Day 27: Indianapolis
Welcome
Yesterday we played in the Hoosier State capital, Indianapolis.
I kicked off my day with a run to nearby Forest Park, the third largest urban park in the USA. It is a grand space filled with many civic attractions such as the zoo, science sentre, history museum, and the tennis centre. It is also touched by two great roadways, the i64 running just inside the southern edge of the park, and the Forest Park Parkway crossing through the northeast corner.
The Forest Park Parkway.
The St Louis Science Centre Dinosaurs - 4.7 stars from 96 reviews.
For those of you interested in different roadway designations I’ll provide a definition. Al Castro’s blog states that ‘a parkway is a limited access roadway or highway that is usually lavishly landscaped with tress and/or shrubbery and depending on its location is adjacent or leads to or from some kind of park’.
This particular parkway is built in the corridor that used to carry the Wabash and Rock Island rail systems, two of the most important midwestern transport routes in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
We picked up breakfast from a nearby Wholefoods before leaving and I had a box of sushi, half salmon and avocado, and half tuna. Gabe was behind the wheel and we headed back across the Mississippi on the Congressman William L. Clay Senior Bridge. We headed east throught the farmland of Illinois enjoying the contrast of the faded grey highway with the brilliant green of the landscape. At Effingham we passed the epic 4.3 star-rated landmark The Cross at the Crossroads which is America’s third largest cross. Known to locals as ‘The Cross’, it was built after creators John and Fran Schultz were inspired by the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ in Groom, Texas, and constructed their own 2.4m taller version.
The 60m tall Cross at the Crossroads.
At our gas station stop we had to fill up the diesel exhaust fluid – one of the many maintenance tasks that the Mercedes computer advises you to perform on a regular basis. In case any readers have to perform this same task Tristan has generously created this instructional video to help out.
We crossed into the Hoosier State (pronounced hoo zhuh) around 2pm and then an hour later we were pulling up behind Hi-Fi, in Indianapolis. This is the same venue we played when were here last, in 2019, with its distinctive rear wall heavily clad in angular sound baffles.
After sound-checking we went for a walk in search of dinner and ended up on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail which took us to a very well rated Thai restaurant. While we waited for our meals we explored the nearby Idle Park which is located in between the north and southbound lanes of the i65 (designated the Dwight D. Eisenhower Highway at this location). While it might be small provides a very specific service with its twenty plastic chairs and a triangular nylon shade sail giving park-goers comfort and protection against the elements while they view the passing traffic.
Looking across the freeway at Idles Park, from the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.
Idle Park with the blue triangular shade sail visible in the top of the frame.
Virginia Ave with the impressive raised bus stops that service the city’s electric bendy buses.
The show was sold out and the room was packed. Rosie Tucker sounded breathtakingly good. We are absolutely addicted to watching their set and it seems to get better the more we hear it. The beautiful conclusion to the night was getting back to the hotel and turning on FX who were screening Ford vs Ferrari, the fact-based thriller about the Le Mans battle of 1966.
Jonathan braves the lightning gateway to load out our merch boxes.