Ohio: Columbus to Cleveland

I don't really remember why we decided to go to Cleveland for Thanksgiving. Anyway, let's go to  Cleveland for Thanksgiving!

We left on Wednesday after work and got as far as Indianapolis, IN.  We didn't really do anything other than fart around in the Airbnb. We always get a hoot out of how much of the Airbnbs' furniture we recognize from IKEA.

The light in the kitchen could have doubled as a tanning bed.

I think cabin fever must have set in because Lydia was losing it while reading the guestbook. What sort of person reads the guestbook anyway?

Losing it.

Lost it.

Brandon has a pretty pink suitcase. I didn't have to even look inside to know that this was full of baby dolls.

Our friend Svetlana lives in Indianapolis so we made plans to meet her at Metro Diner. Apparently it's a chain. And we went to the wrong one. The other one was so far away that we just said screw it and had some breakfast.

We found Ohio right where we expected it to be, which was nice.

We passed Columbus, Ohio and I wanted to stop, take a peek, and stretch my legs. Lydia was all "everything will be closed it's Thanksgiving wah wah". We stopped in Columbus.

And we didn't even have to pay the meter! In yo face Lydia! Hahaha!

The Ohio Statehouse looks kind of weird. Like they ran out of money for the dome at the end and just made it flat on top. It's a pretty old one, built between 1839 and 1861.

Ok, so it was closed, but it did have cool door handles.

Then we drove the rest of the way to Cleveland.

Cleveland and environs have a solid craft beer scene so I was excited to punch up Thanksgiving a little with some strange and exciting brews. We found a gas station which ended up being beer Nirvana.

I'm not embarrassed to admit I bought this one just because the label referenced one of my favorite movies: Donnie Darko. Ok, it was made in Michigan but who cares. Close enough. The label was nice and creepy:

"95 Days… 23 Hours… 14 Minutes… 38 Seconds… 

That is when the batch will be ready.

And when it is, we can breathe a sigh of relief because there will be so much dark fruit cider to look forward to.

The one in the Stupid Man Suit must complete the batch and return the tank to the Primary Universe where it belongs.

Do not doubt his commitment to fermentation. The bottling day is coming and the world is counting on him.

What is the point of living if you don’t have a bottle?

B. AFRAID OF THE DARK"

The Airbnb was nice and homey, and was a good setting for a little Thanksgiving dinner.

There were some medieval looking chalices that were perfect for my fancy hard cider with balaton cherry, raspberry, and black currant.

Dinner turned out pretty awesome.

Ok, this one was legitimately from Cleveland, and it was made with spruce tips! So holiday festive!

"Spruce tips possess many of the same aromas and flavors as hops, but also have a pleasant citrusy pine not unique to themselves. We used a blend of spruce tips and hops in this seasonal beer to yield a balance between tropical hop goodness and piney dankness."

Then it was food coma on the couch time. A Thanksgiving tradition.

Our Airbnb was nestled in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, only a couple of blocks away from the house they used in the 1983 film A Christmas Story. So I procured the film for our viewing pleasure.

The Indianapolis 500 Pre-Game

We'd already spent some time exploring Indiana and I'd say we'd made a pretty big dent in what was available to see. I had not yet seen the event of all events in Indiana, though.

When flipping through my copy of 1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die, I am often annoyed by the one time events. I couldn't just wake up tomorrow and go to the Kentucky Derby tomorrow, for example. I feel like a fairly spontaneous dude, which may hamper my ability to plan trips very far in advance. So as a result, the Indy 500 page of the book annoyed me greatly. It was something awesome that I had heard of but not yet done. How could this be? Luckily Lydia and her friends Steph and Amy are better at planning than I am. I donated the use of my rockin' car to the effort, and away we went.

In an interesting departure from my usual routine, we didn't leave right after work Friday evening. It was Memorial Day weekend, and the race wasn't going to happen until Sunday. This was kind of nice because I still had the option of hanging out with my pals one night. Sometimes too much weekend globetrotting makes me feel a bit anti-social.

We left Saturday morning painfully bright and early, and I slept most of the drive there. Without my awesome influence I can't imagine anything interesting happened.

We spent the majority of two days at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The first was like a low key racing themed mini carnival. There were plenty of people but not overwhelming at all. This is such a big deal that town it is located in is called Speedway, Indiana.

We started off early with some margaritas and bloody marys.

The Speedway's control tower was housed in this cool Pagoda building. This is like a cool spacey version of the old school pagodas I saw in Japan. There was a panel of what I think were old race announcers/sports reporters or something. They were talking about the glory days, and we listened while having some bbq sandwiches in the shade nearby. Eventually they moved on to questions from the audience, and of course some person had to ask them a question about crashes. At least one of the panel members was moved to tears talking about some racing friend of theirs torn to bits on the track. Classy, audience, very classy.

We toured the area where the teams apparently stayed. The biggest RVs I've ever seen were all in a line, each with their own sealed tents. These were pretty much individual moon bases.

Across from the team moon bases were what looked to be the car garages. I thought it was really cool that we were allowed to see all the secret stuff behind the scenes.

These cars are surprisingly difficult to get in and out of. I wouldn't want to have to try to escape one on fire.

The final thing on our agenda was Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum. We were playing the "guess how much it costs" game while waiting in line outside. I thought maybe $14. I was pleasantly surprised when we reached the ticket window and the price was $5, but it was quickly apparent that you get what you pay for. The museum was full of people and uncomfortably warm. My first impression was, this isn't a museum, it's a collection. It's pretty much a room full of cars and signs and people. I couldn't help but compare this place to the time I went to the Kentucky Derby Museum. Kentucky was way, way better.

After the cars, all of the funky awards given to the winners were really interesting. Release the hounds!

The only bit of multimedia was a 20 minute long movie in a tiny little theater. The projector had one of those big green spots in the center of the picture.

We agreed that I should have one of these filled with rum at our apartment.

After a long day of racing related learning we were ready to just take it easy. Steph and Amy had never been to my favorite ice cream place ever, so we drove south to Columbus to visit Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor. It's a magical place. The girls didn't seem as hugely impressed with the place as I am, but I think they enjoyed themselves.

Indiana, Land of Architecture and Ice Cream

It's getting to the point where I've been everywhere that a 5 hour drive from St. Louis on the interstate can get you. One of the few remaining major cities on that shrinking list was Indianapolis, so that, friends, is where we went.

The hotel situation in Indianapolis proper was on the expensive side, so we made Columbus, Indiana our headquarters. This made sense especially because many of our 1000 places to see before you die in the USA and Canada destinations were in the southern part of the state.

The morning after our arrival we set out to explore Columbus. Columbus is a city of around 45,000 people, and I would say that it has more cool architecture per inhabitant than any place I've ever been. Local rich guy J. Irwin Miller decided that he wanted to live in a city that looked awesome all over, so he set up a program where he would pay for the architectural fees if the city agreed to choose from a list of architects that he selected when it came time to build things. As a result, many of the churches, banks, schools, and so forth are way more excellent than they have any right to be. The city has a couple structures done by Eero Saarinen, who also designed the St. Louis Arch.

After some car touring we stopped at Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor. I would say that this place alone was worth the drive to Indiana. It opened in 1900, and they have done such a fine job keeping the place authentic that it felt like a time machine must have been involved.

According to an IN.Gov page here Zaharakos features:

"two Mexican onyx soda fountains from the 1904 World’s Fair, a Tiffany-style stained-glass and marble lamp from 1905 and a 1908 self-playing Welte Orchestrion (think of a self-playing piano on a much grander scale)."

Even the ubiquitous plastic straw had been eschewed in favor of a thick paper old-timey one. This has to be the first time I've used a paper straw. I liked them so much that I considered buying some in the gift shop. Then I remembered I'm a cheapskate. I had a Gom Sandwich, which was a cross between a grilled cheese and a sloppy joe. Ridiculously good.

Somehow I didn't get a picture of the orchestrion but it was very impressive.

Wikipedia had a picture of a similar one. It was like a mechanical orchestra. It had a paper roll with music on it that the machine could read like a self playing piano. The invention of radio and the electric record player in the 1920s removed the need for these giant machines.

There were several similar (but smaller) machines in a side room that appeared to be coin operated. So cool!

I was also impressed with the fancy soda fountain equipment on display.

On the way to Madison, IN we stopped for a sign indicating an antique store. It was located in a ghost strip mall that was quite spooky.

We arrived at the Lanier Mansion State Historic Site about a half an hour too late, and it was closed. Ho hum.

Lastly we drove all the way out to Story, IN, which was really in the middle of nowhere. We decided that there must not be a heck of a lot going on in the state of Indiana if this little place got it's own entry in the Book. Well, we marked it off our list anyway!