We were now well over a week into our trip and we learned a lot. The most important thing we learned is that we can totally live on the road. I was worried we might get sick of each other - not an issue. I thought my kids might be bummed when their friends left - not an issue. We loved having our friends travel with us for a week, but we equally loved traveling by ourselves. We thought moving to multiple campsites might be burdensome - not an issue. Moving from place to place was easy and hardly any work because everything stays in the trailer. Hector is an amazing travel trailer driver and he is even more confident with it now. He got lots of practice driving, backing up and parking. I rock at planning and organizing our time to maximize what we do and see, but still feel relaxed and balanced. We can plan ahead and on the fly and both ways work. Basically, this trip just confirmed that we can totally plan and take a five month cross country road trip.
Since we ended up spending a couple days in Nashville, we knew we wouldn't make it up to Michigan (I would love to do a two week trip just in Michigan). Our last two places we wanted to visit were Louisville and Indianapolis. Instead of making two more stops we decided to find a campsite between the two cities and then drive a little further our daytime activities in the cities. It was nice staying at one campsite a little longer, but we learned we didn't love the extra driving on non travel days. The two hour drive back to camp from Indianapolis was not our favorite, but it helped us understand what we do and don't like in a road trip. .
Our first stop on our Indianapolis day was at the Motor Speedway Museum in the center of the Indy 500 racetrack. We have never been car racing fans, but when in Indianapolis, this is what you do. We had fun seeing and learning about cars and racing. Turns out the Indy 500 was rescheduled from the Spring to August 23, just a couple days after we visited. They were getting ready for the big race and we got to learn all about it. Just driving around the outside of the racecourse was impressive (2.5 mile track). We couldn't wait to watch the big race now that we had been there. It was the same day we got back home from the trip. We watched it, we were actually really into it and on the verge of becoming newly minted Indy car fans and then the end of the race was so disappointing. It ended on a technicality and the cars drove the last five laps behind the pace car. They were not even racing across the finish line. It would be the equivalent of an Olympic Track race being stopped 100 yards before the finish line because someone tripped and asking racers to get in a line and then walk like they are kindergartens on their way to lunch across the finish line. No pushing or passing. We were super disappointed and our Indy Car Racing fascination ended, but we sure loved it for those four days from visiting the museum until the end of the race on Sunday.
Next we headed to Downtown to explore. We wanted to do an urban hike up to the top of the Soldiers memorial. It is in the center of downtown and 450 steps up to the top of the tower. It was closed. We then walked to the visitor's center...there was nothing there other than a counter of candy and a couple brochures. Apparently people don't vacation in Indianapolis. We were not overly impressed with Indianapolis as a tourist spot but decided that what makes a place good to visit is not the same as what makes a place good to live, so we gave it a second change. We enjoyed strolling the canal that runs through downtown and enjoyed seeing some of the nice homes.
We then headed up to Carmel, Indiana and had fun finding houses for all my siblings. When we were in Washington, Anna suggested that we all move to Carmel because it is one of the best places to raise a family and the cost of living is really low. I doubt any of us will actually move there, but it was fun finding houses for sale and then video chatting with family about how we could all move here. It is so tempting to move. We could sale our tiny house and get a huge one in a better neighborhood for the same price if we left expensive DC. Maybe someday. It was fun living the fantasy for a couple hours. Carmel was cute and there are tons of nice neighborhoods. I would live there.
