Peru Indiana

Reached destination of Peru last evening and was surprised at all the stuff this town had going on. I had kinda heard about the circus museum etc and wanted to check that out but no way did I know that Cole Porter and "Ole" Olson are from here. This has to be a culturally happening town .

The first stop was the famous Mr. Weenie's for some road grub and boy was it worth the stop. Mr. Weenie has it all from ice cream to about anything else that can be deep fried and they do it all so well. Of course I went heavy with their specialty which is hot dogs and/or the many variations there of. The Chicago Cubs dog was a treat and almost indescribable (mainlybecause the hot peppers/saurcraut/cheese and special sauce are still burning me up inside)--I had a quart of the famous Mr. Weenie root beer which went a long way towards extinguishing the pepper fires but there are still smoldering embers several hours later..
The ice cream is hand dipped and very flavorful.

I was so excited about this place I had the 3 Weenie girls pose in front of bike. This is Brittany, Ashley and Courtney Weenie, daughters of Mr. Weenie, who has to be so proud . Their perkyness, customer friendly service and all around great attitude was impressive--it reminded me so much of those ladies at The Worch Memorial Library in Versailles.
I also bought a Mr. Weenie Tshirt for a good friend of mine who I know will wear it proudly when he runs his next half marathon.

Yes, Peru Indiana is a cool stop !!! on this cross country journey and Mr. Weenie added the exclamation marks(!!!) to it.

This is another of my new best friends. He was playing the violin on a street corner when I stopped to talk. He has been performing in the area about 15 years since he was passing thru and just decided to stop. He is learning more instruments and plans on playing the cello on this corner in a few weeks--he already did guitar before he moved to violin, and has big plans for some other stringed instruments .

Mr. Tambini (his first name really is GREAT) has been entertaining since he was 5 years old. I was on my way to check into a nearby motel about 7:45 and asked how long he would be on that corner because i wanted to come back and talk some more. He pulled out a pocket watch and said he had an meeting that started at 8:05 and that he would be moving shortly. I was very disappointed because here was another candidate for "the most interesting musician in the world" and I really wanted to spend some time with him. Actually I suspect that he may be part of that guy's (Mr. Flaming Blues)missing band I met in Walla Walla, who he thought all the members had been killed in "that hurricane back east in the late 60's or sometime like that". I think at least 1 member survived and is playing in Peru Indiana.
Yes I believe I have discovered a link to Mr. Flaming Blues's(the guy in Walla Walla) past. Now this would be a story and a half.
What a treat it would be if somehow -someway I can get Flaming Blues, The Great Tandini and Justin Hemminger in one place at the same time for a jam session. OMG I am getting excited all over just thinking about it. This renews my faith in a supreme being and that I my purpose on this earth to bring folks like this together for the betterment of mankind. I feel sort of like a combination Albert Swietzer/Johnny Appleseed in an odd way. It is at least 27% of the reason I get up out of bed each morning.