adventures in louisville (and indiana)
I have safely returned home from my trip to Louisville with my friend Esther. Since she was attending a conference, unfortunately, she did not get to enjoy as much of the city as I did. However, we did manage to squeeze in a few adventures together during the week. Here’s a quick review:
The first night we were there, I clumsily ripped my flannel pajama pants. They were old and worn anyway and it wasn’t all that difficult to do. So I decided if I could find a store nearby I would purchase another pair. Esther too needed some things from the store. So I used my handy dandy laptop and searched Google Maps for the closest general store. It seemed that a Walmart was not too far away so I wrote down the directions and we headed out. I was so proud of myself, thinking here I was in a new town and I found something that I needed. We started down the road and all was fine for about a mile and then all of a sudden the road went dark. There was only a single street light on each block corner and not a soul in sight. The area seemed a little sketchy and I started thinking to myself that maybe this was not such a great idea. I continued down the street though and block by block it just kept getting worse. I started to say a little prayer in my head that nothing happened to the car. That’s the last thing we needed, to be stranded in an unfamiliar city, on a dimly lit road, in a questionable area of town, with no one to call. I drove for what seemed like an hour (in reality was only about 10 minutes) and BINGO the street I needed to find suddenly appeared. We had made it into a seemingly brighter more lively place as well. My confidence had been restored. I turned into the parking lot of the Walmart and found that it looked quite strange. The signs were green instead of the standard blue and white and the store was much, much smaller than I’ve ever seen. We went on inside and to my surprise the whole store was nothing but groceries… all that for nothing. So we left unsuccessful in our attempt, but as I pulled back out of the parking lot I noticed a Walgreens one more block down. We decided to try there. SUCCESS!! They had everything we needed. My only complaint is that they only had flannel pants in extra large so while I did have an undamaged pair to sleep in, I had to keep pulling them up around my waist and rolling up the bottom of each pant leg. I looked like a little kid that gets into their parent’s closet and tries on their clothes. Esther thought it was hysterical. So we finished up at Walgreens with all of our trip necessities and headed back down the dark, creepy path to the hotel. I’m happy to report that all went well on the return trip.
The fourth night we were there, we decided to head over the Ohio River to the other side of the bridge and make a visit to Indiana. Okay so I learned several things during my experience there. First thing is that apparently Indiana likes things in doubles. While I took one highway into the state, it ran parallel with an interstate. A matter of fact I could have switched lanes onto the interstate from the highway had it not been for a cement wall that separated the two – the reason for this I’m not sure. All I know is that it was extremely confusing. Apparently this is road engineering at its finest. Then we found two shopping malls side by side, sharing the same parking lot. Again, the reason for this, I’m not sure. And lastly we came upon two sporting goods stores side by side… a Dick’s Sporting Goods and a much larger Bass Pro Shop sitting there in all their glory… are there really that many sports minded people in Clarksville, Indiana? Which leads me to my next observation… Okay, so I also learned that they seem to like to name their towns with suffix of “ville”… we had Clarksville, Jeffersonville, Shelbyville, etc… I saw more signs but I can’t remember all their names – those people up there in Indiana are very creative. I also noticed that while it seemed like a nice town – it was trapped in a time warp. With the exception of the occassional fast food or chain restaurant, it was somewhere between the 60′s deco age and the 70′s disco-loving orange and olive green trend. I even found a vintage Arby’s sign… you know the kind that have the lightbulbs that light up and spell out “Arby’s Roast Beef Sandwiches.” Okay, so we stopped and ate dinner at a Texas Roadhouse and as we sat there I thought to myself about what a geographical triangle we were: Esther and I, the South Carolinians, having dinner in Indiana at a Texas Roadhouse. You may not find this as amusing as I did that evening, however after our discoveries in the twilight zone it seemed humorous at the time. As we left the restaurant, Esther found a little child ride in the back corner of the building. It was a plastic horse that plays music and rocks back and forth like a bucking bronco when you put in a quarter. She wanted a picture on this little horsey so she climbed on and I took her picture. We were trying to be sneaky and quick because we weren’t really sure if she was supposed to be on it – you know, because we’re adults and all… But as she was about to get off the horse an employee walked over and just as I thought he was about to tell her to get off, he walked right up and said, “oh no, this isn’t good enough” and pressed something on the machine to make it start up… Esther began to rock back and forth on this miniature horsey ride as the music started to play really loudly. We were attracting attention and I couldn’t help myself but start to videotape the whole thing. She tried to get off and couldn’t… I don’t know if it was because the thing was throwing her off balance or because she was laughing so very hard… whatever it was, it was funny.
Our last adventure came on our final night in Louisville. Across the street from our hotel, the Belle of Louisville was docked on the side of the river. On certain nights they take the old steamboat out for a leisurely river cruise. Esther and I decided this might be a fun thing to do and so at 7 PM we set off down the Ohio River. The boat has a DJ and he was talking and playing music for entertainment. Somehow Esther and I had ended up on the second level of this boat and the entertainment was all happening downstairs on the first level, however we could listen to it through the intercom system. He played all kinds of music, bluegrass and country, Elvis, patriotic music, and some dance music. Anytime the dance music would start, my crazy friend Esther would start to, ever so slightly, dance in her seat. Well, unbeknownst to her, she started to acquire an audience. About 5 or 6 people were watching her… this was hysterical. Okay so when she finally realized people were watching, she exploded in laughter and her face turned all red. The best part was though was when the “Macarena” started to play, these same fans of hers convinced her to go downstairs to the main level and demonstrate her skills for the entire group below… she went… and I have the video… Seriously, she performed with a group of about 4 or 5 people in front of about 75 people (mainly senior citizens that had no clue what was going on with that song). Again, my spontaneous and crazy friend Esther showed no inhibition whatsoever… crazy girl.
There was more that happened of course, more adventures in Louisville (and Indiana) but these are just the highlights. Reading them just isn’t the same as the real thing, but I thought some of you may get some enjoyment out of it.