Anything to see driving from Philadelphia to Indianapolis?

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 16:34:57 -0500, CC Bailey
wrote:

JD wrote:
Hi all,

I'm a first-time poster here. I'll be traveling from Philadelphia to
Indianapolis in May, and as it's looking like I'll be driving, I was

There's nothing to see here in Indiana, so I hope you find
lots of things on the drive.

I had a look at some Indiana tourism web sites last year. My husband
and I had offered to help my daughter move to that state and I was
hoping that we could find some fun things to do when we weren't
working. In most towns, once they had mentioned the local park and
the local history museum, it was pretty much stuff like "World's
Largest Collection of Styrofoam Cups".

--------
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.

B Vaughan wrote:

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 16:34:57 -0500, CC Bailey
wrote:

JD wrote:

Hi all,

I'm a first-time poster here. I'll be traveling from Philadelphia to
Indianapolis in May, and as it's looking like I'll be driving, I was

There's nothing to see here in Indiana, so I hope you find
lots of things on the drive.

I had a look at some Indiana tourism web sites last year. My husband
and I had offered to help my daughter move to that state and I was
hoping that we could find some fun things to do when we weren't
working. In most towns, once they had mentioned the local park and
the local history museum, it was pretty much stuff like "World's
Largest Collection of Styrofoam Cups".

Barbara Vaughan

There is a museum in Indianapolis (Ideljorg ?sp I think) that can have
interesting exhibitions. A few years ago I saw a wonderful display of
Alaskan stuff from the Smithsonian & Hermitage there. FFM

I'll be traveling from Philadelphia to
Indianapolis in May

In Indianpolis, I'd highly recommend a visit to Conner Prairie
http://www.connerprairie.org/, a open-air living history
museum located just north of the city.

There are also a number of other excellent museums and
art galleries in the city, a good zoo, etc.

And of course there's the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The
Indy 500 is in late May. It's probably too late to get tickets
(unless from a scalper), but you can watch practice runs earlier
in the week, and there's a free parade the day before the race
that includes all the drivers.

http://www.indy.org/sections/visitors/

James

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Remove "NOSPAM" from my address when sending me e-mail.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-

"JD" wrote in message
om...
Hey, thanks for all of the responses! I guess I didn't think to
specify what my interests are, but as it turns out, overall these are
the kinds of suggestions I was hoping for anyway ;-)

Thanks again,
JD


Zoar village in Ohio is worth a look but its only open weekends in May
and the national road museum/Zane Grey museum in Zanesville Ohio
is interesting too.

http://columbusoh.about.com/gi/dynam...aces/natlroad/

Keith

On 19 Jan 2004 00:49:45 GMT, OSPAM (JamesStep)
wrote:

And of course there's the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The
Indy 500 is in late May. It's probably too late to get tickets
(unless from a scalper), but you can watch practice runs earlier
in the week, and there's a free parade the day before the race
that includes all the drivers.

To us that would be as much fun as watching paint dry.

I'll mention the prairie museum to my daughter. That might interest
her.
--------
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.

B wrote in message . ..
On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 16:34:57 -0500, CC Bailey
wrote:

JD wrote:
Hi all,

I'm a first-time poster here. I'll be traveling from Philadelphia to
Indianapolis in May, and as it's looking like I'll be driving, I was

There's nothing to see here in Indiana, so I hope you find
lots of things on the drive.

I had a look at some Indiana tourism web sites last year. My husband
and I had offered to help my daughter move to that state and I was
hoping that we could find some fun things to do when we weren't
working. In most towns, once they had mentioned the local park and
the local history museum, it was pretty much stuff like "World's
Largest Collection of Styrofoam Cups".


You've just described a whole bunch of the midwest. To be a bit
more fair, alot of those parks may have been old battlefields
from various fights, some pre-revolutionary. But if they didn't
put in a cemetary, frequently the place loses any historical
memory. But I come from one of them small towns and I frequently
used to tell folks "nice place to live, but ya wouldn't wanna
visit there". The rivers aren't big, the lakes are small,
the hills are low. Just people going to work, raising kids,
getting by, that kinda thing.

With that said, there are a few college campuses that might
be a nice day. Notre Dame comes to mind. Ball State might be
nice too. Indiana does have some shoreline along Lake Michigan
with the associated state park action going on. (Some casinos
over there too these days). Someone mentioned the speedway.
It also borders the Ohio river on the south side. But if you
want to see the "real" Indiana, ya might have to go to a county
fair, or a church social. For some values of "real", a feed
store might be your best bet.

And of course there's the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway. The Indy 500 is in late May...

To us that would be as much fun as watching paint dry


Actually I'm not much of a race fan either, but I mentioned it
since it's an event that Indianapolis is famous for.


I'll mention the prairie museum to my daughter.
That might interest her.

Good, I think she'd enjoy Conner Prairie.

Jim

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Remove "NOSPAM" from my address when sending me e-mail.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-

me wrote:

B wrote in message . ..

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 16:34:57 -0500, CC Bailey
wrote:


JD wrote:

Hi all,

I'm a first-time poster here. I'll be traveling from Philadelphia to
Indianapolis in May, and as it's looking like I'll be driving, I was

There's nothing to see here in Indiana, so I hope you find
lots of things on the drive.

I had a look at some Indiana tourism web sites last year. My husband
and I had offered to help my daughter move to that state and I was
hoping that we could find some fun things to do when we weren't
working. In most towns, once they had mentioned the local park and
the local history museum, it was pretty much stuff like "World's
Largest Collection of Styrofoam Cups".



You've just described a whole bunch of the midwest. To be a bit
more fair, alot of those parks may have been old battlefields
from various fights, some pre-revolutionary. But if they didn't
put in a cemetary, frequently the place loses any historical
memory. But I come from one of them small towns and I frequently
used to tell folks "nice place to live, but ya wouldn't wanna
visit there". The rivers aren't big, the lakes are small,
the hills are low. Just people going to work, raising kids,
getting by, that kinda thing.

With that said, there are a few college campuses that might
be a nice day. Notre Dame comes to mind. Ball State might be
nice too. Indiana does have some shoreline along Lake Michigan
with the associated state park action going on. (Some casinos
over there too these days). Someone mentioned the speedway.
It also borders the Ohio river on the south side. But if you
want to see the "real" Indiana, ya might have to go to a county
fair, or a church social. For some values of "real", a feed
store might be your best bet.

That's an interesting point. Many events are one day things. And many
interesting places to one person may be ordinary to most. One of the
more interesting places we've visited in Miss. is an old store. We went
to see the non-water driven mill but got fascinated talking about the
owners collection of player pianos. FFM

I just thought of something else that's not too far off the original
poster's route: the Neil Armstrong museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio. It's
right off I-75 a short distance north of I-70, and has a nice collection
of material relating to Neil Armstrong and the moon landings and space
program in general.

In article ,
me wrote:
B wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 16:34:57 -0500, CC Bailey

There's nothing to see here in Indiana, so I hope you find
lots of things on the drive.

[...] In most towns, once they had mentioned the local park and
the local history museum, it was pretty much stuff like "World's
Largest Collection of Styrofoam Cups".

You've just described a whole bunch of the midwest.

The Midwest, outside of a few places like Chicago, doesn't have many
attractions that are worth making a special trip from another part of the
country to see unless you have specialized interests. (I think northern
Michigan *is* worth that attention, but it's not really part of the
Iowa/Illinois/Indiana type Midwest.)

Nevertheless, there are quite a few small, low-key things scattered around
that are worth a brief stop as part of a longer trip. Last summer, I
drove around the Midwest for three weeks to attend a couple of conferences
and indulge my transportation-buff interests. I spent a few days in Iowa,
and noticed the small red "attraction" dots scattered all over the Iowa
page of my road atlas. In Spillville, I visited a small museum that's
really two museums in one: downstairs is an exhibit of large
elaborately-carved wooden clocks carved by a pair of local residents, and
upstairs is an exhibit about the composer Antonin Dvorak, who spent the
summer there when he was in America in the 1890s. Not far away in Decorah
is a Norwegian-heritage museum which I would have visited if I had had the
time. Dubuque has a Mississippi River museum and the "world's shortest,
steepest scenic railway:"

http://web.presby.edu/~jtbell/transit/Dubuque/

Mason City plays up the fact that Meredith Willson, the "Music Man," was
born there, and has a number of houses of interest to Frank Lloyd Wright
buffs (designed by his other members of his "school").

And then there's the town (I've forgotten the name) that bills itself as
the "future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk." I'm saving that for my
next trip to Iowa. ;-)

Returning to Indiana, now that I think of it, when I was driving through
Huntington a couple of years ago, I noticed a sign for the "Dan Quayle
Museum." If it hadn't been past 5pm already, I would have stopped, just
to see what they could possibly have put in there!

Not much individually, but they add up.

--
Jon Bell Presbyterian College
Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA

Hatunen wrote in message . ..
On 16 Jan 2004 13:56:38 -0800, (Todd
Kunioka) wrote:

"Ray" wrote in message ink.net...
Indianapolis in May, and as it's looking like I'll be driving, I was
wondering if there are any key attractions or interesting sites I
should try to check out along the way.


The national aviary is in Pittsburg.

More likely, Pittsburgh.

That damn "h."

It's like the second "a" in Niagara--always dropped by folks from out of the area.

TK