Muncie, Indiana

Many people have asked, why Muncie? To visit a friend of course, not that we’d met in person before but we’d been in contact via email for years and a visit was due - in fact back when I was a publisher I published two of her books - Silenced Cry and The Devil Can Wait (buy them, they‘ve won awards and they‘re good). It was lovely to meet Marta and her family, including the somewhat potty grandmother! Plus it was very good to stay in her lovely home, a proper bed without railings, a homely, comfortable atmosphere and generally just relaxing. Plus the weather was gorgeous and we were even able to drive with top down in the car around Indianapolis and then again in Muncie.

Apart from putting the publishing world to rights, I was shown the sights of Muncie, which was great to see a town that wasn’t designed for tourists, a ‘proper’ American college town. We also walked along the river, which had turtles sunbathing in it - real turtles! Muncie grew because the Ball family decided to relocate their glass business to Muncie and the wealth that brought made the town. There are remnants of the Ball family still in Muncie, even if they are no longer there. The university is named after them, so is a bank, streets and some of their mansions along the river are still standing. It was these mansions we went to see, though we couldn’t enter them, they were impressive, each one for each member of the family and in a different style, reflecting each siblings’ interests. Apart from the turtles, we also saw a blue heron and a red tailed hawk - proper wildlife!

I was also able to sample some more American delicacies from green bean casserole to freshly made snickerdoodles and apple butter, the latter tasting better than it looked. Really it did taste better than it looked, because it didn’t look appetising.

The following day Rick and Marta drove me back to Indianapolis and the train station to catch the Greyhound to Chicago. Finding the train station was much easier than finding the bus station, which I arrived at in Indianapolis. The bus station is just a bench, no buses or anything  else to note it is a bus station, let alone a sign, just a bus shelter, no wonder they drove past it numerous times without seeing it. I guess few people take buses in Indianapolis.

Next Stop: Charleston