Saturday, March 15, 2008
Incredible Indiana (and Ohio…and Kentucky)
This was a quick trip—we left on Friday and returned on Sunday/Monday. However, we ended up in three different states and got ourselves a voucher for our next trip. I was assigned to attend the Indiana Regional Convention which was held in Madison, IN. Which is a neat little town located right on the Ohio River. It’s midway between Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH—so we had our choice of airports. 
We ended up flying into the Cincinnati airport—which is actually located in Kentucky! We drove to Madison, found the college and our hotel and checked in.
The college is a brand new building that they just moved into in January. It has a beautiful rotunda with lots of glass. The theatre even smelled very new. I guess a lot of their money to build new campuses (their sister college at Lawrenceburg has a brand new building also) comes from gambling money. Ohio has allowed gambling on boats in the Ohio River—and have cut the deal where a percentage of their profits goes to education.
The host chapter had developed the theme “Note the Music: Note the Power” based around the Power Honors Study Topic. Everything had music as a theme. The opening session was pretty impressive with American Legion members as a color guard and a group called ‘Men of Praise’ singing the National Anthem. The group later performed following the meal. They were wonderful and had a really fun pianist/leader who was so enthusiastic—you couldn’t help but smile, just watching her! Following the formal sessions, there was a fun musical jeopardy game show type event. Many of the chapters came in costume and had fancy shaking sticks. I would have loved to have stayed, but we had gotten up very early and were beat—so we left around 10 pm. I guess it went until midnight.!
Saturday was a long day, starting with an advisor’s breakfast meeting, several general sessions and breakouts, and ending with a formal awards banquet. The banquet was held at a really nice restaurant where they had a wonderful buffet that included chefs carving prime rib, ham, and roast beef. They even had a wonderful dessert bar with persimmon cobbler, bread pudding, chocolate torte, and ice cream. Most everyone was formally dressed—with lots of women in long gowns. They really did it up nice!
On Sunday, there was a meeting with the newly elected officers and then we hit the road. Our flight didn’t leave until 7 pm, so we took the scenic drive right along the Ohio River. This area was an important trade route in the early 1800, so many of the towns like Madison had an ‘old town’ area right near the river. The photo above shows the 'old town' section of Madison, which is right on the Ohio River.
Further down the Ohio, we stopped so we could walk along a levee in Lawrenceburg that had historical markers which told of all the major floods and rebuilding that was done in the 1800s and early 1900 until dams and levees were built to control the flooding. The photo of the entrance to the levee looks a little different than what we saw, because there is a big new building, which is the Ivy Tech college in Lawrenceburg that was build with gambling money.
We stopped and ate at a neat little pizzeria in a small town. I had a ciabatti sandwich which they said was ‘heart healthy’ because the bread is steamed and then baked. It was really good—crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. It was filled with ham and lots of veggies. We eventually drove through Cincinnati (hence into Ohio) and back to the airport in Kentucky.
When we were ready to fly to Int’l Falls, they were looking for people to give up their seats, so we volunteered—and this time it worked! We ended up staying at a Holiday Inn Select—were eating supper at 10 pm and then went to bed. The next morning—it was up early to catch a 9 am flight (which didn’t end up going until 11 am) and back home again.
Staying over that one extra day, made it a short time at home, since we are leaving again on Thursday….but that’s another story.
We ended up flying into the Cincinnati airport—which is actually located in Kentucky! We drove to Madison, found the college and our hotel and checked in.The college is a brand new building that they just moved into in January. It has a beautiful rotunda with lots of glass. The theatre even smelled very new. I guess a lot of their money to build new campuses (their sister college at Lawrenceburg has a brand new building also) comes from gambling money. Ohio has allowed gambling on boats in the Ohio River—and have cut the deal where a percentage of their profits goes to education.
The host chapter had developed the theme “Note the Music: Note the Power” based around the Power Honors Study Topic. Everything had music as a theme. The opening session was pretty impressive with American Legion members as a color guard and a group called ‘Men of Praise’ singing the National Anthem. The group later performed following the meal. They were wonderful and had a really fun pianist/leader who was so enthusiastic—you couldn’t help but smile, just watching her! Following the formal sessions, there was a fun musical jeopardy game show type event. Many of the chapters came in costume and had fancy shaking sticks. I would have loved to have stayed, but we had gotten up very early and were beat—so we left around 10 pm. I guess it went until midnight.!
Saturday was a long day, starting with an advisor’s breakfast meeting, several general sessions and breakouts, and ending with a formal awards banquet. The banquet was held at a really nice restaurant where they had a wonderful buffet that included chefs carving prime rib, ham, and roast beef. They even had a wonderful dessert bar with persimmon cobbler, bread pudding, chocolate torte, and ice cream. Most everyone was formally dressed—with lots of women in long gowns. They really did it up nice!
On Sunday, there was a meeting with the newly elected officers and then we hit the road. Our flight didn’t leave until 7 pm, so we took the scenic drive right along the Ohio River. This area was an important trade route in the early 1800, so many of the towns like Madison had an ‘old town’ area right near the river. The photo above shows the 'old town' section of Madison, which is right on the Ohio River.
Further down the Ohio, we stopped so we could walk along a levee in Lawrenceburg that had historical markers which told of all the major floods and rebuilding that was done in the 1800s and early 1900 until dams and levees were built to control the flooding. The photo of the entrance to the levee looks a little different than what we saw, because there is a big new building, which is the Ivy Tech college in Lawrenceburg that was build with gambling money.We stopped and ate at a neat little pizzeria in a small town. I had a ciabatti sandwich which they said was ‘heart healthy’ because the bread is steamed and then baked. It was really good—crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. It was filled with ham and lots of veggies. We eventually drove through Cincinnati (hence into Ohio) and back to the airport in Kentucky.
When we were ready to fly to Int’l Falls, they were looking for people to give up their seats, so we volunteered—and this time it worked! We ended up staying at a Holiday Inn Select—were eating supper at 10 pm and then went to bed. The next morning—it was up early to catch a 9 am flight (which didn’t end up going until 11 am) and back home again.
Staying over that one extra day, made it a short time at home, since we are leaving again on Thursday….but that’s another story.
# posted by bjm @ 7:04 PM 
