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Spring Cruise Weekend Choices


roadmaven
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So we can get a better idea of the weekends that do and don't work for everyone for the Madonna 2 Madonna National Road Cruise, please use the format below in your reply if you would want to join the cruise. Just copy the dates below and change your answers to "good" for a weekend you can do it, or "bad" for a weekend that conflicts with your schedule. The cruise will convene at the Old National Road Welcome Center in Richmond, IN at 10am ET on whichever Saturday we go with. I'll be looking at motels in the Terre Haute area for the Saturday night stop, as well as a Saturday lunch stop. Too bad The Diner in Plainfield had to close!

 

Weekend of:

March 29: Good

April 5: Good

April 12: Good

April 19: Bad, but could change

April 26: Good

May 3: Bad

May 10: Good

May 17: Bad, but could change

 

In the next week or so I'll be making a run of the route to find some places to stop, sleep, and eat. Denny gave me a suggestion over the weekend for a Friday night motel at The Golden Inn just east of Richmond in New Paris, OH. Their rates through March show rooms starting at $45. And since they get the Denny Gibson "Golden" Seal of Approval, that's good enough for me!

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March 29: Bad

April 5: Could probably make it work

April 12: Bad

April 19: Good

April 26: Bad

May 3: Good

May 10: Bad

May 17: Good

 

The Woodridge Motel is an old-timer along US 40 on Terre Haute's east side. Not sure what kind of shape it's in today, though. Otherwise, there are a couple iffy motels on 3rd St. (US 41) south of US 40, and a bunch of the usual chains at I-70 and US 41 on the south side. Most of the dining is on South US 41 near I-70, but it's chain city. The Crossroads Cafe, right downtown at the intersection of old US 40 and old US 41, was really good when I lived there back in the early 90s. From there we could walk a block south and see the marvelous old Indiana Theater, which is on current eastbound US 40.

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I sent Bucfan an e-mail regarding the Woodridge. I hope I'm not shifting the tide too bad, but I'm wondering if we might do better to swap our starting points. Reason being, one of the stops I wanted to make was at the Clabber Girl Museum and Bake Shop in Terre Haute, but alas, they close at 3pm on Saturdays and are CLOSED on Sunday. :( I'm sure we'd be there in good time on Saturday, as we could start the journey earlier on Saturday morning from Vandalia. Perhaps an overnight in Indianapolis? I'm pretty sure I know of a place in Indy where I could get a bed for the night. ;)

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Weekend of:

March 29: Good

April 5: Good

April 12: Good

April 19: Bad

April 26: Good

May 3: Good

May 10: Bad (Mother's Day on Sunday!)

May 17: Good

 

Also, there is a free site that my friend uses that is really good for setting up this type of meeting: Meet-O-Matic He recommends it because it compiles the data nicely for you.

 

I don't care which direction we travel as long as Sunday morning I don't have to travel too far from Indianapolis to join everyone.

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I have submitted to Meet-O-Matic. The only weekend that is definitely out for me right now is the weekend of April 26. However, my 10-year-old plays soccer on Sundays in April and May, and that could mean that we only join you for part of the cruise. But I'll have to wait and see the soccer schedule.

 

I will stop by the Woodridge and take a look and report back to you what I find. If you stay there, I would recommend stopping for dinner at Kleptz's Restaurant in Seelyville, a few miles east of the motel. I haven't eaten there, but I've never heard a bad word about the place. And the owner is a car collector, as well.

 

Let me make another suggestion, as well. It's a little more pricey, but Terre Haute has a new Hilton Garden Inn on the site of the former Terre Haute House, at the old junction of U.S. 40 and U.S. 41, the historical "Crossroads of America." Within walking distance are a handful of locally owned restaurants/watering holes -- the Saratoga (restaurant/bar), Crossroads Cafe/La Familia Di Jeshua (homemade pizza, calzones, etc.), the Copper Bar (housed in a historic building; the bar is from the old Terre Haute House), and The Terminal (sports bar, food's iffy, but housed in the historic former bus terminal), and of course, the world famous Square Donuts (for breakfast the next day).

 

Shameless plug warning!!!

 

You can read a little bit more about most of those places here.

 

End shameless plug

 

Also, you might consider stopping for a root beer float at Lynn's Soda Fountain in downtown Brazil on your way through. Owned by a pharmacist and sitting right next door to the pharmacy, it includes a nice display of old medical/pharmaceutical items.

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I sent Bucfan an e-mail regarding the Woodridge. I hope I'm not shifting the tide too bad, but I'm wondering if we might do better to swap our starting points. Reason being, one of the stops I wanted to make was at the Clabber Girl Museum and Bake Shop in Terre Haute, but alas, they close at 3pm on Saturdays and are CLOSED on Sunday. :( I'm sure we'd be there in good time on Saturday, as we could start the journey earlier on Saturday morning from Vandalia. Perhaps an overnight in Indianapolis? I'm pretty sure I know of a place in Indy where I could get a bed for the night. ;)

 

 

 

Count us in for either direction and whatever date is decided. Looking forward to doing some more cruisin' soon. Good weather would be a plus. Can you control that?......Bliss

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  • 4 weeks later...
So we can get a better idea of the weekends that do and don't work for everyone for the Madonna 2 Madonna National Road Cruise, please use the format below in your reply if you would want to join the cruise. Just copy the dates below and change your answers to "good" for a weekend you can do it, or "bad" for a weekend that conflicts with your schedule. The cruise will convene at the Old National Road Welcome Center in Richmond, IN at 10am ET on whichever Saturday we go with. I'll be looking at motels in the Terre Haute area for the Saturday night stop, as well as a Saturday lunch stop. Too bad The Diner in Plainfield had to close!

 

 

Susan and I will be able to go just about any weekend except the last one in March. And either direction is groovy. There is one place I would like to visit, the Starr-Gennet Museum in Richmond, IN. Gennet Records was a well known label in the 20's and featured such artists as Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, from jazz; and country singers like Vernon Dalhart, Gene Autry and Uncle Dave Macon.

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Susan and I will be able to go just about any weekend except the last one in March. And either direction is groovy. There is one place I would like to visit, the Starr-Gennet Museum in Richmond, IN. Gennet Records was a well known label in the 20's and featured such artists as Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, from jazz; and country singers like Vernon Dalhart, Gene Autry and Uncle Dave Macon.
I don't believe there is a museum completely dedicated to Starr-Gennett but the Wayne County Museum does have a permanent exhibit. A tour of Starr-Gennet sites in Richmond is shown here. They're working on a "Walk of Fame" but it's unclear just how far it has progressed physically. Maybe I'll get a chance to take a look over the next few weeks. Much to my chagrin, I must admit to never having visited the old factory site with its fading parrot logo and I must correct that.

 

If you look through that tour document, you'll see that the Gennett theater was razed for a gas station. That was in 1935!! and the cottage style station still stands although it is now, I believe, a real estate office. I also believe, (can I trust my memory?) that the large mural of Gennett stars (including Bix Beiderbecke & Tommy Dorsey) is diagonally across the intersection from the station/office.

 

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I was holding my breath and crossing my fingers that my circumstances wouldn't change, but they are not always entirely under my control, and they have changed. I am now able to go along with you all only on Saturday the 17th, assuming that's the weekend we pick, and even then only if we do the route from Vandalia east so we wrap the day up in Indy. My kids will be with me and will come along for the ride. jim

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Hey all....Just wanted to give an update on things. Due to some unanticipated medical bills and my company's HIGH deductible health insurance, we're going to have to back out of the cruise for the immediate future. Unfortunately we have to cut back on leisure to pay for medical. Everything's fine, but testing costs out the you-know-what, and that coupled with the high deductible means no fun for us! Probably scaling back our 66 trip to Litchfield in June as well to just one day.

 

If you all still want to cruise, by all means do so! There are still plenty of you able to go the weekend of May 17th, so I highly encourage you to hit the road that weekend. B)

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Sure sorry to hear that, Pat, but certainly understand and agree with your priorities. I guess it's time to add my name to the "Yes, I can't go" list. I learned a couple of weeks ago that I'll be allowed to hitch a ride on this year's Washington County, Maryland, wagon train. The train is part of the annual National Pike Festival which takes place over the weekend of the 17th.

 

I'll certainly do what I can to help organize a trip for that weekend and I'm sure the Bremers will, too, but, in light of Pat's news and mobilene's need to cut back to a single day, I wonder if a reevaluation of dates is in order. Pat, which weekend was runner-up over at Meet-O-Matic?

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Sure sorry to hear that, Pat, but certainly understand and agree with your priorities. I guess it's time to add my name to the "Yes, I can't go" list. I learned a couple of weeks ago that I'll be allowed to hitch a ride on this year's Washington County, Maryland, wagon train. The train is part of the annual National Pike Festival which takes place over the weekend of the 17th.

 

I'll certainly do what I can to help organize a trip for that weekend and I'm sure the Bremers will, too, but, in light of Pat's news and mobilene's need to cut back to a single day, I wonder if a reevaluation of dates is in order. Pat, which weekend was runner-up over at Meet-O-Matic?

 

 

 

The spring cruise can always become a fall cruise like last October's IN Cool Roads Cruise. We, too, understand Pat's priorities.....Bliss

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  • 2 weeks later...
...the Gennett theater was razed for a gas station. That was in 1935!! and the cottage style station still stands although it is now, I believe, a real estate office. I also believe, (can I trust my memory?) that the large mural of Gennett stars (including Bix Beiderbecke & Tommy Dorsey) is diagonally across the intersection from the station/office.

I was close but won no cigar. Who knew that Richmond has two cottage style ex-gas stations just a few blocks apart? I stopped by there yesterday and sorted out a few things.

 

The station that replaced the theater is on west bound US-40 and is indeed a real estate office. A photo is here. There is what I believe to be a former station across from the mural but it is an insurance office. It is on east bound US-40 which is two blocks south of west bound 40. The insurance "station" is a block east of the real estate "station" and pictured here.

 

I did get by the old factory and photograph the Gennett Parrot and was told, though not by any official, that the Walk of Fame does not yet exist.

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  • 3 weeks later...
So we can get a better idea of the weekends that do and don't work for everyone for the Madonna 2 Madonna National Road Cruise, please use the format below in your reply if you would want to join the cruise. Just copy the dates below and change your answers to "good" for a weekend you can do it, or "bad" for a weekend that conflicts with your schedule.

 

 

Has anything been decided for sure? Is the trip still on? Had the weekend or direction been set?

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Has anything been decided for sure? Is the trip still on? Had the weekend or direction been set?

 

Hey Bob, due to some changes in schedules and other issues, the cruise has been put on the back burner. Once it looks like it regains life, we'll let everyone know.

 

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Has anything been decided for sure? Is the trip still on? Had the weekend or direction been set?

Glad you asked. I've been thinking of some sort of post here but just hadn't got it together. I believe this is what has transpired:

 

The weekend of May 17-18 was selected and the intent was to run west to east with a stop at the Clabber Girl museum in Terre Haute. The Saturday night motel had not been selected. While the voting was taking place, another commitment came through for me that weekend and some unexpected expenses prompted the Bremers to curtail travel plans in general. With neither of us actively involved and other area residents probably held to only participating for one day, the thing lost steam. I think the last accounting had you & Susan plus Bliss & Mary Sue ready for any weekend and mobilene & Chris in for one day each.

 

Well, I still can't do the 17th but could probably do another weekend in May. I believe the 10th & 11th is out because of Mother's Day and the 24th & 25th are part of Memorial Day weekend. The 3rd & 4th may be too close and apparently wasn't popular anyway but that or the 31st & 1st is all that would work for me. If you and Bliss and maybe at least another car (Chris, mobilene, Bucfan, RoadDog, mmarkley, Kip?) or so want to do one of those weekends, I'll try to do some coordination. If not, maybe as Bliss suggested, we can do it in the fall.

 

P.S., I see that Pat posted while I was thinking about it. Maybe just letting this simmer until more interest builds is the better idea.

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If you and Bliss and maybe at least another car (Chris, mobilene, Bucfan, RoadDog, mmarkley, Kip?) or so want to do one of those weekends, I'll try to do some coordination. If not, maybe as Bliss suggested, we can do it in the fall.

We're headed down to Georgia the next weekend, so our urge to travel will have some kind of outlet. We don't mind delaying the trip until a time when more can participate.

 

Chris

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Well, I still can't do the 17th but could probably do another weekend in May. I believe the 10th & 11th is out because of Mother's Day and the 24th & 25th are part of Memorial Day weekend. The 3rd & 4th may be too close and apparently wasn't popular anyway but that or the 31st & 1st is all that would work for me. If you and Bliss and maybe at least another car (Chris, mobilene, Bucfan, RoadDog, mmarkley, Kip?) or so want to do one of those weekends, I'll try to do some coordination. If not, maybe as Bliss suggested, we can do it in the fall.

 

P.S., I see that Pat posted while I was thinking about it. Maybe just letting this simmer until more interest builds is the better idea.

 

 

At this point, I think a fall cruise would work out better for us. We can go nearly any weekend in October, as September is really busy for us; 2 family birthdays, MO 66 motor tour, Springfield 66 Festival, etc.....Bliss

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Glad you asked. I've been thinking of some sort of post here but just hadn't got it together. I believe this is what has transpired:

 

The weekend of May 17-18 was selected and the intent was to run west to east with a stop at the Clabber Girl museum in Terre Haute. The Saturday night motel had not been selected. While the voting was taking place, another commitment came through for me that weekend and some unexpected expenses prompted the Bremers to curtail travel plans in general. With neither of us actively involved and other area residents probably held to only participating for one day, the thing lost steam. I think the last accounting had you & Susan plus Bliss & Mary Sue ready for any weekend and mobilene & Chris in for one day each.

 

Well, I still can't do the 17th but could probably do another weekend in May. I believe the 10th & 11th is out because of Mother's Day and the 24th & 25th are part of Memorial Day weekend. The 3rd & 4th may be too close and apparently wasn't popular anyway but that or the 31st & 1st is all that would work for me. If you and Bliss and maybe at least another car (Chris, mobilene, Bucfan, RoadDog, mmarkley, Kip?) or so want to do one of those weekends, I'll try to do some coordination. If not, maybe as Bliss suggested, we can do it in the fall.

 

P.S., I see that Pat posted while I was thinking about it. Maybe just letting this simmer until more interest builds is the better idea.

 

Perhaps it would be better to put this off until fall. I'll need a little time beforehand to arrange taking a couple of days of vacation. But it's a big gamble. God only knows what gas prices will be like come October:( All opinions welcome.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Perhaps it would be better to put this off until fall. I'll need a little time beforehand to arrange taking a couple of days of vacation. But it's a big gamble. God only knows what gas prices will be like come October:( All opinions welcome.

 

 

Since I've had no reply, I assume the trip is canceled until next fall.

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A fall curise would be nice - I might be able to make that one. Of course, gas prices will probably be $6 (or higher) a gallon (unless the pending election brings them down), but who knows.

 

Right now, I'm saving pennies (nickles, diimes and quarters) for a trip to my Hudson car club National meet in Massachusetts in July - and not sure if gas prices are going to let me do that.

 

We shall see what we shall see - I would like to make one of these road rambles sometime. If only for having the pleasure of putting some faces to names I find here on the forum.

 

Safe travels.

 

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

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and not sure if gas prices are going to let me do that.

 

Like nearly everyone else, we're concerned about the extra $$ going into the tank but, darn it, we've worked, saved, planned, etc. for retirement and if cruisin' our old Vette or supercharged Monte costs 3 or 4 times as much as it used to for fuel - so be it. We buy all fuel with credit cards so there's no out-of-pocket cost for it on the road (positive cash flow), then when the bill arrives a few weeks later, I just bite the bullet and pay it in full while remembering the good times we had while on the road.

 

We do try to compensate for the higher fuel cost, though, by eating 2 meals per day rather than 3. Brunch and dinner work best for us and neither will be consumed at any place that's pricey. Small town cafes and diners are great and we have no problem with pulling into Mickey D's now and then. Beverage cost per gallon (no, we don't actually buy it by the gallon) at saloons is really outrageous so a cooler filled with the stuff from home is much cheaper after we've landed for the day - - and it's just as cold and refreshing. All we miss with this system is the local conversation.

 

If we can locate a decent mom 'n pop motel we'll stay there - after inspecting a room first. If we can't find one, then we'll look for a lower-priced chain like Super 8, Comfort Inn, Days Inn, etc. A Continental breakfast bar is a plus.

 

Otherwise, it's just cruisin' as usual and enjoying every mile. Happy Motoring....Bliss

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