The Weekend

 This was a beautiful weekend weatherwise...highs in the upper 60's and sunny.   It brought out the crowds at the Festival.  On Saturday, we went to Rockville which is like the center of the Covered Bridge Festival.  Rockville is the county seat and the courthouse sits on a square.  For two weeks out of every year, it is the epicenter of the Festival.  Bus tours of the covered bridges leave two or three times a day.  Some people are here to see the bridges and not shop!

One of the old doors of the courthouse.

A clock tower tops the courthouse.

The tents that surround the courthouse.

 We spent three hours walking around the square going into stores on the square and in the huge tent that surrounds three sides of the courthouse.  We were looking forward to having lunch from one of the many church booths that traditionally sit on the square. It seems that church ladies can really cook!  I always have broccoli cheese soup in a bread bowl and Carol gets gizzards.  I was not disappointed but Carol was.  The gizzards booth was not there.  A man told us that it had not been there for the last two years because the chicken processsing plant where the gizzards are purchased cannot get enough workers to process the chicken causing a shortage.  How sad and it seems a sign of our times!

After we left Rockville, we like to take the country road that goes through Marshall.  

This wooden arch spans is 51 feet over the main street in Marshall. It was constructed in 1921

Parke County has a large Old Order Amish community.  It is not unusual to see their buggies on the roads.  Here the old and new share the road.  The community must be growing because this year we have seen three new Amish schools in addition to the one we knew about.

We purchased three bundles of firewood at the campstore and Carol used this wagon to transport them to our car.  We had our first campfire of this camping trip tonight and cooked a foil packet of chicken and veggies.  It was good eating!

Sunday we went to Mansfield.  For all the years we have been attending the Festival, there is a bottleneck at the intersection of US 36 and State Highway 59 in Bellmore.  There was only a two-way stop sign and traffic really backs up trying to cross Highway 36 headed to Mansfield.  Finally, there is a four-way stop sign and traffic moves so much better.  I do not know why it took so long for the state to realize a simple four-way stop sign would solve the congestion problem.  It was a much needed change.

It is really dry here and driving on rock roads puts up a lot of dust.

Raccoon Creek flows through Mansfield.

Although this may look like a lot of tents, it is about half of what has normally be here.

These two dogs are waiting for their picture to be taken.

Plenty of shoppers for the Festival.

More pretty trees to see as we drove back to camp.  Again, we were able to spend about three hours at Mansfield.  That seems to be the limit our feet has put on our shopping time.  Back at camp we relaxed, read and napped.   Had another campfire and packet supper.  It is supposed to get down to 34 tonight and only up to 45 tomorrow.  Brrrr!