Before leaving Cincinnati this morning, we visited the same place as yesterday for breakfast, finding ourselves served by Robyn once again.  She remembered our orders from yesterday and snatching a moment to chat in between orders said “How fresh and prurdy you girls look today”.  We wholeheartedly recommend the Waffle House in Covington Kentucky!

 

 

The old Cincinnati Union Railroad Terminal had been on our list to visit, but the time ran away with us and we didn’t make it.  Still, we caught sight of it as we joined the highway north, towards our next stop in Fort Wayne.  We didn’t have anything in particular on our list to see, but someone had been looking at one of our favourite websites for such occasions and promised us a couple of surprises en route.

 

 

Another really dodgy photo as we entered Indiana – I’d miscounted previously and claim Indiana as my 37th state, though not until I’d set foot on the ground, of course.  Rules are Rules!

 

 

From rural Ohio, suddenly we were in the midst of strip mall territory and fast food restaurants by the dozen.

 

 

We stopped in Richmond, where the wall art was plentiful and rather interesting.  Perhaps this was our surprise?  Apparently not – we walked across the road and spotted…

 

 

A giant chair.  Yes, that was our first “sight” of the day.

 

 

Oh, and some more wall art!

 

 

We returned to the car to find someone had snaffled the last of the M&Ms, too.

 

 

But out in the countryside, on our way towards Fort Wayne, look what we spotted!

 

 

Now we’d got our eye in, we even spotted this one, way across on the other side of the field.

 

 

Sadly, this drive-in movie theatre had closed long ago.  I’d really love to go to a drive in movie and have seen few of them around, though we passed one in Springfield, OH which was still going – maybe one of these days I’ll make it to a showing!

 

 

We’d wondered if that was the other landmark, but actually, it turned out to be this sign above a bakery in Fort Wayne itself.  The slices of bread are continuously appearing from the package and yet, mysteriously, the pile of slices gets no bigger.  My Hero tells me that it’s all a trick and the slices are just a rotating wheel behind the board…

 

 

Hey, look what we spotted on the road just outside Fort Wayne!

 

 

We were on our way to Auburn, where the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum came highly recommended.

 

 

I knew nothing about these cars but soon learned that they were the equivalent of Rolls Royce and Bentley and oh my, no sooner had we stepped inside this Art Deco masterpiece than we were enthralled.  Each car had been presented beautifully and there they were, shining examples from an altogether more elegant age.

 

 

I mean, engraved window glass?  On a car?!

 

 

These cars were enormous, though, and I couldn’t help but imagine how on earth I’d manouevre such a beast.  But they were magnificent.  The style, the elegance was of a different age, for sure, but still, who couldn’t love them?

 

 

It was difficult photographing such shiny things though and trying hard not to get my reflection in the picture proved a challenge.  Can you tell I was wearing a bright green top?

 

 

The Art Deco showroom itself was pretty stylish, too.

 

 

The moustache insignia on this Auburn was cute, I thought.

 

 

But this alternative Auburn insignia is altogether more elegant, don’t you think?

 

 

How interesting, then, to discover that even then, in the 1930s and 40s, the Auburns and Duesenbergs were being marketed to women.  But actually, all three of us would have happily driven away a car from the museum: Mary rather fancied the style of the Auburn B52 Phaeton, Mark would have chosen the 1932 Duesenberg Convertible (which I’ve since discovered was previously owned by John Paul Getty…my Hero has taste!) and I’d have taken the 1935 4 seater Duesy away without hesitation.

 

 

In our dreams. 

We climbed back into our Dodge Grand Caravan and returned to reality and the Fort Wayne Hampton Inn under darkening skies.  We just made it to dinner in the dry, though heard one or two claps of thunder and torrential rain whilst in the restaurant.  By the time we came out, it was dry again but the humidity of the day was gone.

Another fun packed day, then.  They just keep coming…