2019-9
Indiana
 |
| Scales Lake Park |
campground: Scales
Lake Park, Booneville Indiana. A county park. Saturday: $28
full-hookup. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: $21.00. Most campsites are
very close together. New paved road in campground. Site 1, which I
got is the only campsite with plenty of space and no other campers
next to it.
 |
| Earl Park, Indiana |
Campground: Earl
Park. Earl Indiana. A City park, $15 for RV’s. Electric and
water. Power is on telephone poles, 110 amp, 30 amp, and 50 amp but
you have to check out each box to see if it has 30 or 50 amp, most
are 110. Grassy open sites, not really designated sites, just pull
up onto the grass near a power pole and water. Nice park, lots of
sites available no limit on stay.
Weak Verizon signal,
4-5 over the air TV stations. Town is pretty empty except for an
American Legion Post (open at 4pm) can get in as a guest.
Campground: Minit
Mart, Menona IL. $20 full-hook ups. Restaurant, fuel, campsite,
what more could you ask for.
 |
| Gas Station, Burger King, Mini Mart and Rv sites |
Distance Traveled:
210 miles
Indiana,
checkerboard farmland for endless miles
I put on a few more
miles than normal, as I will be driving through relatively flat farm
country on US-41/150 and Indiana 63 merging back onto US 41. Pretty
much a straight road heading north, much of it 4 lane divided highway
with grassy median and easy access to small local gas stations along
the way, which I use for a coffee break and restroom as I have a
large fuel tank and don’t really need to stop for fuel with my new
truck Big Blue.
The closer I got to
Earl Indiana, the more I saw large electric windmills generating free
power, well until the utilities charge for it of course. So
apparently this is a fairly windy area. The community next door to
the windmills (Kentland) has been deneighed the ability to put up
those big windmills due to there being a small airstrip used by crop
dusters mainly. The added income from having those windmills on
farmland is a huge loss to the farmer and that added backup funds for
when the crops don’t make it. I suggested they move the airport,
he said they tried, but it didn’t work out.
 |
| small hamlet of Earl Park |
 |
| American Legion, Earl Park |
 |
| Earl park city park, campsite for a couple nights |
Enjoyed leaving the
heavily forested southern part of the state and getting into wide
open farm land. Interesting that so many farm fields were empty. Is
it already a second growing season up here? Not being a farmer, I
haven’t a clue. Well you know I had to ask a local proprietor
about this. He told me the farmers were unable to plant their crops
this spring due to excessive rain. They are just now planting and
trying to catch up. I can see some of the farmland with small shoots
coming up just in the last couple of day. Late for planting.
Evansville Indiana
Angel Mounds State
Historic Site.
 |
| Angel Mounds the Museum artifacts found onsight |
 |
| trade items between Indians throughout the Americas |
 |
| the three major mound building areas |
 |
| only one mound has been completely excavated |
Before I left the
Booneville area, I drove over to Evansville to pick up my new eye
drop prescriptions and visit another Native Indian Mound site. This
is about the 5th or 6th Indian Mound site I’ve
visited and each one provides me with a little more information on
the unique culture of the Mound builders.
This site is one of
the best preserved mound sites since it wasn’t destroyed by farmers
bulldozing the sites for farming. The main mound is quite large and
I hope some of the pictures are able to show that. The overall site
is quite large and they recreated a section of the stockade that the
Indians built to surround the mound area for protection. Building it
with tree logs, woven branches and then covered with clay, it would
have made quite an imposing settlement to visitors and traders.
Only one of the
mounds was excavated the largest one has not been dug up by the
archaeologists. What a great way to learn about our countries
history by visiting sites like this.
 |
| Angel Mounds surrounding lands making up the complex |
 |
| largest of the mounds |
 |
| recreation of the stockade |
 |
| a stockade similar to this recreated one would have completely surround the mound complex |
Distance Traveled:
109 miles
Illinois
The straight as an
arrow country roads are a bit rough driving as I pass through mile
after mile of farmland. To the point that my entertainment unit
almost came crashing down while being bounced around. Fortunately I
was able to fix the problem after going to a good Ace-hardware store
and getting a bunch of screws to fasten it back onto the wall. I
also had previously installed a couple of braces between the
entertainment unit and fireplace, which helped it from completely
falling off the wall.
That’s life in a
trailer that has to be designed to travel under earthquake and wind
conditions the average house only has to deal with maybe a couple
times. An RV encounters that type of stress every day it’s on the
road. 65 mph winds, and bouncing around on rough roads like it’s
going through earthquake country.
I arrived in
Illinois the same time-frame as my sister Dorothy and Kelly and
family arrived as well to visit with daughter K…. I’m not allowed
to use her name as I hurt her feelings a couple years ago and I’ve
been disowned. We all make mistakes and I made a big boo boo of one.
But on with my adventures and I’m sure Dorothy and Kim/family are
enjoying themselves as much as I am.
Lock 14 and Wodospad Falls
 |
| boat tour, I missed going on it |
History, a lock, a
canal and President Lincoln. There is so much history to encounter
as I travel around the country. Today I drove over to Lasalle
Illinois to visit a water falls and lock 14 on the canal. Lincoln,
his wife Mary and Robert Todd and Edward all took a ride from Chicago
to LaSalle on a canal packet. They transferred to a steamboat bound
for Peoria and then a stagecoach for Springfield. So during my brief
stay, viewing the old lock 14, I was standing on ground that Lincoln
probably walked on before transferring to that steamboat. You can’t
get much closer to history than that.
My next stop was to
Wodospad Falls. I chose to go down a narrow road, past a golf course
and homes, becoming a dirt lane ending above the falls and bridge. I
think I could have gone into The Mathiessen State Park/Fort to
access it as well. But my route was to stay the least the most
adventuresome from my point of view. The parking area was congested
and full up, but I backed into the trail leading to the restrooms.
Ok, I might have made it a bit difficult for folks to get to them,
but I carved out the spot long enough to visit the falls.
By the way, LaVon,
there are at least three water falls close by for exploring. Oglesby Il.
Of course I was
wearing a new pair of sneakers rather than my old grungy ones. Not
knowing the only way to view the falls completely is to walk along
the river bed up to the falls. I was up for the challenge and it was
an easy one overall. Took my socks and shoes off and walked bare
foot through the shallow rushing water. The river bed is solid
smooth rock and was not slippery. Of course I was cautious as I was
carrying my Canon Camera and my Moto Z3 phone, both worth a
considerable amount of money. Though I hardly gave that much thought
as I splashed my way up stream to the best viewing spots for taking
pictures. Had a nice chat with a fellow photographer as I took gobs
of photos.
Sure wish my good
friend LaVon could have been here with me as she enjoys waterfalls
even more than I do. Though this one was like being full immersed in
the experience. And some kids actually went right under the
waterfalls with the water crashing down on them as they laughed and
got their pictures taken.
 |
| the only way to view the fall fully is to walk along the river bed up to the falls |
 |
| off with the shoes, it's time to walk the river bed a solid rock bottom quiet smooth, but not slippery |
 |
| one of my favorite shots of the falls |
Well I guess this
post is getting a bit long so I’ll end it here with the next stop
being Wisconsin and Northern Michigan to visit with my sister Ann and some of her children, now all adults of course.
No comments:
Post a Comment