Page 25 - Demo

Kendallville Mental School19highlighted definitely weren%u2019t us, so she never bought another issue %u2014 but a small ad in the back caught her eye. It was for the historic Sheraton Hotel in the small southern-Indiana town of French Lick, that was known for its healing Pluto Water (which stank of sulfur). According to the brochure they mailed us, the resort had been patronized by the Vanderbilts and Morgans (and Al Capone), back in an era when as many as 12 passenger trains a day pulled into the local depot. The building was huge, with over 300,000 square feet of floor space, and there were 2,600 acres of manicured grounds. There was a special price for a three-day package, so we chose it as our honeymoon destination. We left Michigan early on the morning after our wedding, and it rained off-and-on for most of the seven-hour drive to southern Indiana. On arriving, we found the hotel to be very clean, but a bit tattered around the edges. When we checked in, the clerk said they%u2019d forgotten to reserve the Honeymoon Suite for us %u2014 but we would have excellent accommodations nevertheless. As we carried our bags into our room, Lynn spotted a giant cockroach on the room-service tray outside our neighbor%u2019s door. When I pulled open our curtain to check out the view, right outside our window was a statue of Pluto, Roman god of the dead, with his bare ass staring at me.The rain had temporarily stopped, so we headed out for a short drive, to get a feel for southern Indiana%u2019s rolling hill country. We had to stop on one rural road and wait for a cow to cross in front of us. On our way back toward town, we spotted the historic West Baden Springs Hotel. It currently housed the Northwood Institute, a school which specialized in, among other things, hotel and restaurant management. The building was accurately described as %u201cthe eighth wonder of the world%u201d when it was built in the early 1900s. A donut-shaped 750-room structure, it had a central court covered with what was once the largest unsupported dome in the world. (The Houston Astro Dome took the record away.) The dome was 4 stories off the ground, and the court once hosted an entire circus performance. It was an amazing building but, like our hotel, it was suffering from a lack of routine maintenance. After walking around a bit, as we headed back to our car, we spotted a narrow drive at the