Ride along with me...
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Captain
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 568
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From: The Summit, Queensland, Australia
Jerry and Carmen were close to Ed and Pam Babbitt. Ed, I was told, wanted to get together a good collection of classic cars but kept buying ones that needed more money spent on them than was reasonable. "I told him to ask me to find him cars, then he started to get some decent ones," Jerry explained.
He also explained how Ed's budding museum was on three floors of an old building in town, and that there were ramps from one floor to the next, and that one day someone delivered a car and Ed was behind it when they started to unload it. The car got away, it was at the top of a ramp, Ed was crushed against the wall on the floor below and suffered head injuries. He was never the same again, then a brain tumor led to his death soon afterwards.
Pam took over the running of the family business...
...by the way, that's Jerry's Ford with the trailer and jetskis on it to the right. Babbitt's sells motorcycles and jetskis in summer, snowmobiles in winter. Carryover stock in the off-season gets moved to the basement of the museum building and Jerry takes care of that for Pam. This is the museum building:
They run a huge spare parts internet sales operation from this place too. Jerry fills a few roles there and has the run of the place, and when he wants a jetski to use, or a snowmobile too I guess, there's always one or two there for him. Before long we were loading three bikes on the trailer and taking them to the museum, Jerry unloaded them after showing me where Ed's collection was and leaving me to take photos:
There were other cars, of course, but I photographed the ones I thought either significant or appealing to me. Some of these I'd never seen before, like the Excaliber and the other similar device, while it was also the first Edsel I'd ever seen.
Pretty soon Jerry was back, "Seen enough? Let's go..." and we headed back to his place. Jerry and Carmen have a nice home on Spring Lake, they recently put a second floor on it and they have a jetty out into the lake for boating activities. Not long after we got there the wives arrived and we chatted together for a while.
Their dog need to go for a walk so we volunteered to take it out and explore the neighbourhood with it... Janet led the dog:
Lousy pic, I know, but it's all part of the story. Like seeing cars in this kind of state:
That would never pass muster back home!
When we returned, discussion was turned to planning for dinner... ultimately we were taken off to a pizza restaurant which was very noisy and crowded, but the pizza was acceptable and we had plenty to eat. As you always do at dinner in America.
What I thought would be an hour or two with Jerry had turned into an overnight stop I hadn't planned, but it was okay, our next fixed time for being somewhere was still over a week away and we were flexible enough with things. We spent the night in the upstairs bedroom and woke to look out over the lake:
Our plans for the day were to get to Indianapolis, which wasn't going to be too hard. Why, we should be there in daylight even!
He also explained how Ed's budding museum was on three floors of an old building in town, and that there were ramps from one floor to the next, and that one day someone delivered a car and Ed was behind it when they started to unload it. The car got away, it was at the top of a ramp, Ed was crushed against the wall on the floor below and suffered head injuries. He was never the same again, then a brain tumor led to his death soon afterwards.
Pam took over the running of the family business...
...by the way, that's Jerry's Ford with the trailer and jetskis on it to the right. Babbitt's sells motorcycles and jetskis in summer, snowmobiles in winter. Carryover stock in the off-season gets moved to the basement of the museum building and Jerry takes care of that for Pam. This is the museum building:
They run a huge spare parts internet sales operation from this place too. Jerry fills a few roles there and has the run of the place, and when he wants a jetski to use, or a snowmobile too I guess, there's always one or two there for him. Before long we were loading three bikes on the trailer and taking them to the museum, Jerry unloaded them after showing me where Ed's collection was and leaving me to take photos:
There were other cars, of course, but I photographed the ones I thought either significant or appealing to me. Some of these I'd never seen before, like the Excaliber and the other similar device, while it was also the first Edsel I'd ever seen.
Pretty soon Jerry was back, "Seen enough? Let's go..." and we headed back to his place. Jerry and Carmen have a nice home on Spring Lake, they recently put a second floor on it and they have a jetty out into the lake for boating activities. Not long after we got there the wives arrived and we chatted together for a while.
Went to Jerry and Carmen’s place, told we were staying the night – beautiful lake house on Spring Lake – what an outlook to wake up to in the morning.
Their dog need to go for a walk so we volunteered to take it out and explore the neighbourhood with it... Janet led the dog:
Lousy pic, I know, but it's all part of the story. Like seeing cars in this kind of state:
That would never pass muster back home!
When we returned, discussion was turned to planning for dinner... ultimately we were taken off to a pizza restaurant which was very noisy and crowded, but the pizza was acceptable and we had plenty to eat. As you always do at dinner in America.
We went out for pizza to a more traditional place that had more of what we’re used to. Ham and pineapple, boring, I think, for Americans but what Ray could eat. Well, he still thought it was a bit spicy. Had to wait a while before being seated, it was packed out. Had a drink with Coke and Grenedine in it – pomegranate juice it is, quite nice.
Watched a movie with Carmen while the boys, of course, talked and watched cars on screen. We watched “Day and Knight” with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz – never heard of it before – hardly worth watching, ridiculous.
Watched a movie with Carmen while the boys, of course, talked and watched cars on screen. We watched “Day and Knight” with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz – never heard of it before – hardly worth watching, ridiculous.
What I thought would be an hour or two with Jerry had turned into an overnight stop I hadn't planned, but it was okay, our next fixed time for being somewhere was still over a week away and we were flexible enough with things. We spent the night in the upstairs bedroom and woke to look out over the lake:
Our plans for the day were to get to Indianapolis, which wasn't going to be too hard. Why, we should be there in daylight even!
Last edited by Ray Bell; Feb 2, 2021 at 08:37 PM.
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Captain
Joined: Oct 2005
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From: The Summit, Queensland, Australia
Time to head towards Indy...
We've been wearing the inside of the front tyres, so getting back to Bloomington and putting on the new tie rod end (ordered but not received when we were there in the beginning) is somewhat important. And to spend more time with my son and to see the Indy Hall of Fame.
But when I got up on Saturday and put on my glasses they were starting to fall to bits! Somewhat difficult, but the nosepad holders screw onto the back of the lens at the bridge, there's a screw comes through from the front and it got itself nice and loose. And a pad has disappeared and I know it's a problem because unlike most rimless frames these require a kind of tapered bush under the head of the screw and that's been missing.
Jerry, of course, knows where there's an optometrist open on Saturday morning. And they're not far away, either. Delay No 1 on our trip to Indy. The people at the shop made some improvements, but say they can't tighten them properly because of the lack of the tapered bush. Unfortunately, like everyone else who ever touches these, they tighten the screws on the arms, which actually worsens the problem. We roll on... say our goodbyes to Jerry and Carmen and drive off.
And Janet related a story Carmen had told her:
What a time we had in Muskegon! Jerry and Carmen, who both expected and wanted us to stay longer, couldn't do enough for us. I sure hope we can visit them again one day or return the favour if they come out to Australia.
We started off slowly. I think we needed to get something from a pharmacy for Janet, but that was the excuse to hit a couple of thrift shops too. Delay No 2.
We'd been seeing front yards full of pumpkins for sale for over a week, but this pile took the cake! Not a front yard, of course, but plenty of pumpkins. Our route was simple, down alongside the lake to Gary Indiana, where we were to stop for a late lunch:
In her diary at one stage Janet wrote that we had the lake to our right, it was so big she thought it was the ocean. Another marked contrast with Australia, though this was a different lake, it's very much the same thing.
We had seen fuel at South Haven for the cheapest price we'd seen all of the trip on the rush up to meet Jerry, $2.93 a gallon. As we pulled in there (in the rain) to get some we found it had gone up... but at a bit over $3.00 a gallon it was still the cheapest we bought the whole time. South Haven is another place to identify itself with its water tower, but they do it differently there:
Some of the natives' cars continued to stagger me with their state of disrepair (and anyone can tell you I'm not perfect in that regard!)... I'm not sure where I snapped this, but it had to be snapped!
Strangely enough, there was worse to come a few days later...
At Gary we got off the highway and had lunch, IIRC, and we cruised in and out of a few streets before we headed further west so we could go south in Illinois. Forgetting altogether that we'd be heading west in a few days and have to cross Illinois anyway, we wanted to do a few miles in that state... our route wasn't exactly as shown, but close:
Another 'I'm not sure where I snapped this..." but it might have actually been in Gary:
We stopped at the Rest Area on I57 just near Monee. The outstanding thing here was that plaques and signs told us that this was on the prairie. I had thought the prairie was further west, but it stretches right through here and I'm glad they told us so... I had to learn something new for stopping there.
From that point the idea was to get to Indy without going on roads that were too out-of-the way. We turned off the Interstate before (or at?) Kankakee and drove through farmlands that were showing they'd been in drought. I know we went through Iroquois because I remember stopping just south of town beside a river to have our afternoon cuppa and a cake. Just out of Kankakee at Aroma Park, however, I saw this:
A bit of a variation on the theme... it took me ages on Google earth to identify where it was!
And not too far from that was this nice display of fall colours:
South of Iroquois we drove under a train, too...
...and then we were on to Sheldon and headed east into Indiana. But not before we learned how big wind farms can be!
We started seeing wind generators all around us and we had a bit of a conversation about how much noise they could make. After all, at home there is a lot of controversy about wind farms and people are whinging about the noise. We pulled into a paddock where one was located not too far from the road and had a bit of a look and listen for ourselves...
As can be seen by the failing light as we went on we drove for miles looking at them! Apparently there was a big push for their installation with subsidies or something... someone here will know more about that. I know we saw well over a thousand individual wind turbines on the way.
We went on through Lafayette, then past the Subaru factory as the light really got short. It was 20:30 by the time we drove into the Microtel near the western ring road. This we chose for a few reasons... they have a laundry and we needed to get some washing done, they have a decent breakfast (more on that...) and they offered a complimentary pizza at the shop adjacent to the motel.
I was elected, of course, to go get that pizza. And do the washing. After I unloaded our gear from the truck. As usual I carefully selected a parking spot where we could reverse up to a post or tree or something so the rear hatch was secure. And Janet could complete her day’s diary:
I was now looking forward to Sunday...
We've been wearing the inside of the front tyres, so getting back to Bloomington and putting on the new tie rod end (ordered but not received when we were there in the beginning) is somewhat important. And to spend more time with my son and to see the Indy Hall of Fame.
Woke up to a gorgeous morning on the lake, a bit overcast but sun trying to get through. Ray had to go to an eye care place to get a nose pad on his glasses. They did this for free. Jerry couldn’t do enough – a bit intense, even Ray found it hard to cope.
But when I got up on Saturday and put on my glasses they were starting to fall to bits! Somewhat difficult, but the nosepad holders screw onto the back of the lens at the bridge, there's a screw comes through from the front and it got itself nice and loose. And a pad has disappeared and I know it's a problem because unlike most rimless frames these require a kind of tapered bush under the head of the screw and that's been missing.
Jerry, of course, knows where there's an optometrist open on Saturday morning. And they're not far away, either. Delay No 1 on our trip to Indy. The people at the shop made some improvements, but say they can't tighten them properly because of the lack of the tapered bush. Unfortunately, like everyone else who ever touches these, they tighten the screws on the arms, which actually worsens the problem. We roll on... say our goodbyes to Jerry and Carmen and drive off.
And Janet related a story Carmen had told her:
Jerry and Carmen’s 16-year old granddaughter, Sierra, the apple of their eye (they’ve even got Sierra numberplates on Jerry’s 4 x 4) got into trouble and is grounded for toilet-papering someone’s house. They just threw rolls of toilet paper rolls and it unravels, covering the house, heaps of toilet paper rolls being used. She was also in trouble with the police for driving after a certain time of night with passengers because of being young. They can start driving here when 14½ – young, isn’t it?
What a time we had in Muskegon! Jerry and Carmen, who both expected and wanted us to stay longer, couldn't do enough for us. I sure hope we can visit them again one day or return the favour if they come out to Australia.
We started off slowly. I think we needed to get something from a pharmacy for Janet, but that was the excuse to hit a couple of thrift shops too. Delay No 2.
Went to a thrift shop and bought a brown all-weather long coat and yet another suitcase. Stopped to take a picture of pumpkins for sale along the main road out of town on the way south, running alongside a train track. Not a common sight we’ve found.
We'd been seeing front yards full of pumpkins for sale for over a week, but this pile took the cake! Not a front yard, of course, but plenty of pumpkins. Our route was simple, down alongside the lake to Gary Indiana, where we were to stop for a late lunch:
In her diary at one stage Janet wrote that we had the lake to our right, it was so big she thought it was the ocean. Another marked contrast with Australia, though this was a different lake, it's very much the same thing.
We had seen fuel at South Haven for the cheapest price we'd seen all of the trip on the rush up to meet Jerry, $2.93 a gallon. As we pulled in there (in the rain) to get some we found it had gone up... but at a bit over $3.00 a gallon it was still the cheapest we bought the whole time. South Haven is another place to identify itself with its water tower, but they do it differently there:
Water towers advertising the name of the town are quite popular here so we’ve stopped toget a photo of one at South Haven, south of Holland. And to get petrol at what seems to be a cheaper price. We’ll see, there are so many options like getting petrol cheaper if you get a carwash – all these options come up on screen at the pump before you pay, incredible.
Ray had to go inside to pay this time.
Idiot drivers around here, everyone screeching away after getting ‘gas’ on wet roads, not sensible.
Ray had to go inside to pay this time.
Idiot drivers around here, everyone screeching away after getting ‘gas’ on wet roads, not sensible.
Some of the natives' cars continued to stagger me with their state of disrepair (and anyone can tell you I'm not perfect in that regard!)... I'm not sure where I snapped this, but it had to be snapped!
Strangely enough, there was worse to come a few days later...
At Gary we got off the highway and had lunch, IIRC, and we cruised in and out of a few streets before we headed further west so we could go south in Illinois. Forgetting altogether that we'd be heading west in a few days and have to cross Illinois anyway, we wanted to do a few miles in that state... our route wasn't exactly as shown, but close:
We wanted to be able to say we went into Illinois other than being in Chicago’s airport for three hours on arriving here, so we have driven from Michigan into the far northern section of Indiana, past the Chicago outer regions heavy traffic into Illinois to travel south along its eastern border.
We’ve enjoyed nice sunshine for a while, dropping into tourist info places along the way to get maps and travel coupon books with cheap motel offers. There was a lovely centre near Gary, outside of Chicago.
It is so different to see new subdivisions with houses that have no fences dividing them. Some of them are condominiums, which we would probably call duplexes,
We’ve enjoyed nice sunshine for a while, dropping into tourist info places along the way to get maps and travel coupon books with cheap motel offers. There was a lovely centre near Gary, outside of Chicago.
It is so different to see new subdivisions with houses that have no fences dividing them. Some of them are condominiums, which we would probably call duplexes,
Another 'I'm not sure where I snapped this..." but it might have actually been in Gary:
We stopped at the Rest Area on I57 just near Monee. The outstanding thing here was that plaques and signs told us that this was on the prairie. I had thought the prairie was further west, but it stretches right through here and I'm glad they told us so... I had to learn something new for stopping there.
It is hard to get my head around the fact that it is getting warmer as we’re driving south – but we are in the northern hemisphere.
Illinois is flat and seems to be very dry at the moment, they have been experiencing drought conditions lately. There seems to be a lot of money around, big houses, evidence of farming, industry and mining. As ever there is real contrast with trailer or trashy relocatables seen.
Nothing much to see from the highway so we’ll swing south-east and head towards Indiana – with Indianapolis as our favoured destination for tonight so Ray can go to the Indy museum tomorrow.
We drove through a rather shabby area with windows of houses boarded up around Bradley in Illinois, just around the corner and down a little bit, lovely big houses with gorgeous gardens. What a contrast.
Illinois is flat and seems to be very dry at the moment, they have been experiencing drought conditions lately. There seems to be a lot of money around, big houses, evidence of farming, industry and mining. As ever there is real contrast with trailer or trashy relocatables seen.
Nothing much to see from the highway so we’ll swing south-east and head towards Indiana – with Indianapolis as our favoured destination for tonight so Ray can go to the Indy museum tomorrow.
We drove through a rather shabby area with windows of houses boarded up around Bradley in Illinois, just around the corner and down a little bit, lovely big houses with gorgeous gardens. What a contrast.
From that point the idea was to get to Indy without going on roads that were too out-of-the way. We turned off the Interstate before (or at?) Kankakee and drove through farmlands that were showing they'd been in drought. I know we went through Iroquois because I remember stopping just south of town beside a river to have our afternoon cuppa and a cake. Just out of Kankakee at Aroma Park, however, I saw this:
A bit of a variation on the theme... it took me ages on Google earth to identify where it was!
And not too far from that was this nice display of fall colours:
South of Iroquois we drove under a train, too...
...and then we were on to Sheldon and headed east into Indiana. But not before we learned how big wind farms can be!
More wind turbines, this time close to the road, but all still at a little place called Sheldon, just beofe the Illinois/Indiana border. Some in the distance are turning.
We started seeing wind generators all around us and we had a bit of a conversation about how much noise they could make. After all, at home there is a lot of controversy about wind farms and people are whinging about the noise. We pulled into a paddock where one was located not too far from the road and had a bit of a look and listen for ourselves...
As can be seen by the failing light as we went on we drove for miles looking at them! Apparently there was a big push for their installation with subsidies or something... someone here will know more about that. I know we saw well over a thousand individual wind turbines on the way.
It is now 5:37pm, just crossed the border into Indiana. Running alongside the railway track we are welcomed by a small village called Kentland.
Driving past heaps more wind turbines, all doing their job this time – they’re everywhere you look on the prairie – windfarms galore. We drove right up to one to see how noisy it was – not too bad at all, really, a little bit like a quieter washing machine. It is a real feat in construction too.
Indiana is as flat as Illinois and as well as the windfarms there are a lot of cornfields, silos are dotted all around with farm equipment evident. We saw a deer beside the road.
At 6:50 going south, to our right the sun is sinking on the horizon, a truly beautiful sight.
Three brand new Subarus are sitting on a mound beside the highway a fair way from the building – Subaru Indiana Automotive Inc.
Driving past heaps more wind turbines, all doing their job this time – they’re everywhere you look on the prairie – windfarms galore. We drove right up to one to see how noisy it was – not too bad at all, really, a little bit like a quieter washing machine. It is a real feat in construction too.
Indiana is as flat as Illinois and as well as the windfarms there are a lot of cornfields, silos are dotted all around with farm equipment evident. We saw a deer beside the road.
At 6:50 going south, to our right the sun is sinking on the horizon, a truly beautiful sight.
Three brand new Subarus are sitting on a mound beside the highway a fair way from the building – Subaru Indiana Automotive Inc.
We went on through Lafayette, then past the Subaru factory as the light really got short. It was 20:30 by the time we drove into the Microtel near the western ring road. This we chose for a few reasons... they have a laundry and we needed to get some washing done, they have a decent breakfast (more on that...) and they offered a complimentary pizza at the shop adjacent to the motel.
I was elected, of course, to go get that pizza. And do the washing. After I unloaded our gear from the truck. As usual I carefully selected a parking spot where we could reverse up to a post or tree or something so the rear hatch was secure. And Janet could complete her day’s diary:
We finally arrived at Indianapolis at 8:30, had complimentary pizza for tea with salad.
I was now looking forward to Sunday...
Last edited by Ray Bell; Feb 2, 2021 at 08:43 PM.
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Joined: May 2019
Posts: 5,134
Likes: 718
From: S.W. Indiana
Aah, you're noticing the cars in the rust belt. They don't rust so much as dissolve. I'm right on the edge, 50 miles north, they rust, not as bad, but they rust. 50 miles south, the surface oxidizes but the bodies stay solid. You were lucky not to see the underside of them. I've seen 4 year old cars rust the brake lines off because the beet juice used is sticky and clings. Usually, they are off the road before they fold in half. Usually. I saw some years ago that broke on the road.
Thread Starter
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Captain
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 568
Likes: 8
From: The Summit, Queensland, Australia
The pickup we were driving had its life in those conditions in Central Indiana. It also had a brake line rusted through, which we had to fix before we started driving it.
While it had been nicely repaired and painted on the outside, with some new panels and all, there were large holes in the floor and the inner fenders of the load bed don't meet up with the outer panels the way they should, all jagged edges making them fairly dangerous to touch.
Here in Australia you just wouldn't get away with that kind of repair. Holes in the floor would have to be fully welded, not even tacked (or riveted for that matter), and those cars pictured would have been off the road long ago.
Anyway, I appreciate you commenting on this, I hope many more will come in and have a say as we progress with posting up this trip. Especially if we went near to where they live.
It's now seven years ago almost to the day and my recall of it all is very clear, such a great experience for me and for Janet.
I'm sure that you and I could have a great conversation if I dropped in on you during one of my trips...
While it had been nicely repaired and painted on the outside, with some new panels and all, there were large holes in the floor and the inner fenders of the load bed don't meet up with the outer panels the way they should, all jagged edges making them fairly dangerous to touch.
Here in Australia you just wouldn't get away with that kind of repair. Holes in the floor would have to be fully welded, not even tacked (or riveted for that matter), and those cars pictured would have been off the road long ago.
Anyway, I appreciate you commenting on this, I hope many more will come in and have a say as we progress with posting up this trip. Especially if we went near to where they live.
It's now seven years ago almost to the day and my recall of it all is very clear, such a great experience for me and for Janet.
I'm sure that you and I could have a great conversation if I dropped in on you during one of my trips...
Last edited by Ray Bell; Oct 22, 2019 at 12:14 PM.
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Captain
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 568
Likes: 8
From: The Summit, Queensland, Australia
Indianapolis... a name I'd known since very early times...
It became more important to me after I seriously began following motor racing in 1962, a year after 'Our Jack' had taken a Cooper there to start the rear engine revolution. I lapped up the detailed stories in US magazines about Mickey Thompson's new cars and watched the Dan Gurney and Jim Clark assault, felt exasperated that it took so long for a rear-engined car to finally win.
I knew the folklore, thanks to John Unsbee, who used to post on the Nostalgia Forum) I knew a lot more. That my son lives only 45 miles away made it more of a goal to see the place, but when I got there my main focus was on the Hall of Fame and its incredible exhibits.
But back to the beginning... breakfast at the Microtel...
...and this is how Janet recorded our breakfast experience:
I did taste the stuff, all I can say is I don't understand how anyone could expect a human being to eat it! The fattiness of it, in particular, was dreadful. That and the spicy taste must hang around in people's mouths all day!
The washing done, the truck repacked, we had a thing or two we wanted to do first but we were severely hampered by the Garmin GPS giving us a few wrong directions. One of them may have been the difference between a 'W' and an 'E' in the address, but I never bothered to find out. I wanted to find Bill Simpson, but this was to be a failure over two days.
So in the early afternoon we drove on down to the Speedway... first signs of the close proximity came with this:
Inside, the building that houses all those treasures is quite imposing...
Shelling out my small few dollars for admission (I never dreamed before I got in there how good the value is!) I wandered in and immediately saw this collection:
Having read his book way back in my days when I boarded with Mike and Joy Kable, I have to say that Caratsch is something of a hero to me, this was a bit of a wonder to see.
Most of the rest of these pics, which is only a small selection of what I took in there, I will post many as thumbnails to avoid slow loading for people on slower connections. But I am aware now that some still need to be reminded that you click on the thumbnails to see the full pic...
There was a bit of a themed display, here's one of those cars (want more? Just ask!)
Some very old cars...
The one on the left is a 1903 Premier, the other is a 1912 National, both cars were a part of early Indy history.
In the same area were these non-Indy cars that must rate at least as iconic:
The Rindt/Gregory Le Mans winning 250LM and a W196 streamliner... cars any enthusiast would long to see. These were mixed in with the oldest Indy cars and even the trophy that was on offer to Indy winners prior to the 500:
There was also the pace car from one of the earliest 500s (maybe even the first?), just one example of how thorough the custodians of this exhibition have been gathering exhibits.
Pride of place in the lobby was held by Jim Clark's Lotus... John Unsbee would surely have remembered this one with fondness...
And then we move down on the floor, to the more 'ordinary' exhibits... anywhere else each one would be an extraordinary thing to see, but here there are so many it is utterly mind-boggling. In the background of some you will see Craig Breedlove's LSR jet car, just to show the diversity, but principally these are Indy 500 winners:
One that especially meant something to me, having read many times about the great Bill Vukovich, was the car in which he won twice:
There are so many cars just lined up together... the Mauri Rose car surrounded by others:
The Cummins diesel car, for a bit of variety:
You will note that many of the cars, no... all of them, are close enough that you can take photos of detail like the suspensions etc. Some more modern exhibits:
Certainly not the least, the first 500 winner...
Which would not be complete without showing the rear vision mirror... and incidentally getting a look at the gears down there on the steering column:
There was just so much more, however. I just snapped and snapped and snapped photos, I was worried my camera batteries would die on me, but they didn't. I think I got at least one photo of every car in there, most of the glass-cased displays, signboards and an awful lot of car description boards.
The staff were friendly and helpful, it was a great experience. I could have extended that experience by taking a bus ride around the track, but it didn't appeal to me. Janet spent the time I was there sitting in the truck out there in sight of one of the many silent grandstands...
After leaving the speedway we went to a garage sale we stumbled over and bought a few souvenir tee-shirts (fancy finding them in Indy!) and then sought out somewhere to spend the night (the Microtel was dearer than other motels) before we went looking again for Bill Simpson and met up with my son during Monday. It was now that we experienced the worst thing that happened to us in the US...
We found a motel, the Jamison Inn, on the northwest side of town…
The job of moving all our gear from the pickup into the room was again mine and somehow I managed to leave one of Janet's bags exposed. In the morning we’d discover it was missing. I was also despatched to get dinner, I got a couple of things from the supermarket across the highway and we had McDonalds. As I was going about this I phoned Leo Dickson.
Leo lives in Arizona and has over some years been picking up stuff for me when I've bought things from people unwilling to ship them. He spent years just driving back and forth across the country delivering cars behind his Cummins-powered Dodge pickup, throwing things in the back for me was little trouble. But because of my financial position over the last few years I haven't been in a position to get him to take them to Long Beach for shipping. My plan now was to pick those things up from him on my way west.
But Leo advised that he wouldn't be there and I couldn't get the stuff. He had a trip to make that he couldn't get out of, family were involved. It was then and there that I decided that I will be making another trip to America to get that stuff and see yet more of the country.
I also spent time that evening working out distances and driving times to get across to the west. I had a commitment at Las Vegas and I figured we really didn't have a lot of time to spare if we were to see the things we wanted to see on the way.
We had reasons to be concerned as we slipped off to sleep that Sunday night...
It became more important to me after I seriously began following motor racing in 1962, a year after 'Our Jack' had taken a Cooper there to start the rear engine revolution. I lapped up the detailed stories in US magazines about Mickey Thompson's new cars and watched the Dan Gurney and Jim Clark assault, felt exasperated that it took so long for a rear-engined car to finally win.
I knew the folklore, thanks to John Unsbee, who used to post on the Nostalgia Forum) I knew a lot more. That my son lives only 45 miles away made it more of a goal to see the place, but when I got there my main focus was on the Hall of Fame and its incredible exhibits.
But back to the beginning... breakfast at the Microtel...
...and this is how Janet recorded our breakfast experience:
Met a couple from Cleveland, one from Mississippi and a lady from Pennsylvania whose accent reminded me of ‘Gone With the Wind’. She travels eight hours every weekend to visit her son in college and watch him play football (gridiron). Sport is such a big thing over here, everyone seems to follow a team of something.
Had a nice chat with a couple of ladies from Mississippi – cute accent. The couple from Cleveland were very friendly when they heard our accents – everyone loves it, it’s amazing – so friendly. Yet another lady from Pennsylvania said, “And where are you from?”, we had a nice chat with them all.
We were looking forward to a cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs as we had before in a Microtel. Instead there was what looked like porridge in a warmer so Ray and I got a bowl each. I took one mouthful and realised it was something Ray couldn’t eat, very spicy. Ray asked the lady from Mississippi whether she could tell him what it was and the lady from Cleveland said it was a sausage sauce to put on a particular biscuit.
I could only eat a little bit and then I had yoghurt to take the taste away.
Had a nice chat with a couple of ladies from Mississippi – cute accent. The couple from Cleveland were very friendly when they heard our accents – everyone loves it, it’s amazing – so friendly. Yet another lady from Pennsylvania said, “And where are you from?”, we had a nice chat with them all.
We were looking forward to a cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs as we had before in a Microtel. Instead there was what looked like porridge in a warmer so Ray and I got a bowl each. I took one mouthful and realised it was something Ray couldn’t eat, very spicy. Ray asked the lady from Mississippi whether she could tell him what it was and the lady from Cleveland said it was a sausage sauce to put on a particular biscuit.
I could only eat a little bit and then I had yoghurt to take the taste away.
The washing done, the truck repacked, we had a thing or two we wanted to do first but we were severely hampered by the Garmin GPS giving us a few wrong directions. One of them may have been the difference between a 'W' and an 'E' in the address, but I never bothered to find out. I wanted to find Bill Simpson, but this was to be a failure over two days.
So in the early afternoon we drove on down to the Speedway... first signs of the close proximity came with this:
Inside, the building that houses all those treasures is quite imposing...
Shelling out my small few dollars for admission (I never dreamed before I got in there how good the value is!) I wandered in and immediately saw this collection:
Having read his book way back in my days when I boarded with Mike and Joy Kable, I have to say that Caratsch is something of a hero to me, this was a bit of a wonder to see.
Most of the rest of these pics, which is only a small selection of what I took in there, I will post many as thumbnails to avoid slow loading for people on slower connections. But I am aware now that some still need to be reminded that you click on the thumbnails to see the full pic...
There was a bit of a themed display, here's one of those cars (want more? Just ask!)
Some very old cars...
The one on the left is a 1903 Premier, the other is a 1912 National, both cars were a part of early Indy history.
In the same area were these non-Indy cars that must rate at least as iconic:
The Rindt/Gregory Le Mans winning 250LM and a W196 streamliner... cars any enthusiast would long to see. These were mixed in with the oldest Indy cars and even the trophy that was on offer to Indy winners prior to the 500:
There was also the pace car from one of the earliest 500s (maybe even the first?), just one example of how thorough the custodians of this exhibition have been gathering exhibits.
Pride of place in the lobby was held by Jim Clark's Lotus... John Unsbee would surely have remembered this one with fondness...
And then we move down on the floor, to the more 'ordinary' exhibits... anywhere else each one would be an extraordinary thing to see, but here there are so many it is utterly mind-boggling. In the background of some you will see Craig Breedlove's LSR jet car, just to show the diversity, but principally these are Indy 500 winners:
One that especially meant something to me, having read many times about the great Bill Vukovich, was the car in which he won twice:
There are so many cars just lined up together... the Mauri Rose car surrounded by others:
The Cummins diesel car, for a bit of variety:
You will note that many of the cars, no... all of them, are close enough that you can take photos of detail like the suspensions etc. Some more modern exhibits:
Certainly not the least, the first 500 winner...
Which would not be complete without showing the rear vision mirror... and incidentally getting a look at the gears down there on the steering column:
There was just so much more, however. I just snapped and snapped and snapped photos, I was worried my camera batteries would die on me, but they didn't. I think I got at least one photo of every car in there, most of the glass-cased displays, signboards and an awful lot of car description boards.
The staff were friendly and helpful, it was a great experience. I could have extended that experience by taking a bus ride around the track, but it didn't appeal to me. Janet spent the time I was there sitting in the truck out there in sight of one of the many silent grandstands...
Ray wanted to go to the Indy car museum so I stayed in the car and did some reading. He is now in a tyre place looking at a phone book to get the phone number of someone he wants to get in contact with.
Talk about a rough area and the traffic is crazy. I hope we get out of here alive – he is taking ages.
We went across the road to some sort of garage sale – bought two Indy shirts. Then Ray went to visit a guy here but he wasn’t where he thought he would be so we’ll have to stay in Indianapolis tonight so he can see him tomorrow instead of going on to Bloomington for Ray to do something to the steering of the car. It pulls badly when you apply the brakes.
Talk about a rough area and the traffic is crazy. I hope we get out of here alive – he is taking ages.
We went across the road to some sort of garage sale – bought two Indy shirts. Then Ray went to visit a guy here but he wasn’t where he thought he would be so we’ll have to stay in Indianapolis tonight so he can see him tomorrow instead of going on to Bloomington for Ray to do something to the steering of the car. It pulls badly when you apply the brakes.
We found a motel, the Jamison Inn, on the northwest side of town…
Ray has gone in to get us a room for the night at Jamison Inn – looks nice. It is near McDonalds so I will have one of their salads for tea. I’m amazed that we’ll be settled for the night so early, it will be a miracle.
Leo lives in Arizona and has over some years been picking up stuff for me when I've bought things from people unwilling to ship them. He spent years just driving back and forth across the country delivering cars behind his Cummins-powered Dodge pickup, throwing things in the back for me was little trouble. But because of my financial position over the last few years I haven't been in a position to get him to take them to Long Beach for shipping. My plan now was to pick those things up from him on my way west.
But Leo advised that he wouldn't be there and I couldn't get the stuff. He had a trip to make that he couldn't get out of, family were involved. It was then and there that I decided that I will be making another trip to America to get that stuff and see yet more of the country.
I also spent time that evening working out distances and driving times to get across to the west. I had a commitment at Las Vegas and I figured we really didn't have a lot of time to spare if we were to see the things we wanted to see on the way.
We had reasons to be concerned as we slipped off to sleep that Sunday night...
Last edited by Ray Bell; May 5, 2022 at 10:47 PM.
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From: S.W. Indiana
The pickup we were driving had its life in those conditions in Central Indiana. It also had a brake line rusted through, which we had to fix before we started driving it.
While it had been nicely repaired and painted on the outside, with some new panels and all, there were large holes in the floor and the inner fenders of the load bed don't meet up with the outer panels the way they should, all jagged edges making them fairly dangerous to touch.
Here in Australia you just wouldn't get away with that kind of repair. Holes in the floor would have to be fully welded, not even tacked (or riveted for that matter), and those cars pictured would have been off the road long ago.
Anyway, I appreciate you commenting on this, I hope many more will come in and have a say as we progress with posting up this trip. Especially if we went near to where they live.
It's now seven years ago almost to the day and my recall of it all is very clear, such a great experience for me and for Janet.
I'm sure that you and I could have a great conversation if I dropped in on you during one of my trips...
While it had been nicely repaired and painted on the outside, with some new panels and all, there were large holes in the floor and the inner fenders of the load bed don't meet up with the outer panels the way they should, all jagged edges making them fairly dangerous to touch.
Here in Australia you just wouldn't get away with that kind of repair. Holes in the floor would have to be fully welded, not even tacked (or riveted for that matter), and those cars pictured would have been off the road long ago.
Anyway, I appreciate you commenting on this, I hope many more will come in and have a say as we progress with posting up this trip. Especially if we went near to where they live.
It's now seven years ago almost to the day and my recall of it all is very clear, such a great experience for me and for Janet.
I'm sure that you and I could have a great conversation if I dropped in on you during one of my trips...
I know Oz is strict, I've shipped cars there before. They aren't anything like New Zealand from what I've heard.
(WWII submarine.)
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From: The Summit, Queensland, Australia
I don't think Jerry would have allowed me time to do that!
But all the same, I've seen WW2 submarines in Australia, including a blown-up WW2 Japanese midget sub which made its way into Sydney Harbour and sank a passenger ferry.
An interesting thing I did learn about the WW2 subs was on my next trip, Mike Argetsinger, who was my host in Watkins Glen on both occasions, explained to me that Seneca Lake was the place where they tested the submarines. It's 618' deep at its deepest point and it's the largest of the Fingerlakes, so it was considered ideal for safe testing of new designs.
One thing I would like to have done would have been to have a look at the Campbell, Wyant and Cannon foundry as it has links with Australian automotive production history.
But all the same, I've seen WW2 submarines in Australia, including a blown-up WW2 Japanese midget sub which made its way into Sydney Harbour and sank a passenger ferry.
An interesting thing I did learn about the WW2 subs was on my next trip, Mike Argetsinger, who was my host in Watkins Glen on both occasions, explained to me that Seneca Lake was the place where they tested the submarines. It's 618' deep at its deepest point and it's the largest of the Fingerlakes, so it was considered ideal for safe testing of new designs.
One thing I would like to have done would have been to have a look at the Campbell, Wyant and Cannon foundry as it has links with Australian automotive production history.
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From: The Summit, Queensland, Australia
Monday duly arrived and it revealed that a bag was missing, Janet was in a panic:
A few of the items in it were new, however, things Janet had bought in the US, while she also thought our air tickets were in it. Throughout the trip she had been implying that things being in my possession rather than hers was making them less safe, but it didn't really matter to me so I let her have her way. Much later (when we got home?) she found the tickets somewhere else, but that morning in Indy we went through the hoops of phoning Virgin to make sure we weren't compromised by their loss.
Justin had told us he'd meet us during the day and suggested a place for that to happen... we had lunch together at a place he seems to frequent regularly. We first had a bit of a look around some thrift shops and other places, found a place just near the cafe that dealt in postage of all types. I don't remember what it was called now, but it was like a privately owned postal centre for sending both regular mail and parcels. I've never seen anything like that before.
We didn't see much of Indy and we photographed just one thing:
The tilt-tray is for picking up abandoned cars, apparently.
Justin duly joined us and we had a nice meal for lunch and then he went back to work as we started to drive to Bloomington. He would phone us, he assured, when it was time to finally meet his wife and have dinner with them that night.
It's not far, just 45 miles, from Indy to Bloomington. Along the way we drove off the main road onto a hill in the hope of finding somewhere with a bit of a view while we stopped for a coffee. Our 1940s Sunbeam kettle and Thermos continued to do sterling service and we enjoyed the break before going on to Bloomington.
On the way into town we dropped in to the Visit Bloomington tourist office and got a lot of local material to keep as souvenirs. After that we headed into town to look around this place where my son has lived now for almost twenty years.
We did take a lot of pics here, some of which were:
The picturesque Bloomington City Hall... in afternoon peak hour, of course.
One of the many reminders that autumn in this part of the world is very much more colourful than at home.
Evidence that the locals are concerned about the exposure to the cold of the trees in town. Or perhaps there was something else going on that meant that many trees about the CBD were 'dressed up'.
And we were interested in this:
But there was more...
...yes, a countdown to the red light!
More signs of the season:
And an opportunity to finally get a good shot of a multi-lane auto-teller:
Janet’s notes on the afternoon:
We hunted down a motel. Recall that we spent our first nights here in a Super 8, but we knew where the Motel 6 was and it was less expensive (but without breakfast...) - now we had another option, right next door was the 'America's Best Value Inn', it was the same $35 a night as the Motel 6 but tossed in a breakfast.
Like a lot of motels, it was operated by people from India. This was something that we couldn't help noticing in our travels. We set up in our room and awaited a call from Justin. And waited. I did, however, notice something of interest in that period:
Justin's wife is apparently very much afraid of spiders. She has told me it's one reason she will never visit Australia, yet here we found one virtually on her doorstep!
It was the need for Justin to pick up Lore from work that delayed dinner. She was in an intense working period at the University and couldn't get away early, so we didn't get that call until almost 8pm. Justin swung by the motel and picked us up as well and we headed off for a delightful and very filling meal at one of his favourite eating houses. We took some pics afterwards:
We were at the restaurant until they closed, letting the steak settle down as we discussed many things with this daughter in law I'd never met before. Among the things we talked over was her highly volatile reaction to the pickup being dropped off at their place... like a lot of things, exacerbated by Justin's not letting her know it was coming when we made the arrangements... and giving me this laptop I'm using now... "It's the oldest one we have and it's newer than dad's!"
From there we went across to the shopping centre opposite, where there was a place with lots of different ice creams, and then we went looking at I-pad type devices as Janet had expressed a desire to know what kind she should buy and both Justin and Lore have them. So we went into Best Buy nearby at a time they'd never be open in Australia and did some looking around. That purchase would come later in the trip.
We got back to the motel and I had my usual session checking out the forums as Janet looked at a bit of TV, but it wasn't long before we hit the sack and started thinking about tomorrow.
Woke up and had our complimentary breakfast. We then went back to our room to sort our baggage and found that one of my bags wasn’t there. Nor in the car. Ray remembers shuffling it around last night so possibly it has been taken while this was being done.
The problem is that our plane tickets home were in its pocket. We have rung the police and will have to ring Virgin in a couple of hours. The time difference between LA and here make the difference.
Went for a search around the motel but couldn’t find anything so went to a restaurant next door – everyone was so nice, the manager came out and showed his concern. My International driver’s licence was also in there. You can’t cry over spilt milk. Made a police report, claimed about $200 lost. Rang Virgin, they assured us no-one else could use the tickets, all would be okay.
The problem is that our plane tickets home were in its pocket. We have rung the police and will have to ring Virgin in a couple of hours. The time difference between LA and here make the difference.
Went for a search around the motel but couldn’t find anything so went to a restaurant next door – everyone was so nice, the manager came out and showed his concern. My International driver’s licence was also in there. You can’t cry over spilt milk. Made a police report, claimed about $200 lost. Rang Virgin, they assured us no-one else could use the tickets, all would be okay.
Justin had told us he'd meet us during the day and suggested a place for that to happen... we had lunch together at a place he seems to frequent regularly. We first had a bit of a look around some thrift shops and other places, found a place just near the cafe that dealt in postage of all types. I don't remember what it was called now, but it was like a privately owned postal centre for sending both regular mail and parcels. I've never seen anything like that before.
We didn't see much of Indy and we photographed just one thing:
The tilt-tray is for picking up abandoned cars, apparently.
Justin duly joined us and we had a nice meal for lunch and then he went back to work as we started to drive to Bloomington. He would phone us, he assured, when it was time to finally meet his wife and have dinner with them that night.
Justin Bell took us to lunch – had a nice salmon salad, couldn’t eat it all there was so much, a shame because it was nice. I surprised myself because I don’t usually like fish that is not crumbed or battered.
On our way to Bloomington – going to have dinner with Justin and Lora – we haven’t met her yet.
On our way to Bloomington – going to have dinner with Justin and Lora – we haven’t met her yet.
On the way into town we dropped in to the Visit Bloomington tourist office and got a lot of local material to keep as souvenirs. After that we headed into town to look around this place where my son has lived now for almost twenty years.
We did take a lot of pics here, some of which were:
The picturesque Bloomington City Hall... in afternoon peak hour, of course.
One of the many reminders that autumn in this part of the world is very much more colourful than at home.
Evidence that the locals are concerned about the exposure to the cold of the trees in town. Or perhaps there was something else going on that meant that many trees about the CBD were 'dressed up'.
And we were interested in this:
But there was more...
...yes, a countdown to the red light!
More signs of the season:
And an opportunity to finally get a good shot of a multi-lane auto-teller:
Janet’s notes on the afternoon:
Trees everywhere again, pretty We went into Bloomington village for a walk around and to take pictures, then went to the cheapest motel possible.
Like a lot of motels, it was operated by people from India. This was something that we couldn't help noticing in our travels. We set up in our room and awaited a call from Justin. And waited. I did, however, notice something of interest in that period:
Justin's wife is apparently very much afraid of spiders. She has told me it's one reason she will never visit Australia, yet here we found one virtually on her doorstep!
We waited till near 8pm for Justin to ring about dinner. He had to pick up Lora from work and then pick us up and take us to a restaurant...
...Lora is delightful, tells it how it is. Upset at Ray for not giving her any notice about coming to the USA when we did. That must be why we weren’t invited to stay.
A lovely meal of steak and salad with a raspberry dressing – stayed there until closing time – after 10pm. One of the waitresses took photos for us.
Justin paid for lunch and tea today – Lora wouldn’t have it any other way – she couldn’t do enough for us. We went for ice cream after, they didn’t seem to want the evening to end, which was nice.
A lovely meal of steak and salad with a raspberry dressing – stayed there until closing time – after 10pm. One of the waitresses took photos for us.
Justin paid for lunch and tea today – Lora wouldn’t have it any other way – she couldn’t do enough for us. We went for ice cream after, they didn’t seem to want the evening to end, which was nice.
From there we went across to the shopping centre opposite, where there was a place with lots of different ice creams, and then we went looking at I-pad type devices as Janet had expressed a desire to know what kind she should buy and both Justin and Lore have them. So we went into Best Buy nearby at a time they'd never be open in Australia and did some looking around. That purchase would come later in the trip.
We got back to the motel and I had my usual session checking out the forums as Janet looked at a bit of TV, but it wasn't long before we hit the sack and started thinking about tomorrow.
Last edited by Ray Bell; Feb 2, 2021 at 08:51 PM.
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From: The Summit, Queensland, Australia
Tuesday came upon us and with great optimism I told Janet that they couldn't have sent the wrong part. This is the tie rod end we needed to stop the tyre wear and pulling under brakes. She is so negative in her thoughts at times and I have to constantly reassure her, but sometimes things do go wrong...
Breakfast was skimpy at the 'America's Best Value Inn', cereal was all I had, then we headed out to Bill Parker's place where the tie rod end would be waiting for us. Bill phoned and explained that he had unexpectedly had to go to work, but that the place would be all unlocked for me to get to jacks and tools as needed. He really was a big help.
Janet was, of course, apprehensive:
So we headed out towards Ellettsville and got lost finding the right road. But not for long... soon we were at Bill's and jacking up the front end of the pickup, ripping off the wheel and hammering the steering arm to release the tapered ball joint on the old tie-rod. Yes, a bit of effort getting it out, dirt and rust in the threads showing it had been a long time in there... as expected.
With it out I then opened the box in which the replacement came... and found the wrong one! We'd gone to a lot of trouble back when I'd first worked on the truck to ensure we ordered the right one, but they got it wrong….
I phoned Bill and explained, he told me I could take his RAM in to change it over. Of course, that didn't mean they would have the right one, did it? And they were talking about not being able to get it until the next day. Disaster!
O’Reilly’s Auto Parts and NAPA are only two doors apart in Ellettsville, with NAPA being represented there by Edgewood Automotive.
We had to hit the road. I needed to be in Las Vegas by Sunday night and there was an awful lot of mileage to be covered on the way. And people to visit and the Grand Canyon to be seen. We were starting to get a bit despondent about it when the NAPA store phoned. "We checked with O'Reilly's, they can get one delivered this afternoon at about 3:30," I was told. They had been to a lot of trouble to correct the mistake someone had made and this gave us some new hope.
We went back to Bill's and Justin turned up. Every chance he could get away from work he was around, this was one of them. We arranged to go into Bloomington to have lunch with him and I put the old tie-rod back in so we could drive once again down those autumn-hued lanes of Ellettsville...
Janet went for a wander through Sears while we waited for Justin, I wanted to get a pic of a Subaru Baja parked right outside Applebees and as I got my camera from the pickup I heard something fall. I looked in the general direction of the shopping centre across the street, where there was some construction work going on, but there was nothing there to make the kind of noise I'd heard. But out on its own in the carpark where I was this pickup was sitting:
I thought it looked strange, there must be something wrong there, so I had a closer look. The whole pickup was very rusty, but looking underneath it was even more ominous:
I snapped the pic and wrote a hurried note, which I jammed in the driver's window so he'd see it when he came to get into his truck. These tanks are plastic, but the steel straps and the bolts retaining them are obviously subject to rusting and the damage had been done. I then went off to find the Baja had gone!
Justin duly arrived and we ate at Applebees, he deleted a lot of stuff from this computer while we waited and also copied the pics we'd taken so far on the trip onto a memory stick so he and Lore could look at them later. We bid him our final farewell of the trip and went back to O'Reillys at Ellettsville.
The delivery had come a little early and so we got the tie-rod end and went back to Bill's. It didn't take long to instal and do a quick toe adjustment so we were ready to go. I had also rotated the front wheels to the rear in the morning so the best tyres were on the front... not that any tyres were all that bad, but the inner edge wear would not get worse on the back.
Janet suggested that we not try to go too far with what day we had left, so we plotted a course to Terre Haute which seemed a sensible destination. It was about 60 miles through Spencer and we should be there before dark. Remember? We weren't going to travel in the dark during this trip?
An early stop would also give us the chance to get a good night's sleep after the very late night we'd just had, and with a time zone to be crossed first thing in the morning we'd get an early start to the trip across Illinois. Checking the motel coupon book we also saw that there was a Days Inn at Terre Haute which was only $35 with breakfast, another good reason!
Country roads lay a path in front of us, but after Spencer on the IN 46 we spotted a sign that said a bridge was out ten miles ahead. I pulled up and asked a bloke who had an abundance of automotive relics around his shop whether the sign was serious or not (there was no mention of a detour) and he told me, yes, I'd have to turn back there and go across through Clay City.
This road wound around a bit, but it was a pleasant drive and we stopped for fuel at Clay City. They also had one of the 'fashionable' water towers with the town name on it, so I snapped a pic of it...
Largely we did this because we have a 'Clay' in the family, I e-mailed that pic to him that night. All was straightforward in the run to pick up the IN 46 again, along the way we saw one of the most ragged bunch of trailer-dwellers we'd seen on our trip. They were in an area alongside a river...
...and seemed to be pretty securely anchored to their dwelling places...
It was getting on to sundown when we made Terre Haute. I pulled up opposite the Days Inn first of all to get a couple of photos, this one shows a few of the tall signs that are visible from the Interstate...
...this one shows some more, and especially shows how some tie their businesses together to share the tall steel columns:
As can be seen, the sun was sinking in the west as we arrived so we didn't travel in the dark this day. We booked in to the Days Inn, where they had a couple of really strange decorative fountains on the side of the building:
They struck a chord with me, anyway. Alongside the motel was the Texas Steakhouse, but further up the road were other eateries and I was despatched to get us a meal. I hadn't tried the 'Steak & Shake' before so went in there, some chips and burgers were ordered and I had a good chat with another customer awaiting his service. I strode manfully back to the Days Inn and we tucked into the food, the truck was securely reversed up to a little tree for security and we followed our nightly routine of me picking up and sending e.mails and checking out various forums and Janet flicking from one channel to the next to find something to watch.
Janet seemed happy…
Tomorrow we would be crossing into Illinois, with Missouri also to be traversed and our destination might be Tulsa... depending on how the day went. The Dodge would be covering more ground - 560 miles - than on any other day so far. We were obviously counting the Slant 6 to deliver its legendary dependability... even at 11mpg...
Breakfast was skimpy at the 'America's Best Value Inn', cereal was all I had, then we headed out to Bill Parker's place where the tie rod end would be waiting for us. Bill phoned and explained that he had unexpectedly had to go to work, but that the place would be all unlocked for me to get to jacks and tools as needed. He really was a big help.
Janet was, of course, apprehensive:
Had a cheap complimentary breakfast – what do you expect for $35 a night?
Ray has to do something on the steering of the car, he says it will only take a short while, so we will see. Got lost getting to the place he fixed the car up before – Bill’s place, but finally found it. I think the GPS is possessed too, leading us into a quarry.
The trees are absolutely beautiful, they’re losing their leaves which are all different shades.
Ray has to do something on the steering of the car, he says it will only take a short while, so we will see. Got lost getting to the place he fixed the car up before – Bill’s place, but finally found it. I think the GPS is possessed too, leading us into a quarry.
The trees are absolutely beautiful, they’re losing their leaves which are all different shades.
At least Ray thought to change out of his good clothes to get dirty fixing the car.
Ray has just informed me that the part he ordered has come back as the wrong one – great! It was something I half-joked about this morning. Bill gave us the use of his car to go to a car part place to try to get a proper part.
They were very helpful when they found out the wrong one had come in so they organised for the right one to come in by 3:30. Hopefully all will be well.
They were very helpful when they found out the wrong one had come in so they organised for the right one to come in by 3:30. Hopefully all will be well.
O’Reilly’s Auto Parts and NAPA are only two doors apart in Ellettsville, with NAPA being represented there by Edgewood Automotive.
We had to hit the road. I needed to be in Las Vegas by Sunday night and there was an awful lot of mileage to be covered on the way. And people to visit and the Grand Canyon to be seen. We were starting to get a bit despondent about it when the NAPA store phoned. "We checked with O'Reilly's, they can get one delivered this afternoon at about 3:30," I was told. They had been to a lot of trouble to correct the mistake someone had made and this gave us some new hope.
We went back to Bill's and Justin turned up. Every chance he could get away from work he was around, this was one of them. We arranged to go into Bloomington to have lunch with him and I put the old tie-rod back in so we could drive once again down those autumn-hued lanes of Ellettsville...
Went to a mall in Bloomington and looked around for a while.
I thought it looked strange, there must be something wrong there, so I had a closer look. The whole pickup was very rusty, but looking underneath it was even more ominous:
I snapped the pic and wrote a hurried note, which I jammed in the driver's window so he'd see it when he came to get into his truck. These tanks are plastic, but the steel straps and the bolts retaining them are obviously subject to rusting and the damage had been done. I then went off to find the Baja had gone!
Justin duly arrived and we ate at Applebees, he deleted a lot of stuff from this computer while we waited and also copied the pics we'd taken so far on the trip onto a memory stick so he and Lore could look at them later. We bid him our final farewell of the trip and went back to O'Reillys at Ellettsville.
Had lunch with Justin, he backed up the photos on the computer. He also looked up things on Lora’s Samsung tablet to see if what I wanted one for worked and it did. Nice of him to do that.
We left him and went back to the car part place. The part is in so hopefully we can have the car fixed and get out of Bloomington and on our way to New Mexico via Illinois.
It was the right part so Ray put it in and we’re on our way.
We left him and went back to the car part place. The part is in so hopefully we can have the car fixed and get out of Bloomington and on our way to New Mexico via Illinois.
It was the right part so Ray put it in and we’re on our way.
By this time Ray looked exhausted so I suggested we not go too far before stopping for the night. To make matters worse there was a detour because of a bridge being down so we had to drive along a narrow winding road, through Clay City and into Terre Haute.
An early stop would also give us the chance to get a good night's sleep after the very late night we'd just had, and with a time zone to be crossed first thing in the morning we'd get an early start to the trip across Illinois. Checking the motel coupon book we also saw that there was a Days Inn at Terre Haute which was only $35 with breakfast, another good reason!
Country roads lay a path in front of us, but after Spencer on the IN 46 we spotted a sign that said a bridge was out ten miles ahead. I pulled up and asked a bloke who had an abundance of automotive relics around his shop whether the sign was serious or not (there was no mention of a detour) and he told me, yes, I'd have to turn back there and go across through Clay City.
This road wound around a bit, but it was a pleasant drive and we stopped for fuel at Clay City. They also had one of the 'fashionable' water towers with the town name on it, so I snapped a pic of it...
Largely we did this because we have a 'Clay' in the family, I e-mailed that pic to him that night. All was straightforward in the run to pick up the IN 46 again, along the way we saw one of the most ragged bunch of trailer-dwellers we'd seen on our trip. They were in an area alongside a river...
...and seemed to be pretty securely anchored to their dwelling places...
It was getting on to sundown when we made Terre Haute. I pulled up opposite the Days Inn first of all to get a couple of photos, this one shows a few of the tall signs that are visible from the Interstate...
...this one shows some more, and especially shows how some tie their businesses together to share the tall steel columns:
As can be seen, the sun was sinking in the west as we arrived so we didn't travel in the dark this day. We booked in to the Days Inn, where they had a couple of really strange decorative fountains on the side of the building:
They struck a chord with me, anyway. Alongside the motel was the Texas Steakhouse, but further up the road were other eateries and I was despatched to get us a meal. I hadn't tried the 'Steak & Shake' before so went in there, some chips and burgers were ordered and I had a good chat with another customer awaiting his service. I strode manfully back to the Days Inn and we tucked into the food, the truck was securely reversed up to a little tree for security and we followed our nightly routine of me picking up and sending e.mails and checking out various forums and Janet flicking from one channel to the next to find something to watch.
Janet seemed happy…
Staying at Days Inn & Suites on the Indiana/Illinois border, $35 a night and not too bad!
Last edited by Ray Bell; May 8, 2022 at 07:37 AM.