When Cindy Rash reflected on helping her daughter be Miss Indiana in the past year, she started to laugh.
"I chuckle because it has been pretty busy," she said.
The role of Miss Indiana requires traveling around the state, Cindy Rash said, and she went with Nicole when able to.
Cindy Rash said after a hard work week, all she wanted to do was sleep in on a Saturday. Yet, she always found herself waking up at 4 a.m. to travel all with her daughter, she said.
"This is her year, and I want to be a part of it as much as I can," Cindy Rash said.
Scheduling Nicole's events was difficult because once Nicole had her month's schedule planned out, something would change, Cindy said.
Sometimes Nicole would forget to tell her about an appearance, Cindy said, and she would not find out until the day before.
"A lot of times we had miscommunications about events because she was so busy," she said.
In her time as Miss Indiana's mother, Cindy Rash said, she had visited Zionsville so Nicole could sing the national anthem and also saw her daughter and Gov. Mitch Daniels sing "On The Banks of the Wabash."
The Ball State Homecoming parade was one of the most special events, she said.
"I'm being really honest," she said. "Just being in that parade route and having people cheer her on was a very neat moment."
Cindy said ever since the reality show "Miss America Reality Check" the community has become more excited.
"It became a big deal in the past three weeks," Cindy said about the community reaction to Nicole competing for Miss America.
Once the parents arrived at the competition, they noticed that there isn't much camaraderie between the contestants' families, she said.
"They are not going to say 'good luck' or 'your daughter is doing great,'" she said.
Pageants are not sport competitions, Cindy said, which may be what sets Bill and Cindy apart.
After all the attention, Bill doesn't mind when his daughter walks the runway in her swimsuit and whistles emerge from the crowd, he said.
"Nicole has worked very hard to get the figure she has got, and she is very proud of taking care of herself," she said.
Bill said he thinks of the competition as an exhibition of health and lifestyle, he said, and that's all the swimwear competition is showing.
He is just looking to see if the contestants exercise or eat a good diet, he said.
Cindy said she and Bill are told they are atypical pageant parents.
"[Bill] has tattoos and we ride Harleys," Cindy said with pride. "We are definitely not the stereotype parents."
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