Visiting the Hoosier State and Terror in the Skies

 I traveled to Indianapolis, also known as Circle City (will explain later)for what may be my last conference as an Infection Preventionist. 

The flight out was horrific. I flew American Airlines. I left Orange County and made it to Phoenix with no problems, making my connecting flight. After about 45 minutes in the air, the pilot announced that the Airbus A320 had lost compression. We were able to fly but there was no air conditioning. So we flew around for 45 more minutes to dump and burn fuel so that the plane wouldn't be too heavy to land. It got up to 120 degrees in the cabin and 130 in the cockpit. When we landed, five people had to be taken off by paramedics and four of them, including a pregnant lady, had to go to the hospital. We waited in the terminal for two more hours - not for a plane but for a crew. Then, on the new plane, the computers malfunctioned so we had to wait 30 minutes for them to reboot. Fortunately, I had the foresight to call the hotel and tell them that I wouldn't be arriving until around 4 AM. I was supposed to get there at 10 PM. I actually arrived at 4:17 AM. I did make friends with an adorable 17 year old girl named Kay, who was really scared, so I asked the gate agent to seat us together.

I finally got to the conference. I had a mission to solve a problem for the hospital where I work and I accomplished that. The Exhibit Hall was full of robots that do terminal cleaning of our patient rooms. The vendors were very aggressive. This is a photo of me with the vendors of the device that our hospital has chosen. We had drinks and then I went to another party. Boy did I need that!!

The conference was Monday to Wednesday and I played tourist on Thursday. This is Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Indianapolis Colts play. There is a lot of corn in Indiana, so there were a lot of cargo trains running.

Now to the Circle City thing. In downtown Indy, there is an attraction called Monument Circle. It dominates the downtown area. In the center is a giant obelisk surrounded by fountains and pools. They play soothing music through speakers.

Each side has a different sculpture. It was built of limestone between 1887 and 1902. The sculptures are by Rudolf Schwartz, George Brewster, and Nicolas Geiger.

This is General George Rogers Clark, a militia officer from Virginia who became the highest ranking patriot during the Revolutionary War. His nickname was Hannibal of the West. 

This carving lists all of the wars and battles in which soldiers and sailors from Indy served.

                                          

Then I went to the State Capitol building. It was around 95 degrees every day. I did a lot of walking, but I found shady sidewalks to use. Indiana became a state in 1816 and the capitol was built in 1878. The building houses the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Indiana Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeals.

This is a statue of Oliver P Morton, the first Indiana born man to hold the office of governor. 

The architecture is beautiful, as are these chandeliers.

Benjamin Harrison was a lawyer from Indiana who became the 23rd president of the United States, serving from 1889 to 1893.

The rotunda has a beautiful art glass interior dome. The exterior of the dome is verdigris copper.

I loved this prayer.

This is the Chamber of the House of Representatives.

This is the Supreme Court. It has a gorgeous relief ceiling.

All of the Justices and the Appellate Court judges have portraits on the wall.

This is a view of the interior looking down on the Event Center.

This is a statue of Abe, a bison. He was the official mascot of the Bison-Tennial. 

Surrounding the main foyer are 8 sculptures depicting the Values of Civilization - Agriculture, Art, Commerce, Law, History, Justice, Liberty and Oratory.

There is a meditation room with stained glass windows, low lighting, and Asian music.

There is also a gallery that honors the women judges. Next to it hangs a quilt depicting the progress of women as US citizens.

While I was touring, graduates of the Indiana State Police were rehearsing for their graduation ceremony.

Then I walked down to Massachusetts Avenue, the center of nightlife and cultural arts. It has theaters, restaurants, art galleries and night clubs, supposedly. It was pretty disappointing - not much there. A lot of Indy seemed very economically depressed with many empty stores.

This is the Murat Theater and Shrine / Temple. It was built in 1910 as the National Centre.

This all happened Wednesday afternoon. After recharging a bit in my hotel room, I went back out in the late afternoon and evening. These are the views from my window at the Westin.

I went for a walk through White Rivers State Park. It houses the zoo, the National HQ of the NCAA, the Indiana State Museum, and the Eiteljorj Museum of Native American Arts. The zookeeper told me not to bother visiting the zoo since most of the animals stayed inside due to the heat.

I walked along the path for about an hour. It was deserted.

But I did see my first cardinal ever !!! According to Native American lore, the sighting of a cardinal means that the individual will have good luck within 12 days of the sighting. They are songbirds and this beauty had a wonderful sounding chirp.

There is a monument called Military Park that lists the Medal of Honor recipients of all the battles and wars in which Indiana natives have fought.

I met a very friendly squirrel there.

There is another Bison sculpture made of oxidized wire at the entrance to the zoo.

Then I took the Indy Canal Walk back to the Westin. The Central Canal was dug in the early 1800s in an effort to facilitate interstate commerce. Now you can ride Bird scooters, bikes, and swan paddle boats.

On Thursday, I left the Westin and checked into the Crowne Plaza Hotel. It was built in the old Union Station building. You can actually stay in a Pullman car if you want to. I had a regular room.

On this day, June 16th, I went over to the Indiana State Museum. In front of the Eiteljorj, there is a sculpture of white tail deer done by Ken Sunn. It was damaged in January 2017, but the beautiful bronze deer were repaired.

At the entrance to the museum are two giant wooly mammoths.

In the lobby are pieces of farm equipment. This is a Birdsell Clover Huller. It removes the hulls so that the seed can be sold as animal feed. 

This is a Model Y Oil Pull Tractor. It runs on kerosene and was sold from 1910 - 1930.

This is a scale model of a combination settler / Indian village.

Here are the Native Americans roasting and skinning a pig.

There are life sized cutouts of various tribe members that you can pose next to. 

I liked this guy because he obviously got his jacket from a redcoat.

This is a covered wagon like the pioneers used. All of their supplies were inside and the people walked alongside the wagon.

It was pulled by oxen, as they are calmer and stronger than horses. Their cloven hooves are better suited to walking in mud and they eat grass instead of hay.

This is an outpost tent and gattling gun used in the War of 1812.

I liked this party gown from the mid 1800s. It had intricate embroidery all over it.

This is the "Woman's Friend", a modern 1800s washing machine and wringer.

This shows many fancy household items of the era - the big silver thing is an oil burning stove.

This is a Wooten Superior home desk. It is the Griffin model and the three panels fold up in order to save space.

Unfortunately, in the early 1900s the KKK was quite active. In 1925, the Grand Dragon, Davis Curtis Stephenson was convicted of rape and mercury poisoning of this third wife Margaret Oberholzer.

Here are two early automobiles - the 1910 Haynes Runabout and the 1910 Lambert touring car. They are huge with 110 inch wheelbases, which are comparable to modern cars.

This is an iron lung. They were used for respiration in polio victims whose chest muscles became paralyzed. They became obsolete after the Salk Polio vaccine was developed in 1955.

This Chinese Lion Dragon costume won first place in the 1992 Chinese New Year parade in Indy, the first year the parade was held.

This beautiful picture was made of pieces of paper cut out and glued together. This traditional Mexican art form is called Papel Picado.

Check out this COVID 19 quilt !! Note the roll of toilet paper. It was made by a quilter from Kokomo Indiana.

This cute little owl is a watercolor done by Alan Warnick. It is an Eastern screech owl. 

Then I went to the featured exhibit - Mammoths and Other Beasts - Ice Age Giants. This is an American mastodon named Fred - he was found in a cornfield in Allen County Indiana by Fred Bueschling. Check out those tusks!!

Look at the fangs on this Sabre Toothed Tiger !!

Here are skeletons of a giant sloth on the right and an American black bear on the left.

This little guy is a beaver - but prehistoric beavers weighed 200-300 pounds !!

More giant Mastodons!!

And a skeleton of an Eastern Moose - huge antlers!!

See the red fox hanging out in the cliff?

For lunch, I went to the City Market and had a gyros plate. It's similar to the Terminal Market in Philadelphia, but smaller.

After lunch, I walked over to University Park to see the War Memorial and Museum. It comprises most of the entire city block.  The admission is free. 

The Pershing Auditorium has a beautiful painted ceiling. It commemorates John J Pershing, nicknamed Black Jack, who was commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in WW1.

This dog poster was also in the Indiana State Museum. He is sad because his owner is dead.

You enter the hall of flags by passing a bunch of hand made quilts.

There are flags representing wars and battles from the Civil War to the War in Afghanistan.

There were a lot of Civil War uniforms and the rifles looked huge and very heavy.

They also had Revolutionary War uniforms and a Gadsden flag replica of the 1775 original.

There was a display of Native American weaponry which included tomahawks and a bow and arrow.

This gigantic weapon was one of the first machine guns. Note the wheel that you turned to feed the bullets into the barrel.

Here is a WW2 model - more modern.

This WW1 gas mask and suit protected one against mustard gas. This sulfur gas was a blistering agent of the skin and mucous membranes.

This is another WW2 machine gun. The one on the left is German, made by Mauser.

Here is one laying flat and not on the support legs. You can easily see the Mauser type chamber.

This display case contained Japanese weaponry, helmets, and two rising sun flags.

This display housed military relics from the Vietnam War.

Here are two views of a WW2 era Flying Tiger helicopter. Check out the mortars and the rapid fire rotating machine guns.

The final exhibit is a tribute to the veterans from Indiana, and consists mostly of their personal mementos donated by relatives.

This view looks down to the end of the park. The flag and eternal flames once again pay tribute to Indiana's veterans. The Public Library is the building in the back.

These are the steps to the Indianapolis Public Library. It was built in 1873. The interior is gorgeous, as most public libraries back east tend to be.

They are having a special exhibit for Juneteenth, celebrating Black Literature and Culture.

This arch of books reminded me of the Last Bookstore that we recently visited in LA.

The atrium is wonderful - it is 6 floors in height and is probably the nicest library I have ever seen. It was pretty full of readers and computer users.

This is the view from the fifth floor.

I wanted to see the inside of the Scottish Rite Cathedral. I tried three doors but it was locked, so I gave up.

Well that's about all for now. Once again, my flight from Indy to DFW was delayed by 4 hours, this time due to a thunderstorm. It seems like my connection from DFW to OC is on time, so I will most likely get back home tonight. See you all later !!!