Try a Few Old-School Adventures in a Throwback Summer

Earlier in the week we told you where you can get a vintage bite to eat for the summer, and now it’s on to other throwback adventures to build into your summer itinerary. When you’re visiting French Lick Resort this summer, here’s a few side trips that’ll feel like a step back in time.


Holiday Drive-In

The new releases, air conditioning (which usually works too well) and the comfy reclining seats can wait. For at least one night, bypass the regular movie theater and take in a flick in 1950s or ’60s fashion.

Spread out a couple big blankets, pop the back hatch and catch a show at Holiday Drive-In just off State Road 37. It’s a half-hour trip that’ll take you back a good 50, 60 years.

You can catch two movies under the stars every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Holiday Drive-In, and Sundays are the day to get the best bang for your buck with their $25 carload specials (for six people, with $5 for each additional person). This time of year with the days at their longest, the first show doesn’t start until 9:45. But the gates open at 7:30 during the summer, so it’s a good idea to come early and soak in the experience.


“People like to come and enjoy the outdoors, get the lawn chairs out, they get their boom box out and they just make a big evening of it,” said Steve Wilson, who’s owned the drive-in since 2003. “The kids will play football or baseball out in the grass, or toss a Frisbee or play with the dog — a lot of things to do before the movie starts.”

Oh, and come hungry. You’ll find more than 30 food choices at their concession stand, and these aren’t the usual movie theater prices as it’s $2.25 to score yourself a corn dog. They’ve also got everything from walking tacos to ice cream to popcorn and candy.

This is one of just 19 drive-in theaters in Indiana, and it’s an experience that’s becoming a rare treat. In 1962, there were 4,200 drive-in theaters across the country. Today, there’s fewer than 350. And one them is right here in the southern Indiana countryside where life slows down a little bit.
“We’re so lucky to still have something like this is a rural community where people can come in here and their kids are safe, they let ’em run all over the place, and they know they’re safe here,” Steve says. “That’s a good thing.”

Other drive-in theaters in the neighborhood: A little further out, there’s also drive-in theaters in Bloomington (north of French Lick), Georgetown (east of French Lick) and Rockport (south and west of French Lick).



League Stadium

If you’re a baseball fan, you’ll be transfixed by the simple, old-school feel.

And even if you’re not a baseball fan, League Stadium might make you one, even if just for a night.

“It’s an eve of family entertainment, very inexpensive. Most people leave the stadium, tomorrow they won’t remember the score, but they’ll remember they had a great time,” says Mike Uebelhor, co-owner of the Dubois County Bombers college summer league team that plays its home games there. “It’s vintage through and through.”


Add this to your list of hidden gems in Indiana that you never knew existed. Make the 45-minute drive to Huntingburg, Indiana and catch a Bombers game in a 125-year-old stadium with a famous past. League Stadium was prominently featured in the movie “A League of Their Own” as the field where the Rockford Peaches played their home games. Much of the same vintage signage on the outfield walls remains today (including the Coca-Cola sign which Coca-Cola paid $1 million to Columbia Pictures just to be in the background for the movie).

And in front of the visitor’s dugout is the spot where one of the most iconic sports movie quotes — “There’s no crying in baseball” — was uttered by Tom Hanks. Already nearly 100 years old when the movie was filmed, the stadium received a new/old facelift in the early 1990s when additional seating was added to the original grandstand to fit the movie’s 1940s-era look. (And the orange chair-back seats now in the stadium’s lower level came from the Atlanta Braves’ former Fulton County Stadium after it was torn down.)


After the movie crews left, Huntingburg was left with an asset to delight folks with a vintage experience. Children can sign up to compete in game on the field between innings. They can run the bases after the game. Bombers players wear uniform and stirrup socks with a 1940s feel. Two guys still manually add the numbers to the old-time scoreboard in left field.

The whole old-school vibe permeates from the second you walk through the gates.


“When they walk up the steps they’ll be greeted as if they were back in the 1940s by our Peaches. They do a ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ dance (between innings during the game) that brings everybody on their feet,” Mike says. “Just the experience, the feel — it’s not like going to a Major League baseball park whatsoever. It’s like going to a stadium that was back in the 1940s, and that attracts a lot of people. It’s just a simpler time of life and day, when baseball was pure baseball.”

And if the Bombers advance deep enough into their league playoffs, you can experience vintage baseball at League Stadium into early August.

Dates of note: June 27 (Thirsty Thursday with reduced beer prices); July 4 (fireworks after the game); July 6 (“The Balloon Guy” making balloon animals and figures for the kids); July 13 (League Stadium 125th anniversary with Peaches vs. Belles game).


French Lick Scenic Railway

Train ride are in again at French Lick Scenic Railway — just hop aboard at the train station which is a stone's throw from French Lick Springs Hotel.


With scenic train rides through the countryside every Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, there's always an opportunity to experience the mystique of a train ride. In July, look for the return of the Wild West Hold-Up trains (and fear not, your purse and wallet are safe here). New dinner trains are coming on select dates this summer (August 24 and September 21) with more planned for October.

All of you with a sweet tooth have two more chances (July 20 and September 28) to board the Chocolate Tasting Train, while the Bourbon Tasting Train leaves the station on September 14.

This is a good time for a reminder that now's the time to reserve a seat on their Polar Express train if you want to ride for the 2019 holiday season. Some weekend dates are already sold out, with just a couple seats remaining on several other weekend dates.