Bruce and Farewell to Indiana

June 1, 2006

With the arrival of June, it's time to begin another leg of our journey. We depart today to head to the East Coast after a week in the Hoosier state. We stayed an extra day so that we could go to the Bruce Springsteen concert at the Verizon Wireless Music center last night. The day we spent riding our bikes around the northside of Indianapolis, along the Canal towpath and down the Monon Trail, an old train track coverted to beautiful trail. We stopped to say goodbye to many of our friends here before heading out to the concert.

Hamaker Pharmacy
Dan Wild of D&Z Gifts


Bruce is on tour in support of his new folk album and his 17 piece "Seeger Session Band" was in top form even though this was only the 4th stop of the tour. The show was incredible, 2 1/2 hours of staggering music, mostly from the new album but with totally reworked versions of some of his older songs as well. His new up-beat New Oreans style redition of "Open All Night" was incredible. The show featured a couple of amazing tributes to New Orleans including a fantastic version of the song "City of Ruins". We have had a great time here, having a ton of friends and family here has made our stay wonderful. Thanks to my sister Michele for putting us up and to my mother Marta for opening her home for Kathy's father & brother. Though we still have heavy hearts, we are looking forward to the next chapter in our journey.

Michele, Chris & Will Noel

Mike & Patience Rizzo

Rusty

Devastating News

May 31, 2006

One of the things that is the most difficult things about traveling is being away from home when something happens that you feel you should or need to be at home to best cope with. Tragic news reached us Monday evening from Key West when we learned of the tragic death of six year old Charlie Smith in a Memorial Day boating accident. Charlie was a former pre-school student of Kathy's at the Key West Pre-School Coop and news of his tragic death hit hard. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his parents Alex & Andy Smith as well as to all their family & friends. Contributions to the Southernmost Hockey Club will be accepted in the name of Charlie Smith.



Southernmost Hockey Club Inc.
1107 Key Plaza #287
Key West, FL 33040

Southernmost Hockey Club
Key West Citizen

The tragic news, combined with exhaustion and some additional bad news (that our good friend John Cornwell is hospitalized with a burst appendix) meant most of our day Tuesday was spent not doing much other than visiting John at the hospital. He had emergency surgery and is recovering. We wish John a quick and full recovery.

Columbus, Indiana

Bartholomew County Courthouse-1874, Issac Hodgson

First Christian Church-1942, Eliel Saarinen


May 31, 2006
One may not think of this small midwestern city when considering the bastions of the country's great architecture, but Columbus has over 70 buildings by some of the world's leading architects and since Kathy's father Jim is an architect, we thought a tour of this small city south of Indianpolis would be enjoyable. It was beyond all of our expectations.

Cummins Inc. Office Building-1983, Roche Dinkeloo & Associates
Columbus Visitor Center art by Dale Chihuly

Columbus has earned worldwide recognition for its modern architecture. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects surveyed 829 of its members. They ranked Columbus sixth among U.S. cities in architectural quality and innovation. Only Chicago, New York City, Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Boston were ranked higher in the survey. We spent the greater part of Memorial Day walking and driving around this beautiful little city



We took the scenic route home, driving through Brown County Indiana, which is one of the most beautiful areas of the state. The wooded hills are full of quaint little towns such as Nashville and Bean Blossom. We stopped and visited the Covered Bridge in Bean Blossom as well before heading home for a final family dinner together before Chris & Jim headed to their respective homes.

Wow!!

May 28, 2006

This year's Indy 500 will go down as one of the all-time classics as Sam Hornish, Jr. passed rookie sensation Marco Andretti with less than 100 yards to go on the final lap in what was the second closest finish in Indy 500 history. And we were there to see it all. There is no way to really capture what going to an Indy 500 is like without experiencing it. Over 350,000 spectators jam the speedway each year for what truly is "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing". We got an early start so we could wander around the place and truly take in the total atmosphere. It was an awesome experience despite the incredible 90+ degree heat. The hottest day in Indy 500 history. At least there was no rain. We had decent seats coming out of the 4th turn where we were able to see a couple of wrecks, some great passing and the final duel to the checkered flag. The tradition and build-up to the start of the race is truly an amazing thing and when the 33 cars thunder down for the start, well there is nothing like it in sports. We were fortunate right away because one of the guys we had in the betting Calcutta (PJ Chesson) crashed out and finished in last place, meaning Jimmy & I won a small chunk of change.





The race featured a ton of exciting action. Dan Wheldon lead much of the time, but when it came down to the end it was a duel between Hornish, Michael & Marco Andretti (father & son). With 4 laps to go Michael held the lead, with Marco second and Hornish third. Marco quickly passed his father, as did Hornish, setting up the final charge to the finish. We were pulling for Marco, mostly because my good friend Jason Richardson works on his crew. Sadly he was passed at the line, but all in all it was a remarkable finish for a 19 year old rookie.

Marco Andretti

Jason Richardson

Danica Patrick

Ashley Judd- wife of driver Dario Franchitti

Crawfish Heaven

May 27, 2006



The night before the Indy 500 finds the city awash in a party atmosphere. We were fortunate enough to be invited to an awesome annual crawfish boil shindig hosted by our friends, Rebecca & Rick Henss. They fly in about 100 lbs. of live crawfish from New Orleans and have a great party complete with delicious beer from two of Indy's finest brew-pubs, Brugge Brasserie and the Broad Ripple Brew Pub. We took Kathy's father Jimmy and my mother Marta and just had a fantastic time with many of our Indy friends.


Rick & Rebecca Henss



Kevin & Adrienne Mattalucci.





The day which began with a tour of downtown Indianpolis and a trip to the Indiana State Museum, ended with a quick trip to the airport to pick up Kathy's brother Chris before returning to the party.

Indy's Best newstand & sandwiches- Northside News, 5408 N. College