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| Rides are free on French Lick Resort's road and rail trolleys, which move nearly a half-million people each year. |
When you visit a resort town, chances are the highlight of
your trip won’t come from the time spent inside a vehicle. Travel time is
merely a means to an end; the bridge between restaurant reservations and horse
stables and spa appointments and everything else you really came for.
Yet every now and then, you can make memories in motion.
Those are the focus of the next in our series of “At Your
Service” stories featuring the special touches that French Lick Resort
associates carry out to create unexpectedly memorable guest experiences. The
first story on wheels comes from a couple that visited the resort to celebrate
their anniversary. They just so happened to board one of the shuttle buses
being driven by Sam Ray, the resort’s Director of Support Operations who occasionally
jumps in as an extra shuttle driver when extra help is needed.
“They were talking to me, and I was explaining the resort
and the history and all the neat little things there were to do. They said they
were here 20 years ago and that the resort looks a thousand times better than
it did when they were here,” Sam explained. “They showed me a Polaroid of them
in the back seat on the driver’s side of a trolley. They said we took this
little selfie — back then it didn’t have a name, really — and it’s too bad (the
trolley) isn’t here anymore; we’d like to take the picture again to kind of
recreate the memory.”
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| French Lick Resort Director of Support Operations Sam Ray with the open-air road trolley, which was first used in 1986. |
Fortunately, they ran into the one guy with the access and the knowledge to transform the longshot wish into reality.
Sam dropped them off at their destination, and returned to
pick them up in the exact shuttle that the couple posed for in the picture 20
years earlier. It’s a 1986 Molly trolley, and Sam knew it had to be the same
one from the photo judging from the flaps on the rear-side windows. It’s the
only open-air trolley that we own, and it makes appearances occasionally when
the weather’s nice or an extra shuttle is needed.
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| The 32-year-old old open-air trolley is still used occasionally in warm-weather months, so keep an eye out for it if you're visiting this summer. |
“We’ve had it for many years. It was actually in the movie
Blue Chips when Nick Nolte and them were here in town doing the French Lick
scene for the movie,” Sam explained. “She’s been around a long time. We like to
keep her around, because everyone has such memories in it.”
And in this case, a truly serendipitous memory for one
couple.
“They got to remake their honeymoon picture in the back — but
this time with a cell phone. Exact same seat, exact same picture.”
If you visit French Lick Resort this summer, keep an eye out
for those older vehicles in general.
Sam takes the resort’s couple vintage cars out on the road occasionally
just to make sure they keep humming properly, and if it’s a Friday or Saturday
night and he’s planning to be here late, he’ll drive the mile-long path between
French Lick and West Baden Springs Hotels, offering to give guests a spin
through town or between hotels. Occasionally they get even more of a close-up view, when Sam hand-cranks the Model T to demonstrate the old-school method of how to start a car.
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| They only come out every so often, but summer is a great time to see some of the resort's vintage cars on the road. Several old cars are also on display currently as part of Preservation Month at French Lick Resort. |
Then there was the man who saw the old Model A and got to
talking about the stories passed down by his father about their family’s Model
A, and the memories of piling into the car for a family road trip from Illinois
through the Northern Plains.
“He said, ‘Man, it’d be nice to have one of these so we
could kind of have the memories my dad had.’ I said, ‘Well I’ve got 10 minutes
free, so let’s go for a ride.’ They got to ride in the rumble seat like his dad
did,” Sam said.
Given that the transportation staff is responsible for providing
the complimentary rides to almost a half-million guests throughout the resort
every year, that’s a whole lot of opportunities for those unexpected memories
to pop up. For those times in life that require immediate action — forgotten
car keys need to be rushed back to the owner, or a vehicle-less guest has a
family emergency and needs a ride a few hours away — the transportation
department has driven a couple hours to take their service show on the road.
“Small things like that; we’re always doing something,” Sam
said.