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Indianapolis, Indiana
The country’s young, but the land is deep
In August 2017, a total eclipse of the sun was scheduled to be visible across a wide swath of the United States, starting in South Carolina and then running diagonally all the way to Oregon. Maps showing the exact route and how long the totality would last were readily available to all, and by early 2017 I was starting to plan. I slowly started to focus down on St Louis- the path included everything between St Louis and Kansas City, as well as areas southeast of the city in Illinois. I was hoping to find a place where I had some flexibility in case of forecasted bad weather, and a destination where there was something to actually do. St Louis was a lock and there was no changing my mind.
Even with my mind made up, outrageously expensive flights ended up causing me to tweak a few things. Instead of flying in and out of Lambert St Louis, I decided to fly in and out of Indianapolis instead, about a four hour drive away. This wasn’t as terrible of an idea as you might think, after all, there had to be something interesting to do in Indianapolis. Luckily there was, but it wasn’t this.
The first picture from this slideshow is of the NCAA Hall of Champions which was really inexpensive to visit yet somehow still overpriced. There’s really not much to do here, other than possibly learning about the injuries suffered from the first generation of student athletes who played football without protective gear, something that seems pretty damn obvious now in hindsight.
The NCAA Hall of Champions may have been a bust, but thankfully August was when the Indianians throughout Indiana flock to the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis. This was the first time that I had been to a big, Midwest state fair and it was pretty much what you would hope for. There were rides and exhibits and animals and pretty good food and blue ribbon winning corn stalks. Seriously, I don’t know how anyone gets a blue ribbon for a corn stalk, they all looked exactly the same. There were also some crazy fun things like giant Lego models and the world’s largest sculpture made out of cheese (pictured below), inside and protected from the inside Indianians (and the outside Indiana heat) in its own refrigerated trailer.
Just west of Indianapolis, on West 16th Street, in a separate town named Speedway, is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5 mile racetrack that is home to the world famous Indianapolis 500. When there is no race activity (which is most of the time) and the 400,000 spectators that would normally show up are nowhere to be seen, the big empty track allows visitors to its impressive museum (lots of old cars and trophies) and allows guided tours around the track, including a stop at the brick part of the Brickyard. It’s all a slightly different vibe than you get on race day (in another life, I was lucky to have attended two Indy 500s), but it’s a real privilege to actually ride the track, even that slowly. The tours take an hour or an hour and a half (depending on which one you pick), which is slightly slower than Arie Luyendyk’s (still) record lap of 37.885 seconds in 1996.
Between Indianapolis and St Louis there really isn’t all that much to do, but there is Casey, Illinois. Casey is like any small town in that part of Illinois- wait, I have that wrong. Casey is actually unlike any small town in that the entire down is all about the Guinness Book of World Records. It is home to random, giant objects including the world’s largest rocking chair, the world’s largest mailbox, the world’s largest clogs, the world’s largest golf tee, the world’s largest pitchfork, the world’s largest knitting needles and the world’s largest wind chimes, which at 42 feet long make one hell of a sound.
One last stop before we get to St Louis and the eclipse. as historic a town as you’re going to find in that part of the country, St Charles, Missouri was considered the last civilized stop by Lewis and Clark before (just like the eclipse) they headed diagonally across the country on their way to Oregon.
