Who Says You Can't Go Home Again?!

My "middlest" child and I drove through Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois just so I could be back home again in Indiana. See, "going home again" can be done! We went to Indiana to spend a few days with my dad -- it was a spur of the moment decision. Spontaneity and summer seem to travel hand-in-hand.

To be honest, the opening lines from "Indiana" did go through my head as we crossed the state line. It always does. Sometimes I actually break into song. 

Back home again in Indiana,

And it seems that I can see

The gleaming candle light, still shining bright,

Through the Sycamores for me.

The new-mowed hay sends all its fragrance

From the fields I used to roam.

When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash

Then I long for my Indiana home.

Let's back up a few miles.

Liesey Lou and I agreed that if the two of us were going to do this trip, there would have to be some interesting diversions along the way. We are all for taking the road less traveled, as long as we can still make good time while having a good time. 

Somewhere in Missouri, this happened.

Road tripping with this girlie is never boring. It was soooo very much worth stopping here to get this picture. And the "Cookin' from Scratch" sign in the background makes it even better.

After nearly 15 hours in the car, we made it to our destination; my home town.

Indiana is a great place to grow up. (I'm sure that there are people from the other 49 states who also think that their home state is a great place to grow up.) 

Indiana is special. And there is more than just corn in Indiana. There are soybeans, too!

You know you're a Hoosier when:

• You measure distance in minutes, not miles.
• You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: "Where's my coat at?" or "Where are you gonna go to?"
• You have heard &/or used terms like "catawampus," or "kitty-corner," or "whopper-jawed."
• You know several different definitions as to what a Hoosier really is.
• You've ever said, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity."
• You have no problem pronouncing Terre Haute. And you know the correct Hoosier pronunciation of Versailles. It is not pronounced ver-sahy; it's ver-SALES. Really. Truly. Or what about Milan, Indiana? It is pronounced mai-lən -- nothing at all like that "other" city in Italy. Russiaville is pronounced roosh-a-vul, and Moscow is pronounced muss-go.

There are so many other wonderful names given to Indiana cities and towns. Here are some of my personal favorites:

Toad Hop

Possum Trot

French Lick

Santa Claus

Little
Hooker Corner
Floyds Knobs
Normal

Hogtown

Farmersburg

Bean Blossom
Gas City

Gnaw Bone

Nope. You simply cannot make this stuff up.

As a native of Indiana, I am entitled to poke fun at my home state. It's allowed. It's even encouraged. (I think!) I am really making fun of myself because I am (and always will be) a Hoosier. No matter how many other states I've lived in, I've learned that you can take the girl out of Indiana, but you can't take the Hoosier out of the girl. 

All kidding aside, there are also interesting factoids about the Indiana that must be shared. 

• Indiana produces more than 20% of the United States’ popcorn supply. In a typical year, almost half of all cropland in Indiana is planted in corn.

• I'll bet that you didn't know that professional baseball got its start in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The very first Major League game ever played took place on May 4, 1871. It was a National Association contest between the Cleveland Forest Cities and Ft. Wayne Kekiongas. The Kekiongas won the contest 2-0. (What is a Kekiongas, any way?!)

• Bedford, Indiana, is known as the "Limestone Capital of the World." (That's right, the WORLD!) New York City's Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, as well as the Pentagon, the U.S. Treasury, a dozen other government buildings in Washington D.C., and 14 state capitols around the nation are all built from Indiana limestone. (These are the hard, cold facts!)

Interesting, huh?! You'll thank me the next time you are on a game show and need to know this stuff to answer the "million dollar" question.

We were happy to get to see these faces.

Liesey Lou got to put the Dixie Chopper to good use.

Our visit overlapped with my seester's visit by a couple of days.
Do we look related? It must be the sunglasses.

No trip to the Indianapolis airport is complete without making a quick lap around the Circle City. 

It was monumental. 

You might even say that we have come full circle.

Does this ring any bells?

The official state bird of Indiana dropped in for a snack.

We told him to "suet" himself.

Obviously, this is the road less traveled.

This trio looks a little moo-dy to me.

We are pretty sure that this corn was way ahead of the "knee-high by the Fourth of July" growth rate. We were in Indiana a couple of weeks after Independence Day, and this corn was sky high! Pretty a-maize-ing.

My daddy even let me drive the Black Beauty while I was back home. This is still the finest $1 vehicle that money can buy. 

We enjoyed driving the backroads and taking in the scenery. Hoosiers have been known to say, "Take your time, but hurry." We took our time. And we were in no hurry. 

Hoosier sunsets are spectacular.

All good things must come to an end. We loaded up the car and headed west. Yes, I am pretty silly for taking a picture of our car's reflection in a big rig's hubcap, but that's how we roll. Silliness adds joy to the journey.

One of the other silly things that we do to pass the miles away throughout Missouri is play the rumble strip game. The rumble strip, a.k.a. sleeper lines, audible lines, "the corduroy" and growlers, is actually part of the painted white edgeline along I-44. If one deviates the slightest little bit from the lane while driving through the "Show Me" state, a rumble is heard. The object of the game is to keep it 'tween the lines for 293-ish miles -- no rumbling, no growling. And it's harder than it would seem. We successfully passed through MO both directions without a single growl. Them's braggin' rights for sure. 

We made the return trip to Texas in fourteen hours, despite taking a slight detour to see this:

Why?

Because we are are off our rocker.

I-44 has all the good stuff. Ha! Ha!

Actually, we had to take a slight detour off of I-44 onto Old Route 66 to find this peculiar roadside attraction. It is 42 feet tall. I think they should have gone for 44 feet tall since I-44 is nearby, but they didn't ask me. 66 feet tall would just be silly. (As if a 42' tall rocker ISN'T silly...)

This oversized piece of furniture is located at the US 66 Outpost and General Store in Fanning, Missouri. It was built to attract I-44 travelers to the store. We only stopped to pay homage to the rocker, so their larger than life marketing strategy didn't work on us.

We have our shades on.

You might say that we are true rock(er)stars. 

Over the past couple of months, my travel buddy has visited Rome, Paris, London, Munich, Geneva, Barcelona, and she's passed through Austria, but I am certain she never saw ANYTHING like this in any of those locations. Thank you, Missouri, for making this trip such a big deal. 

Believe it, or not, it truly is one for the record books!