Baseball Trip – August 17 - Zanesville to Terre Haute

Day Two of Baseball Trip 2010 was also a travel day as we drove across I-70 through Ohio and Indiana where we camped Tuesday night in Terre Haute, IN.

We left Joni’s house mid-morning and made a brief stopover in Columbus to see Ohio Stadium. For some reason, I never realized that the Shoe and the OSU campus were in such an urban setting (guess I assumed that all the large land grant institutions of the Big Ten were located in pastoral campuses with huge open areas for tailgating). Somehow OSU (sorry tOSU) seems to recruit OK with such a campus located in an urban area. Would be interesting to see how 102,000 get in and out of that location on Fall Saturdays. The stadium itself is pretty impressive architecturally (at least from the external view). They have still preserved the horseshoe configuration – the permanent seating in the one endzone added earlier in the decade is not attached to the rest of the structure.

Once we got into Indiana, we were plagued again (twice) by the flapping trim. While, as a team, we were becoming more efficient at reinserting the trim into the channel, Rich decided that a more permanent solution was required and acquired a roll of duct tape at the gas station we stopped at after the trim became dislodged for the third time.

“Magnetism is one of the Six Fundamental Forces of the Universe, with the other five being Gravity, Duct Tape, Whining, Remote Control, and The Force That Pulls Dogs Toward The Groins Of Strangers.” – Dave Barry

Rich applied the duct tape liberally at three spots along the trim and that was the last time we had to concern ourselves with the flapping trim on this trip. Function over form.

As one would expect, the trip across Indiana on I-70 was pretty non-controversial – miles of corn and soy bean fields until we got to the exurbs of Indianapolis. As Steve remarked, the engineers that worked on this stretch of I-70 didn’t really have to deal with lots of challenges. Miles after mile of straight level roadway with farms on the left and farms on the right.

Lots of time to think about the storied basketball history that the state possesses. If you are a basketball fan, then many of the small towns that we passed are relevant. I think that a week long road trip in maybe late February or early March would be a great way to take in the state. This would coincide with the state high school basketball playoffs and also permit one to take in NCAA games at Purdue and IU and maybe a Pacer’s game at the Conseco Field House. We passed New Castle, IN where the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame is located.  Indiana has 9 of the 11 largest high school gymnasiums in the country – the New Castle Fieldhouse seats over 9300 – think about that for a minute. I am thinking that I could fit in OK in this state.

It was good weather and we pulled into Terre Haute in late afternoon. Terre Haute is down in the southwest corner of Indiana, near the Illinois border. I really only had two frames of reference for Terre Haute:

• I used to be a member of the Columbia Record and Tape Club and their monthly “Selection of the Month” cards would always need to be returned to Terre Haute (on time or, unfortunately, you would get the selection shipped to you).
• Larry Legend played at Indiana State in Terre Haute.

We pulled into the KOA Campground after a stop at the nearby grocery store. Some background for  RV and camping virgins like me: KOA is a chain of over 500 campgrounds in the US and Canada. The value of a chain or a franchise is the uniformity. The three KOAs we stayed at were all clean and well-kept with shower facilities. When you rent a spot at the campground (seems like $35-$45 is the going rate) you are allocated a location where you can pull your RV in and then hook it up to electrical and water service. A couple of the sites we stayed at also featured cable and wireless internet. The KOAs also have laundry facilities (coin operated) and a General Store on the premises. The ones we stayed at also had in-ground pools. I see the term “pull-thru” used quite a bit in the parlance of RVs. I need this confirmed, but I  think that this is a good attribute in an RV campground. It means that you can pull into the campground, park your vehicle, and then exit the campground without having to back up. Backing up one of those bad boys, at least to someone like me who has never driven anything bigger than a Honda Accord, would be a bitch.

Here is a Flickr sideshow of some shots taken at the KOA Kampground in Terre Haute IN on the late afternoon of August 17. Duke and Shane Battier fans will get a kick out of the Hoosier Daddy photo – I just had to capture that image for Chris.

You will notice in a couple of those shots that the awning is successfully deployed. Apparently, that had been an ongoing challenge during the other tailgating trips that Rich and Lora have taken over the last couple of years. I recall some issues last year at the Duke-MD game when they came down to Carolina, but Steve’s girlfriend Deena came to the rescue then. Well this time, Deena was 600 miles away so Steve had the radical idea to actually read the directions. Well, duh! So Steve and Rich got that whole deal figured out with the awning and we were able to enjoy a couple of those Sam Adams and New Castle Brown Ales that I brought along. I also helped Rich get the cable hooked up successfully.

Rich (way) overachieved with a great dinner of rigatonis and salad - I thought we were going to be roughen it on this trip – and  I again ate way more than I should have.