Speeding into Indianopolis

Ok, so maybe we didn’t speed into this city, but the Indy 500 has speeding cars, so some cars actually were speeding! We did pick up our car, a Ford Fusion, and are now experiencing a little independence. However, when public transportation is as dependable and reliable as it was in Denver and Chicago, it’s really the better way to go. It seems like in Fresno, riding the bus seems to carry a little bit of a stigma, but in those cities, all kinds of people from every walk of life utilize the various forms of public transportation.

The drive was nice, but constantly interrupted by tollbooths. It seemed every 15 minutes or at every change of freeway (they called these stretches tollways in Illinois) we needed to pay the 70 cents, 80 cents or $1.00. As soon as we crossed into Indiana, the toll booths stopped. It could just have been that we didn’t drive on any more of them, but we’ll see, as we’re heading out of Indiana today.

Before we left Illinois, we stopped off at Wheaton College to see the campus, and mainly, the Billy Graham Museum. Russ and I agreed, this stop was the highlight of our trip so far. In the museum were displays of Evangelism in America from the 1500’s to present. This website tells you more about it: http://www.billygrahamcenter.com/museum/perm_exhibit.htm Names like Dwight Moody, and Billy Sunday were familiar to me, but it was also very interesting to see how Billy Graham got started and how his ministry grew. I was so touched by the pictures and testimonies of those whose life was changed when they responded to the gospel message. There were film clips and movie clips and even now, the words he spoke were so powerful. They reflect the heart of God. In the last part of the self guided tour, we found ourselves standing in the “heaven room”.
At the same campus grounds was a building called the Marion Wade Center dedicated to some great Christian authors. I only recognized J.R.R.Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. We saw the wardrobe from the book/movie, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, a favorite of ours. Also on display were the desks on which these two authors wrote their books

Chris is willing to write the rest of this blog entry, so he’ll take it from here.

When we got into Indiana, we stopped at a diner we saw on a food network show called “Diners, Drive – In’s and Dives” called the Triple XXX Diner. The Triple X started off selling root beer, but now they make ground steak burgers (They refuse to call them hamburgers) also. We split a Duane Purvis burger, with cheese, onions, lettuce, and…… peanut butter. Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it! My dad says it’s oddly delicious. We all thought so too. Other burgers we got included the Barney burger, with lots of grilled onions, the steak burger, an average hamburger, and a deluxe bacon cheeseburger. Even though the toppings were great, we all agreed that the steak the patties were made of - made the burger. Well, I hope to write again soon!