After liturgy yesterday, I decided on a road trip to Versailles. It was as much a research trip as a get away. I also intended to get in some fishing. That was the only failure of the day, the fishing. I left about 10 AM and returned after 6:30 pm. I was asleep by 8:30, my right foot went numb on the way back, and the rest of me had achieved a state of uncomfortable numbness by the time I got into the apartment.
I went down Indiana 3 to New Castle and then to Rushville. All territory I included in “Road Tripping”. I managed no photos until I stopped in Spiceland for a break and a Coke.
The intersection of Indiana 3 and US 40 (The Old National Road), and a bit of Dunreith.
My memories got a serious jogging after I left US 40 for Rushville. It is neither as flat or as straight as I recalled.
I did not recall the big Diamond factory as I came into Rushville. The second factory looks different but I recall its position. Rushville's commercial park seems ambitious, if empty.
The fast food places and chain stores all seem to be on the north side. There is also the county hospital.
After that, there is what might appear as Hoosier quaintness. It makes me think there was money here and might still be.
Call me very surprised at finding a Japanese restaurant in Rushville.
Below this area begins what would be the town center - the city government offices, small shops, the county courthouse - if it were not so close to what is the south side of the city.
This is where I got out of the car and took a short tour. Where I parked was in the block north of the intersection between US 52, State Road 3, and State Road Indiana 44. US 52 goes northwest to Indianapolis and southeast to Cincinatti. 44 goes east to Connersville and west to Shelbyville. The view from that corner:
The castle-looking building is the Rush County courthouse. Lots of semi-trucks passed me heading south and north.
You can see the streets are empty. The antique shops were closed, but not the Radio Shack.
What makes Rushville historically significant, its most
famous citizen:
I thought to eat at the restaurant that had been south of the courthouse on 3 next to the Flatrock River. Only the restaurant was now a park. I decided on eating at
Greensburg. A quick bite.
What I think is the coolest shot I took all of yesterday.
The road started to roll more, its straightness relaxed. I stopped only for this bit of strangeness.
I tried snapping shots of Greensburg as I came into the city. These are of the area just south of Interstate 74.
I was looking for US 421. It was not to be seen. A frisson of anxiety as both road and scenery were unfamiliar. I assumed I was to the east of the courthouse area. That assumption was wrong, I was to the north. Not much activity around the courthouse square as lunch time approached, but the tree remains in the courthouse tower.
Two things I did not capture with photos were another
Japanese restaurant (is this because of the Honda plant in Greensburg?) and the
Sinclair gas station (that came out too blurry). Sinclair is a brand I have seen since I was a little kid; my mother had a cousin working for them back then, so the name stuck in my brain.
Heading southeast on 421 out of Greensburg:
Only there was a detour that took me east to
Batesville. Lot of cool stuff there, and I really regretted losing the battery before I ran into the town later from the east. The town seems growing, I saw plenty of new and rather attractive homes going up (probably expensive homes, too).
Time forbid more shots. I left Batesville on
State Road 229. This is the kind of winding road where you pay attention to the asphalt and obey the speed limits.
Eventually, I got through to Osgood and back on 421. That was after Napoleon where I should have taken photos.
I wound up eating at the
Osgood Grub Company on my way back home. It is in the same location as a place where we ate during our family trips to Versailles. Definitely not the same menu, which is ala carte and a bit stiff, but their ribeye sandwhich was fantastic and I almost ordered a second.
The Tyson Methodist Church and the Tyson High School remain the same. I forgot how big the school is. I think my mother's mother graduated from Vesailles High School which was replaced by Tryson's school.
My oldest sister might be surprised how Versailles now has a CVS, not quite as much Brigadoon as it was when we were little.
Two places to eat and drink, but I got a photo of only one.
They now have a government annex on the north side of the old courthouse that I could not get in one shot (new = 2012), and I swear the courthouse is now bricks instead of white wood.
The jail looked the same:
As did the cemetery:
Where I found a new mystery. I was unable to find the graves for my mother's mother, her sister Betty or her other sister Mary Ellen. Somehow, I lost my grandmother and two aunts, and an uncle. Finding out more is the job for today.
I spent most of my time in Versailles at the local historical society.
The fellow manning the place was helpful, but the books were more helpful. I solved a couple of mysteries - I held the wedding certificate of my mother's mother's parents' wedding certificate. I found an entry for the guardianship for my mother's mother's father; he got to Ripley County through his mother's family. My mother's father was living in Anderson when he married my grandmother in 1919.
But the camera's battery died in the cemetery. Time had run out for fishing. I left the historical society at 3:30. I came back on 421, taking the detour at Osgood (after that amazing ribeye standwich) to Indiana 129 to 44 into Batesville, and from there I chose Interstate 74 to State Road 3. This was 3:44 pm. Then it was a straight drive back home. It was almost 3 hours after I left Batesville.
I was surprised to see more Beau Bayh signs in Ripley county than in Delaware.
And it has taken me about almost that same amount of time to get this post written along with attendant emails.
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