midwest – Page 2

Happy Hollow and “Rushi”

September 7, 2014 by Taco

[This is another moving bucket list post, so the standard notice applies]

Another day another article checked off the ole’ moving bucket list.

This time around we visited a local park by the name of “Happy Hollow.” I’m not exactly sure where the park got this name from, aside from the fact that it is indeed a hollow right through the middle of town, but I don’t think they put a lot of thought into how the name might be misinterpreted. Anyways, its a park that runs the length of a hollow. It has lots of parky things, like a playground, shelters, open fields, volleyball courts, and trails. It was actually the trails that brought SB and I to Happy Hollow. While Happy Hollow has its own trail network, they are all part of the larger “Hoosier Heritage Trail” which is very, very long. Needless to say I wasn’t interested in a multi-day hike, so we just stuck to the immediate area. SB had actually been to Happy Hollow before, but this time we went further along the trail than she had in the past.

As you can see from the photo above, its actually a fairly nice paved trail. In fact the entire Happy Hollow trail network is paved, of course being “secluded” right in the middle of a city does tend to have advantages such as that. Of course the larger Hoosier Heritage Trail has no such amenities, but that wasn’t of our concern. The portion of the trail that we walked actually went from the basin of the hollow up to the top of the ridge, which was actually a street. The interesting thing about the Happy Hollow trail, at least the one we were on (there are four, though they are mostly just offshoots of each other), is that while it seems like you are in the middle of nowhere, houses dot the ridges above you. As we climbed the ridge it became more and more obvious there were houses around us, eventually getting to the point where you could have almost reached out and touched a few decks. It was also made more apparent by an ever increasing number of children playing in the creek bed. Towards the bottom of the trail though, it was fairly secluded.

While the walk (which amounted to about 45 minutes) was nice, the two real highlights of the trip were meeting Clarence and Oliver. Clarence was an older brown squirrel, which are actually somewhat uncommon here in the realm of the grey squirrels. We came across him while he was eating a walnut dinner. Oddly enough, when we came back buy him a fair bit later he was still eating. It was kind of cool seeing his teefers turning the nut into a powder-like substance.

Further down the trail was Oliver. At first glance I thought Oliver was a chipmunk because he had a couple of markings that didn’t strike me as squirrelish. However, on closer inspection Oliver turned out to be a young squirrel. He was still quite small, but that didn’t seem to be stopping him from enjoying he wonderful afternoon sunshine. He was asleep when we first passed by and when we came back through he was still sleeping, though he had moved forward about a foot on the branch. Perhaps he was sleep-crawling. You can’t see it in the picture below but Oliver was surrounded by a bunch of really cool looking spiderwebs that reflected the sunlight.

By the time we got back to the car SB was hungry and I was getting there. We had decided a while back get some sushi, or as the boys call it, “Rushi.” Valentino is an especially big fan and Tristen just likes eating meat. There is a local place called “Heisei” that SB had eaten at a couple of times before and it is well-known for the quality of its sushi. It also happened to be fairly close to Happy Hollow park, so it was an easy choice about where to eat. When we first got to Heisei they hadn’t opened for dinner yet, so we had to wait about 10 minutes which ended up giving me the extra time needed to become hungry. Once inside we got to choose if we wanted to sit at the sushi bar, a table, or floor seating. If you are wondering what I mean by floor seating, its probably pretty much what you are imagining.

The nice thing about the floor seating was that you also have the option of sitting “normally” with your legs in the area under the table. The floor above is actually a raised platform, so before you go up there you take off your shoes and then go up a couple of steps. This allows for a more traditional Japanese eating style, or you can still plop your legs underneath the table. I alternated between the two. We ended up ordering 4 different sushi rolls, including an Alaskan Salmon Roll (much to Valentino’s great pleasure) and a Pickled Plum Roll (which I had to convince SB to agree to). All of the sushi was great, definitely some of the best I had had in a long time. Of course when your regular source of sushi is Target that probably doesn’t say much. But really, it was very good. Just as good as the sushi itself was the presentation.. a giant boat.. no seriously.

While I did enjoy the boat, I couldn’t help but wonder if the dishwasher hated their life. Once we were done with the boat, the server actually brought out a fifth roll on the house. I had no idea why at first, but it turns out the itamae of sushi (chef) recognized SB from her two prior visits. One of SB’s old co-workers had known the itamae, we are not exactly sure how. Either way, last time they visited he had provided them with 2-3 free rolls. He must have remembered SB (or at least her tip) and sent us out a free roll. If his goal was to get an extra tip, he succeeded. Either way it was a nice gesture and the fifth roll was very good, though it made us pretty pompous.

After that we headed over to a nearby grocery store called “Pay Less” where we had spent several years shopping. They had made quite a few changes, such as adding a Starbucks. We were actually looking for some sake to try, but they didn’t end up having it so we got it elsewhere before heading home.

All in all a good night, even if the things we did weren’t a first for SB, it was the first time for me to do them and thus a first for us as a pair. After the fun we went home and started packing, which was much less fun, but equally as important.

Until next time,
-Taco

The above is a shot of the creek that runs through the base of the hollow. The trail follows it for the most part. Since its not as secluded as it initially appears there are a few concrete dams along the way. Because it was a nice day we got to see lots of of those cool water skating bugs.

All Aboard at Linden

September 1, 2014 by Taco

[Like the other moving bucket list posts, this one is probably well after the fact]

As the move draws closer SB and I are increasing our efforts to knock out a few things that are left to do on our list. One such thing involved the little town of Linden. While neither of us had (to our knowledge) stopped in Linden before, we had been through it many, many times. Like a lot of small towns there is not a whole lot to see and before you know it you’ve passed through. Linden does have two exceptions though. The first of which is their “Depot Museum” which is actually an old railroad station which sits immediately adjacent to where the Monon Railroad and the Nickle Plate Railroad intersected each other.

Now, admittedly it doesn’t look like much on the exterior, in fact we drove through Linden many times before we even realized it was a museum. However, Valentino really wanted to go and it just to turns out they were open when we were coming through (they are only open 10 hours a week). Well, this was a classic case of don’t judge a book by its cover. The museum was really interesting and was made even more so by the two gentlemen working there. The first of which was named Jack. To be honest, neither SB or I actually remember his name, however I really think it was Jack. So, we’ll call him Jack. Jack came from a long line of railroad workers, specifically on the Monon. So he naturally had lots to tell us, both about his own story (like how he ended up in the Navy as an engineer when the Monon was bought out and curtailed) to the history of the railroads in the region. The small building held quite a large array of items, many of which were in their original positions, such as the switch board and communications station seen below.

In addition to all the period memorabilia and artifacts they actually had quite a bit of
“fun” stuff, such as model trains. In the picture below you can actually spot the Amtrak Superliner that SB and I took across the country, I’m still amazed we managed to fit inside of a three inch high train.

After Jack showed us through the two branches of the old depot, which included a section for both the Nickel Plate and the Monon (complete with writing on the walls from as far back as the early 20s) we headed outside to the main courtyard. Here there was a caboose from the Nickel Plate that you could go inside, as well as a section of the original tracks and the original juncture point.(Notice that the caboose is radio equipped, high cotton).

I’d never been inside an actual caboose before, so I jumped at the opportunity. It smelled very old inside, which is probably because its very old. Most interesting was that the bathroom sink and the urinal were the same thing, only a tiny little metal divider differentiated the two, yes I am serious.

After seeing the caboose we headed down a path which followed a portion of the Monon’s old tracks. The new CSX owned tracks were just about 15 feet away. This trail led us to a little house where Gary (that is his name) was working on a humongous model train layout for a circus they were holding in coming week. This made Little Taco squeal inside. After talking to Gary for a good bit and walking all around the 15×15′ layout we decided that our growling stomachs needed to be paid attention too. Which brings me to the second destination in Linden worth seeing.

The “Lindy Freeze,” which is an ice cream and drive-in type of place. I personally think they pretty much hit perfection with their name and their food wasn’t half bad either.

Since we had drove by this place countless times we both agreed that we should stop talking about stopping and actually do it, so we did. I got a chicken sandwich (so daring, I know), SB got a BBQ sandwich, and we both shared some waffle fries. It was pretty standard drive in food. It definitely wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t legendary either. The fries did come unsalted by default though, which we liked. After lunch we of course had to get ice cream. Since we had seen a sign advertising their homemade peanut butter sauce SB got a peanut butter sundae and I went with a Java shake. Both of which were very good. The peanut butter sauce stole the show though. While eating our ice cream we walked over the adjacent park and played on the swings. I managed to go all the way across the monkey bars, much to the dismay of my food and ice cream filled stomach.

All in all, I think we spent a little over 1.5 hours just visiting these two quaint little road-stops. The museum only cost 4$ a person and the Lindy Freeze didn’t break the bank either. Most importantly it was one more little adventure that SB and I were able to share. I think the coolest part of the entire experience actually came right after we were leaving the caboose and Jack was having us fill out a visitor’s form while answering some of my lingering questions. After finishing up the form he casually asked us “Do you want a couple of Monon spikes?” Well, I didn’t take him literally. I thought he meant did we want to see a couple of Monon spikes. Nope, he meant have. He went over to the original Nickel Plate and Monon junction and picked up a couple of spikes and just handed them over. Talk about a souvenir.

Naturally we’ve labeled them, dated them and added the museum’s card to the bag, since knowing us we’d forget why in the world we had two railroad spikes when we uncover them 40 years from now. All things considered, given my general love of history and growing love for railroad history, in addition to SB’s love of ice cream, it was 1.5 hours well spent.

Until next time,
-Taco

[P.S. If you would like to share this blog with others, please feel free to do so. I just ask that you don’t openly advertise it to strangers and the like.]

Wolf Park

August 29, 2014 by Taco

Author’s Note: Like my ToT post, this probably is being posted a bit after it actually happened.

As I mentioned in the Taste of Tippecanoe post SB and I are working on a bucket list before we move. One item that had been on this list for a long time was to go visit Wolf Park. Wolf Park is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, a non-profit wildlife research park with a main draw of wolves. They also have a variety of other critters, from coyotes to foxes to even bison. Naturally, this is the kind of place I want to be. Here is their website for those curious. While they are normally open during the day, Friday and Saturday nights are host to “Howl Nights.” This is basically a special presentation where the park stays open later than normal and you get to howl with the wolves, literally.

Of course, that pretty much depends on whether the wolves are interested enough in your attempt at howling to howl back. We were fortunate that we got a few howls out of the two wolves who were right up at the fence, named Renki and Ayla.

Now, while the two wolves front and center did howl (primarily Ayla, seen howling above). It was the whole swarm of wolves and coyotes back across the pond who really went crazy. After we got done with our collective attempt at a pack howl, there would be a period of 5-10 seconds of silence. Then suddenly all hell would break loose in the distance, with the coyotes sounding like they were eating each other and the wolves howling as if they were telling the coyotes to shut up. This was humorous at times. It would have been nice to be able to go deeper in the park to see the full packs, but they only do that on one night a month, and it was the day after we visited and SB worked. We still greatly enjoyed ourselves.

The wolves did too, they especially enjoyed getting their treats. At one point Renki played around on a teeter-totter to get delicious noms.

Moreso than the treats, the wolves really seemed to like Marty (or Marti). He was a photographer who came into the area a bit into the program. He had worked at wolf park for 26 years I believe and so pretty much all the animals had known him since birth, but especially the wolves. It was quite obvious, they loved them some Marty.

Contrary to what it may look like, he is not being eaten. He is being “face greeted” which is basically the wolf slobbering all over your face because they love you. It was really cute, they behaved a lot like dogs towards Marty. However their snarls when they got buttfrusted about a log made it real obvious that they were not, in fact, dogs.

After the program was over we wondered over and saw some foxes, then purchased a magnet of Renki and Ayla as a souvenir. As we were leaving I asked SB if she knew how to get home, she said she did then immediately proceed to make a wrong turn at the first possible point. Which pretty much made it business as usual.

We definitely enjoyed going and I only wish we would have gone sooner, so that we would have had the chance to go more often. Wolf Park is actually not that far from us and while it isn’t free, like the glorious Columbian Park Zoo, it wasn’t overly expensive either. Its also near the battlefield from the Battle of Tippecanoe, which we visited a good while back. You should probably click that link and read it if you don’t know what I’m talking about, history is good stuff to know.

Until next time,
-Taco

The Taste of Tippecanoe

August 2, 2014 by Taco

Author’s Note: Depending on when this actually gets posted, this made have happened a long time ago. Tis’ the beauty of being able to save drafts of posts.

Since we are going to be moving soon for graduate school SB and I decided to make a “bucket list” for our current area. One event that we had wanted to go to for at least 3 years or so was the “Taste of Tippecanoe,” shockingly named for the county in which the event takes place. Much like any other “Taste” the food was the main draw, but there was also live music on four different stages as well as fireworks over the river. Now, I like food, but this is actually only the second taste I’ve ever been to in my life. The first was the “Taste of Chicago” which is apparently the grandpappy of all other tastes.

I should not that the Taste of Chicago was way, war more crowded that it appears in the above photo. That spot was actually a bit removed from the center of the event. It was also really hot, but it was a lot of a fun with good food.

Anyways, returning to the Tippecanoe variant. We decided that since this was probably our last chance we should go. The big reservation was cost, ToT was one of those events where you had to pay to get in THEN you could pay more to get tickets to buy food. Since we are on a tight budget this was a bit of a pickle. Fortunately there was an online discount if you purchased your tickets in advance via PayPal, and it wasn’t a small discount either. So we got our tickets and away we went.

Fun thing, literally as we were going to the ToT, it started to rain. Then it started raining more. By the time we parked and go to the gate, two cops sort of just waved us in, not looking too pleased that they were in the rain at a food gate rather than cruising the coastline in a police cruiser while Axel F blarred over the radio. We went in and the ticket stands were all gone. Notice the problem with that? If you aren’t familar with tastes, generally speaking you buy tickets, the stands don’t take cash. You exchange the tickets for noms. Normally the exchange is somewhere around 1 ticket = 1 dollar. So, if you can’t buy tickets, guess what that means.. you can’t buy any food, or drinks, or anything. So we started off our visit by walking around trying to find tickets, turns out they were “closed.” Yes, they closed the festival. We ended up getting 3 tickets for free from the scattered gate people, which we used to get a BBQ sandwich from Mr. Darryl’s Southern BBQ (which was supposed to be 4 tickets, but they were disassembling their tent and didn’t care).

After that, we waited in the overhang of a bank with a lot of other people. Then we waited some more, then some more, and finally some more. At this point in time, frustrated conversations could be heard all around. Apparently they had sent out texts saying the ToT was “closed” which people understandably thought meant “over.” Nope, someone thought “closed” was a good way of saying “closed until the rain stops.” So, when those cops let us in, it was actually closed and we shouldn’t have gotten in. More on that in a second. So, from our bank haven, the festival which normally draws about 40,000 looked like this:

In the words of one of my close friends “Having Fun” (said in the most sarcastic way possible).

Well, the saying goes good things come to those who wait and true to form, that is what happened. As the rain cleared a bit things started to come back to life and tents were rebuilt that had just been taken down 15 minutes prior. Then the ticket booths opened up and Huzzah! they could actually take our money! Within a short while, desolation had turned to this:

So things definitely turned around. But lets back up for a moment first, there was still a bit of bad to be had. Remember how I said the cops weren’t supposed to have actually let us in? So, one area of the ToT was a “Beer Garden” which was a little island of amazingness where none of the millions of unattended tweens could enter. It was the typical order of events, show your ID, get a wristband, done deal. Well, in the process of getting our “Over 21 Bands” the gate attendant asked why we didn’t have ToT Bands. Um, what? Apparently when you enter, you are supposed to hand over your ticket and you get purple bands in turn (the 21 bands were green). This never happened to us, because we actually entered the taste when it was closed. So we had to wait, and some woman came who was in charge of the gates. We just had to have the purple bands, so we had to followed her 2.5 blocks BACK to the place were JUST WERE. Not so bad right? A thing to keep in mind with me is that I have splitting pain, anywhere in the range from a 3 on good days to a 9 on really bad days, every single time I take a step. So, 2.5 blocks worth of pain to get something that I really didn’t need since I had proof of payment. To make things better, she wasn’t in any hurry, she stopped to chat, make phone calls, you name it. Between SB and I, I tend to be the angry not level headed one, but even she was getting annoyed.

Long story short, we got the stupid band and go some good food and good drinks. The ToT had “Taster” specials which were small portions of dishes from the various vendors, all these, even the beer were 1 ticket. We visited the following places:

Mr. Darry’s Southern BBQ (Previously mentioned) – Nom’d a Pulled Pork Sandwich, very good, if basic.
Khana Khazan Indian Grill – Nom’d a “Tandoon Chicken” was good, small portion, but good.
L-Kora – Nom’d a “Flauta” was good, but they were slow due to a big line.
Emergency Munchie Truck – Nom’d a “Mac Nugget Popper” which was a mac n’ cheese take on Jalapeno poppers, very good and very quick, they had a cool iPad based ordering system.
People’s Brewing Company – Nom’d one of their Browns and a Pale Ale, sadly can’t remember the exact names.
Thr3e Wise Men Brewery – Nom’d a Rocky Ripple Pale Ale, a Bulldog Brown, and some Blackberry Ale. All of which were good, I think I prefered them to People’s.
La Scala – Nom’d Tiramisu, we got the “Taster” which was actually a fairly good portion, even for 2 people, I love Tiramisu so it was good.
McCord Candies – Nom’d a bag of gummy frogs during the Fireworks, were good.
Easley Winery – Nom’d some Raggae Wine, I don’t know much other than it was good and I’m not a wine person.

There were a few other places we wanted to try, such as Adelino’s who left during the rain (as did several others) as well as Ben’s Pretzels who had no food left (they were indefinitely “making more” it seemed). Still, as you can see, we got to try A LOT of stuff for far, far less than it would cost to visit those places individually.

Around 10:30ish we decided to head out to the pedestrian bridge over the river to watch the fireworks. Most of the crowd was gathering at the middle of the bridge but we stayed close to one end. Turns out our spot was pretty much perfect, since we ended up straight in front of where they were launching the fireworks. Right before they started it began to rain again, but the fireworks people gave zero cares. The fireworks worked just fine too, makes me wonder why so many places pu-naner out of fireworks when it drizzles. It was actually a really good show, not super long, but it had a great grand finale. I managed to get a video of it by keeping the phone under the umbrella. Turned it on at pretty much the perfect time. I uploaded it to the web to ensure the best compatibility for anyone else who might view it. I decreased the size and quality a fair amount to make it quicker, but it doesn’t really matter that much since its exploding stuff.

ToT Fireworks Grand Finale – 2014

So all in all, I’m glad we went, especially considering it was our last change. But, I’m not sure I’d go again if there was even a chance of rain. There was A LOT of miscommunication on the part of the organizers and “stranding” people and vendors with no ability to exchange tickets was kind of ridiculous. The beer was good though, very good.

Above photo is waiting for the fireworks to start on the bridge, with the omnipresent Chase God floating in the background.

Until next time,
-Taco

Happy Hollow and “Rushi”

All Aboard at Linden

Wolf Park

The Taste of Tippecanoe

Above photo is waiting for the fireworks to start on the bridge, with the omnipresent Chase God floating in the background.

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