#3. Triple XXX Root Beer

Water is my beverage of choice, but when I occassionally opt for soda, root beer is my favorite. Its creamy vanilla sweetness mixed with the slight tang of sassafrass root makes for a satisfying liquid dessert. Whether it can be attributed to the trademarked original Triple XXX recipe, frosty mug or overall ambience, the root beer served at West Lafayette's Triple XXX restaurant is especially tasty.

Triple XXX root beer

The restaurant, the oldest drive-in in Indiana, is immediately striking, a boldly ugly building painted with wide vertical stripes of black and orange. While the outside may be somewhat deterring, the interior is wholly charming. Customers sit clustered together at a counter on rotating stools. Waitresses chat with customers, chefs can be seen singing and cooking and clients soak up the hearty food and old-time diner atmosphere.

Street view of Triple XXX

In addition to a mug of root bear, I ordered the Duane Pervis burger, an otherwise ordinary cheeseburger slathered with a layer of creamy peanut butter. While I will probably never add peanut butter to a cheeseburger again, it was interesting to try. The layer of peanut butter added an unusual creamy sweetness to the burger that was neither gross nor delicious, but merely existant.

Duane Pervis burger
If you look really closely, you can see bits of peanut butter dripping underneath the burger

Although the burger and fries were good, the root beer was the star of the meal.

After visiting Triple XXX, I toured the surrounding area with my boyfriend, a native of West Lafayette. We walked the quaint streets of the town and visited the town courthouse, a used book store catering to sci-fi and gaming enthusiasts, an antique store and an old-fashioned soda shop.



Lafayette Courthouse

McCord's Candy Shop

We then shopped the commercial Levvy and more locally-focused Chauncey areas. As an IU student, I couldn't help comparing these areas to Bloomington's much cooler Kirkwood area (I admit my bias), but the district was still appealing nonetheless.

After touring the more urban parts of Lafayette and West Lafayette, we toured the Tippecanoe Battlefield. The 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe was important for a variety of reasons:

• It destroyed the Native American hope for the creation of a tribal confederacy
• It brought great success to William Henry Harrison and provided him with credibility that aided in his securing the presidential seat
• It heightened the discontent Americans felt for the British, who armed the Native Americans with British weapons
• This fueled the chasm that led to the War of 1812

Despite its significance, the battlefield was relatively small. Standing inside the fenced-in area that was once a battlefield was an eery feeling. Today, the area is a pretty landscape dotted with towering trees and an attractive commemorative monument, but it is difficult to shake the knowledge that it was once a bloody area where the Americans carried out great injustices against Native Americans.

Battle of Tippecanoe memorial/battleground

  Taking a break from contemplation of human iniquities, we toured the battleground's Nature Center and trails. We crossed the Wabash River, which was surging with brown water from recent heavy rainfall. I was pretty disappointed with the river, which I played up due to its sentimental reference in the state song "Back Home Again in Indiana."

Wabash River

We ended our tour of the area with a quick stop to Prophet's Rock, a unique geological form where the brother of Chief Tecumseh  once chanted and sang songs of prophecy and encouragement to Native American warriors heading to the Battle of Tippecanoe.

Prophet's Rock memorial

Prophet's Rock

Although I came to visit my boyfriend and taste Triple XXX root beer, it was nice to experience the other Indiana college town.