French Lick Train

Hello, and thanks for checking out the latest entry into the Hoosier Day Trip blog.  I once heard an old joke about what a messed up state Indiana was. You have South Bend up north, North Vernon way down south, and French Lick aint what you think it is. Recently I took my first trip in nearly 30 years back to French Lick, and I certainly found that it was NOT what I remembered. (I promise to keep this G rated from here on out).

So this whole excursion really started on the Friday night before the trip. I had Saturday off, (a rarity in and of itself) and my oldest daughter had cheer camp on the I.U. Campus. My wife had to take her there, and this presented the PERFECT chance for me to take a couple of my kids and head out for a research trip. But where should we go? A quick shout out on the Hoosier Day Trip face book page brought back a three word response. “French Lick Train”.

These three words were all I needed to remind me of my own trip on this train so many years ago. My parents had taken me and my two older sisters down for the train ride, and while I THOUGHT I had a good time, I could really only remember two distinct features of the tour. A tunnel, and going past Larry Birds house.  Both are still there, and both are much smaller than I remember, but I digress.

Of course anytime I have a day off after an extended period, the first thought I have is “SLEEP IN!”.  But when my son specifically ask me, “Can we take another Day Trip tomorrow?”….ummmm “YES?” was my response.

So I wake up at 6 am and Google “French Lick Train”. The results came back with a result for the Indiana Railway Museum. After checking out their website, and seeing that they should be having rides that day, I woke up my youngest two children and said “Wake up…were going on a train ride!”  They were perplexed to say the least.

After getting the kids dressed and getting in the car, we head towards French Lick. As we are driving south on S.R. 37, Elizabeth, my almost 6 year old, says, “Dad.. The only real train I have ever been on before is the one at Walt Disney World.” This sparked a 15 minute debate between her and my son (9) about whether the Walt Disney railroad is a REAL railroad. Music was eventually turned on.

Arriving in the town of French Lick, the train station is easy to spot. It is right next to one of the two (I think?) resorts in town. I have not been to French Lick since the resorts have been refurbished and this trip was STRICKTLY to ride the train, but the external beauty of the resorts has definitely piqued my interest in returning, maybe staying, and dare I say even gambling at the resorts. I am NOT a gambler at all, but I think maybe the resorts would like to meet my friends…Mr. Washington, and Mr. Lincoln. That’s how I roll!

So BACK to the train. Arriving at the Indiana Railway museum, we were about the 4^th car in the parking lot, but we did arrive about 45 minutes before the first departure of the day. I wanted to get there early enough to look around the museum. 45 minutes allowed me to look around it about 3 times. Not to be too critical of the museum, but there is not a lot in it. What they have is truly fascinating, but in my mind calling it a museum is a bit of a stretch.  I think it would be more accurately described as a really AWESOME historic train ride with a few REALLY AWESOME things to look at while you wait on the train.

The prices of the tickets when we visited were $16 for adults and $8 for children. The train ride itself last about an hour and fifteen minutes. It is very interesting , beautiful, and informative. I tried to use the voice memo function on my iPhone to record all of the information they were telling us about the area, but my old 3G just wasn’t up to the task. The day we went was just for a ride to Cuzco and back. Cuzco is a little burg that has a store with some soda machines, porta-potties, and …well…soda machines, and porta-potties.

For the $32 dollars I spent to take my two youngest children on the ride, I really think it was worth it. 

According to signage there, and information on their website, they have some sort of train robbery event on certain weekends. This is something we would be willing to pay to go back and see, but what really has my kids excited is the Halloween themed train that they do in October, and especially the Polar Express train they do in November and December. I have to admit, I can’t remember EVER looking forward to winter in Indiana, but this Polar Express has me pretty excited.

I am now a pretty big fan of the Indiana Railway Museum, and also the rest of French Lick that I have seen. I will absolutely be going back for the train and to check out the resorts.

Thanks for checking out the latest addition to the Hoosier Day Trip blog. Be sure to check out the photo page on the home page and PLEASE send me your Hoosier Day Trip pics to post. Thanks again, and I hope to see YOU on my next Hoosier Day Trip. 

                                          Andrew