Indianapolis Children's Museum

Today we went to the Children's Museum in Indy.  It is a neat place.  My favorite area was the Terra Cotta Warriors that were on display.  It cost extra to see them so we didn't do that but there were interactive things to do and information about them.  This is the only place in the US that the warriors will be displayed. Hunter liked the science area of the museum and Papaw liked the benches!

It hasn't rained so we plan to have a fire tonight and roast hot days.  You can't camp without a fire, roasting hot days and eating s'mores.  Tomorrow, Jason and family are driving back to Turkey Run to pick up Hunter.  The boys' camping days are over for this year but we are staying until October 22.

Kids Day in Indiana

Friday Hunter came to Turkey Run to spend the rest of the weekend so we had both boys.  It was fun but for sure God knew what He was doing when He planned for kids to be born to younger people.  Our knees and legs don't work as well as they used to.  We took a hike at Shades State Park in the morning.  It was a neat trail with what seemed like a zillion steps down and up, in and out of a canyon.  Only Sandy hiked without complaining!   I did manage to take some interesting pictures.

Taking a rest at one of the few benches on the stairs.

Is there something interesting to look at in the woods or is this a more serious event?

Do you see Sandy?  Papaw is trying to hide behind the tree so he can scare the boys but unfortunately, Sandy spoiled the surprise.

In the afternoon we went to Hobson Farms.  It has a corn maze which Hunter and Papaw enjoyed while Keegan and I took part in other activities.  Keegan especially liked riding the corn train.  He rode it five times!  Around six o'clock Jason came to pick up Keegan and Hunter will be staying until Monday.  Hunter has made friends with some boys his age and they are having fun playing army in the canyon at the end of the campground.

On the Road

Yesterday we got back to camp at 4:00, ate supper and relaxed.  Keegan and I went to the "park" as Keegan calls the playground, played with Legos, cars, and a card memory game before we settled in to watch a DVD.  It was too damp to have a fire so no s'mores last night.  This morning it is still cool and damp but we are hoping it won't rain so we can take a hayride this evening and have a fire and s'mores.  We carved Keegan's pumpkin and took him to a covered bridge before we got on the road again to Decatur to pick up Hunter.  We will have both boys tonight and tomorrow.

Papaw and Keegan

Keegan with the pumpkin we carved.

Cox ford covered bridge.  The spots on the picture are raindrops.

Papaw, Keegan, and Sandy before walking across the bridge.

Keegan on the bridge.

The view from the bridge.

The road to the bridge.

Turkey Run 2014

Yesterday, October 8, 2014, our little caravan left Decatur headed east for our annual two-week camping trip to Turkey Run State Park, Indiana.  This is the seventh year we have stayed two weeks.   We had a beautiful "blood moon" lunar eclipse this morning.  Sandy and I enjoyed watching it as we walked this morning.  It seems like most eclipses happen in the middle of the night but this one was full around 5:30 a.m.

When we are loading the camper, Sandy makes sure she is near a vehicle.  She does not want to be left behind and we don't want to leave her behind either.  Carol drives the truck with the camper and Sandy and I follow behind in the car.  After we get the camper set up in our spot (#204), we park the truck and drive the car for the next two weeks.  It saves lots of money for gas!

This old motor inn is located on US 36 near the Illinois/Indiana state line.  It has never been open since we have been driving this road which has been at least 30-40 years.  In its hay day, it was probably filled nightly with travelers passing through the flat farmland of Central Illinois heading east and west.  There are several two unit cabins set back in the small wooded oasis.  I wanted to get a picture of this symbol of an era of travel long ago before someone comes in with a bulldozer and puts an end to it.

We had a cool but clear night but woke up to thick clouds.  Because there is no Internet near the park, I am posting this as we drive back to Decatur to pick up Keegan.  It will be his first camping trip with papaw and Memaw.  It is a good day for this drive because it is raining.  I hope the rain ends before this evening.    We would like to have a campfire and some s'mores!

Looking for Mr. Lincoln

Today we took Hunter on a road trip to Springfield.  Carol and I felt he was old enough to visit some of the Lincoln sites and begin to understand who Lincoln was and how Illinois played a part in the life of Abraham Lincoln.  Our first stop was only home Lincoln owned.  This home played an important part in Lincoln's life.  Three of his four children were born in this house; one died in it.  His political quest began here,  he heard that he was the Republican nominee for president, and that he had won the presidency in this house.  After lunch we stopped by the cemetery Lincoln, Mary, and three of their four sons are buried.  We also walked down to the first vault in which Lincoln was placed until the beautiful granite tomb was completed in 1871.

The dome of the capitol building.  Hopefully, we can make a tour on another day.

This was a campaign wagon used in a parade in Lincoln's day.  This is old meets new because this lady was sending a picture of this wagon to a friend on her phone.

Lunch time.

Day 19.5: The Final Word

We crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois at 3:00, into Macon County at 5:00, and home at 5:30.  We had driven 3600 miles on this trip.   It was 967 miles to Colorado and approximately the same for the return trip.  That means that we drove nearly 1500 miles in the two weeks we were in Colorado.  That was a lot of curving roads up into the mountains and down into canyons.    We did make two road trips to Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming and Carol went to Denver.  The average cost per gallon was $3.51.  Both the highest ($3.71) and lowest ($3.32) being in Nebraska.

I will wrap this up with a comment on rest areas.  These are very important to a traveler.  We found that the rest areas in Nebraska were both the best and worse.  They are the best because they were clean and almost always had a connection to the land they sat on through history.  On the negative side, if you are towing something, the parking is terrible.  The space is limited and it is one lane running along the edge of the stop.  Many times as we were driving by, we could see there would not have been room for us had we wanted to stop.  On another note, there is not one rest area between St. Joseph, Missouri and Decatur.  That is over 300 miles.

It is hard to see but these are wheels representing the hundreds of wheels that crossed Nebraska on the Oregon Trail on this very spot.  This was a history lesson at a rest area in Nebraska.

One of the first things we saw when we crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois was this farm.  It had a nice collection of windmills and I loved the display of the huge American flag.

Even corn fields are beautiful.

We left the wide open spaces of Nebraska and Wyoming and drove into Illinois and tree-lined roads.

Day 19 - Random Stories from the Traveler

We both had a restful night.  We actually slept until almost 7:00!  We left the Double Nickel at 8:00, filled up with gas at a small truck stop at this exit, and then headed east and home.  We left I-80 at Lincoln, to US 2 to I-29, then US 36 across the top of Missouri.  This part of Missouri is home to several famous people.  Walter Chronkite, John J. Pershing, and J.C. Penney were all born nearby and Walt Disney spent most of his childhood in this western part of US 36..  Also, Mark Twain was born on the east end of US 36 in Hannibal.

I am taking this driving time to get down some random thoughts.  I met some interesting dogs on this trip.  Wanda was an Australian Sheep Dog or so her parents thought.  They said she adopted them as a stray who showed up at their home.  They thought Wanda would be a perfect name since she wandered in one day.  She was very sweet. Winston was a small totally blind dog.  His parents told me that he was living in a shelter and needed a home so they adopted him.  They have another dog that helps keep Winston going the right way.  Yeti is a beautiful, sweet Samoyed.  Yeti has his own business card.  As you are petting him, his parent hands you a business card which  has his name, what breed of  dog he is, and thanks you for petting him.  The last dog is nameless because I only saw him pass us on the interstate.  He was riding on a tool box in the back of a pickup.  As the truck was moving 75 miles an hour, he was pacing back and forth on that box all the while keeping his balance. Below is a picture of that dog and his truck.

This campground must have felt like a safe haven to rabbits.  They were everywhere and did not seem  afraid.  Nearly everyday we would have one or two in our yard eating and resting under our picnic table.

Sandy and I enjoyed walking every morning and evening around the small pond at the camp.  From our site, around the pond, and back to camp was at least a mile.  It was especially beautiful in the early morning.  These pictures will help keep those walks in my memory.

This is the entrance to the trail.

The swans are waiting to take families around the pond.

These are just a few of the many wild flowers I saw as we walked.