Peckish Travels

A quick blog to showcase some more photos from around Bloomington.

First, in happy news for Bob, he’s scored a couple of big head photos.

In happy news for Beth, the homeowner left a library card for our use. About a week ago, I checked out “The Three Beth’s,” by Jeff Abbott. I turned it in today. I don’t usually read thrillers, but it was very engaging and by an Austin, Texas, based author and set in Austin, so fun to read about familiar places.

Today, we stopped by the ice sculptures which were recently created as part of Bloomington’s Freezefest. In happy news for the sculptors and attendees, the temperatures today and overnight are to remain below freezing. In happy news for those not so fond of cold weather, the high tomorrow (39F) is to get above freezing.

The French Lick Springs Hotel was built in 1845. The spa wing was added in 1901, and a casino was added in 1996.

On the drive back, we ran into (happily not literally) a couple of Amish (our guess) farmers.

Road Trip! Bob and I drove a little over an hour south of Bloomington today to visit a couple of resorts that we had seen listed in our local guides and which had been mentioned by our homeowners— the West Baden Springs Hotel and the French Lick Springs Hotel and Casino. The drive itself added to the adventure as the last 10 to 15 miles were on very curvy and narrow (though well paved) roads with signs to watch for farm machinery.

Our first stop was at the very attractive West Baden Springs Hotel. Dr. john Lane, who acquired the health resort in 1855, renamed the hotel and town after the famous mineral springs in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Lee Sinclair transformed the hotel into a sophisticated resort in 1888 when he assumed ownership, including an opera house, golf course, church, and ball field. However, he really transformed the physical structure of the building into how it looks today after a fire destroyed the original structure in 1901. For a little over $410,000 and within 1 year, the new structure was modeled after the best European spas and contained the world’s largest free span dome, earning it the nickname “The 8th Wonder of the World.” It retained that nickname until the Astrodomewas built in Houston, Texas.

Following the stock market crash in 1929, the owner sold it to the Jesuits for $1. The Jesuits operated it as a seminary for 30 years. It was reopened as a hotel in 1996 after an extensive renovation.

Because of the history of a hotel, there is a small onsite museum.

From the West Baden Springs Hotel, it was a short one mile drive to the French Lick Springs Hotel, located in French Lick, Indiana (population 1,700). See Part II of blog.

Bob, Jasper, and I have had a fairly chilly couple of days inside. Much of the country is currently struggling with very cold temperatures outside. We also had a cooler-than-desired inside as well beginning Saturday when we awoke to a furnace that wouldn’t kick in.

Our homeowners had left contact information for the service company, so we let them know what was happening and got the okay to call. This happened on the same day they sent us instructions from their home owners association about preparing for the colder weather to help prevent pipes from bursting. The main instructions were to maintain a temperature of at least 55 degrees in your home, drip pipes, open cabinet drawers, etc.

The service person was very prompt but unfortunately did not carry the gas valve that needed to be replaced. He told Bob he would order it on Monday. That caused some panic on our part, as it seemed to indicate we could be without heat for an indefinite period of time on the main 2 living areas of the house. We were fortunate that the bedrooms on the upper level are on a separate heating system which was still working. We also had one small space heater and a plethora of quilts and blankets.

Long story, short, the main floors were down to 44 F this morning before the service company came with the part. Oh happy day! So now Bob doesn’t have to cook or watch TV dressed as below.

The other upside to this now amusing story is that Jasper finally sat on my lap. It was only about 10 minutes, but since she at most has rubbed up against us, it made me happy.

Also, we had a fun deer sighting in the neighborhood this morning.

Wherever you are, I hope this finds you safe and warm.

Last night, Bob and I drove onto campus, into a free parking lot with our generously gifted season tickets from our homeowners, to take in an Indiana University women’s basketball game. They played conference rivals Illinois. Sadly, although they rallied late in the third period, they lost the game 68-54.

On the other hand, we had a great time exploring the arena and experiencing some of the IU traditions.

While we were there to attend a women’s basketball game, the men’s teams have been more recognized nationally, and there were multiple displays on site to honor some of the important individuals in the history of their men’s program.

The video below is a snippet of what was played about 5 minutes before the game, and it was announced as an Indiana tradition. It is even listed in the program as Martha the Mop. It is a video of a woman with a mop singing a school song. Students even wave life size cardboard figures of her with a mop.

The school website indicates that beginning in 1971, the Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance was the sole sponsor of IU basketball games and began running commercials immediately before the games which featured Martha Webster, an opera singer, dressed as a cleaning lady, singin the Indiana fight song. It ran during the the time when IU won three national titles. It was brought back in 2010 on the video board rather than a TV commercial.

I think I lied. Not sure this one had any fewer words than the last one.

As with many college towns, Bloomington is dominated by the campus of Indiana University, which has an enrollment of 49,000. We had our first foray onto campus today to visit the Student Union and campus visitors center as well as the Lilly Library. We’ll be back on campus tomorrow night for a women’s basketball game. IU is known nationally for its men’s basketball program.

We picked up some information on the architecture and history of some of the buildings on campus, which I’ll note below the relevant photo.

Originally built for the female students of the university, the architecture style is Romanesque Revival, as evidenced from the use of round arches over the main windows. The bell tower was rebuilt after it was destroyed by a fire in the attic in 1990.

Maxwell Hall first served as the university library and then the law school. It is also of the Romanesque Revival style. This time evidenced by the strong horizontal lines of alternating smooth and rough rock.

This is the largest student union building in the world under a single roof. The original section was built in the Collegiate Gothic style. As with the county courthouse, there is a fish sculpture atop the building (no known reason but the courthouse had it first).

The Union is not terribly attractive on the inside with low ceilings that create a dark atmosphere, but it does house a hotel inside the building as well.

Beck Chapel is non-denominational and often used for weddings. It’s built in a modified Tudor style.

The Lilly Library is named after the Eli Lilly (big pharma) family and the rare gift collection provided by Josiah Kirby Lilly, Jr., which started this collection. I was super excited to visit but was disappointed with the current exhibit on romance, which really didn’t feature many old books.

The next few are more photos from their permanent collection, but this time different types of puzzles.

That’s a lot of reading! Thanks for sticking it out. Less words next time.

Bob and I have been getting slowly re-introduced to Bloomington, Indiana. We were here in 2022 for two nights in between housesits. Bloomington is southwest of Indianapolis, the state capital and largest city in Indiana. It has a population of about 79,000, which makes it only the 7th most populous city in the state. It is the county seat of Monroe County.

Bob and I have spent some time doing errands (getting groceries, exchanging books at a free little library) that have either helped us get better acquainted with the neighborhood or fixed an identified problem. (Bob bought and then changed our front blinker bulb on our car, so others can know when we’re turning right.)

Prior to the snowstorm, we walked to the local Krogers grocery to pick up some essentials.

Today, we checked out the Visitors Center and then did a walkabout downtown.

We were worried about parking downtown, but we found street parking that is currently free. Normally, street parking costs $1 an hour.

Bob and I arrived at our Bloomington, Indiana, housesit at about 7:00 pm on Wednesday evening. We had a great walk through and chat with our homeowners and an introduction to Jasper the cat, who we will be caring for for a few weeks. Our homeowners are off to Buenos Aires and then a cruise to Antarctica.

We arrived a day or two after a winter storm brought 6 inches of snow to the area, and we’re projected to get an additional 2 to3 inches starting about midday today into this evening. Luckily, the roads were good when we got here, and we’ll see how the plowing goes after this next system.

Jasper is typically an indoor/outdoor cat but is not so fond of the cold and snow, so is mainly staying indoors these days.

We’re looking forward to exploring Bloomington after this next system passes. Among other things, it is the home to the University of Indiana, and our homeowners have kindly left us their tickets to two women’s basketball games while they are gone.

Bob and I drove the 3.5 hours from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Cincinnati, Ohio, on Tuesday for our last night before our next housesit. We weren’t sure how the roads would be after the snowstorm had gone through northern Tennessee and Ohio, but it was mostly interstate, so we didn’t really run into lesser plowed roads until we exited for a stop and then once we got to Cincinnati.

We had hoped to see a bit of downtown Cincinnati during our short stay, but lots of closings and many unplowed sidewalks made it a bit more challenging. Late afternoon on Tuesday, we did get out for a short walk and saw a Cincinnati culinary institution as well as some cool murals.

Our top priority in visiting Cincinnati, however, was to visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which we did on Wednesday morning. It’s an impressive museum that not only tells the story of the Underground Railroad (the secret movement of enslaved people in the US from slave holding states to free states and/or Canada and Mexico) but also sets the context with information on the development of slavery, the Civil War, as well as the continuation of modern day slavery.

One exhibit showed the different percentages in slave populations in selected US states in 1770, so pre-American Revolution, but at least 100 years after the colonies in the US started. I chose to look at the last two states in which we have done housesits — Delaware and Georgia.

This slave pen was owned by John Anderson and operated on his farm. In the early 1830s, he would scour the roads of rural Kentucky to find young Blacks for the slave market at Natchez, Mississippi.

Bob’s winter coat died (zipper became nonfunctional) shortly before we left Atlanta, and his raincoat has been shedding its internal lining for quite awhile. We thought we might stop for a shop on our way into Knoxville yesterday, but we decided a Monday might be a quieter day for the stores.

Anyhoo, today saw us hitting the stores, with Bob getting 2 new coats at great prices. It’s rare to get Bob out to shop, so I’m super glad he had an easy time of it.

After we returned to our room, we quickly headed to the Tennessee Theater just around the corner on Gay Street that we had seen from the outside yesterday.

We looked up the theater last night because we saw that it was showing the musical, “Shucked,” which we had just heard about for the first time during our tour of the Fox Theater in Atlanta. It peaked our interest since it’s about corn, which is what Bob’s home state of Iowa is mostly known for.

Unfortunately, last night was the last showing of Shucked, but we noticed that today at noon the theater’s organist would be doing a free noon performance on the theater’s Wurlitzer organ. We decided that sounded interesting and would also be a great way to see the theater and the organ. We loved both and were entertained with a mix of holiday songs and show tunes.

Some quick facts about the Tennessee Theater. Built in 1928, the Tennessee Theater is the official state theater of Tennessee. Like the Fox Theatre that we toured in Atlanta, it was originally built to be a movie house. It currently has a capacity of 1,645 (versus 4,665 for the Fox, not that it’s a competition.). They were both built the same year and both have impressive organs 😜😂.