DC's Musings: Spontaneity

When Leslie and I landed in Nashville last Wednesday we had four reservations: the hotel for our first two nights in Nashville, rental car for a week, hotel for Saturday and our plane tickets home ten days hence. So we had four of our nine nights, transportation and getting home covered. Our second night in Louisville, a decision to stay made after we checked into The Brown Hotel, I put in the map where the distilleries are that I wanted to visit, but no concrete plans as to which ones in which days. At dinner we talk about what we want to see the next day, as we drove around each day we would get an idea of where we may stay the night and usually would start calling hotels about 5:00 to see where there might be a room.

Spontaneity on a road trip has many upsides, like going to dinner, setting a ballpark and deciding to have dinner there instead. Or like our day in Wednesday.

Tuesday night we were discussing where to go on Wednesday. We had a reservation for Thursday night in Nashville that we made last Friday morning as we were checking out, but no plans on where to go on Wednesday. I was looking at the map and thinking about driving further east into Virginia and the Appalachians, then circling south and west toward Chattanooga. Leslie asked what I wanted to see or do and my reply was I pretty much just wanted to see the area.

"What about Indianapolis?" she asked, "have you ever heard of 'Funky Bones'?" I had not, so I Googled "funky bones" as she explained the art work to be and that it was featured in a book and movie the girls like, "The Fault in our Stars."

I looked at the map and noticed that a route from Lexington to Indianapolis to Nashville can include a trip to Cincinnati. As we continued to talk about Indianapolis, I was on my phone. The mlb.com app specifically. "Are you looking to see if the Reds are in town?"

"They are, St. Louis is in town."
"Let's go."

We back tracked a little bit on Wednesday morning, heading back into Lexington near where we had been Tuesday when we finished our Bourbon Trail at Town Branch. At the Lexington Visitors Bureau we showed them our "passports" fully stamped and were given t-shirts saying we completed the Bourbon Trail. Leaving the tourist office we pointed our Chevy Malibu rental north.

About three hours and two hundred miles later we pulled into the parking lot of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and asked where we go to see Funky Bones. Abutting the IMA is the 100 Acres Park, donated to exhibit sculptures and installations, including Funky Bones.

The park is a combination of open fields, woods and a big pond or small lake, with paths winding around. We spent almost an hour taking pictures of Funky Bones and walking around the park.

Back in the car it was around 2:00 and we started to head to Cincinnati, about two hours and just over 100 miles away. We took surface streets across Indy, the IMA is on the western part of the city, driving by the Indianapolis Speedway and finding an old drive-in for lunch. The sign for the Mug n' Bun is Indy's oldest drive-in and they make their own root beer. I went for the foot-long with cheese and "sauce" (beanless chili) and the delicious root beer, Leslie went for the Mug n' Bun special, a bacon cheeseburger on toast. There is a reason they've been around since the 1930's.

On our drive to Cincinnati we found a room at the Radison in Covington, which is in Kentucky right across the bridge from Cinch and the Great American Ballpark, home of the Reds. A bonus feature we discovered when we got there was the free shuttle to and from the game.

Great American Ballpark is great. It sits on the edge of downtown and the Ohio River. While on the green minute shuttle ride across the river to the ballpark I procured two seats about 15 rows of the field down the left field line on StubHub.com. We were dropped off by the hotel shuttle about 6:15 for the 7:15 start about two blocks from the stadium. The streets were packed with Reds and Cardinal fans, bars and restaurants were also jammed, a very festive atmosphere as we headed into the park.

We had one of our favorite meals for the second time in the trip, beers, peanuts, and dogs. In this case a bratwurst with sauerkraut for Leslie and a hot sausage for me. We had a great time, leaving the 3-3 fans in the 11th, catching the shuttle back to the hotel and seeing the 13th and final inning in the hotel bar. The bar closes at 11:00 and we showed up about 11:15, the bartender stayed open so the seven or eight of us there could watch the end of the game, "because you don't get this channel in your room."

A great day as a result of having no plans tying us down to a schedule.

Today's pics are out of order, but I'm too frustrated dealing with my Kindle to try and deal with putting in order.