The Great Indiana Roadtrip Continued: Hello Mr. Manning!

Alright, here we are at the second full day of the Great Indiana Roadtrip of 2009. The previous day had been a great success with our wine tour, exploration of the city, and Halloween night. This day, our 'plans' were contingent on one fact and one fact alone.

The Colts were in town.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start the day off right, with a complete breakfast of...

chocolate filled, sugar covered pastry. So good and so good for you!*

Or perhaps a bagel nosh with a little shmear of cream cheese?
*good for the soul. The body, not so much.

Au Bon Pain...if you're wrong, I don't want to be right.

Ok, back to the main theme, the Colts. Yes, the Colts were in town and playing the 49ers. Now, Jenny and I love football...college football.

 Roll Tide! 

 I wasn't even at this game, I just snagged the pic from Jenny.

We follow the SEC teams, and keep our eyes on the other (lesser) conferences as well. However, neither of us really pays much attention to the NFL. Still, we knew if we could afford tickets, getting to see the Colts play at home would be a good time.

...And here's where the whole thing turns tragically hilarious.

I was supposed to have a hundred dollars in my bag. Notice that supposed to have. Late, late, Halloween night, after our costumed shenanigans, I went to get something out of my purse and noticed Mr. Franklin's inauspicious absence. Suffice to say I had a minor freakout and Jenny and I subsequently tore the room apart trying to find the cash. We found nothing.

Nothing.

I was convinced that it was lying on the floor of some club in Broad Ripple, lining the pocket of some fake pirate's waistcoat, or snugly tucked into the cleavage of a 'sexy' nurse.

The thing is, it wasn't even money I planned to spend on this trip. It was reserved for something else and I'd simply forgotten to take it out of my bag before we'd left.

Completely disheartened and hesitant to drop my remaining cash on something like game tickets now that my reserve was gone, I didn't know what to do. Jenny however, had an idea.

"Liz, we'll make some signs and go down to the stadium to beg for tickets!"

It seemed like a good idea, and far be it from me to be above harassing total strangers for my own entertainment needs. So, we grabbed a couple of sheets of paper; I took out my handy Sharpie and we set to work. Our signs were done and we were ready to hit the steps of the stadium.

On the way, we stopped by the car to load our suitcases and grab a couple of things we needed...

...and there was my hundred bucks, neatly folded and slipped into the door pocket between a couple of pamphlets. My mind was officially blown. I have no way to explain this other than God, because I know I didn't put it there, and in my bag, it had been inside a pouch, inside  a zippered compartment, which I never opened in the car.

So, the cash was back! Amen! However, we decided to stick with our begging plan...because that's how we roll.

Had never watched a Colts game a day in their lives.^

Notice the headband and hair bows, we picked those up at the mall because we owned NOTHING Colts related to wear. We wanted to look slightly more like the 'HUGE COLTS FANS!" my sign claimed we were.

So we begged. We pleaded. We even sang along with a bucket drum line. We were laughed at, made fun of, wished the best of luck...and then, we were made an offer:

"I have some tickets you can have, but you've got to do something weird for them."

We decided to hear him out before we started shouting for a policeman. (I need an adult!)

Coolest guy ever.

As it turns out, it wasn't weird at all...not even slightly creepy! All he wanted us to do was use his $220 tickets to get into the game and then trade them with his friends who had $119 tickets. THAT'S IT. So, instead of sitting on the 50 on row 4, we were on the 20 on row 10.

For free.

We settled into our seats, grab some drinks, some eats, got our cameras out, and cracked open our programs to see who other than Peyton Manning was playing.

Suffice to say, we were just a little excited...

OK, a lot excited.

I think we know what got the job done. 

So without further ado, here come the COLTS! 

Coin toss (I did not realize Peyton Manning was so tall!)

 

Well, there you have it. A few shots from the game and a few of us being our stupid selves. The atmosphere was very different than a college game, but still a lot of fun and of course, the Colts won. As is well known, they ended up at the Superbowl this past season. They may have lost to the Saints, but they're still #1 to me. 

GO COLTS!

After the game, we headed back to the car, jumped in, and hit the road for home. It was five o' clock on the nose...exactly the time we'd hoped to be rolling. We couldn't have done better if we'd planned it...and we all know how much planning went into this trip.

The Great Indiana Roadtrip!

So, let's continue with 2009.

We just finished with July where I spent the first week in Florida, about nine days in the office, and the rest of the time in Alaska.

Then, August happened...and September too. I did some things, my sis and nephew both had birthdays. Football season started, the weather cooled down, general fallish activities were attended and that was that.

So now we're in October, one of my most favorite months! October '09 was truly stellar...and here's why: Halloween roadtrip. My best friend Jenny and I try to take at least one vacation together every year. In '08 it was Alaska, and in '09, we were heading to beautiful...

(Indianapolis specifically!)

Neither of us had ever been there before, and we both have the goal of seeing all fifty states before we head on off to Glory. Traveling, seeing new things, and experiencing new places are pretty much at the tip top of both of our lists. Now, as far as planning the trip, it was an elaborate and well thought out venture that went something like this:

"You want to go to Indiana over Halloween?"

"'K."

"Let's just get in the car and start driving. We'll figure it out when we get there."

"Sounds good."

So, that's exactly what we did.

Roadtrip!

We left Friday night after work and drove until we got there. It's a straight shot up I-65, so it wasn't a difficult trip at all. We made a few stops along the way, mostly for copious amounts of caffeine and sugar. On one such stop we picked up a tourist guide of Indiana, figuring we'd eventually need some kind of directional to fun. We noticed a list of wineries and thought a tour might interesting. Easley Winery looked to be close by and sounded pretty good by description. We plugged the address into the GPS and headed that way. So, yeah, we were cruisin' for a boozin'.

...I can't believe I just wrote that.

Outside Easley Winery

We arrived before the winery opened, which would usually put a damper on our 'do it now' kind of schedule. However, the owner, being there early, came out to greet us. He was an older, Caucasian gentleman, decked out like a Rastafarian, complete with fake dreads and a laid back attitude. (You win again, Halloween!) He told us they would be open in about a half an hour and would be happy to give us a tour at that time. When we told him we'd driven straight from Alabama to his door, he was impressed enough to say shuck the thirty minutes, come on in for a private tour!

Score.

Now, let me preface this posting by saying that I am by no means a true "coin-assuer" of vino.  I enjoy a glass now and then, know a few basic types, and am pretty sure that MD20/20 won't be on the wine list of your favorite restaurant, unless it's a 7-11. Still, don't expect me to start spouting off about oak undertones and full bodied notes. And, as it happens, I know even less about the process of making/bottling/and selling wine. So, if the terms 'doohicky,' and 'thing-a-ma-bob,' aren't beneath you, soldier on, friend. 

Here's what I'm calling the tank and barrel room. It also had a chandelier, so it's ultra fancy. Our guide, who I will be referring to as 'Rasta' from this point on, told us all about the different varieties of wine they produce, the awards they've won, and how everyone at Easley just likes to have a good time doing something they love. 

I like my wine chilled, thank you.

Each of these huge cylindrical tanks contained a different type of wine sold by Easley. Several of them had iced over thanks to the twenty-six degree temperature at which they are kept. I do recall that one of these housed a blueberry wine that is very popular with the employees!

Jenny, she likes her wine straight from the spigot. Don't get in her way if there's Pinot Grigio involved.

Here, Rasta is showing us around the bottling and labeling room. I've always been a fan of wine labels, even as a child I found them interesting. Walking through the wine isle at the supermarket was like stepping into a miniature art gallery. They've got an artist that designs all of their labels...and they're doing custom pieces now. Label art is a branch of design in which I would love to be involved. Although, I might have to move out of Alabama.

I don't believe these are in use anymore, but these giant casks were formerly employed to age wine. They're huge, I'd say eight to nine feet tall. They keep a couple of them around for their novelty and history.

Totally looks like an Apollo Capsule.

This doohicky, and I believe the black thing-a-ma-bob in the background, has something to do with the process of making Champagne...what part it plays in that process, I can't tell you. Perhaps if I wasn't writing this a year after the fact, I'd be able to recall...but probably not.

Cheers mon! 

So here we are at the end of the tour tasting a sampling of the wines offered by Easley. A normal tour and tasting consisted of an offering of seven wines, but Rasta just kept bringing over bottle after bottle. I think we tried every single wine they had! Easley Winery was a great first stop, and I'd recommend dropping by to anyone passing through the area. The employees are fun-loving folks with great attitudes, who are willing to go out of their way for visitors. The wines are tasty and the tour is interesting and educational. For all of my ignorance about the wide world of wine, I did learn quite a bit. Jenny and I each bought a bottle of our favorite, thanked Rasta for a fantastic time, and headed off to see what else Indy had to offer. 

Comfy!

Thankfully, Indy offered a place to stay. We were running this whole trip on a shoestring budget so we weren't looking for anything too expensive. (This was before we knew about the wonders of couchsurfing.) We ended up at the Garden Hilton in the very center of the city. Their rates were a little too high but we heard if you booked online using a special code it was cheaper, so in a complete act of shamelessness, we asked to use their computer. They obliged and we came out spending fifty bucks a pop. Not too bad when you consider we were within walking distance of nearly everything.

So walk we did.

The Civil War Monument

We were right across from monument circle, so we headed down that way. There's a pretty impressive monument...in that circle.

 She hates me!

I love the romance of the Handsome Cabs. I've never actually ridden in one, but I assume it's a nice thing to do. I also love Draft horses and usually get on well with horses in general. This was Daisy, and at first, she acted very uncomfortable around me, shying away, snorting, stamping and stomping her glitter covered hooves. I turned to Jenny and said 'she hates me!'

 She doesn't hate me!

No sooner than the words left my mouth, Daisy swung her massive head around and nuzzled me in the chest. From that point forward, we were friends!

She was a sweet horse.

We walked down to the Capital building and decided to take a few pics. It was a beautiful Autumn day and the weather was insanely perfect. How insanely perfect?

This insanely perfect.

After enjoying the weather, the leaves, and the monuments, we decided dinner should be next on the agenda. We didn't really have any idea what was around us as far as eats, so we asked the locals and ended up at a brewery. There was beer and cider to be had of course, but it was the salad that really made me raise an eyebrow...

Yes, I'm actually wearing 3WM...in public.

...because it contained one ridiculously long carrot curl. Every bit of carrot you see on that plate is connected...and I don't mean that existentially. That was one single curl. I'm thinking it must have been an entire carrot. Apparently you make them with one of those spiral apple machines. Who knew?

We finished dinner around dusk and made our way back to the hotel. Halloween night was quickly approaching and we had things to do and costumes to wear. It took us both a while to come up with something to be for Halloween, but in the end, we settled on...

Batman!

(That monument really came in handy for staging Gotham!)

and...

 THE JOKER!

(The door gate made a handy Arkham!)

 (The pics are grainy for that extra Dark Knight Grittiness!)

One nice thing about Indianapolis was that so many people were in costume! It was great to be in a city that actually participates in one of the best holidays ever.  We headed out to the main part of town again and ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe...for dessert. 

Yeah.

 Some men just want to watch the world burn...I just want dessert.

Because let me tell you, there is nothing the Dark Knight and his (her) arch nemesis like better than a little hot fudge cake. 

Word had it that there was fun to be had down in Broad Ripple, so we hailed a cab and headed that way. It was the only thing we did that wasn't within walking distance. Anyway, we ended up just traversing the length of the district seeing the thousands of costumes and listening to the 'music' coming out of various clubs. People in the bars would hold up signs as you walked by ranking your costumes from 1-10...I'm glad to say Jenny and I both scored highly. ha! Also, just fyi, guys dressed as the Joker really, really get a kick of of seeing a girl dressed as the Joker.

We ended up in one club/bar/venue that had a decent live band and some fantastic costumes...

...none of which are in this picture...or any picture I or Jenny took apparently. However, lil' Manning back there, he found his way into a few, thanks to his completely creepy stalking of Jenny appreciation of Jenny's costume. Other than fanboy, (how old is that kid anyway? He looks about 12!) it was a fun night of costumed shenanigans.

So that was Halloween. I was going to try to fit the whole trip into one post, but I suck at condensing things. Still, the next day, it pretty much deserves its own page, because, WOW, was it cool!

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Main Menu>Bonus Features>Photoshop>Geekery>

Photoshop is fun!

Simply the result of too much spare time.

Sailing in Seattle...F/V North American Style!

At last post, I had just boarded my plane at the Fairbanks airport. The flight was uneventful I assume, given that I passed out like a narcoleptic on Ambien as soon as I settled into my seat. I woke up as we hit the tarmac in Seattle. My face was pressed into the window, my contacts were glued to my sleep-crusted eyes, and I'm pretty sure I might have drooled a little.  This was also the start of day three without a shower, and make-up was but a distant memory.

I was looking good.

Anyway, I had a brief layover in Seattle, long enough to do breakfast with a friend, but not much else. Long story short, he wasn't able to meet up early thanks to (lamely) injuring himself. It was quickly looking like my back-up plan of falling asleep on my backpack like a hobo at the bus station was going to come to fruition. However, he called me back shortly thereafter and told me to go get a later flight so that we could still hang.

I was unaware I could do this.

He told me being the bum that he is, he often misses his flights and just asks for another one. At worst, they charge him about seventy five bucks. My next flight was actually slightly delayed so they let me change it without any trouble. Awesome.

After various rigmaroles, we ended up meeting under the Troll bridge.

 He is...an Enchanter. There are those that call him...Trav.

I regretted the fact that I didn't have a fanciful hat to accompany his...or even a shrubbery, but well, what can you do? Me. I jumped in his Corvette and we took off towards the Fisherman's Terminal. In addition to being skilled in the ways of humor and haberdashery, Trav is a crab fisherman...you might have seen him on Deadliest Catch Season 4. He also has a fantastic book out about his experiences fishing and aboard the F/V North American:

Buy it on Amazon.com

You should buy it.

Today the aforementioned F/V North American was due for sea trials. Basically, we were (by we, I mean the crew and not me) checking the boat out to make sure it was seaworthy.

This was not my first time on a crab boat. I work for Keith Colburn, Capt. of the F/V Wizard, running his website along with my friend Mystic. I've also done some t-shirt work for the Wizard and North American, logo design for the Sea Star and Deadliest Deckhands...with a little more in the works now. If you're a fan of the show, you'll recognize some of these boats.

Here's the Wiz, Pinnacle (HUGE!) and the Arctic Fury.

...and a little side view action.

The Early Dawn. 

It was a beautiful day, but it was hot. Stupidly hot. It was the kind of hot that makes you angry at the fact that the sun exists. If I recall, the temperature was 105 with a heat index of August in Hell. So, while the guys were outside prepping the boat for sailing, I ducked into Trav's cool, dark room and passed out on his bunk for about two hours. It was wonderful. I woke up to us getting underway for the Ballard Locks. I always enjoy a trip through the locks...well, when it isn't packed. There are always people on the sides waving and snapping pics and today was no exception.

 

 Going through the Ballard Locks

 

Trav giving the ladies on the yacht behind us an eyeful...or Trav getting an eyeful of the ladies on the yacht.

Finally, we hit some open water.

Trav and I goofed around for a bit before the serious business of running a boat had to take over for a while.

Everything was going pretty smoothly, except the anchor. There were some problems with the wench and the line, or so they tell me. All I know is it didn't sound good. It didn't sound good at all. Hank and Trav are working on releasing the line here or guiding it or something else equally nautical.

John Skarr keeping his eyes on the anchor and the wench.

You know that part in Dumb and Dumber that goes a little something like this:



 Yeah, well, that's what a screeching anchor wench sounds like. This went on for...I don't know, about 30 minutes or 900 hours. One of those.

No offense Capt. Earling, but I really don't think that's going to cut it.

 Eventually, they hoisted the heathen and we started sailing back to Ballard.

During the return trip, I took a few more shots around the interior. For a crab boat, the NA is actually a fairly nice ride. Here's a quick little tour:

  

The wheelhouse. 

I think this is the Captain's Bunk, so either Earling's or Sten's depending who's aboard at the time.

 

The Captain's dining area. It's not really a galley, since all the food prep areas are downstairs...but still, swankified. I don't recall any of the other boats having two 'dining rooms'.

The deck was pretty open given that it isn't stacked with crab pots. You can see the coiler, block, and launcher in front of Travis, the crane to his left, and Hank walking on top of what I'm calling the shelter deck. Obviously, those NA guys really like their dining options. Here we've got a third, 'al fresco' seating choice.

 That's the motto of many a Bering Sea crab boat Captain. 

Finally, we passed back through the Locks, headed into Pacfish, docked the boat, and tried to decide what to do with the rest of the day. We all would have loved to have jumped into the water for a bit to cool off, but well, you don't really do that in a ship yard...

unless you want to play BP and the oil spill.

Eventually, Trav and I headed down to the Sea Star  so he could drop off some files and discuss a little business. I wandered around and browsed in the shop. I grabbed a shirt with my logo on it...gratis of course! Per contractual agreement on this artwork, payment consisted of specific sum, a shirt with the printed logo, and a sandwich of my choosing with the stipulation of extra cheese. So far, I'm still waiting on that sandwich...Travis.

The crab on the final version is red but I don't have that file with me and I don't care enough at the moment to find it.

After the Sea Star, Trav and I left to have dinner with his family and then hook up with some friends of his out in Seattle...but we had to go to Costco first at the request of his mom...which was exciting for me because I'd never been to one. Sad, I know. Still, I love the fact that you can buy orange juice, a mattress, and a pair of jeans in the same isle. Two gallons of milk and a pack of Swedish Fish later, we hit the Seattle Center  hoping to catch a laser show. Sadly, it was already over by the time we got there, but I'd never been to the top of the Space Needle, so that's what we did instead...

But first we played on some public art.

The night-scape of the city was really lovely from the top. We hung out for a few minutes eating Swedish Fish and laughing about something I no longer remember. However, this trip, as all good things must, had to end, and like Cinderella, my coach (seat) was leaving at Midnight. So, once again, I was off to the airport...more hugs, more goodbyes, more lines at security. By this point, I really was utterly exhausted. All I remember was that I got on the plane, and woke up as we landed...got on another plane and woke up as we landed, and finally, got on another plane and woke up as we landed...and then drove to work.

DROVE. TO. WORK.

And that's the real world for you. (At least there's a shower at the gym!)