Trip to Indiana
- sarahwilk24
- Jul 8, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Jul 17
Touring Sarah's Childhood
2,789 pieces | Unbranded
Assembled by Mike Alfare, March 2025
Interaction Rating: 3 / 5 (interaction with the set is okay, but only with help from an adult)
July 8, 2024
In the summer of 2024, Sarah and Hunter packed up and took a week-long road trip to visit some of Sarah's beloved places from her childhood in Indiana, and so that Hunter could finally meet Sarah's dad, Trevin. On their first full day in her hometown of Anderson, Sarah took Hunter on a tour of where she grew up. They drove by the house on Madison Avenue where she grew up and the schools in Frankton she attended, with large stretches of rolling cornfields in between. They stopped by the Anderson Public Library, the place where Sarah discovered her love for reading. It was a sacred place as a child. As they were wandering through the children's section, Sarah spotted a dear friend, Shelby, whom Sarah went to school with and hadn't seen in over a decade. The look of shock on Shelby's face upon seeing Sarah standing in the library was an incredible "small world" moment, and Sarah was able to introduce Hunter to her. Afterward, they headed to Shady Side, the park with the most incredible labyrinth of playground equipment that Sarah adored as a child (which was being re-done when they visited). For dinner, Sarah's dad and his wife, Tracey, took them to Frisch's Big Boy Restaurant, a staple of Anderson where Sarah's parents and she grew up eating.
Conner Prairie
2,710 pieces | JIE STAR: 89148
Assembled by Mike Alfare, February 2025
Interaction Rating: 3 / 5 (interaction with the set is okay, but only with help from an adult)
July 9, 2024
The next day was Sarah's dad's birthday, which they celebrated that night with roast beef from Art's (a local delicacy) and some ice cream cake. During the day, Sarah and Hunter went to explore Conner Prairie, a living history museum where she had grown up taking field trips and even once saw a Beatles Symphony on the Prairie show. It features a recreation of a 19th-century village, complete with an inn, general store, doctor's home practice, tailor shop, blacksmith, carpenter, potter, and other town staples from circa 1836. They toured the William Conner House, one of the oldest brick homes in the state, watched some kids practice spinning wool into fibers, and met some goat friends in the farm barn. At the carpenter's shop, Sarah was able to get the living historian to break character and deliver some juicy gossip about the working conditions at Conner Prairie (which didn't sound all that different from the challenges Sarah had found in her nonprofit career). At the potter's shop, they watched female potters make pots on the wheel and asked questions about the role of women in Prairietown. They met the only Black matriarch in the neighborhood, who had described some discrimination she'd faced at the town doctor, whom they visited next. They vacated his office quickly upon being offered the option to be treated with leeches. In the gift shop, Hunter purchased a mug that the potter had made. They skipped the giant hot air balloon that offers a bird's-eye view of the 200-acre park due to Hunter's fear of heights.
Bob Ross Museum
314 pieces | Pix Brix: 25334
Assembled by Mike Alfare, March 2025
Interaction Rating: 2 / 5 (interaction with the set is discouraged unless an experienced builder is helping)
July 10, 2024
A trip to Indiana for the couple, who watched and loved Parks and Recreation together, wouldn't have been complete without visiting Gary/Larry/Terry Gergich's favorite place of all time: Muncie, Indiana. It's about a half-hour from where Sarah grew up, and was the location of a family computer store back in the early 2000s. What Sarah never knew about Muncie, however, was that Bob Ross filmed much of his famous TV show near the campus of Ball State (named for the Ball brothers who founded the Ball Jar Corporation). The building Ross used to film in has been turned into an exhibit that's part of the Minnestrista Museum, a sprawling place Sarah never recalls visiting as a child. They only had time to view a portion of the grounds as they tried to beat some stormy weather, and prioritized seeing the Bob Ross Experience. Neither grew up watching Bob Ross, but they were both familiar enough to find the preserved filming room, keepsakes from the show, and a collection of Ross's paintings that he created on air to be very charming. They also popped next door to the home of one of the Ball Jar brothers, where they asked the historian on site some uncomfortable questions about whether the Ball family was involved with the KKK (prompted by a book Sarah was reading about the history of the KKK in Indiana, which had strong throughlines in Muncie). As the storm blew in, they headed to Cammack Station, an incredible burger joint with a museum's worth of vintage signs and paraphernalia, along with a dedicated ice cream counter.
Indianapolis Canal
383 pieces | MOOXI: MOC4161
Assembled by Mike Alfare, June 2025
Interaction Rating: 4 / 5 (interaction with the set is encouraged, but use extra care)
July 11, 2024
Indianapolis is about an hour from where Sarah grew up, and it was the destination for the following day. They stopped first to take a pleasant stroll along the Indianapolis Canal, a site important to Sarah because it's where she celebrated her Sweet Sixteen with friends shortly before she moved to Virginia. The canal in Indianapolis has much more going on than the one in Richmond, as it borders numerous museums, apartment buildings, the zoo, and the Indianapolis Indians' baseball stadium, and is connected to White River State Park. On their walk, they enjoyed murals under each overpass (some that Sarah could even remember from a decade ago), watched swan boats paddle along, and enjoyed the company of families of ducks and geese, with many young ones exploring the canal and testing their parents' boundaries. Sarah had recently had surgery for skin cancer on her forehead and toe, so she carried an umbrella and tried to avoid the sun as best she could. It made for some very colorful photos.
Indianapolis Children's Museum
577 pieces | LEGO: 76964
Assembled by Mike Alfare, July 2025
Interaction Rating: 5 / 5 (interaction with the set is encouraged)
July 11, 2024
Their next stop in Indianapolis was the Children's Museum, which is one of the best children's museums in the country. Sarah was tickled to show Hunter many of the same play areas and exhibits she remembered as a child, including the Chihuly glass art display in the center of the grand stairwell and the working carousel that sits in the center of a child's dream with life-size playhouses, a hall of mirrors, and vintage video game consoles in every direction. They enjoyed seeing the genuine dinosaur fossils in the Dinosphere exhibit, something Sarah didn't fully appreciate until she was an adult and realized that not everyone has access to such an incredible children's museum during their formative years. Hunter was able to see the mastodon skeleton that was excavated in the backyard of one of Sarah's distant cousins in Greenfield. One of their favorite exhibits of the day was watching an educator dressed as a plumber try to explain the massive water clock's inner workings by comparing it to a toilet as it reached the noon hour and "flushed" all its water out to reset.
Nashville, Indiana
1,718 pieces | Funwhole: F9031
Assembled by Rachel Deese, March 2025
Interaction Rating: 3 / 5 (interaction with the set is okay, but only with help from an adult)
July 12, 2024
One of Sarah's favorite places to camp in Indiana is at Brown County State Park in southern Indiana. Although the couple didn't have the time or equipment to camp there, they did make it to Brown County for a visit. Southern Indiana is not like the flat corn fields of the northern part of the state, and has many more trees and rolling hills (making it feel a little like Virginia). They visited the quaint town of Nashville, Indiana, a place where it always feels like fall. Sarah remembers eating the best omelet of her life at a restaurant there when she was a child. The couple enjoyed browsing the shops, which ranged from general stores and country chic knick-knack shops to places where you could buy hand-poured candles, steampunk art, custom wood sculptures, vintage treasures, and garden gnomes. Sarah had to stop in the Fallen Leaves Bookstore, which smelled like the pages of old, well-worn books. Hunter purchased some gifts for his friends at the shop with all the steampunk curiosities one could want. They attempted to visit the Old Log Jail, but it wasn't open when they popped by. On their way to dinner, they stopped over in Story, Indiana, a postage-stamp-sized town that looks like it could be the set of a 1950s or 1960s movie, with a rusty-around-the-edges old inn. Hunter had an Indiana rite of passage at the Hard Truth Distillery, where he enjoyed his first-ever tenderloin sandwich.
Lake Salamonie
737 pieces | LEGO: 41702 (retired)
Assembled by Sarah Wilkinson, January 2025
Interaction Rating: 5 / 5 (interaction with the set is encouraged)
July 13, 2024
They rounded out their trip with a visit to Lake Salamonie, the reservoir where Sarah spent her summer weekends as a child on her family's Bayliner cabin cruiser, which slept five. Houseboaters Sarah's family befriended over a decade before, still docked there in the same slips, and Sarah had arranged for them to meet Hunter. Before that, they stopped by the nature center to see turtles, snakes, and birds of prey, as well as the taxidermy beaver that Sarah remembered. As they were trying to leave, Sarah's car wouldn't start: a dead battery. This, despite the tune-up she'd been sure to get before going on their trip. A kind person with jumper cables gave them a boost, and they made their way down to the marina to visit Sarah's old friends. They were a decade older, all of them, but little else had changed in the world from the vantage point of the front deck of their houseboat. Sarah and Hunter were grateful for their offer to take them on a cruise around the lake, which brought back so many memories for Sarah. It was Hunter's first houseboat ride, and they had a furry friend that accompanied them for the auspicious occasion. The boat captain, Brad, was even so kind as to drive them by "Stinky," the tank where boats go to empty their bathroom waste (it smelled just like Sarah remembered). Hunter fed the massive carp at the marina some popcorn, an ecologically suspect but time-honored tradition at Pirate Cove Marina. Popcorn may not be the correct diet for carp, but those corn-fed boys sure get big! They snapped a group photo, stopped at Autozone for a new battery, and stopped at Culver's on the way home so Hunter could experience their famous custard. After all these wonderful adventures, it was time to head back to Virginia the next day.
Just a typical day in Anderson, wandering through the stacks at the public library, snapping a selfie in front of the gardens at Shady Side, parking next to a car with lots of rusty bullet holes at the gas station, and being amused by lil Sparky's neighborhood watch.
Hunter is finding joy in the goats at Conner Prairie. Photos (taken by other people) of some of the places they visited, including the Carpenter's shed, the Potter's shop, the old weaving loom, and the house of William Conner.
Photos from the Bob Ross Experience at Minnetrista and Cammack Station.
Big smiles at the Indianapolis Canal and the Children's Museum. The couple initially had a "Dinosaur Museum" set to represent this memory, but it was so fragile that they decided not to travel with it and found a LEGO alternative instead.
Photos (taken by other people) of shops and the Old Log Jail in Nashville, the Story Inn Restaurant and Tavern, and the view from the balcony at Hard Truth Distillery.
Puppy dog tails and boat wake trails on Paulette and Brad's houseboat on Lake Salamonie. Giant carp eating their Indiana "natural" diet of salted popcorn. Brad, Paulette, Curt, Deb, Sarah, and Hunter posing together at Pirate's Cove Marina.