Indy

Our weather is warming up, and that seems to mean dead skunks everywhere. They absolutely reek and totally infest your car when you drive past one. If you can imagine that strong rainforest smell (smells a bit like someone smoking), well times that by about 20 - literally! It is the most pungent smell ever!

Speaking of weather, we hear/saw that things have been pretty bad back at home. Hope everyone is doing OK. It even made our CNN news over here!

This weekend we drove to Indianapolis, Indiana, about 6 hours away from Erie. There were begger's on every corner of the main road, who all rattled the cups of money at you as you walked past - i guess the camera was a dead giveaway that we were tourists!

First up, we went to Monument Circle - a giant round-a-bout with a 284 ft Soldiers and Sailors monument in the centre. All the buildings lining the round-a-bout were curved, which looked pretty cool. The State House looked nice as well.

Kristy in front of Monument Circle

Ryan with the Monument

Our hotel was actually built in to a train station that was still active!


In the morning we drove to the Worlds most famous race track - the Indianapolis Speedway which plays host to the Indy500 (which is on next week, but we are going to the NASCAR race in Michigan).

The track

Ryan in front of the Pagoda on the track.

Ryan with an Indy car in the museum

We got to do a lap around the track doing about 37mph in a bus, and then went through the museum dedicated to the Indy500.

Next up was Columbus, Indiana. Columbus is famous for its architecture, and apparently gives the likes of NY and Chicago a run for their money. Well, lets make it clear right now that the tour (you buy a map and drive yourself around the sites) was crap. There were 3 or 4 interesting buildings, and the rest were just like your everyday buildings and definitely nothing out of the ordinary. The tour had us going past schools, golf courses and even a retirement home! We quit halfway through and headed for our destination for the evening (and second visit) to Louisville, Kentucky. We love Louisville. We spent the evening drinking and eating.

One of the few interesting bits of architecture

Doing what we do best!

This man was a host at one of the Louisville restaurants - look familiar???

Yep - knew we had seen him somewhere before! Kentucky is the home of KFC!

The next morning we drove west of Louisville, back to Indiana to a small town to canoe along the Ohio river. This is where Ryan sent Kristy in to the Male toilets, where the lock didn't work and a man walked in (lucky she was finished!) Along the way we saw heaps of turtles, and the forest was nice. We completed the 7 mile paddle in just under 2 hours. At the end of the trip, these 2 guys we passed tried to keep up with us, but had nothing on us!!!

Ryan by the Ohio River at the end of our canoe trip

We grabbed a pizza and hit the road, and drove another 40min west to the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial - this is where Lincoln lived from ages 4-21years. The remains of his family's cabin is still present along with a replica pioneer farm.

We then had an 8 hour drive home. We stopped at a restaurant called Hoggy's on the way home for some good 'ol Southern food - Ryan literally ordered half a chicken! Lucky doggy bags are all the rage over here!