People from Indiana

[docellis]

Holy crap. they made a movie about that. What a weird place Indiana is. you don't know this, valpo, but we have had a few really odd Indiana members.

[StL Dan]

A few years ago, my wife and I drove to Portage, IN from KC. We took the I-35 to I-80 route through south Chicago through Gary and on to Portage. The trip was enjoyable because I love traveling - but what I saw once we got to Portage very interesting. The Sand Dune area was awesome, even though we were just a mile or two from waters that were probably extremely filthy from Gary production runoff.

Then, I started to realize we were in Valparaiso/South Bend territory. The whole scene of Rudy working at the steel mill with his dad and brother came to mind. That was the vibe in that area of Indiana. Kind of gritty and tough. Not how I always had pictured Indiana.

[Valpo Cardinal Fan]

Actually Rudy worked in a steel mill in Joliet, IL where he lived but they are very much like the steel mills in Hammond, East Chicago, Gary, Portage and Burns Harbor

In truth the best of the Lake Michigan lakeshore in Indiana is between Chesterton (Indiana Dunes State Park) and Michigan City which is National lakeshore and not in the hands of the state government.

[StL Dan]

Actually Rudy worked in a steel mill in Joliet, IL where he lived but they are very much like the steel mills in Hammond, East Chicago, Gary, Portage and Burns Harbor

In truth the best of the Lake Michigan lakeshore in Indiana is between Chesterton (Indiana Dunes State Park) and Michigan City which is National lakeshore and not in the hands of the state government.

I was impressed with the Dunes State Park. Beautiful area. Seemed like a hidden gem that only locals would know about.

[Valpo Cardinal Fan]

Actually Rudy worked in a steel mill in Joliet, IL where he lived but they are very much like the steel mills in Hammond, East Chicago, Gary, Portage and Burns Harbor

In truth the best of the Lake Michigan lakeshore in Indiana is between Chesterton (Indiana Dunes State Park) and Michigan City which is National lakeshore and not in the hands of the state government.

I was impressed with the Dunes State Park. Beautiful area. Seemed like a hidden gem that only locals would know about.

I forgot to mention that the National Lakeshore is free and the Dunes State Park charges admission.

[StL Dan]

Actually Rudy worked in a steel mill in Joliet, IL where he lived but they are very much like the steel mills in Hammond, East Chicago, Gary, Portage and Burns Harbor

In truth the best of the Lake Michigan lakeshore in Indiana is between Chesterton (Indiana Dunes State Park) and Michigan City which is National lakeshore and not in the hands of the state government.

I was impressed with the Dunes State Park. Beautiful area. Seemed like a hidden gem that only locals would know about.

I forgot to mention that the National Lakeshore is free and the Dunes State Park charges admission.

So, we were obviously at the National Lakeshore. Still, a beautiful area.

[cardsfansince82]

I've spent about six hours of my life in Indiana. Long enough to get a crappy meal and a speeding ticket from a high po driving a completely unmarked Mustang. Screw that state.

[lukethedrifter]

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[sighyoung]

My mother was born in Princeton, Indiana, but raised in rural Illinois. But a fair number of her relatives still live near Lyles Station, where many of them farmed after the Civil War.

I always associate Indiana with her--a tough descendant of farmers and survivors of the Great Depression.

[pioneer98]

I've been to Fort Wayne for work a few dozen times. Haven't been in a while. I recommend a restaurant there called "Cork and Cleaver". Very good food. It was always the highlight of the trip.

Fort Wayne is also home to the Komets, a minor league hockey team. QC was in their league on a couple different occasions. At the end of the first go-round, the league was going to fold, so remaining teams were looking for a different league. A merger with the ECHL was negotiated by some of the teams, but the Komets' owners decided to start their own league instead. The Komets are a powerhouse that draw 7,000 to 8,000 fans per game. The league they started was made up of 6 teams - themselves plus 5 teams that drew about 2,000 fans/game. You'll never guess who won the championship each year the league existed. Its one of the strangest things I've ever seen in minor league sports that at least pretend to be legit.

Rather than join that "league", QC and Rockford went to the AHL and one team went to the ECHL. One team decided they'd rather not have a team at all rather than play in that league, and folded. QC only had AHL for 2 years (amazing), was in the Komets' rinky-dink league for 1 year (terrible), and are now in the CHL (pretty decent). But FW could have saved everyone literally years of trouble if they had just allowed the league merge with the ECHL as proposed, which is the league the Komets are now in. They decided it was OK at a later date, I guess.