Monday, 10 June 2019
I should have said something sooner about how pleasant France Park Campground has been. It's a county park, reasonably priced, with well-maintained grounds and wide campsites. The park is organized in smallish interconnected circles so there are lots of roads and trails for us to walk on. There are also plenty of chipmunks, and one has a hidey-hole at the base of the large tree at our campsite. Dexter checks it first thing as soon as I let him out the door, sticking his nose down into it. I think the first day we were here a chipmunk ran down there, so Dext has to check it every time now. So far, the chipmunks are winning.
Today the park is nearly empty and we could walk anywhere without being bothered or without bothering anyone. Makes me hate to get back on the road.
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| today's route |
The first part of our drive was through standard Indiana countryside - i.e. mostly flat farmland interspersed with small towns and local industries. For instance, we passed a local company that makes cement blocks and another that does tool and die casting.
We passed through Idaville, making me think of the old song, "Ida, sweet as apple cidah" (which is how my New England momma always pronounced it).
I saw a billboard advertising a local hardware company with the phrase: "It's So Much Mower." (Puns are good to liven up a drive.)
Lake Cicott, a small fishing lake by a village of the same name, had white caps on it, thanks to the very strong winds we were battling today.
We drove through the town of Monticello, where a sign told me that the Rotary meets on Thursdays at Brandywine. I really started to wonder just what state I was in. Monticello is the home of a shop called It's Just a Flesh Wound, where they do tattoos and piercings.
I passed a company called Hanenkratt Grain Co., and I wondered what kinds of grains were grown or sold here so I looked them up and got a shock. https://www.hanenkrattgrain.com/ I wandered around their website for a couple of minutes and learned that today's farmers have to be serious business people, knowledgeable about the stock market, and commodities and futures trading, and not just focusing on the health of their crops and the amount of rainfall they're getting.
I passed a house that had a daylight basement that had an entrance that looked just like the side door of the house, except the door opened below ground. Like a very fancy entrance to a cellar.
As I turned north I kept passing farm fields, in various stages from not planted at all to 1'-tall plants.
The sheep in this part of the state haven't been shorn yet. Sensible since today is very chilly and wet and windy, making me glad I haven't gotten Gracie's summer haircut yet.
I passed an enormous wind farm that seemed to be scattered across the lands of quite a few farmers. There must have been at least 4 dozen windmills, stretching across the land as far as I could see.
Among the oncoming traffic I counted 11 school buses, all apparently traveling together. School's out and I can't help but wonder what's going on that looks like they're transporting the entire population of several school districts somewhere.
In this part of the state I'm seeing a lot of Wisconsin and Illinois and Iowa license plates; only 1 from Michigan and none from Canada.
Crown Point Historic Jail and Courthouse
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| historic courthouse and jail |
But its real claim to fame was that this was the jail that John Dillinger escaped from in 1934, using a "gun" he'd carved out of wood.
That round barn museum I went to a few days ago had several articles from the local newspaper about Dillinger's escape, but I'm afraid they'll be hard to read from my photos. Still, I'll add them here, in case you want to try. Their focus seems to be on dispelling some of the myths that naturally grew up around this escapade.Hammond's Church Row
I'd read somewhere that this suburb of Gary had a street named Hohman St., that is informally known as "Church Row." I know it's informal because I didn't find much of anything when I tried searching under that name, but I figured it out all the same. And those who call it that aren't kidding.
This road runs from I-94 (which runs across far northern Indiana from Ohio into Illinois) northward up toward Lake Michigan. I only drove about half that far, and in maybe 12 blocks I passed (in this order): Trinity Lutheran, two separate Community Church of God in Christ congregations, a Jewish synagogue, a Greek church, a Christian Life Center, a Lutheran church, a Methodist church, a Presbyterian church and a Catholic church. Then I turned onto a side street and passed an ENORMOUS Baptist church (it has 5 or 6 separate very large brick buildings), an All Saints Church, and the Word Made Flesh Ministries. I can't for the life of me figure out why there'd be so many churches all in one small area, though I know where I'd never want to be around noon on a Sunday.
I found a nice local grocery chain called Strack & Van Til.
I passed a White Castle Burgers, advertising "Fried Pickles are back - get them before they're gone!" I've always thought of fried pickles as being strictly southern, but I've seen them advertised at several places up here.
Back on the road
On my way to the campground I passed a business called The Duke of Oil, and I was so tired it took me several minutes to realize what I'd seen.
There are 2 campgrounds surrounding the Indiana Dunes, one in a state park and the other in a federal park. The governments are trying to protect the dunes by controlling access to them, and the state campground where I'm staying is a good illustration of the pressure the dunes are facing.
When I tried to make a reservation for this campground, I quickly found that almost all of their campsites are booked for almost all of the month - and probably the summer, I'd guess. In fact, I planned my travel route around the dates I could get 2 nights together at a campsite. When I got here, I saw a sign saying the campground was full, and this is a Monday, when campgrounds usually start to empty out. Weird.
It occurred to me during the drive today that the 4th of July holiday is coming up in a few weeks and, judging from the trouble I had last year, I'd need to start trying now to get reservations. Here at the campground, I looked up the KOAs in Michigan (I like staying at KOAs in the beginning of each month because I know David can send me mail to them, and I know basically what to expect). Turns out, any of them with water access (and Michigan has a lot of water access) are completely full already. I finally found one that isn't on a body of water that still had some room left. I booked a site for nearly a week, because the 4th is on a Thursday this year, meaning unless it rains really hard, everybody's going to take a very long weekend. But at least I don't have to worry about a spot.
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