Hendricks County visit, Part IV

The June 25 Park2Park Relay in Hendricks County, Ind. -- which boasts the growing communities of Plainfield, Brownsburg and Avon -- will cover 60 miles, starting in the northwest corner of the county and ending in the southeast corner, and yet the teams of runners will run through the heart of downtown of only one community in the county -- tiny North Salem, in the early part of the race.

North Salem is northeast of McCloud Nature Park, the start point of the inaugural race, which will pit teams of six people -- each taking turns running 3- to 4-mile segments -- in a novel competition to see who gets to the finish line first. Highway 236 is Main Street in North Salem, whose downtown welcomes visitors with colorful red and blue banners on light poles along the curbs. The merchants district on the main thoroughfare includes a town hall, antiques and thrift shops, a post office, a Marathon gas station and the Red Dog Steakhouse and Saloon (above), whose bright red awnings make it stand out.

Just east of the town is Fairview Cemetery, where I also stopped to capture images when I saw Old Glory standing imposingly in the middle of the grounds. I instinctively thought to use it for the subject of several shots, but I couldn't help but find other angles to pursue -- including the town water tower, which can be seen not only from the cemetery, but from downtown. The most poignant, however, was of the gravestone of infant daughter of R.F. and E.C. Hicks, which I came across on my stroll out. To the right of hers were those of her parents, father Robert immediately next to hers, then that of mother Ella. 

These images are from North Salem.

 

 

 

 

 

Reflecting on ... downtown buildings

Here a few reflection images I grabbed Saturday while strolling Meridian Street during the inaugural Indy Crit cycling competition on a Downtown Indianapolis loop course (see previous post) -- and one I grabbed last November while covering the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and Half-Marathon.

The one above is a no-trickery-on-my-end distortion. The bellowed panels on the right just happened to bend that way from where I was standing.

The first one below I decided to take because of the juxtaposition of the reflection against the real-time U.S. flag to the right of it.

The third simply is the federal courts building, as it looks when bounced off the all-glass facade of its AT&T neighbor on the west side of Meridian.

Finally, the last one -- the one I grabbed last November -- is the State Capitol, reflecting off a glass sheen on the east side of Illinois Street.