He wants his Pic-A-Nic Basket . . .
Today was going to be a daytrip day so I was up about 8:45, too early, since I didn’t get to sleep until about 3am. The things I do for Nick.
Jan and I started out with cheese toast made with some of the fresh-baked bread that Terry Russell brought over last night, which almost made up for Nick’s idea for us to leave at 10am. Some days I’m not even up at 10.
Our first stop was the Indiana Welcome Center in Hammond, IN.
Besides being a very nice Welcome Center, its real claim to fame is the fact that it houses the John Dillinger Museum. You’ve gotta like a place whose motto is “Crime Doesn’t Pay…But It Does Charge Admission”.
They have an really amazing amount of Dillinger memorabilia, including the wooden gun he carved from a broomstick for an earlier jail escape, and the pants he was wearing when he was killed.
He was killed in front of the Biograph Theater in Chicago after being ‘fingered’ by Anna Sage, the infamous ‘Lady in Red’. In reality, she actually wore an orange dress, but I guess ‘Lady in Orange’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
This is an example of Dillinger’s favorite escape vehicle, a 1933 Essex Terraplane 8, renowned for its power and speed.
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They also had a very nice display of the many types of weapons that Dillinger and his gang liked to use.
Like Willie Sutton, the famous bank robber, who really did not say “I rob banks because that’s where the money is”, Dillinger and his cohorts DID rob police stations because that’s where the guns were.
One of his real favorites was the .45 cal Thompson Submachine Gun, as displayed 2nd and 3rd from the top in this photo.
Strangely enough, it’s also Jan’s weapon of choice as well.
Though Jan prefers the magazine-fed model, rather than the drum-fed, because it’s less likely to jam.
And while we’re being picky, this not a Thompson ‘clip’. It is a Thompson Drum Magazine. Unclear about the difference between a Magazine and a Clip? This should make it clear.
But for what it’s worth, Willie Sutton also carried a Thompson on many of his bank robberies, because he said, “You can’t rob a bank on charm and personality,”
He further said that none of his weapons were ever loaded because “somebody might get hurt.”
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Leaving the Welcome Center, we headed east to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Welcome Center to get our National Park Passports stamped and to look around.
Later it was on to Michigan City, IN so Nick could check out the storefront of a kite place that he found at the Shipshewana Flea Market last Wednesday. He even got to try out a couple of models on the Lake Michigan beachfront.
About 5pm we headed back to Elkhart and had dinner once again at King Wha, a really good Chinese place. I’m gradually working my way up their hot sauce scale. This time they used two extra hot sauce amounts when cooking my Hunan Chicken. Next time I’m going for three.
Either they’ll run out of hot sauce, or my head will explode. We’ll see which one comes first.
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Apparently Yogi was wandering around Daytona Beach, FL looking for Boo Boo and his Pic-A-Nic basket, but decided to take a short nap in a hammock in someone’s yard.
Those short naps are so refreshing.
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Thought for the Day:
My imaginary friend thinks that yours have a problem.
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