I made a whirlwind trip to Muncie, Indiana last week. Flew Delta to Indianapolis on Tuesday…a good flight, by the way. I remember when "Delta Airlines" was an automatic punchline in Johnny Carson monologues. It was just kind of accepted by all that they were an airline the way ketchup was a vegetable. The company sure did a good job rebuilding its reputation. Maybe there's hope for John Edwards.
As usual, Hertz decided to give me a much-larger rental vehicle than I'd requested. The last time I was in Indiana, they somehow thought I'd come to move pianos. This time, they thought I was going to be going around, taking children to and from school. Oh, they called it a Dodge Caravan but I know a bus when I see one. The Hertz guy said it was all they had that wasn't a sub-compact or whatever they call the tiniest, Hot Wheels-sized autos they carry. If I didn't want the bus, I could wait for something else but when I asked how long that wait might be, he had no idea. Could have been ten minutes. Could have been ten days. If he had a better estimate than that, he wasn't about to share it with me.
I took the bus and didn't like driving it. Actually, I didn't feel like I was driving it. I felt like it was driving me. I spent the night in Indianapolis then drove to Muncie the next day, stopping off en route for lunch with a friend I haven't seen in way too long.
A couple thoughts kept coming at me throughout this trip. One is the takeover of chains wherever you go these days. A few years back when Carolyn and I motored from Columbus, Ohio to Muncie, we had our hearts set on finding a rustic Mom-'n'-Pop restaurant for lunch. All we saw, at least from the I-70 was chains: Arby's, Denny's, Burger King, Bob Evans, KFC, Arby's, Denny's, Bob Evans, KFC, McDonald's, Subway, Subway, Subway, Burger King, Arby's, Denny's, Bob Evans, KFC, McDonald's, Arby's, Denny's, another Subway, Burger King, Applebee's, Bob Evans, KFC, etc. Here and there, a Five Guys or a Waffle House. "The chains," I deduced, have a lock on all the freeway locations and signs. If we want to find a non-chain place to dine, we're going to have to get off the 70 and drive a mile or two in some direction."
So we did that and we saw Arby's, Denny's, Bob Evans, KFC, McDonald's, Arby's, Denny's, Bob Evans, KFC, McDonald's, et al. No restaurants that there were only one of.
We stopped at a CVS Pharmacy just east of the Indiana/Ohio divide to get some supplies…and I must say how comforting it is in some states to know that no matter what ailment befalls you, you are never more than ten steps from a CVS Pharmacy. In Virginia a few years back, we came out of a CVS Pharmacy and standing in its parking lot, I swear, I could see three other CVS Pharmacies. At the one in Ohio, Carolyn asked a saleslady if she could recommend a great place to have lunch.
She said, "We all like the Bob Evans down by the freeway."
Carolyn explained that we didn't want a Bob Evans; that we wanted a non-chain restaurant. The woman didn't know of one. She consulted several other employees and none of them knew of one, either. (One said, "How about the Outback Steakhouse? There aren't many of them.") We ate at the Bob Evans.
It was like that on this trip, as I imagine it will be on all trips to certain states forever. I didn't eat at a Bob Evans this trip but I also didn't see many places to eat or shop that seemed to be independently founded.
So that was one of the things I thought about a lot on this trip. Another was how technology has changed the way we (or at least, I) travel. But I think I'll save that for a future posting, put this up and turn to some paying work. More later.