Another day, another scorcher! What better place to go on a day like this, than the Antique Fan Museum? Who knew there was even an Antique Fan Collectors Association (AFCA)? AFCA operates this Museum, which is at the company headquarters of Fanimation, an international ceiling fan company.
To do a tour it's best to call in advance, but we thought we'd try our luck as this was a fairly impromptu visit. We rang the doorbell and an employee let us in and opened the museum for us, calling a colleague of his, Chris, to give us a tour of the 2 floors that are jam packed with antique ceiling and desk fans, with narrow aisles separating the multiple levels of shelves lining each room. There are over 2,000 fans, with the oldest electric desk fan dating back to the 1890s, and the oldest non-electric fans (using water, steam or belt-and-pulley), going back to the 1880s! Because the fans are displayed so closely together along narrow shelves and walkways, we had to be careful not to accidentally bump into a fragile fan. About 70% of the fans we saw come from the founder of Fanimation, but there are also fans on display from avid fan enthusiasts (or should we say, "fan fans"!) from around the world. They even hold a convention each year where they all come to the museum and fan out (who knew there were so many opportunities for puns).
Having Chris show us around made a massive difference to our tour, as we got to appreciate it much more than just walking around and looking at each fan. A former tattoo artist who's now also a firefighter, Chris' dad loved to restore fans and taught Chris the tricks of the trade (it seems like they love restoration work in general). There aren't many people in the world that restore fans, but they now both work at Fanimation where they have their own workshop onsite. There are apparently only a few people in the world that can effectively restore antique fans, so while it's very niche work, it keeps them busy!
We laughed when Chris told us about his memory of his grandma using a hassock fan after work (a vintage electric fan that's inside a kind of stool), and how she'd set her feet atop it like an ottoman, blowing the smell of her feet around the room in addition to circulating air upwards. There were fans with different blades, shapes, and designs, and even fans attached to rocking chairs, which would operate by the back-and-forth motion from sitting in the chairs. He definitely made our tour, so that we spent more time there rather than breezing through (geddit?)!
The Twisted House
We then made our way into Indianapolis, visiting the Indianapolis Art Center, a nonprofit that offers classes, camps, and art exhibitions for the community. While we didn't go inside the Center, around it is a lovely sculpture garden, which had some interesting art installations, as well as squirrels hanging around that got Sheila very excited. There was one particular squirrel, perched high on a tree branch, its bushy tail making up half its body length, and glaring down at us standing directly below. We've had plenty of squirrel encounters on this trip, but what made this unique was that the squirrel was extremely animated and agitated, and squealing continuously at us--we have never heard these noises come from a squirrel before!
Directly behind the entrance of the Art Center along the sculpture garden is the Twisted House, a crooked house built out of cedar wood in the shape of an arch, with a slanted doorway, and slanted windows following the curvature of the arch. Stepping past the doorway there's little more than a tiny space (so it's not a "house" in the sense of it having all the rooms you'd expect in a functioning abode), but it's a fun piece to look at.
Too Hot for Doing Much
One of the most famous places in Indianapolis is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, set inside the grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and its annual Indy 500 car race. The largest single-day sporting event in the world, held on the last Sunday of May each year. So the event was over, but we got to see some of the statues outside the museum, which was surrounded by the racetrack. Since the speedway completed surrounded us, our photos won't do it justice, but it's an impressive stadium to see in person, knowing that 300,000 people descend here every year to watch the race!
It was another scorcher of a day--the type of day where your energy saps you, and you feel kind of cranky as a result. We figured we'd cool down at the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, a free, 100-acre park that includes a lake, wetlands, woodlands, and sculptures. So we parked within the park, figuring we'd just sit on a towel and relax. But near where we'd park, we didn't really find a place where we wanted to sit (we were along a lot of hiking and biking paths), and it was still a decent walk to get to some of the buildings within the park. So we aborted Plan A and turned to Plan B: buy a smoothie somewhere!
We found a Smoothie King franchise store that was rated highly (the one located at 7411 N Keystone Avenue), where we saw an advertisement on the window saying that on Fridays, customers could order a 20-ounce smoothie for the price of a 32-ounce one. Deal! We ordered a couple but then realized that the price of each smoothie was cheaper, but it was not the price of a 20-ounce one. Our curiosity piqued, Michael ended up chatting to the manager/owner, who admitted she had no idea why the price discounts weren't accurate--it's a promotion that had come from the Corporate Office--and she ended up giving us a full refund rather than just the difference! Obviously it's an odd miscommunication of some sort with head office, and hopefully it'll be fixed for the benefit of the franchise owners and customers.
We wrapped up our day early, pulling into a Travel Stop where we eagerly awaited sunset. There were quite a few folks holed up in their vehicles and living out of their cars near us. Sadly, we've definitely seen a lot of homelessness in the short time we've been in Indianapolis.
Day 2: Indianapolis Downtown
Lisette went to take her morning photo, but when she slid up the bedroom shade there was a couple in the parking lot next to us, who clearly were living in their car and hanging out. So today's photo is taken from the window behind the passenger seat at the front, otherwise the couple could have thought she was taking a photo of them!
Today is significant because it's also our 6-month anniversary of traveling in the RV! We have learned and seen so much, the US is such a vast country--from desert landscapes, mountain vistas, wildlife habitats, thriving cities, and more. While we've still got a lot of places to explore, now that we've reached this milestone it is starting to feel like time is flying and we'll have wrapped up our trip soon!
We left the Travel Stop and drove downtown, seeing people dressed in jerseys for the Indiana Colts (their professional football team), as it turned out there was a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers (we'd been to their stadium recently in Wisconsin). Spoiler alert: Green Bay won 23-19. We headed to Monument Circle, a ring road in the heart of downtown which has the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the center, which commemorates the people of Indiana that served in the American Civil War. There's an observation deck on top, but it was closed as the Monument was under construction when we went.
We walked around some of the streets downtown and also drove around the city. We saw the Indiana War Memorial & Museum (a commanding all-white building with thick columns), as well as the Indianapolis City Market (unfortunately closed for renovation; a huge food hall operating since 1866), and the American Legion Mall (multiple war memorials set within a grassy park, the most notable feature being a black obelisk with a vivid gold point). There are a lot of historic buildings downtown, and many are undergoing construction, which will be great once they're opened to see them revitalized.
Rural RV Living
We left Indianapolis, deciding to check into an RV Park this evening, called Beyonder Getaway Rising Sun. The drive to get here was almost 2 hours, so it would be perfect to give Michael a break from driving, stretch our legs, and spend time in the pool. It was a long drive for Michael, as we got to the edge of Indiana, near the Ohio River, with the states of Kentucky and Ohio a mere stone's throw from where we were staying!
When we got to the RV park, we felt like we were in the middle of rural America--it was situated across the road from corn fields, and both staff and guests had the distinct drawl of people from Kentucky and around this area. A lot of kids will be returning to school after this weekend, so the pool was absolutely packed to capacity with families and children who were likely making the most out of the last weekend before summer holidays end.
We waited a couple of hours so we'd hopefully have less folks in the pool, before going in. Luckily we did this too, as it seemed that most guests had been there all day, based on the fire engine-red complexions they had on their faces, shoulders, and backs! And there were fortunately less people in the pool, allowing us to spend some time treading water and swimming around the deep end, which was less populated and probably about 9-10 feet (about 3 meters) at its deepest. After our swim, we also shot a few hoops from the adjacent basketball setup next to the pool.
The RV park was clean and definitely family friendly, as the staff at the RV park were dressed in fairy tale-style outfits (like Disney but they apparently couldn't say "the D word") for a small party/event at the RV park. Later that evening, there was a concert on the lawn near the pool as well, where guests could listen to live music, singing and probably dance away the night. They finished up around 11pm, and while we decided to relax in the RV instead, we're sure it would have been a fun way for many families to wrap up the summer.
Route Map
