Althouse: At the Driving Through Indiana Hotel...

February 13, 2010

At the Driving Through Indiana Hotel...

... we feel what really is.

31 comments:

1775OGG said...: The Indiana Tollway plazas suck! Bring the HoJos!; 2/13/10, 8:57 PM
As my whimsy leads me.. said...: If it were summer: corn, soybeans, corn soybeans. The curse of glacier damage is the farmers delight.; 2/13/10, 9:26 PM
As my whimsy leads me.. said...: farmers', rather.; 2/13/10, 9:27 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Eeew. I like the bit with the snow owl.

But I'm still groov'n with the impressive stop-'n-go Hancock Tower.; 2/13/10, 10:04 PM
Bob Ellison said...: When I was a kid, when my family took driving vacations, I'd watch the furrows that ran perpendicular to the road and say "dit dit dit dit dit" as they ditted by.; 2/13/10, 10:15 PM
Penny said...: CORN!

Some say it is right up there with the pr0n.; 2/13/10, 10:30 PM
Robin said...: Dang, now I'm homesick. There's nothing quite like that flat nothingness of an Indiana highway. Was that Highway 63? or 41? I'm originally from Terre Haute so when you got in the vicinity of West Lafayette you were near my old stompin' ground. In the summer we kids (all six of us in a three seater station wagon) would chant "Moo Moo Yum Yum" as we passed endless fields of corn. I can't understand why my parents didn't just dump us out in a field and drive away.; 2/13/10, 11:06 PM
Terry said...: Back in the 80's I would drive from my home in St. Paul down through Illinois and Indiana and Ohio once or twice each month. In the summer it was amazing! Drive a thousand miles through corn and soybeans! It never changed.
God! What a wealthy country!
Hope we don't screw it up.; 2/13/10, 11:12 PM
Penny said...: "I can't understand why my parents didn't just dump us out in a field and drive away."

Me either, Robin?

So, best guess?; 2/13/10, 11:16 PM
Ralph L said...: I like our trees and hills. It makes open country more interesting when it's rare.; 2/13/10, 11:40 PM
chuck b. said...: Anyone can love the mountains. It takes soul to love the prairie.; 2/14/10, 12:07 AM
kentuckyliz said...: I grew up in central and eastern Iowa, rolling prairie--not flat prairie. I like the prairie.

Question: way off topic btw:
if you leave a box of Shiraz sitting around too long on top of the fridge, does it turn into port?

My old Shiraz tastes like port.; 2/14/10, 12:10 AM
Revenant said...: I think The Talking Heads said it best:

Then we come to the farmlands
and the undeveloped areas.
And I have learned
how these things work together.
I see the parkway
that passes through them all.
And I have learned
how to look at these things
and I say,
I wouldn't live there if you paid me.
I wouldn't live like that, no siree!
I wouldn't do the things the way those people do.
I wouldn't live there if you paid me to.; 2/14/10, 1:25 AM
Penny said...: Amen, Rev.; 2/14/10, 1:27 AM
rhhardin said...: You can't beat open sky unspoiled by hills.

It's soybeans and corn because it's alternate years, a crop rotation trick that the Indians learned from the settlers.; 2/14/10, 3:33 AM
traditionalguy said...: That video is romantic at heart. Reliving your second date makes even frozen fields in Indiana seem magically alive with special meaning. A Happy St. Valentines Day aniversary to the happy couple.; 2/14/10, 5:32 AM
saintrussell said...: Robin, I'm thinking that's I-65, on the way to or from Chicago. I've had some dicey traveling on that road in winter, when the wind blows snow over the open fields and across the highway. I miss my family, and friends, and White Castle, and Steak 'n Shake...; 2/14/10, 6:01 AM
Unknown said...: Glad the roads are in good shape for you.

If that's Meade doing the driving, I hope you don't call him, "Flash", all the time.

WV "retat" What you must do after you retit (something strippers and actresses do frequently).; 2/14/10, 6:11 AM
Deborah M. said...: At 21 I was determined to live in cold country so I moved from the deep south to Alaska. Leaving Alaska I wanted to live in small town America and considered somewhere in Indiana. Alas I moved back to the heat and humidity of the South where I'm looking at the remains of our second snow of the year. But I'm glad I moved back home because my father died only a couple of years later, too young, and I was able to be there during his illness. I'm afraid the monotony of that landscape depresses me.

wv: mashe.; 2/14/10, 8:18 AM
Justin said...: I think thats 65 heading north towards Chicago. The trailer at 28 seconds might be an advertisement for Fair Oaks Farms at Mile 220. I grew up in a small town named in NW Indiana, so I've probably driven that route a hundred times.; 2/14/10, 9:29 AM
Robin said...: Penny asked: "So, best guess?"

I can only assume fear of prosecution. The six of us squabbled like cats and dogs. No sane person would have wanted to travel with us. Bring my car sick sister into the mix and you have hell in a station wagon.; 2/14/10, 10:52 AM
raf said...: I grew up in NW Indiana and never knew about the small town named "in NW Indiana." There were only five of us (four in the back seat, one up front with the parents) but I would put us up against anyone in an obnoxious contest.; 2/14/10, 11:07 AM
john said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/14/10, 1:03 PM
john said...: Doesn't anybody else but me get carsick here?; 2/14/10, 1:04 PM
Justin said...: Whoops, left out the name of my hometown. Lowell, Indiana. Where are you from Raf?; 2/14/10, 1:44 PM
raf said...: We had a farm a few miles outside La Porte.

And, oh boy, did I get carsick, riding in the middle of the back seat of those BIG ol sedans back in the fifties. And those who didn't get carsick just knew, for certain, that I was faking it so I could get a window seat.

Justified all the obnoxiosity, as far as I was concerned.; 2/14/10, 1:49 PM
rhhardin said...: Bicycling through Ohio supermarket.

The sun finally came out.

The "winter storm watch has been cancelled," apparently replaced by a winter storm warning.; 2/14/10, 3:04 PM
Aurelian said...: Raf

I used to live in LaPorte. Now in Hobart which I am leaving as soon as humanly possible to Schererville or Munster. LaPorte: the land that time forgot.; 2/14/10, 3:59 PM
Justin said...: Seems like a decent amount of NW Indiana readers on this blog. Isn't Hoosier originally from the Region too?; 2/14/10, 5:04 PM
John Richardson said...: This Carolina boy has always felt like a jack rabbit with a hawk circling out there on the prairies.

Reminds me of the drive across I-64 in southern Illinois when we go to visit relatives near St. Louis.

I'll keep my mountains, thank you.; 2/15/10, 6:37 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Isn't Hoosier originally from the Region too?

Yep, Valparaiso.; 2/15/10, 7:03 AM