Friday, July 26, 2019
A good recovery day, after the excitement of Thursday.
Dave found a Ford dealer and bought some touchup paint. He consulted the collision department who said paint and clear coat would keep the scratches on the roof from rusting until it could be properly repaired.
I stayed in the hotel room and worked. I got some new words down on a tech writing job, so that’s always good.
We also did some laundry, expecting to hear that we’re done in Indiana and will be leaving tomorrow to take the trailer to Minnesota. That news came at 2:00. It’s a bit sad that we only got to do two events in Indiana and that the Colts Training Camp fell through. Everyone here has been so kind and welcoming. And everyone who’s visited the trailer wants to know where it’s going to be next so they can tell others. When I told a woman at Thursday’s farmer’s market that we were leaving in a day or so, her jaw dropped and she said, “Do you know the statistics for Indiana? Do you know what we have going on here?” We’re hoping to come back next year and spend more time. Or at least the trailer.
After we got the news that we were done in Indy, Dave called our boss to discuss moving the trailer to Minnesota for the Farm Fest. The boss will come to Minnesota for that and we’ll fly home for the first of our previously scheduled vacations.
Then we headed to Carmel, the next town over, to visit the Museum of Miniatures that we had popped into on Wednesday. We spent about an hour there. It’s an amazing place! The attention to detail is incredible, as well as the time invested. Besides houses, there are rooms, vignettes, scenes, exhibits of dolls and collections of miniatures.
The admission fee is $10 and it’s well worth it. It includes an audio tour that gives additional information about some of the exhibits. I have a writer friend who makes miniatures and I thought of her often during the tour. As well as another friend who loves miniatures also. They both would have been in their element there.
After looking at all the museum’s offerings, we left to find the elusive Indiana breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. Before we arrived in Indy, I’d Googled, “Indiana state food,” looking for a local specialty cuisine/dish. I found the pork tenderloin sandwich. We chatted with the consultants, and a friend from home who is from Indiana, and they all agreed: when in Indiana, you must have a pork tenderloin sandwich. It has to be breaded, and it has to be old-school, not “bougie.”
So I searched for the best pork tenderloin sandwich around us in Westfield or Carmel. I read lots of reviews. I debated driving thirty minutes to a definite old school place or take a chance on a nearby place with mixed reviews. But we really didn’t have time to drive any distance, and the local place, Muldoon’s, was walking distance from the museum.
It worked out great. We ordered the breaded (not grilled) pork tenderloin sandwich to share and substituted coleslaw for the kettle chips. It was everything everyone said. 
The pork was tender and delicious. It came with mayonnaise, pickles, and lettuce on the side, and a regular size hamburger bun. I’m not sure how you eat it as a sandwich. We just cut it up and ate it like a chicken-fried steak. Dave asked for mustard, but he didn’t use any. The pork was great as it was.
We were back to the hotel and in for the night by 5:30. (I know. We’re such party animals!)
We talked about where to go on our way to Minnesota. We’re headed to Springfield, Illinois first. We settled on a route. I watched some of the livestream of the RITA awards (the Oscars for romance books) since I had some friends who were finalists (you all were robbed!). We took a last swim in the pool and got ready for bed and the next stop on the adventure!
Illinois and Minnesota, here we come. I hope we’re ready!
do scrambled eggs. At all. Ever. But I can handle omelets with lots of cheese and other ingredients. But the packaged ones here lost their appeal pretty quickly. I can’t eat sugar on an empty stomach (I get nauseated, clammy, and shaky), so no cinnamon rolls , pancakes with syrup, or sugary cereals. Like most of the country, I avoid carbs (toast/muffins/bagels). Which leaves sausage. Good thing I like sausage and they usually offer both pork and turkey. Sometimes there’s bacon. Sometimes I do have half a biscuit with gravy. One day I did half a bagel with cream cheese. There are enough options that I don’t leave hungry.
shops under one roof in an older, converted building. We walked quickly through and out, to see their outside area, called a rain garden. There is a lovely plaza with bistro tables, trees, bocce ball courts. And an open area not nearly big enough for our 32′ trailer plus a pickup truck to pull it in. The director told us that they recently hosted a Cirque du Soleil team with their trailer. Except it was only 20′ and took a whole team to position and make 5-point turns. The only other option would be to get a permit from the city to block off a portion of the street and that could take up to a month. We only have a few days.
They returned to work and we walked over to look at the monument. We paid $2 each to ride the elevator to the top for some amazing 360 degree views of downtown Indianapolis. Then we returned to the parking garage.
We got to Lawrence just in time to meet up with the consultants again and to set up. They helped us unload all the boxes (mostly dried out from Monday’s rain) and set up.
We headed down Main Street. One of the things that caught our attention last week was the statues scattered along the street we drove down. Walking the street let us look at them up close. They
were so cool! Life-size, and life-like. They were “people” doing mostly ordinary and everyday tasks. A policeman directing traffic. A woman with groceries. A street busker. A man reading a newspaper. Dave got the idea to take pictures of each one.
I’ll let you guess whose idea this picture was. And who is behind the head. I think you can see what he’s doing …
We finished at 
interview/walkthroughs. And Dave says there was a radio interview also, but I have no memory of that. There was also a news conference in Beech Grove City Hall to announce some grants the city received for their drug education program, but we weren’t part of that. I did attend and got to sit for a minute and managed to not nod off.
A major wrinkle in the day was a rainstorm. We had cardboard boxes of supplies stacked outside the trailer. Dave and another gentleman dashed to a nearby auto supply store for a tarp to cover them, but they still got pretty wet. We moved the tables of totes and water bottles into the trailer. The good thing about the rain is the humidity finally broke and the late afternoon and evening were quite pleasant.
Writer of Sweet Small Town Stories of Love and Family 