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Here is a link to the second part of my travel adventure

http://star5812.blogspot.com/

Here is a link to 2017's travels 
http://ukamper.blogspot.com/

Go to Part 2

Having trouble so I started a new blog.
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Parke County and Turkey Run

After leaving Muncie I decided to visit Parke County, IN. Home of more covered bridges than just about anywhere.

West of Indianapolis, this is an area of Indiana that the last Glacier missed so there is a more undulating nature and more wooded.

I made the mistake of coming during the annual festival so some traffic hindered pictures

Also, Roads had a tad of water left from yesterday's downpour and rural Indiana is all dirt, or crushed limestone roads which pretty much packs into dirt.

All of these bridges, 30 or more, are of similar design called Burr arch. 

 

Fall is ahead of me so I'm trying to be quick

 

I had to limit pictures because the program got overloaded but I took over 100 and just made it thru half the bridges and I'm still going

Minor change of plans next day. My new camp site at Turkey Run State Park wasn't avail yet but I didn't want to waste the day so I just parked in a lot and took off for a hike. 

There is a bridge in the park so that was the hike.  It has probably been close to 50 years since I was here......that scares me!

But what a perfect day to be exploring and remembering.

This is quite different from the corn forests of eastern Indiana where I grew up. 

This is a gulch.....remember that....it's a test

Remember putting  jigsaw puzzles together?

a couple choices(this is a Hollow)

 The roar of walking thru crisp leaves and the smell of October

  Hike destination reached and the camera batteries heldup!

 colors are awesome for October even though everyone says the drought affected the trees.

 ok, what is the difference between a gulch and a hollow?  there are both here and I'm sure Ichabod Crane would know, (you know...the Sleepy Hollow guy). 

                     My favorite hardwood is the Shagbark Hickory

but Sycamore shine on a clear day

                    Back to Ichabod, coming up to this at dusk

                    and thinking you could get thru safely

This is so fitting...I'm sure Ichabod would feel right at home

 a gulch is a deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion. It may contain a small stream or dry creek bed and is usually larger in size than a gully. Sudden intense rainfall upstream may produce flash floods in the bed of the gulch

oh, then there is gully, copse , arroyo, wadi............... oh give me a break............by the way......it's a HOLLER!

last but not least

This guy just happened along and posed quite well.  They weren't this big when we used to ride in the hopper as it was being filled!!

FYI  the beans were not affected much by the drought but the corn stalks are short and the ears are even shorter and Bob says they only expect about 25% of the normal bushel per acre......that will never pay the mortgage on this monster!

Cammack AKA Majenica revisited

            When I was born we lived in a place very similar to this....

                          
               Now my sister lives within walking distance of 
                Cammack Station....how coincidental.

                     Next door was the competition gas/service station.

                            


 Ours was gas/grocery and we lived in back.

Supermarkets were the down-fall of this type of operation until 7-eleven revived the corner 'Stop & Go' and gas stations picked up on it.  Now they are more common than Starbucks!

 Cammack is truely Mayberry revisited or in my case Majenica.  Sadly our house/grocery/gas station burned down and no longer exists except in a picture sis' showed me.  Probably the only one we have.

 

Leaving Muncie I am off to the nostalgic covered bridges of Rockville, Indiana.

My Home Town

Back in my home town of Huntington for a visit with friends and a nostalgic look at where I grew up.

 

The motorhome needed a few maintenance items accomplished so I took it to a place where I knew I could get a fair result.  That meant spending a couple nights 'Boondocking'.  That is when you have no hook up to power, water, etc. and rely on the batteries, generator and holding tanks.  Good to do once in a while but I prefer a few luxuries when I 'rough it'!  Even the computer is reliant on batteries, thus the communication becomes less often, oh poor me!

Got a great chance to re-visit stomping grounds, talk to friends and relatives, and reminisce on the formative years.  For example a park close to home that had a sunken garden...

 

 and elsewhere a  creek flow through.  The creek was dammed and in the winter there was an ice skating rink. 

 

 I don't remember the gang involved, but a group of us found an entrance up stream where the ice was open at the creek bank and the water had receded from no rain or snow-fall for a time. 

 

  We were able to stoop and walk on the creek bed, underneath the ice and sneak down to where there were skaters up above us on the ice.  through the 8" ice we could see shadows and hear voices above. Sounds like "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and frankly felt that way.  Sometimes I wonder how I'm still alive!

Used a favorite local hang out as a 'meet and greet' so everyone would have an easy time finding me. 

 

 Rode my bicycle all around town and even took the motorcycle around to see the county.  Gotta admit, I just bummed around for a while. I sorta earned my keep helping my cousin get her house ready to rent.  A little déjà vu  for me.  My friends thought I needed a reminder so they got me this...

 

I'm back down to Muncie to see my sister's family then off to warmer nites.  I'm fighting frosty nites in Indiana and my blood says SOUTH!

Battleground

Left Wausau, Wisconsin on Saturday but didn't get an A.M. start due to I wasn't in a hurry.  Got about 75 mi. south of Wausau before to leaves seemed green again and not as far into fall.

Long trip to Muncie so I planned on two days drive. I made a special effort to avoid Chicago so I headed for Rockford staying at least 60 mi outside Chicago's heart.  But no, I still encountered a $3.00 toll that was unavoidable to get south.  As the sun set in orange glows of Chicago smog the moon was already up and Full and quite a spectacle of itself although it seemed awful early!

One nite in a truck stop just to say I'm roughing it then on to Indiana to wait for the trees to color up. 

 Drove all the way to Bloomington, Ill. before heading east and as it turns out that was cool because it took me on a route to Lafayette, Indiana where my old alma mater is.  I didn't stop or go by Purdue per say but I did stop and a favorite spot just north.

 

  It is the Tippecanoe Battle Ground memorial and a beautiful park of old growth White Oak and hardwoods not often available in this day and age.  Years ago we would go to the old time fiddler's convention here during the summer.  What a perfect setting for a bluegrass convention.

 

 You can read about the battle between Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Native American warriors associated with the Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (commonly known as "The Prophet") were leaders of a confederacy of Native Americans from various tribes that opposed U.S. expansion into Native territory. As tensions and violence increased, Governor Harrison marched with an army of about 1,000 men to disperse the confederacy's headquarters at Prophetstown, near the confluence of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers.  (wikipedia)

But I was interested in the TREES