Road Trip to Southern Indiana

Lots of photos below!

In the month of July in 2015, I once again toured the natural beauty of Southwestern Indiana and enjoyed a day at Holiday World and Splashin' Safari, my favorite amusement park and water park combo. Unfortunately, the day I went happened to be one of the most muggiest and stinkin' hot days of the summer! Temperatures were in the 90s and humidity was high. This high temperature and humidity combination is not surprising in Santa Claus, Indiana, although of course that would be strange for Santa Claus to experience that at the North Pole! Anyways, the unbearable weather turned out to be a good thing for me ― the lines for roller coaster rides were short! (Could not say the same for water rides, unfortunately.)

When I was not at Holiday World, I was of course on the road and decided to trace my journey with photos of road signs and anything else. I even created a map documenting the location of each photo below, further tracing the routes I took. Referring to the map below, #1 is the photo of Exit 132 (State Road 32, Lebanon, and Noblesville), #2 is Exit 131 (leading to a roundabout), #3 is the photo of Exits 9A-B in Indianapolis, and so on.

Along the way were plenty of roadside Hoosier gems and photo opportunities. The picturesque small town of Freedom in Owen County has a welcome sign dedicated to James (Babe) Pierce, who portrayed Tarzan in the 1927 silent film Tarzan and the Golden Lion. The Greene County town of Newberry boasts two one-lane bridges. These bridges were kind of scary, given how rusty they are! As a photo below shows, INDOT is constructing a parallel bridge to address the one-lane configuration and structural issues of the two old bridges.

Crepuscular rays (sunbeams) enlighten the city of Washington's water tower in another photo. Mason's Root Beer and drive-in restaurant in Washington aims to please with their truly American offerings. I did not take photos of Holiday World this time, but of course there are plenty of perfect pics made possible in this friendly and clean amusement park. I have not went to Lisa's Pie Shop in the southern Tipton County town of East Union, but easy access along US 31 makes this the perfect place for travelers to buy a pie or the business' pie in a jar!