Indiana - Day 20 - Corydon

O'Bannon Woods State Park
Thursday, 20 June 2019

There are a lot of deer in this park, and on our early walk this morning I held onto both leashes together with both hands held against my chest for leverage, and I kept telling myself that NO MATTER WHAT, I will NOT let go of the leashes.  I said this to myself over and over and it turned out to be a good thing I did.

The dogs and I all saw the deer at the same time and both dogs raced after it and, although I thought of letting go, I knew it was NOT an option NO MATTER WHAT, so I didn't.  The dogs pulled me over and dragged me and luckily a tree stopped me, and I just lay there until they stopped pulling.  Not that it was a lot of improvement because they were still bouncing around like crazy and I was still on the ground in the mud, but I wasn't being dragged so it was progress.  And then bit by bit, still hanging onto both leashes with both hands, I managed to get up, thanks to the tree.

I'd already had a sore jaw for the last few days and had been opting for soft foods, and now I could add to that some sore muscles and dirty clothes.  But I held onto the leashes!

Despite all the excitement, I needed to move the RV today because I needed to empty my waste tanks, and because I needed to pay at the office for the 2 extra nights I'd asked them to reserve for me (last night and tonight).  So while I was moving I decided to go on into town.

Which is when I met with a TRULY unpleasant surprise.  A massive number of ants had decided to set up a colony in the little compartment that houses my power cord that connects to land.  For once I got lucky: when I unplug the power cord, it's so often wet and/or dirty I usually wear some old gloves my Aunt Alice used for working in the yard (she died in 1992 - they're very used - but waste not, want not).  So I was wearing them when I discovered millions of ants crawling all over the power cord and all around inside the little cubbyhole.  I scraped every ant I could possibly find out of that cubbyhole (and a lot of vegetable matter accumulated over the last 15 months) - which took a while, there were so many of them - and then scraped them off my gloves and my arms, and then stripped them off the power cord inch by inch as I coiled it back up inside the little compartment.

I think it was the rain as much as anything.  There were several ant hills near the campsite and I think the rain convinced the ants they didn't want to stay in the ground any more, which made my power cord a little highway for them to Higher Ground.  What a mess.

That was followed by some comic relief because I went back into the cabin and tossed the gloves behind the TV where they always live, and something on them absolutely thrilled Lily who started treating them like they were a new catnip toy.  She purred and rubbed on them and rolled on them and just generally went crazy.  I needed the laugh by that point.

today's route

The route is hard to see because I didn't go very far.  This park is only about 10 miles from Corydon (pronounced CORE-ee-done).  Of course, I got lost on the way, making a turn to the right when I should have gone straight.  You wouldn't think that with the online directions in 2 programs agreeing and that with looking at the online road and aerial maps it would be possible to turn the wrong way.  But reality at the road level just doesn't look like anything online.  At least, not for me.  Maybe this is just another manifestation of my lack of computer ability.

Anyway, I got there.

Corydon
Corydon was the first capital after Indiana became a state, and the original building is still there, which was the main reason I was going.

the 1st Indiana capitol

info re: capitol

They have tours, just not while I was there.

Corydon is a tiny town, but it's got all the basic town stuff.

I stopped at the only liquor store, taking up the only parking place in front of it, and noted the huge selection of bourbon (Kentucky is almost within sight range from here) and small selection of almost everything else.  It wouldn't have occurred to me I could tell where in the US I was by visiting a liquor store, but that seems to be the case.

The liquor store owner told me his dream was to rent an RV and drive to Alaska, which I encouraged him to do.

When I got back outside, there was a delivery van waiting for me to move so it could take my (one) parking place.  Like I said, a tiny town.

But it's got a history.

Side 1 - helping a fugitive

Side 2 - dying in the attempt

People (like me) who insist they would have helped the freedom-seekers on their way to safety tend to forget that the cost was so enormous that most people were deterred from doing it.  But sympathy doesn't get a person's freedom.

Think of what they were all risking - the ones who were fleeing slavery and the ones who were helping them.  I first started to get an inkling of the risk when I visited Harriet Tubman's memorial a while back.  But I'm gradually coming to realize that an inkling was all I had.  Such incredible courage.  And the person honored by this historical marker was a free black who risked much more than the white men for helping folks.  Incredible bravery.

Driving back
I saw a turtle in the smack middle of the road (standard 2-lane, no shoulder, curves) and stopped and put on my flashers and jumped out to carry it across.  At least, I hope it was going in the direction its body was aiming at, because that's where I took it.  Pretty.  Had yellow dots on its shell.

I passed a bison farm - saw maybe 8 or 9 in a pen.

I passed 4 donkeys at a different farm in a different pen.

Saw a deer at the edge of the road and stopped to watch, and he didn't get spooked but just leisurely walked across and into the bushes.  Dexter was riveted.

Back at the campground, I took the dogs back out and didn't have to deal with deer at this time of day, but - as an entirely different hazard - this campground has a separate section set aside for people camping with their horses.  They won't allow you to stay in that section if you don't also bring a horse with you.  They've got separate trails for the horses so, though I saw at least 5 campers in that section, I never saw a horse.  That didn't keep me from worrying about it, though.  The idea of walking the dogs and suddenly encountering a horse at the point where the horse path crossed our path was very worrying, both the dogs being even more insane about horses than they are about deer.  Much much more insane.  I got dragged because of a horse once too.