Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre announces its 2026 (53rd) season

September 3, 2025 / Roadtirementvintage / Leave a comment

Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre is offering a truly awesome season this coming year. The beloved Indianapolis Northwest side Dinner Theatre will present mystery and mayhem, felines and fairy tales, and fire and rain for its 53rd Season in 2026.

SHOW NAMES AND DATES

The Mousetrap (Jan. 6 – Feb. 15) First time at B&B’s since 1978

Pretty Woman (Feb. 19 – April 4) The Beef & Boards Stage Debut

Singin’ in The Rain (April 9 – May 23) The beloved MGM classic!

“Singin’ in the rain”

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella (May 28 – July 12)

The Play That Goes Wrong (July 16 – Aug. 23) Beef & Boards Debut

Ring of Fire returns (Aug. 27 – Oct. 4) Johnny Cash’s iconic playlist

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s sensation, CATS (Oct. 8 – Nov. 22)

Cast of “CATS”

Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn (Nov. 27 – Dec. 31) Beef & Boards Debut

Sales for 2026 VIP Memberships are now open to the public. Individual tickets for all 2026 Season shows are on sale to the general public starting Oct. 1, 2025, and may be purchased by visiting Beef & Boards website, or calling the box office at 317.872.9664 (closed Mondays). Tickets for main stage shows range from $59.50 to $87.50, and include a dinner buffet, full fruit & salad bar, coffee, tea, and lemonade. Note: Discounts are available for groups and kids ages 3-15. Children under age 3 are not admitted to mainstage shows.

Indiana Candlelight House built in 1868 now home to ghosts

September 3, 2025 / Roadtirementvintage / 7 Comments

Located in Johnson County, Indiana, east of the modern I-65 interstate highway is a stately two story brick home commonly referred to by the name Candlelight House. In olden days the many windows facing the road were said to have been often lit with candles.

Photo we took from the road, work in progress on the new porch.

Working on the new portico/porch

The owners of the house are currently working on the restoration of the house. The day we drove by a new porch was being installed. This structure was surprisingly made of structural steel, not like the original wood portico that is long gone.

Unknown date, unidentified people. Photo from Franklin Daily Journal files

Since the house was built three generations of the same family have lived in the house. The only son of the third generation, named Otho Henry Pritchard, died in the house in 1995. According to many accounts Otho still walks the rooms of the house, even writing his name with his finger on windows. There have been paranormal investigations at the house.

Historic hotel now a favorite local restaurant

September 1, 2025 / Roadtirementvintage / Leave a comment

Sunday was a great day for an unplanned day trip to Franklin, Indiana. There was perfect weather for seeing things in the area and we ended up at a local historic site and restaurant.

The popular local eatery

The entrance

The old hotel light visible

The Willard Hotel was once an active hotel and now The Willard is a very popular restaurant with both outside seating and indoor dining areas. We really enjoyed our very tasty meals. Our son had pretzel breadsticks, fries and a coke. Sher had a custom made veggie pizza and I had the fried fish platter. We both enjoyed Blue Moon on tap. Our waiter Steven took excellent care of us, making sure we had everything we needed for an enjoyable dining experience.

Two piece cod platter with fries, hush puppies and slaw

Custom made veggie pizza

Curved stairway leading to now closed second floor of the hotel

The brick house of the Willard was originally built in 1860 by the daughter of one of the town’s founders. Over the years the hotel saw quite a history and the legends of hauntings continue to this day.

Historic 1901 Indiana school suffers extensive damage in 2022 fire

August 25, 2025 / Roadtirementvintage / Leave a comment

While on a recent day trip to Parke County, Indiana to enjoy the many covered bridges we came across a sad sight. A large sign explained that we were viewing the Wabash Township Graded School that was open from 1901 until 1986 in the town of Mecca.

Front face with bell tower

Main Entrance

A devastating fire occurred in November, 2022. This fire completely destroyed the pitched roof of the 1901 main building and the flat roof of the gymnasium that was a 1923 addition. Both roofs collapsed during the fire.

View of gym addition

Gym wall, roof gone

The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. Following is from the original application for this listing: The architectural style of the 190l-l9l0 main section of the building shows Richardsonian Romanesque influence, which is evident in the bell tower, rock-faced lintels and voussiot’s, arched doorways and belfry openings…

Sign placed well before the fire

Local references report that sometime after the school closed in 1986 the structure was used as a community center. The fire damage that is visible is quite extensive. Rebuilding would be very costly, if not cost prohibitive.

John Conner founded Connersville, Indiana in 1813

August 23, 2025 / Roadtirementvintage / Leave a comment

John Conner founded Connersville, Indiana, when he laid out the town in March of 1813. The town was laid out next to Connor’s fur trading post on the Whitewater River. Conner was an important person in Indiana’s history, as he surveyed many towns and villages, including the layout of the then young city of Indianapolis.

Connersville has lots of history and historic sites to explore. We’ve just started our dive into Connersville!

The City of Connersville placed a memorial statue of Connor on a corner of the Fayette County Courthouse parking lot in 2017. Plaques listing Connersville’s history adorn the four sides of the statue’s large base.

Another Bison-tennial bison in Connersville Indiana

August 22, 2025 / Roadtirementvintage / 3 Comments

In 2016 Indiana celebrated its bicentennial of the 1816 year of statehood. One very unique way to celebrate was the distribution of at least one fiberglass bison to each of the 92 counties in the state.

“Monty” lives next to the courthouse.

In our travels over the years Sher and I have seen many of these delightful bison around Indiana. All have custom paintjobs with a variety of environments for the location of each bison. Our road trip today to Connersville lead to yet another Bison-tennial Public Art discovery.

Inside the General Store

August 22, 2025 / Roadtirementvintage / 4 Comments

The general store in Billie Creek Village was a treat to visit. The manager was so nice, letting us take our time looking at the interesting items, and taking pictures.