I went through it once years ago, but I thought certain sections of it were quite pretty, like the area around Nashville (where the Dillinger Museum used to be). The parts of Indianapolis I was in didn't particularly impress, but I didn't think it was that much worse than any other Midwest city I drove through. In common with most of the Midwest states I was in, it's a flat landscape with farms and fields...which isn't my idea of "beauty" or "excitement"...but it meant for me that I was that much closer to Chicago, so I enjoyed it more than I did...let's say...Ohio. The city of Gary did indeed look hellish as I drove past it, but I was born in Newark and raised in Paterson...so "hellish" probably holds a different meaning for me than it does for most other people.
