Indy Volksmarch - Thurs., Oct. 22, 2014

Did I happen to mention yesterday that we fell in love with Indianapolis? Today, reinforced our enchantment.

I think I forgot to mention the name of their rapid transit system is IndyGo. Cute.

While we were walking last night, a line of teeny-bopper girls circled the Indiana Repertory Theater (IRT). We had no idea what was going on because the marquee didn't list a show. Bob asked some of the girls walking by what was happening at the IRT. They told him it was Taylor Caniff, you know, he twitters and is on The Vine. Who? Boy, we are out of touch. Had to look him up. From what I could see, he's an 18-year-old boy who takes a lot of photos of himself. As far as we can tell, he doesn't sing. Unusual.

Waiting to see Taylor Caniff

The line snakes around the building

We were out and about early again today so we could tour the capital before doing our Volksmarch. Guided tours didn't start until 9 a.m. so we took a self-guided tour.

The current state Capitol is the third building used as the capital. The first was the Marion County Courthouse. The second, a State House, was built in 1835 at a cost of $60,000. In 1867 the ceiling of the House Chamber collapsed and the damage was repaired. That building was demolished before construction of the present building.

In 1878, construction on the current Capitol was begun. Budget was not to exceed $2,000,000. Construction continued until 1888 and completed at a cost of $1,980,969.18. Materials used in construction are limestone (from Indiana), marble, steel, brick and mortar. Columns on the 2nd (main), 3rd and 4th floors are marble from the eastern United States. The eight columns in the Rotunda are granite from Maine. The floors and steps are marble. Most of the wood in the building is white oak from Indiana, although walnut and maple were also used.

The interior of the building has been remodeled many times, but in the 1980s an $11,000,000 restoration of public spaces was done. Let's go see...

The Rotunda has a stained-glass dome which is 72' in diameter and rises 105' above the floor. Surrounding this dome is the large dome you see from outside. Atop the large dome is a smaller one. It is 235' to the top of the small dome.

Rotunda's stained-glass dome

Small dome on top of larger one

Carrara marble imported from Italy was used to create the statues that surround the Rotunda. They were designed by Alexander Doyle and cost $9,000 for all eight.

Agriculture and Commerce statues

Justice and Liberty statues

In the atriums north and south of the Rotunda are columns: the capital style on the main (2nd) floor is Doric; 3rd floor has Ionic capitals, and the 4th floor, Corinthian.

Beautiful hand-stenciled painting adorns walls and ceilings

Marble staircase

The House Chamber on the third floor has a beautiful, distinctive chandelier lit by 100 lights. Each light represents a member of the House. The mural was installed in 1963 and painted by Indiana native Eugene Savage.

House Chamber with chandelier and mural.

House Chamber

Senate Chamber

The carpet in the Senate Chamber has circular patterns of 19 gold stars symbolizing Indiana as the 19th state to join the Union.

The fourth floor has the most gorgeous arches. I took photos with Bob in them so you can see how high the ceilings are. You may have to enlarge the photos to find him.

Fourth floor with original light fixtures.

All the light fixtures in the building in 1888 had both gas and electric capabilities. The up-turned lamps were for gas, the down-turned ones for electricity.

Do you see Bob in the red shirt??

With that, we finished our self-guided tour of the Indiana Statehouse.


Our Volksmarch started at the White River State Park Visitor Center. At the car I debated whether or not to wear my coat. It was chilly, but I thought I'd warm up when we started walking so I left it in the car.

After checking in, and with walk instructions firmly in hand, we set out to see what we missed yesterday. First, we missed the man-made waterfalls by the NCAA HQ building.

Waterfalls

NCAA Hall of Champions

Steam clock in front of Indiana State Museum

As we walked along the canal, Bob said, "Oh, look, tomatoes." They sure did look like cherry tomatoes, but these happen to be big, fat rose hips.

The canal has pedal boats for rent and also offers gondola rides in the summertime. Even though it looks like a ghost town now, I'm sure plenty of people come to the canal in summer. Speaking of the weather...it kept getting windier and chillier. Sure wish I had brought my coat. A sweatshirt just wasn't warm enough.

Paddeboats on the canal

More art along the canal under the bridges.

Pretty flower art.

Apartments along the canal.

Here's photo of a goldfish for Mom.

Goofy "fish-lips" kiss.

The weather took a decided turn for the worse. Sprinkles turned into downright rain. Do you know how well a sweatshirt soaks up cold rain? Pretty darn well. I told Bob we had to get out of the rain. Up ahead was a beautiful building. Perhaps we could find shelter within?

What is this building?

Turns out the beautiful building is a public library and we went in. The entrance is through the historic library building. From there, you transition through an arched atrium to the new building.

Atrium connects old library to new library.

An interesting area we found in the new library is called "The Learning Curve." You can see on the curved, lighted wall different types of learning. In this circular space are comfortable chairs as well as pillows you can use to sit on the floor.

Bob looking comfy in The Learning Curve area.

After we explored part of the library, we headed outside and the rain had stopped. We continued our walk. We walked out onto American Legion Mall. What a place. It's sort of like the Capital Mall in Washington, D.C.

American Legion Mall

National Headquarters of American Legion
Founded 1919

Veterans Memorial Plaza

Indiana World War Memorial

Detail on Indiana World War Memorial

Old National Centre - Murat Theater

Murat Theater

Historic Athenaeum Building houses YMCA, Rathskeller Bar

We then turned the corner into a cute neighborhood with concrete sidewalks. Bob remarked how nice it was to have cement sidewalks instead of the wavy, uneven brick sidewalks in German Village yesterday. One driveway later, the sidewalk here turned to brick. Arghh!

Colorful homes

 No, this squirrel is not sticking its tongue out at me. That is a huge acorn in its mouth.

Nutty squirrel

Soldiers' and sailors' monument

Another shot of the Marriott building.

Our Volksmarch complete, we headed back to the RV park to pick up the 5th wheel, then headed west to Springfield, Illinois, our next state capital.

The more we see and learn in each of these cities, the more we want to see and learn! I'm sure we'll be going back to Indianapolis.

Travel Bug out.

Indianapolis, Indiana - Weds., Oct. 21, Part 2

Our destination this afternoon is Indianapolis, Indiana where we will stay at Lake Haven Retreat RV Campground. First, we'll bid adieu to Alton RV Park and show you some photos of our site.

Alton RV Park Office

Alton RV Park is very small and cramped. When we had our 5th wheel pulled into the site, the back end was inches from blocking the road. When we put the slide out, I was afraid if the person to our left checked out before we did that they would hit our slide. Before we walked in the morning, we put the slide in on that side. We had to park our pick up on the side of the office. All of our slides could be put out without hitting anyone else.

Other than the cramped-ness, it is a very convenient campground to downtown Columbus, Ohio. There is road noise from the highway, but it quiets down at night.

Alton RV Park, Columbus, OH - Our rig is in the center above.

Here, we are on the left side of the photo.

Hang on, Susan's driving!

Our drive to Indianapolis took about four hours, all on I-70. We had one minor traffic incident. To get to our RV park we had to take I-465 south from I-70. Just as we came to the off-ramp for I-465, I could see all the traffic was stopped and there was a flipped over semi truck blocking both on-ramp lanes to I-465 southbound. No one was to our right, so we quickly changed lanes and took I-465 northbound to the first exit where we turned around to come back southbound. Two lanes turned to get onto the ramp. We were on the inside lane. As we went around the corner at the light, a small yellow compact car almost ran into our right front fender of the pick up. They were way over the line into our lane. Bob laid on the horn and they took off.

For our RV park, we chose Lake Haven Retreat RV Campground just a few miles south of downtown. It is 22 acres, 105 sites, with full hook-ups. Even though it's in an industrial area of town, we didn't care. The park was very nice, but the sites were a bit close together. It was only for one night.

View of campground fishing lake from our window

Our site, #93

Other views of the campground

Lake Haven Retreat, Indianapolis, Indiana

When we arrived in Indianapolis, we thought we could do the Volksmarch that afternoon. On our Volksmarch start instructions it was unclear as to whether we had to start by 5 p.m. or if we could start until 7 p.m. I dilly-dallied on the computer looking things up and by the time we got to the start point downtown, it was 5:10 p.m. and the visitor center closed at 5 p.m. Sigh.

We decided since we were downtown, we would walk around. I could take photos and we could read history markers so we wouldn't have to take so much time for that tomorrow on our walk. Plus we figured we'd walk some of the Volksmarch route, guessing as to where it might go.

We fell in love with downtown Indianapolis. It is clean, modern, cultural, artsy and yet historic. Our circuitous route took us all over downtown for two hours. Starting at the White River State Park Visitor Center, we walked along the canal past the NCAA HQ and Hall of Champions, Indiana State Museum, and Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art on our way to the Indiana Statehouse.

Beautiful building!

Canal and NCAA HQ and Hall of Champions

Indianapolis skyline from the canal.

Below is...

We had walked past the Gastown Steam Clock in Vancouver, British Columbia, a number of years ago and now we have walked past this one. Steam clocks are fascinating.

Indiana Steam Clock

You might also like to know that commercial steam heat was first used in Indianapolis in 1888 when the Marmon-Perry Light Company delivered steam heat to the Grand Opera House in downtown Indianapolis. By 1931, Indianapolis Power and Light Company had bought up all the smaller private power companies and was the city's only provider of commercial steam heat. With 24 miles of piping, Indianapolis's steam district is now second in sales only to New York City.

Indiana State Museum

Much like San Antonio, Indianapolis has a waterway, the canal, that goes through part of downtown and there is art along the way, including under the bridges. That's where any comparison to San Antonio's Riverwalk ends. Where San Antonio has restaurants, pubs, and lots of activity, Indianapolis's canal feels sterile. Sure there are walkers and joggers, but not the hustle and bustle and liveliness of the Riverwalk.

Art under the bridges along the canal

Below is a photo of part of the Sept. 11, 2001 Memorial in Indianapolis. We feel it is worth taking time to visit.

9/11/2001 Memorial with Marriott in background

We veered away from the canal and headed to the Indiana Statehouse. The streets in Indianapolis are laid out in a logical fashion and it seemed easy to find our way (as long as we could find streets that crossed the canal!).

Indiana Statehouse

The dome

Indiana Statehouse

"Thomas A. Hendricks, 1890" monument by Richard Henry Park

Ornate facade of Indiana Repertory Theater

Bob wanted to walk to Monument Circle. "OK, yeah, yeah, ho hum," I thought. Until we turned the corner. Whoa, look at that! Of course I was astounded and proceeded to take many photos.

What you see below is the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Monument Circle. This 284'-tall monument was completed in 1902 and honors those who died in the Civil War. Unfortunately the Civil War Museum at its base was closed. If it's open, you can access the observation point at the top of the monument via 333 stairs or pay $1 to ride the elevator.

Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument

Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument

The pointy protrusions toward the bottom of the monument are sculptures of the prows of ships. Monument Circle is the street that goes around the landmark. All the buildings in Monument Circle are curved. It's reminiscent of European landmark plazas with traffic circles around them.

Monument Circle

It was getting dark and had been a long day. We were tired and hungry. As we walked back to the truck, I was eyeballing the Weber Grill Restaurant.

Bob was hungering for the Colts Grille.

The Indiana Statehouse in a different light.

Statue in front of the Eiteljorg Museum.

Where we ended up eating was the T.G.I. Friday's just before we returned to the car. If you are a Volksmarcher and decide to do the Indiana Capital walk, be prepared to pay to park at the White River State Park Visitor Center and be sure to give yourself enough time because there's lots to see in Indianapolis.

And that ends our two-part Wednesday. Stay tuned for the Indianapolis Capital Volksmarch tomorrow when we go inside the Capitol.

Travel Bug out.