Friday, June 16, 2017 by Tara Bush

HRPT 2017-Day 7: June 16- Indianapolis, IN to Bowling Green, KY (276 miles)
Today's route was the longest of this tour, but also the best. It started in the hills of Indiana, through the Hoosier National Forest and then the scenic Kentucky byway before a 50 mile stretch of highway to the venue.

Tara and I hit the road earlier than everyone else in order to ensure we had time to stop along the way. It was a good thing we did. Even though we left nearly an hour earlier than usual and gained an hour traveling back into the central time zone, we still didn't arrive at the venue until around 3 pm. There was too much to see.
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]What a view!![/TD]
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We couldn't have timed it better. We saw a sign for Cataract Falls and detoured about a mile to check it out. The park opened at 8 and we arrived nearly on the dot. The falls are the largest by volume in the state of Indiana. There was also a covered bridge that was built in 1876 and was in use until 1988 when they built the concrete bridge that is used today.
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]140 year old bridge[/TD]
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]Upper Falls[/TD]
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]Lower Falls- right by a sign that says "no fishing from rocks"[/TD]
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After the falls, we passed through a small town whose name escapes me. The route took us into the roundabout that surrounds the courthouse. We saw a cool old hotel on the backside, so we decided to go all the way around and stop for some pictures.

From there, we followed the route along to West Baden Springs, Indiana where we made our next slight detour to the West Baden Springs Hotel. The hotel is the second largest freestanding dome and was built in 1902. It fell into disrepair at some point and underwent significant renovations. The place was indescribably cool. The interior has a massive domed atrium with ornate tile mosaics and paintings. We walked through the dome and out to the garden where the mineral springs used to be back in the day (they were capped). French Lick, Indiana, the adjacent town also had a historic hotel and we swung by it too.
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]We thought this was a really cool hotel...[/TD]
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]until we saw this...[/TD]
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]and this.[/TD]
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Tara found our lunch spot, a place called the Pour Haus in Tell City, Indiana, but thought it was too far off the route to stop. Then, by happenstance, she missed a turn and we were practically at the place, so we stopped. I'm glad we did. The food was incredibly good. Better than the food were the people in Tell City. When we pulled up it was only street parking. A guy in a Jeep Cherokee told us to hold on and he'd move his car so we could park under a tree. In the restaurant, we met Diane who had lived in the area for 37 years. She was sitting at the table next to us asked if we were part of the Hot Rod Tour. Wegot to talking about cars and the farm truck she and her husband own and how her son skipped out on work to take his 1960s original patinaed station wagon to the route and watch the Tour roll by. She asked to take a picture with us. We were surprised when the waitress told us we had no bill. Diane surreptitiously paid it for us and welcomed us to her town.
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]Great food[/TD]
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]Great Parking[/TD]
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[TD="class: tr-caption, align: center"]Great people. Thanks again Diane![/TD]
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We left the Pour Haus and didn't get to the end of the block before I saw this cool building with vintage gas pumps and bright red garage doors. We stopped and took some pictures with the Acadian in front of it. I later got a text from Diane who told us that the building was the body shop where her son works.

The bridge across the Ohio was under construction and reduced to a single lane for both directions. It created a pretty bad traffic jam between the Power Tour cars and the folks just going about their day. Tara used the traffic app on her phone to find a detour that took us along the river, under the bridge and with two left turns, we jumped to the front of the line. Tara's second shortcut wasn't as good. We detoured off the route in Fordsville to see what might be there and when the answer was "not much", Tara suggested I turn right and go around the block. The road got us where we needed to be, but the intersection was such a steep hill that I felt like I was sitting in the space shuttle on the launch pad. It was also a blind intersection that required Tara to keep telling me when it was clear to the right so that I could watch the gap in the trees to my left for oncoming traffic. I also had to use both feet and both pedals to keep the car from rolling backward.

Posted by Steve Klein at 10:29:00 PM