Road Trip: Indianapolis-Coming home

Leaving Indianapolis early in order to get home earlier,we didn't eat right away.
I am a noted breakfast hater (except for the odd breakfast buffet) and I was just as happy to ride it out until 11 AM for a nice lunch.

We quickly moved from Indianapolis to Columbus and as I just happened to looking to my right as we approached downtown Columbus and saw a facade that said Cooper Stadium on it.
I mentioned to Ryan that must be the remains of the former home of the AAA Columbus Clippers,who moved to a new park in Columbus in 2009.
Ryan asked if I wanted to see it and of course I said yes!
We drove around downtown Columbus as the GPS took us to Huntington Park first (we visited there in 2010),but we quickly were able to find our way back to the remains of Cooper Stadium.

The long time home of the AAA Clippers was certainly in disrepair and rundown.
To the point of being careful that you didn't run over some refuse with your tires!
We were only able to get so close from the abandoned parking lot,but we were able to take shots from left and right field and of the grandstand and team offices.
The playing field is long overgrown and I considered wading into the waist high grass for some shots from the playing field,but I heard plenty of scurrying and decided discretion was the better part of valor on this day.

It's always sad when you visit these places and it's true (or maybe you just want to hear) that you can feel the ghosts and memories around you.
Columbus really does have a great stadium in Huntington Park,but every time a new park arrives,an old park gets nudged aside in its favor.
If you are in the area,stop by and check out crumbling Cooper,supposedly the area is soon to be redeveloped into a small auto racing track..

We moved further to try to get into the lunch hour rather than breakfast and hit St.Clairsville Ohio,which is near the Ohio/West Virginia line.
There were a surprising amount of eating possibilities in the Ohio Valley Mall and surrounding area,but my choice was Garfield's inside the mall.
Garfield's was in the Hagerstown mall at one time before leaving and I thought that Garfield's had the best nachos.
Sadly,since they were located in Hagerstown,someone had the great idea to change things up (dropped black olives and changed the chips) and even though these were fine- "These were not the best nachos I ever ate-BRAD!
The best part was as we walked through a surprisingly nice mall and neared the kids play area in the middle of the mall-Ryan pointed this out,which I had to have a picture of!
Brutus Buckeye leaping out of a Buckeye tree was just too awesome,I would have taken a picture with it myself had there not been kids playing around the tree.

The rest of the trip was pretty much driving home as we listened to the Packers vs Texans game on the radio and making conversation...

What a great trip with my son and even though the wrong team won,I still had a great time and would love to go back and do it again for a Buckeye appearance-yes,Ryan I'm holding you to your promise!!

Back later with a few notes from the inbox!!