Intro to Broad Ripple (6/11-6/12/26)

Bob and I started a housesit yesterday for the older but sweet Poppet. We had a great walk through with the homeowners before they headed off for an annual visit with family. They showed us how to apply lotion to the inside of Poppet’s ear twice daily for her low thyroid condition.

Poppet in her cat tree in the sunroom, her favorite hangout spot.

Poppet spending some time with us downstairs in the tv room. She is fairly deaf, so we need to ensure she can see us
and then indicate for her to follow us by clapping our hands.

Our housesit is in the Indianapolis neighborhood of Broad Ripple. It is about 6 miles north of downtown and has a vibrant retail and restaurant area along the Monon Trail and Central Canal Towpath Trail. The house is a cute older home in another lovely, established neighborhood. We noted today that it is our 3rd home in a row with three livable floors. We are getting our stair climbing in!

This morning we headed to the Monon Trail to walk the few short blocks to the free Indiana Art Center.

An ice cream shop next to where we entered the Monon Trail.
It is housed in a former railway station.

The Monon Trail is a paved rails-to-trails walkway in Central Indiana. It runs 27 miles — from downtown Indianapolis to the northern neighborhood of Sheridan. It is popular for walking, running, and biking.

The trail marker where we entered the trail,
a few blocks down 64th Street from the house.

Public art along the trail. This is “Faces of Indiana”
that was commissioned for the Millennium.

This was a historical marker along the trail
that told the story of the Monon Railroad,
which ran between Chicago and Indianapolis,
and the collapse of the railroad bridge in Broad Ripple
just a few months following the completion of the railroad.

The Indianapolis Art Center, which is an art gallery
but also provides space for art classes in a variety of media.

Unfortunately for us, the art center was in the process of changing over a number of galleries. We got to see the art but for the most part, didn’t have information on the artist, materials, year, etc.

The initial gallery, however, had a special exhibition called “JoeWill: Better Together,” which told the tragic story of two Indianapolis-born artists, Joe and Will Lawrence, twin brothers, who both died by suicide as young adults. The exhibition told their stories and displayed some of their art to help highlight the need for mental health resources.

“Suburban Still Life #2,” by Tom Taverna from Two Rivers, MI.

From the art center, we walked back along a road to where we had first entered the Monon Trail. We then reentered the trail to walk a few blocks in the opposite direction towards Fresh Thyme Market, which is the closest grocery to the house. It is also in the heart of the Village of Broad Ripple, so we explored a bit of that as well.

We left Monon Trail to walk to the grocery store once we hit the Central Canal Towpath Trail, which runs 7.7 miles along the historic Central Canal, the primary source of drinking water for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area.