I met the boys at Washington and 465 and then we hoped on I-74 towards Cincinnati. The elections had just ended, so I began the ride asking everyone's opinion about Trump. Let's rip off the band aid and begin the discussion. So while you're reading this, what's your opinion about Trump? Just kidding. I don't care. This is a one way conversation. Just keep reading.
The trip was actually a short drive. Probably our shortest drive to date. We arrived in downtown Milan and parked on the main drag. The town in it's current state is your typical small Indiana town. You can tell it's better days are in the past and when talking to the museum proprietor he mentioned Milan was struggling with a meth problem as well. I'm talking the people of Milan not that actual town.
Anyway, we enter the museum. It's a small museum and the guy who runs it is retired and he's the brother-in-law of one of the players from the state champ team. It's about two and a half rooms and it's well done. They have memorabilia from the team's run to the title as well as stuff from the movie Hoosiers and other Indiana basketball history. Another cool thing about the museum is that it's in the old town bank and the original vault door is still in place.
After about 30 minutes I was done. I'm not much of a reader. Ironic since I'm writing this and expecting you to keep reading. Anyway, my brothers were completely enthralled and so I left to go explore the town. I wondered around and found this general store that was really more of a Goodwill selling used stuff. But the best part of it is they had a lot of old time candy. They had Slow Pokes and candied cigarettes. So of course I bought a bunch of those for my children. Nothing says, "Hey kids smoking is bad!" like candy that can train them early.
When I arrived the boys where busy buying stuff. They finally finished and we hoped in the car and headed out. On the way back to I-74 we stopped by the Ertel Cellars Winery. The surrounding area is beautiful and I was surprised they had a full fledged restaurant in the middle of nowhere. The wine was ok and the selection was small. A couple bottle were purchased and on we charged.
We wandered into Batesville and decided it was time for lunch. Do you smell BBQ? You better because it's our tradition. We found ourselves at BBQ Street. The BBQ was good. Had a nice smokey flavor and it was priced very reasonably. It's a low key place and behind the cash register they had a Cincinnati Bengals football helmet phone. We were all jealous.
Back in the car we go and we decide to hit Enochsburg. The town is the original town where the Huser family migrated from Germany to America. We wanted to visit the town and explore the graveyard. On the way there we discovered covered bridge. We got out to take pictures that's when we noticed something in the woods. It was the mysterious Jaysquatch! (See photos below) Not really it was just my brother Jay.
After all those good times we moved on to the main drag and the cemetery. Let me tell you nothing says "good times!" like combing through a graveyard look for tombstones with your family name on them. That was fun. Back in the car we go and back on I-74 towards Indianapolis. We were about 20 minutes outside the city when we saw another vineyard. We got the time so why not stop in.
We pulled into Buck Creek Winery. It was 4 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon and this place was packed. There was no way were tasting anything. We bought our wine on blind faith this time. We finally made it back to our meet up point and said our farewells. This was by far our shortest trip, but only because our destination was so close by. We definitely did it all. Next year is my turn to pick. I am now on the clock!
