Erica's #55 - Go to a drive-in movie

Drive-in movie theaters have been on the decline for years, but there's one in Indy I've been going to since my family moved to town in 1994.  Tibbs Drive-In has been a regular haunt for many movie fans - there is a long line to get in nearly every weekend night during the warm summer months.  There's something that's still magical about setting up camp in the back of a pickup truck or in some lawn chairs, opening the cooler to enjoy a cold soda, and watching a good movie under the stars.

That's a bit of a romanticized version of the drive-in - our reality is rarely as lovely.  We chose to go see Finding Dory at the drive-in on opening night.  It was a sold-out show, and cars were packed in like sardines.  Honestly, since it doesn't get dark until 10pm in Indiana during the summer, a good number of the kids who had arrived with excited, anticipatory energy had burned that off at the playground set at the base of the big screen, and had quietly passed out in the back of or on top of minivans and sedans parked all around us.

One downside I always, always manage to block out of my memory about attending a movie at the drive-in is that smoking is allowed, and the single guy in a pickup truck who pulled up next to us spent the entire night smoking one cigarette after the other.  Also, the line for concessions was over 30 minutes long, just to get a small popcorn to munch on.  Besides that, we enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

Drive-ins usually have double-features, but since Dory didn't start until 10, it wasn't over until nearly midnight, and we can hardly stay awake beyond that.  We decided to head home and not sleep in the back of Mel's truck through Alice Through the Looking Glass.  It was a fun date-night idea, but did remind us why we don't do it more often!