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Do You Have a Pen: Indiana

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

I live in Indiana so this is the hardest state for me to talk about.  It’s funny that the closer the state is,  the less I know about it because it’s what I see daily and for me to chronicle my events that happened in Indiana would be nothing short of an autobiography that omitted family vacations and my job as a transport driver.  I will talk about some of the things the state has to offer that Impress or surprise me the most.  One of the fun Hoosier facts is that we are connected.  Though not many companies have access rights for distribution,  Indiana has fiber optic lines buried next to every state road and U.S.  highway in the state.  We are honestly almost as wired in as California,  but it’s underutilized.  Then Governor Mike Pence once called Indiana the  “Silicon Prairie.”  My father worked with a man who had a blind friend who lived in Ohio near the state lines.  The two would meet once a month and go to lunch.  Dad’s friend would drive and the blind friend would always know when they got to Indiana because of how bad the roads were.  Despite tax increases for repairs,  that fact has persisted for the last forty years that I am aware of.  Some independent report came out that we are top five road systems for comfort in the country and I call bullshit because I drive on these roads and they really are not good at all.  With all the driving I do,  I call them in the bottom ten percent of the country.

Dead center in Indiana is Indianapolis and I have a love-hate relationship with that city.  Driving through or around it during rush hour sucks,  but west is worse.  Interstate 465,  the beltway around the city is convenient,  but if you take it west,  there is an area of long-term road damage that will bounce about any vehicle out of their lane and it’s just damaged area after damaged area.  I caution everyone to add the extra miles and just go eastbound unless you absolutely have to go westbound on the road.  While in Indy,  please check out the beautiful skyline.  Indy is on my bucket list of places to spend a New Years Eve based on the skyline of the downtown.  Beyond the old and new mixes of architecture are the Scottish Rite Cathedral tours and our amazing State House.  While in Indy,  go eat at Shipero’s Deli.  As I write this and mention them,  I am drooling just thinking about their pastrami and Swiss on rye.  You will pay for it and there are no bargains,  but the food is so good.  “Yummers”  is the best word I can use to describe their food.

I live in La Porte,  Indiana and next to me is Michigan City.  From Michigan City west to the Illinois state line is The Region,  an area of the state with its own independent feel.  Some refer to it as  “Chicago lite”  also,  but Michigan City has earned the moniker of  “Little Gary,”  referring to Gary,  Indiana,  a city of massive dilapidation where the entire city itself is almost pure blight.  A recent report called Gary  “the most miserable city in America.”  Other areas are better or worse,  but we are all along Lake Michigan.  The lake has served for the ups and downs of the area.  In Gary and Hammond,  the close proximity to Lake Michigan was the reason the steal mills were built,  but the area suffered massive job losses when the American steal industry reduced its output.  The rest of the lakefront focused largely on tourism and that market has worked,  though not great since tourism-based jobs don’t pay as well so there’s more people that stayed employed,  but lower paying jobs.  With that,  it’s a unique mix of rural and urban coexisting together.  It’s nothing to be stuck in a traffic jam caused by a semi truck,  a freight train,  and a tractor all on the same drive to work in the morning.  Michigan City hosts one of the largest outdoor outlet shopping malls in the country called Prime Outlets and there is Blue Chip Casino.  Blue Chip is the eastern most of five Indiana casinos along the shores of Lake Michigan.  Washington Park in Michigan City is and always has been a favorite spot of mine.  It has events throughout the summer and when there aren’t any events, there is plenty of space for a well-deserved beach day.  La Porte,  though it too has its own problems,  is a picturesque town with The Avenues,  a few streets off the main streets lined with 150 year old Victorian homes,  a growing historic downtown area,  and more than a handful of lakes through city limits.

Fort Wayne is a decent sized town and a lot cleaner than I expected when I was there last.  It’s normally off my beaten path.  If you’re up north near The Region,  there is also South Bend,  which is the home of Notre Dame and they are loose with their restrictions of walking around campus,  which I do sometimes when I need to clear my head.  It’s very peaceful and relaxing.  That’s what she was on campus and trying to clear her head and think about.  Lafayette and West Lafayette are in a beautiful area and West Lafayette is home of the main campus for Purdue University,  my favorite university,  though I am partial since my bachelors degree is from a satellite of Purdue in Hammond.  Southern Indiana actually gets beautiful with great hills and scenery,  proving that there is more than corn in Indiana. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

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