what is it with google street view and mcdonald's?

whoever drove the google street view van through indianapolis must've had some serious munchies. they stopped at or drove through the parking lots of at least 6-7 indianapolis mcdonald's locations.

here they are at the one in broad ripple.

there's no documentation of them stopping at the one in castleton, but they did turn off 82nd street onto the frontage road in front of the mickey d's for no apparent reason.

here they are at the one at 96th & meridian. they actually go all through the parking lot, which google refers to as "belle manor ln". you know a restaurant is important when its drive-thru gets a street name.

there's no evidence they stopped at the mcdonald's at 86th & michigan, but they definitely went to the one at 96th & michigan. (and why are there two mcdonald's on michigan within 10 blocks, anyway?)

here they are at the one at 38th & meridian.

here they are at the one at 52nd & keystone.

and here they are at the mcdonald's by 38th & keystone.

i'm not the first person to spot the street view van visiting the golden arches. so when i saw that the van had visited the mcdonald's in broad ripple, i didn't think much of it. but then i saw the same thing at the next 2 or 3 i tried! once i started getting systematic, i was able to find several locations where the van didn't stop (or at least the cameras didn't document it), but for awhile it seemed like they'd checked out every mcdonald's in town. ¶