One Night in Indianapolis

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Monument Circle and Indianapolis State Capitol

April 10

We got to Indianapolis, the first stop on our month-long road trip, at around 2:00 pm. The plan was two days exploring Indianapolis and touring the Speedway. We had a one-night stay at the Courtyard Marriot downtown. The hotel staff kindly accommodated a one-hour early check-in for us. With our cargo box on the roof of our Jeep, and their parking garage underground with low clearance, we valeted the car and let them figure out where to park it. Worth the extra $10.

After dropping stuff in our room, we headed out to explore Indianapolis. First stop was the state Capitol building, a 10-minute walk. As usual, the Capitol here is an impressive structure inside and out, but there was nothing uniquely special about it.

 

However, Senate hearings were in session, making this the first time that we sat in on an active legislative session while visiting a state house. After listening for 15 minutes to an inane discussion regarding whether an elementary school teacher should be allowed to tell her students that she’s pregnant, we left.  Back to the real world of travel and adventure.

We headed out to Monument Circle.  This is the focal attraction point of downtown Indy, and it is so for good reason.  The monument itself is jaw dropping, but so is the layout of the streets circling it, kind of like the Arc de Triomph in Paris.

While admiring this area of downtown I realized I had left my ballcap in the men’s room stall at the state house. We went back, and fortunately it was still there. But unfortunately, the stall was occupied. The guy inside said he’d bring it out to me, so we patiently waited while he did his business so I could get my hat back.

Exploring Indianapolis

With my hat back on my head, we then walked parts of the Cultural Trail and Canal Walk along the Central Canal, across the White River, and through White River State Park. We found it all easily walkable, interesting, safe, and enjoyable.

At around 6:30 we got an excellent dinner at Connor’s Kitchen & Bar, where we ate out on the patio.

We got an after-dinner drink at the swanky 1933 Lounge.  After our drink and creme brulee at this lavishly cozy speakeasy, we did some more tooling around the city. After inquiring, the server at the 1933 Lounge told us that where we planned to go was safe at night.

We headed to an incredibly massive War Memorial about a 10-minute walk away. We awed at the Scottish Rites castle, which seemed so out of place, and then meandered our way back somehow onto another section of the Cultural Trail. This was cooler than earlier because the art and other displays are lit up at night, and so this was actually the best time to walk this. Then back onto a different section of the very nice Central Canal Walk and back to our hotel by 10:00 pm. We walked over 7 miles in Indy today!

Indianapolis Speedway Tour

April 11

After a complimentary breakfast at the sister Marriot hotel next door to our hotel, we checked out. We got our car from valet and headed about 15 minutes to the Indianapolis Speedway. It turned out that valet had parked our car out in front of registration of that sister Marriot hotel…apparently the low clearance garage was in fact too low. Glad we valeted.

We got to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Museum  at 11:00 am. It wasn’t crowded and we bought tickets at the speedway for the “Kiss the Bricks” tour. This also included admission to the museum. We are not racing fans, but the Indy 500 is an icon of American culture, so we felt compelled to visit considering it was so close. We’re glad we did.  We really enjoyed this tour and the museum.  It was pretty nifty being out on the track!

After the Speedway visit, we headed to our reserved campsite at Mammoth Cave NP Campground about 3 hours away.  Two Days exploring Indianapolis and touring the Speedway: complete.

Since we were going right through Louisville, Kentucky we decided it would be a good stop for a late lunch.

Not straying far off the highway, we parked near the Louisville Slugger Museum. Once out of the car we walked along the slugger walk of fame, which is really just the sidewalk leading to the Museum. Got pics of the huge baseball bat out in front of the museum (after waiting about 10 minutes for a just-arrived tour bus full of tourists to move out of the way.)

Got lunch nearby at the very unique, dungeon-like Troll Pub (found via the Roadside Attractions app). Very cool underground place under the bridge we took into the city, and decent food with friendly service.

 

Next: Mammoth Cave National Park