usa: indiana: bloomington and around

Summer and fall fairs are a big thing in some states, particularly states with big agricultural economies. I remember always hearing about the county fairs and state fairs from friends when I was growing up, but I'd never gone to one until I was 21. (That was the Monroe County fair one summer.) I remembered hearing about the ridiculous food on offer, as well as the exhinitions and contests with various animals, crafts, foods, etc... With the advent of social media, I saw heaps and heaps of photos of all the fun, so I knew I needed to go, just to see one of these fairs.

I played around with where I wanted to go and when, and figured out that I'd have a chance to visit the Indiana State Fair, which takes place in Indianapolis every year, usually in the middle of August. Since I was going to be in Bloomington again, I ended up staying for a few more days, to do more touristy stuff and see more people.

I flew from Seattle back to Indianapolis, the flight was on time and smooth. Unfortunately my planned transport to Bloomington didn't work out the way I wanted it to, argh. I hadn't bought a shuttle ticket ahead of time because I didn't know whether I would make the one leaving 30 minutes after my scheduled landing. 

I was able to make it, but it was full, argh. It wasn't full with people, but with luggage. Sure, there were people on the shuttle, but the reason there was no space for me is that all the people had quite a bit of luggage. The new school year was just a few weeks away from starting, so there were international families and some domestic students already moving to Bloomington.

I got lucky in meeting two other women who had the same situation I did. All three of us needed to get to Bloomington, and there was no room left in the shuttle. 

One of the ladies downloaded the Lyft app using airport wifi, then called a ride for the three of us. It worked out to slightly cheaper for each of us, and was more convenient, woo hoo!!

Mom picked me up when I got to Bloomington, and we went out for dinner before retiring for the evening in her flat. The sunset that night was beautiful, it was a nice welcome back to the town in which I grew up.

The next morning I had breakfast with a lady I swam with, waaaaay back in the day. We figured out she had been four years behind me, so we'd never been on the same school team, only the same club team. 

We've had different lives since then, it was great to catch up. And any reason to have a meal at the Village Deli is always a good reason.

As I walked around the downtown area after breakfast I ran into a pair of sisters whose house while growing up was across the street from the house in which I'd grown up. Great to catch up with them, especially since it was unplanned.

The next day I spent a few hours with my sister, then applied for a new drivers license. Quite a few years ago the federal government of the US passed a law requiring more information in order to have a 'real ID,' which would soon be needed to fly domestically. 

Getting a real ID drivers license now involves a passport, social security proof, a pay stub, proof of address, etc... Since I don't live in the country, it wasn't super easy to sort out. When I did get my information sorted, I was thrilled they let me keep the same information on the license that I've always had on there. My license lists my weight from when I was a 16 year old. Needless to say, that number is just a wee bit different now.

The next day Mom and I went on a day trip to a small town in southern Indiana, called St. Meinrad. We didn't actually explore the town at all, we just went to see St. Meinrad Archabbey. 

It is a Roman Catholic seminary and monastery founded by Swiss monks in 1854. According to Wikipedia there are about 85 monks living there.

Finding a parkplatz ended up being the biggest challenge of our visit. We saw a few signs pointing in different directions for different parts of the monastery, but none of them mentioned parking. It was a hot and humid day so finding parking as close as possible to going inside was highly desirable. Eventually we got that sorted, and life was good.

We didn't get to see too much, as the seminary isn't open for visitors to wander around on their own. We did get to see a small cloister area, and more important the big church. While walking around we ran into a newly graduated priest, it was interesting to learn a bit about his experiences in the area.

The church is far bigger than you'd expect for rural Indiana.

Since we weren't there during a service, it was quiet and peaceful. I loved the stained glass windows, and the black Madonna in the back of the nave. After seeing the inside of the church we walked outside again and took in the side view of the church. This is when I realized just how big the church is. Crazy that it's in the middle of rural Indiana.

Before leaving the property we took a quick glance at the small cemetery. If I'm right, it was for monks who had died there, so it will never be big. As we were walking out of the cemetery I realized I could see at least two goals for a disc golf course. The rest of the course must be beautiful.

We drove back home and met my sister and nephew for dinner. Lets just say that eating dinner at a restaurant with a less than 2 year old is an adventure.

The next morning I drove to Scipio, a really small town in Indiana. My sister had been preaching there for a while, and I always love listening to her preach. She is sooo good at making her messages applicable to my life. From the reactions of the congregation, each of them felt the same. 

On the way out of town I stopped at a covered bridge, it's pretty much the only thing to see in Scipio.

The next day I met up with a teammate from high school swimming for lunch. We generally only keep in touch when I'm in town, but I like these catch ups. After that I went to the outdoor pool where I used to work. I'd arranged to have a catch up with another person from my swimming past. As luck would have it, I got to see a few more people beyond that, which was awesome. Swimming was a huge part of my life for so long, and there are still so many connections.

The next day mom and I did another day trip. As I mentioend at the beginning of this post, I really wanted to go to the Indiana State Fair, I convinced mom to go with me. Finding the parking area was the biggest challenge, as there are a massive number of people going to the same place, and the signage wasn't always clear.

We finally found the parkplatz, which was actually land temporarily rented from the Indiana School for the Deaf. Parking isn't cheap, they must make a huge amount of money from all the cars rolling through. Fortunately we didn't have to walk far to get into the fairgrounds.

I'd chosen this day because the entry fee was lower than usual, and a bunch of the concessions were having $2 specials. I'd already made my list of foods I wanted to try during the day. Fair food is not known for being healthy, I was prepared to eat all fried food all day.

That's pretty much exactly what happened. We started with deep fried sweet cream pie. This type of pie is supposed to be the Indiana state pie but I'd never heard of it until a couple years ago, so I don't know how true that is. The deep fried version was okay, not outstanding or awful.

Next up was a serving of tempura fried veggies. Zucchini, green tomatos, bell peppers, etc.... They were good, and the portion was huge. (Or maybe I was still full from the pie.) Then we saw the few animals left in one of the barns, which included some ginormous pigs. REALLY BIG PIGS. There were a bunch of piglets too, they're adorably cute.

By that point I needed liquid, and fast. I left mom in an air conditioned spot and went hunting. I ended up going with a lemonade of sorts, and getting a refill. It helped, a lot.

From there I found a giant slide, the price for going down that was not too bad. It was fun, and I'm glad I did it. I went up there by myself, I don't think they get a lot of single people doing that. Fun, too bad I couldn't do it over and over again.

After that I had one more food I wanted to find. It took a bit more hunting, but I finally found it: bacon wrapped grilled cheese. I was completely stuffed, so I had mine wrapped to take home. It looked beautiful :)

At that point mom and I were both done. The heat and humidity was awful, and I'm pretty sure both of us were very dehydrated. Note to self, go a lot earlier in the day next time, and drink a lot more.

I went to bed early that night, because I had to get up early to catch the airport shuttle. It was nice to have had good times with mom, family and friends, and make a few new memories.