurant is located across the street from the Coliseum, and with
the crowd approaching the facility's 22,000 capacity, we assumed we would have
quite a wait. In fact the place was practically empty but as soon as the game
was over that changed. By the time we left every seat was taken and the waiting
line snaked throughout the restaurant and out in the parking lot. In addition
to avoiding the crowd, the early dinner gave us the chance to get back in time
for Max to meet a new friend (see
picture) and watch the Blue Devils warm up for the first game of the evening.
That's when the day went downhill--Duke played listlessly, and in the end lost
to Maryland by nine points. To say we were disappointed is an understatement.
We quickly decided to forgo the second game and headed back to the hotel,
stopping briefly to talk to a NC State fan who expressed an interest in buying
our tickets for the last two days of the tournament--we called her as soon as we
got back to the hotel, made arrangements to consummate the sale right away,and
began thinking about revising our itinerary.
We left for Greensboro, North
Carolina on a cold blustery morning, but by the time we were hungry for lunch
the sun was out and it had warmed up slightly. Because we were passing Clemson,
SC, home of Clemson
University we
decided to eat there. With the help of Yelpwe found a local
hot dog stand near the campus and were soon on our way north again. We
arrived at our hotel south of Greensboro in mid-afternoon, unpacked the car and
headed to Greensboro to catch the evening session of first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament,
which involved games between the 8 lower ranking teams (and therefore not Duke) but we wanted to go because (1) we wanted
to check out the location, parking, etc. for the Greensboro Coliseum--the site
of the tournament--and (2) we had bought tickets for the whole tournament and my
feeble attempts to sell the first day had been unsuccessful. We watched
Maryland defeat Wake Forest, and watched the first half of the Clemons vs.
Florida state game, ultimately won by the Seminoles and then decided to call it
a night. Like everyone else there we were showing our colors, especially Max.
The trip to the airport and
then on to Atlanta went smoothly. We used the high costs of parking a car at
SeaTac as justification to hire a limousine to take us to the airport, and that
is definitely the way to go. It turned out that one of Max's former office
mates, Susan Rosen, was on the same plane and also had a two hour layover in
Chicago, so we had dinner with her--a very pleasant way to spend the time. We
arrived in Atlanta on schedule at 11:30 p.m. EDT, and found that indeed the new
Hartsfield Airport is as big as advertised. It took us an hour to get our bags
and find our way to the rental car center, and by the time we crawled into bed
it was 2 a.m. The 3 hour advantage of coming from the west coast had
disappeared overnight.
We awoke Saturday morning to find clear blue skies and a brilliant sun, indicating that at last the weather was starting to warm up. With no basketball today we set out to explore the city a bit more. Indianapolis, known locally as the "Circle City," is actually laid out in quadrants, which converge in the traffic circle at the center of downtown a few blocks from our hotel. At the center of the circle is a striking monument to the Indianapolis Volunteers, men who fought in (as described on the monument) the "War for the Union", pictured in the lower photo to the right. Within a very few blocks there are other almost-as-impressive monuments to those who have served in various conflicts, including one dedicated to Hoosiers (the unofficial nickname for Indiana residents) who have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. A few blocks to the west is the impressive Indiana state capitol, pictured at the upper right. These handsome public structures combined with the stadiums and convention center also located in the city core make for a very vibrant downtown. Our first stop was to tour the Oldsfields-Lilly House, the palatial home of one of the descendants of the founder of Eli Lilly Company, the drug company that is still headquartered in Indianapolis (another Lilly descendant was a classmate of Max's at Duke). Unfortunately the door to the building bore a sign indicating that it was closed until April 1st for renovation, so that effort was foiled, although we will try again on Monday on our way out of town (the website says the house is closed on Mondays, so we're not optimistic that this effort will be any more successful). On the other end of the cultural spectrum our next visit was to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, site of the Indianapolis 500 and several other major automobile races. Although neither Max nor I have any interest in car racing, it was kind of fun to take a bus ride around the track,as well as wander through the display of cars and motorcycles of various vintages, and of course the gift shop presented many options for souvenirs to bring to the grandsons. The day had warmed up quite nicely, and by mid-afternoon we were ready to take a break from playing the tourist, and took in a movie, Admission, which was an entertaining and pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. After having dinner at a local sports bar we returned to the hotel to watch the last few minutes of Ohio State's loss to Wichita State (way to go Shockers!) on TV and then retired to get ready for Sunday's big game between Duke and Louisville, which in the opinion of the sports columnist for the Indianapolis Star will determine the ultimate national championship. Wish us luck here and in Texas, where shortly before the Duke game Michigan will be playing for a trip to Atlanta as well.
