"Back Home Again in Indiana" Jason's trip to Batesville, September 2003
Put your seatbacks and tray tables in the upright and locked position-
'Cause we're goin' on a trip!
The ground crew sends us off-
Past Chicago
-And down 74 to Batesville, Indiana!
To see Grandpa-
And Grandma-
In their Batesville home!
Welcome to the Smith residence!
Grandma and Grandpa take me on a driving tour of Batesville (and points nearby.)
(Grandpa let me sit up front so I could take pictures.)
We start out down Mulberry Street...
Through the local neighborhoods...
And end up at Grandpa's Church! It was built in the 1850's...
And the steeple and front were added in 1902.
There was an accident up at the light, but luckily they were pretty close to...
The hospital!
All the flags were at half staff in memory of Indiana's recently departed Governor, Frank O'Bannon.
We headed into town to see what we could see.
There's the Sherman House, the 100 Year Old restaraunt and inn.
The factory nearby.
There's the water tower.
Grandpa used to work here, back in the day...
And there's Batesville Casket Company, one of the largest casket makers in the world!
We headed out to the edge of town to check out the newest addition...
A massive new KROGER grocery store.
Seems nobody likes the idea of this megastore coming to Batesville. Opening soon.
We headed over to Oldenberg where they were working on one of the churches.
Oldenburg is known as the "Village of Spires" because of it's churches and religious institutions.
... And also because of there are three big spires in the middle of town.
Here is where the sisters from the convent are buried.
And the ever-popular Oldenburg Garage.
Grandma treated us to an Arby's lunch. Man, I love Arby's.
Here's a few beautiful houses from their neighborhood.
All the high school football players had signs like this in their yards.
Batesville is very warm and welcome.
Nobody is welcome in the rear entrance of the post office, though.
Here's the Catholic Church you can see from their door.
By day...
And by night...
And the Gibson Theater, where my Dad watched movies as a kid.
I saw "Monster's Inc." there with my Uncle Tim and his family.
The tiled sidewalk entrance.
And here it is at night!
They were kind enough to flip on the lights for me to take these pictures.
Check out the cool neon. And it might look old, but the inside is thoroughly modern.
It's a beautiful theater with really awesome sound.
Back home, everybody settled in to watch some TV.
Grandma read the paper.
Grandpa held the remote. We watched "Monk" with Tony Shalhoub.
Uncle Rick came home from the High School football game and reported that Batesville had gotten the tar beat out of them.
32-0. Sheesh.
The next day I got a surprise visit.
My Uncle Marty came by to see if I wanted to ride in his HELICOPTER!
He checked it out thoroughly before takeoff.
The pre-flight checklist was a page long, and then we were in the air.
IT WAS SO COOL!
We flew over to his land and spied on the neighbors. He'd heard sawing lately, so we made sure they weren't cutting on his land.
They weren't. Crisis averted.
They have nine cows. (Four pictured here.)
I'd never been on a helicopter before. It was REALLY COOL.
Coming in for a landing at the homestead!
That concrete block is the landing pad. Look and the front porch and you'll see my Aunt Connie and my cousin Kate!
There's the barn where they keep the horses. One was scheduled to race at the track later that week.
My Cousin Kate!
Aunt Connie hopped in and they flew around for a few minutes.
Happy family! Aunt Connie, Uncle Marty, Cousin Kate, and her stuffed horse.
After lunch we flew back to town.
How cool is that? We FLEW BACK TO TOWN!
Batesville from above. Note the Batesville water tower from way earlier in the top left corner.
On pass one, Grandma came out to wave.
Grandpa came out for pass number two.
Marty landed the "Mr. H" on that little trailer and pushed it back into the hangar. THANKS FOR THE RIDE!
Thanks everybody for a fun trip to Batesville!