Subject: From the East this time
This is the ninth Yellowstone to Atlanta email that was originally sent out as separate emails to family members to let them know where we were, what we were doing and give tidbits about our activities. I have copied the original emails and added some pictures for viewing. The trip started in August and ended in October. This is the first of our extended stay trips in the Adventurer.
Hello again, this time from the East. When we last visited we had just arrived (although rather circuitously) in the RV campground at Thorntown just outside of Indianapolis. Indeed, the 5 miles to I-65 proved to be right but it required multiple turns to locate the on ramp. Upon arrival in the new campground we observed what we thought was a series of curious sightseers. A parade of sorts, riding on golf carts, started passing by to look us over (or so we thought at the time) as new arrivals. After deciding to stay awhile in this campground, to do laundry, go to the weekend Turning Leaves Festival in Thorntown and other assorted reasons too numerous to mention, we found out there is a sub-culture of these golf cart riders in the campground.
About the second day it began to dawn on us that there is a routine to the campground golf cart sub-culture. Typically most golf cart riders take their constitutional (riding not walking) in the late afternoon to early evening. Exercise is important and cannot be overlooked, even if it is done by riding on four wheels! Most of you know what a Pac-Man game screen looks like and can relate to the following discussion. For those of you not familiar, please picture a series of parallel roads that are connected at the two ends of the roads by 2 roads at right angles to the parallel roads. This is a typical layout in a RV campground.
Now, instead of looking down from above, you are sitting on one of the parallel roads looking across the parallel roads to your front and back. The golf cart processional was not like a parade but more like a Pac-Man game with the little ghosts moving up and down these parallel roads in not any particular order, direction or consistency. Similar to the little ghosts in Pac-Man and very entertaining for us Texas couples that have never seen this many carts in one place prior to this.
We estimated over 100 carts of varying age, colors and design participating in this ritual. David inquired from one of the locals ‘what is up with the golf carts?’ The response, we use them for everything. Later we found out the townspeople in Thorntown use them on the streets and highways too. It is legal to run them on the highway as long as they have lights and are registered.
Now we also noticed an obvious pecking order to this routine as well. Part of the pecking order was based upon how long you were a resident in the campground, the decorated aspect of your cart, whether you were a home boy or a transplant and certainly the one that affected us; overnighters were prohibited from using carts. The campground rules, as promulgated by the ownership, stated it this way IN BOLD AND ALL CAPS – ‘SEASONAL CAMPERS ONLY!’
There was one decorated as an army jeep with an obviously ex-military owner driving the rig. We surmised he was in charge of security and protocol. We nicknamed him Sarge. There were several decorated as ‘hot rods’ from the 50’s and some ‘plain janes’, some with mag type wheels, some electric, some gasoline motors. Most were four-seaters but there was the occasional ‘real’ two-seater golf cart you would see on the golf course. Later in the week, the campground filled up due to the Turning of the Leaves Festival held in Thorntown on Saturday and Sunday. This really increased the number of drive-bys by the locals.
It was pretty interesting that some people would drive by and make an effort not to look at you. Almost snobbishly acting. One of the more friendly locals who owned a Winnebago stopped by (yes, he was using his golf cart) for a quick ‘hidee’ and visit to welcome us and discuss Winnebagos. He allowed the snobbishly acting folks were probably from ‘snob hill’, which is a section of the campground for seasonal residents that simply do not like to mingle with overnight riff-raff such as us.
By the time we stayed Tuesday through Saturday, we were almost like one of the regulars and some of them actually acknowledged us and spoke to us. It also helps to smile real big and wave heartily, similar to the restaurant scene previously described in Knoxville, IL. Of course, to really look cool and be part of the ‘in crowd’, you must drive with your left leg dangling outside the cart and the passenger (usually the wife) keeps her foot propped up on the dashboard. You can get a sense of what we saw by looking at the attached pictures.
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| Sophie and Beverly discussing the processional of carts |
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| One of my favorites |
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| Almost a traffic jam at the end of this street |
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| She definitely knows the appropriate way to cruise |
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| They are everywhere, everywhere |
We used one of our days to go into Indianapolis for a visit to the Motor Speedway and Museum. We learned a lot of interesting facts about the ‘Brickyard’ including such things as ownership over the years, records established during races, innovations that were tested during races and certain traditions created and followed today. We saw a lot of actual cars that raced and won at the speedway. We also got to take a lap on the speedway. No, not in a race car but in a tour bus. Are you crazy? Those cars travel at 200 MPH plus around that thing. We would have been lapped about 15 times by a race car by the time the tour bus made a single lap. Still we can now say we have driven on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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| Hall of Fame and Museum sits in middle of track |
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| Inspecting the Trophy |
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| Down the straightaway looking towards pit row and scoring tower |
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| There it is, the Start/Finish line with original bricks |
One afternoon we noticed a scene play out close to us. A fellow (obviously one of the seasonal folks since they all had decks, storage sheds and golf carts, which he had too) was mowing the area around his RV. After he finished, this other fellow walks up to him and says, ‘hey you did such a dang good job cutting that yard, I believe I will get you to cut my hair for me.’ They proceeded to get the apron and hair cutting tools out and went to work. Sophie says to me, 'Larry, I think I found you a barber.' Of course I did not think he did that good of a job on the yard so I opted for something else. It did remind me I was getting a little scruffy and needed to get a trim. I tried to get Beverly to buy some tools and give it a whirl but she politely refused. So I was forced to locate a shop in nearby Lebanon, IN that took walk-ins. By the time the proprietor finished, we knew each other’s history and families. But I was trimmed and feeling good, not to mention looked good too. Hope my lady barber in Longview thinks so too.
Friday, David and I went garage sale browsing. Part of the annual tradition of the Turning of the Leaves festival involves garage and yard sales all over Thorntown. What is not sold is stored and brought back out the following year. We did not need a GPS or newspaper with notices. The town is not very large (around 6 by 10 city blocks) and every street had at least one garage sale. Most of the time there were 2, 3 and even 4 to a street. Sam, you would have had a field day with all the sports stuff available. As it was, we found a few things and had many good conversations. Some were a little longer than we wanted but necessary to maintain good relationships with the locals. David located a pop rivet tool for a dollar and we had to schmooz a wheelchair bound widow lady with lots of stories to get some free pop rivets. This was to repair a couple of tire valve extender hold downs that had come loose from the original pop rivets on my rear wheel covers. I also located Beverly an electric Schwinn scooter for $15 that looks brand new. After replacing the rechargeable batteries, she can cruise the campgrounds in style.
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| Waiting for the battery to recharge, it never did so time to buy new battery |
Saturday morning brought the ‘official’ opening of the Turning of the Leaves festival. We drove downtown and located a parking spot not too far from Main Street at one end of town and proceeded to the ‘doins’. David and I spotted a couple of garage sales to look over since they were not open on Friday while Beverly and Sophie headed straight for the vendors booths setup on both sides of Main Street. We caught up with the girls after they had made approximately 75% of the vendor booths. There were rides including a zip line, train rides with a tractor as the engine, etc. There was also a stage with live acts such as a magician, singing groups and local talent. And the requisite food court with every kind of imaginable fried food product you could possibly want to ingest. So we finished the vendor tour, made it to a silent auction and came back to have a bite to eat prior to the big parade. And ‘BIG’ it was too! We found a cool (read, in the shade) spot that was elevated on Main Street to view the parade which started at the other end of Main Street and finished at the elementary school.
Before the real parade started we were able to view a few interesting things like golf carts (yes as I stated earlier they are in town too) that have lined up to take their place on the parade route and view the parade as well. Plus, just like at home, there are some strange creatures that come out of the woods for these free soirees and Thorntown is no exception. Not too much later the parade begins as our anticipation and excitement builds to the boiling point. But alas, it seems that someone forgot to tell them about certain key elements to a parade such as marching bands, decorated floats and such. There were 30 or so parade marshals and festival queens that came by in all manner of transportation before we ever get to see some of the main features in the parade. Then the political opponents and their supporters came by tossing candies to the youngsters positioned along the route. No, this was not unusual for all the youngsters had magically appeared carrying sacks, bags and other implements to hold the candies that are tossed by nearly every parade participant. Nobody bothered to tell me that I needed a bag for the candy. It is hard to fight for a piece of candy and not drop what you have already accumulated when some fast little urchin is reaching at the same time to procure the sweet goody right in front of you.
Anyway, there is a major political contest for the good folks in Thorntown to decide. That is, the sheriff’s race. Do they continue with the incumbent or elect a new sheriff which is currently a deputy for the existing sheriff. Yes folks, it will be bad for Nielsen, the challenger, if he does not win. I got the distinct impression the folks in these two opposing camps are not talking to each other. But there were some familiar elements to the parade. There was a cheerleading, twirling group of little girls dressed in their pink sparkly outfits marching just like in every other parade I have ever viewed. One item in this parade I had not seen much before involved a tractor (John Deere, I believe) pulling three (yes three in a row) stagecoaches with a guy on each dressed in western garb firing off blanks from their shotguns. Very loud and very obnoxious. We are not sure what that was all about as there were no identifying placards, political implications or businesses that seemed to be associated with the display of tractor, stagecoach, cowboy shooting gun entry.
One of the coolest things in the parade was a series of very old antique tractors that made their way down Main Street just a popping and whirring. Well most were going under their own power. There were a couple of them that needed a little help from their friends and were actually pulled by another tractor. There was even a large semi from Frito-Lay rolling through. At first, we thought he was lost and had crashed the festivities but soon realized there were volunteers tossing out free bags of Doritos and such along the route. We are not sure but we think the purpose of that was to convince others to apply for a job with Frito-Lay because the internet address on the side of the truck had the word ‘employment’ in it. The grand finale of the parade came when every emergency vehicle (fire trucks and ambulances) in the area came by with kids inside blowing the horns and manning the sirens. Finally it was over (after a solid hour) and we could make our way back to the safety of the campground. My favorite part of the parade was a wagon pulled by a pickup that contained an old calliope that was played by a woman obviously having a lot of fun. She was very good and played a mean calliope like it was meant to be played. I think the local bank (the only bank) might have sponsored it. Made me want to go open an account immediately with them.
Back at the campground we witnessed the evening constitutional as we prepared to leave the next day. Made our hearts heavy for these folks as this is likely the last time for all of them to be together. There was a big bingo game in one of the buildings and something else going on in the other. There were tractor and wagon rides that went through the entire campground that evening. You see, the water and electricity is turned off on October 15th until the beginning of the season next spring. So this is likely the last big hurrah for the year.
We left the next day and made our way to Louisville, KY. Actually we stayed in a small city in Indiana just north of the Ohio River for the night. The next morning before making our way further south, we went to downtown Louisville to visit the Louisville Slugger museum and factory tour. We thought it rather appropriate on the day after the last day of the regular baseball season we find ourselves in this factory. We learned all about the history of the company, how they get endorsements from players, how the bats are made and watched them making a bunch of bats. The tour guide held up a number of bats from various players to show how they are stamped, stenciled, etc. because of the paint or lack of paint. One was a bat for Chris Davis, our Longview boy, playing for the Baltimore Orioles. They had it painted black with orange lettering (Orioles colors) trying to entice him to sign an endorsement deal with them. Then we made the obligatory stop in the museum store before going back to the RV Park and heading out again.
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| Now that is a bat! |
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| The Babe, the Sultan of Swat |
We are working our way towards Atlanta and during our drive from Louisville, KY to Chattanooga, TN we saw at least four different changes in the terrain. We truly are blessed to live in this land and yet so much of us take it for granted. Speaking of blessings, you might recall David was having overheating issues with his engine. Well it started again in the mountains of Tennessee. We pulled over in a rest area to discuss where to stop and he said it was ‘just in time’ because he was on the edge. We decided to stop at a Camping World RV Park in Chattanooga. While there he wanted to get a recommendation from CW about a local mechanic to look at the engine for him. Well they have a service department at CW that can diagnose and repair the rig. So we are here for a few days while the parts are ordered, shipped and installed to correct the issues.
We have seen lots of country so far on this trip and will see some more soon as we work our way towards Atlanta. We will send you another update in a few. Until then we will leave you with the following thought: Where is my golf cart?
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