Road Trip (With Pictures)

 Monday started out with hope and gloom. Finally, I would be getting the laptop I had been waiting on since last November. My sister was coming for me at 8:30 out at the west side Walmart. That I had suggested in a text last week. We had to be in Noblesville at 10. 

The weather had me thinking there might be problems. This is how the sky looked from the bus stop.

I made the bus on time. A train had me worried about being late. Muncie traffic remains at the mercy of its trains. No, I was on time. All looked well until I got a call from my sister. Turned out she had not seen my text. She got across Muncie. We got on the road. We started our road trip.

We took 332 to 128 over to 37. Corn and bean fields, misting skies, and seeing places I had not seen in almost two decades. I did not see much in the way of changes. Did I miss Ashby's Farm? The Hamilton County elk farm appears to be gone. Its sign is.

We arrived early at the PO's office. Ninety minutes later I left having the monitoring software installed, having given a urine sample, and having answered the usual questions about my non-existent sex life, but without the Gabb phone. I could not afford it. We also went over the changes to my supervised release order. I can now speak with felons, so long as they do not engage in or are engaging n any crimes.

Social Security called and since they did not have all of their files, the interview was postponed to the 29th.

I did a little walkabout downtown Noblesville. My sister found this place:

 

Lots of cool stuff. There are books I would go back for... as if I needed more books at this point in time!

There seemed to be plenty of foot traffic:

I splurged on a cigar. Noblesville still has a real cigar shop, It was a Punch Rothschild, an old favorite. It is now in my refrigerator, awaiting the right day.

Then with no little amount of trepidation on my part, we were off to Anderson. The first time I had been back since my arrest. Getting stoned did not seem out of the question. Put another way, I wondered if this would be the song of the day:

We went to the courthouse. Not any change noticeable from the exterior:

I characterized what I am doing as a winding up, as in how a corporation wraps up its business before dissolving. Finishing off the genealogy I started back in 1975 is one of the items. There has always been a little mystery about when my parents divorced the first time and married the second time. We got an answer to the first and part of an answer to the second.

My sister and me also stuffed some of the c\attorney's courthouse mailboxes with a flier about this blog. She kept muttering how she hoped I was not getting her into trouble, that we probably were not supposed to be doing this, but she did it. She does not have the sense of adventure of our mother (who drove through the Oldenburg convent with me in the back end of our station wagon just because she wanted to see the place) or her sister, my aunt Mary Ellen (who surprised me with the glee she took in crashing the Yale University opening day ceremonies - her idea and for no better reason than she wanted to see what was going on). I fear we disappoint our ancestors by being such dullards and fools.

 Having finished with the sleuthing into my parents' marriage history, I wanted to see some of Anderson's downtown. I used to work there. Not having run into any angry former colleagues, I felt a bit more at ease.

My first office is once again a law office.

 Some new drinking places downtown had not heard of were a bit shocking - a wine bar in dear old industrial Anderson? Breweries? I knew about the distillery and regretted passing it up. I thought it would be too much for my sister.

What was last the Merchant's National Bank Tower is no longer that and looked a little sad and I ought to have my sister take a picture of that. Instead, I had her photograph the old Vicker's Apartments, which were turned into a home for elderly I do not remember how many years ago. Used to be this ugly structure on top that looked like a pole barn. That was taken away decades ago.

I thought it looked a little forlorn to me, but maybe that was me projecting my own feelings onto the scene. It does look a bit lonely from this view.

The new City of Anderson bus station surprised me.

We did not get any closer. K tells me the homeless hang about the place. My reaction was, what is a building like this doing in Anderson. Still feel the same way.

We did see one homeless person:

We even cut through the Union Building, where I had my last law office. Where I was arrested. Nothing seemed different, except for some of the tenants.

We went out to our mother's grave. I read an Orthodox prayer for the departed. My sister did join with me; she does not do written prayers. My sister returned to her car. I apologized for my misbehavior and promised to make up for my wrong-doing.

We ate at King Gyros. Of course, I got a fish sandwich. Why not? It was my first real fish sandwich in 12+ years.

Scatterfield Road looked busy enough.

From what I heard about Anderson while in prison and then the reactions the city's name gets in Muncie, I expected a level of desolation like Berlin after the arrival of the Russian Army. Unlike Muncie, no one approached me for a cigarette. There were no beggars in the street.

Then we came back to Muncie. She was tired and so was I. 

 

We did stop at the Minnetrista Center, I thought it something she could do with her eldest son's son. I really do not know of another place like it in Indiana - community center and museum and lecture hall.

Later, I recalled I wanted her to look at my bike. So it goes. I also did not get my laundry done. Instead, I got to work on getting this laptop ready. Better than killing all of Penelope's suitors.

Finish off with this musical number:

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