With Jojo’s gone in Evansville, I had few breakfast choices, so I headed to the First Avenue Diner. a former Steak N Egg Kitchen that had decent breakfast, and then I rode around to the FYE at the mall, where the manager let me put up posters. From there, I headed out of town along I-64, having trouble finding any gas stations along the way. I ended up having to pay $2.90 for regular at a general store in Sulphur, and then I headed north along Highway 137.
At English, Indiana, I was intrigued by the blocks of city streets with sidewalks that were completely bare and devoid of any buildings at all, and I wondered what kind of disaster had struck the little town. The downtown was old and largely abandoned, and the only buildings and signs of life I had seen were on the high hills at the southern edge of town. I later learned that a flood in the 1980s had damaged much of the town, and the decision was made to relocate the town to the hills to the south, and abandon the original townsite.
In Bedford, I stopped at a Karma Music store there, and soon I came into Bloomington, where I rushed over to the Ars Nova antiquarian sheet music store. I bought a few pieces of sheet music there, and then I stopped by Tracks Music to drop off posters and promos. After a latte at Soma Coffeehouse down the block, I drove over to Landlocked Music, and then continued on toward Indianapolis.
When I got into Marion County, I drove over on Southport Road to a shopping area where there was a restaurant called Cheeseburger in Paradise, owned by Jimmy Buffett. Although the weather was hot, the restaurant was having a bikers rally, and everybody was sitting outside on the patio. I thought there would be quite a wait, but I managed to get right in, and had a delicious hamburger for dinner before heading around I-465 to Rick’s Boat Yard to catch the jazz trio there. There, in the lakefront setting, people were sitting out on the deck, watching the sun go down over the reservoir, but the recession had taken its toll there as well, with the trio reduced to a guitar and bass duo, and my drummer friend Lawrence gone. From there, I drove to my hotel, the University Place hotel on the campus of Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, known as IUPUI. Although I had to pay for parking, the setting was close to downtown, yet quieter, and the room was quite luxurious. (June 22, 2009)