Friday, 21 June 2019
Happy longest day of the year! I'm very glad to see it come. I still go to bed quite early - no later than 8:00 - and at that point there's still an hour and a half of sun-up, let alone daylight. I never used to be able to sleep unless it was dark but I'm learning.
Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of daylight, having had my fill of very long nights while I was in Alaska - but one can have too much of a good thing. Moderation in all things, right?
So it's good news that things are gradually starting to swing my way for a change. Very gradually. Like a-minute-a-day gradually. But it is swinging.
Lily is still crazy about Aunt Alice's gloves. It's still pretty funny.
 |
| today's route |
Ohio River Scenic Byway
I've picked this byway up in several places, and here it is again. It doesn't always run very close to the river, but it's certainly in the vicinity and pretty.
I'm seeing lots of wild day lilies, which is nice.
I passed a flock of sheared sheep in a field, reminding me I still haven't clipped Gracie.
In a completely different field I passed a flock of goats. A variety of farm animals around these parts.
 |
| Anhinga - common in Florida, e.g. |
I passed through the town of Hanover, established in 1809, which was really early for Indiana.
Driving into Madison, I passed the entrance to Clifty Falls State Park, where I'll be tonight; it's practically in the city of Madison.
I passed an enormous plant that only said IKEC. I learned later that stands for Indiana Kentucky Electrical Cooperative.
Madison
I'd learned before I left Austin that Madison is an old river town that still has many of the original houses and buildings. It was founded in 1810 on the Ohio River and was once one of the largest towns in Indiana. Those days are gone, but the buildings aren't. Madison's central area is the largest contiguous National Historic Landmark in the US.
The first thing I found, though, was the laundromat I wanted. I was lucky to find almost no one there when I first got there, so I could get started with no problem. The machines were old but worked just fine, I got clean clothes, the dogs got a walk around the neighborhood, and things started looking up.
The town has a lovely shady park that was originally the cemetery. Apparently it still is, though I didn't see any graves, but then the park is on several levels.
Even the tool sheds in this town are historic. This one at the edge of the park has signs explaining various things about Madison. I thought this one about its location was interesting.
 |
| 1913 tool shed |
 |
| one of the panels |
We stopped at the Broadway Fountain, which lives up to its reputation. www.nps.gov/madison/Broadway_Fountain It's right next to Trinity United Methodist Church, formerly a Methodist Episcopal church (their sign says). Built in 1873.
 |
| Broadway Fountain |
 |
| Trinity Methodist Church |
Madison has a very pretty public swimming pool, heavily patronized on this nice warm day. The pool, called Crystal Beach, was a WPA project. Across the street was a very pleasant riverwalk along the Ohio River, which was quite clearly at a higher level than usual.
 |
| Ohio R. covering the riverwalk |
 |
| part of Madison's riverwalk |
I liked Madison. Very small town, friendly people - I feel comfortable with all the old buildings that make me feel back in my childhood milieu (don't we all). And it's a real bonus for the town to have a state park practically inside the city limits.
Back in camp
When we got back I opened up all the windows and discovered, to my deep dismay, that the ants from the last park had apparently set up a new colony somewhere inside the walls of my little RV. I killed all the ones I could see, but you know ants - they kept coming.
On top of that, I seem to have been harboring a fruit fly nest and they all started hatching. That happened to us once in Momma's house, which is lucky because it keeps me from feeling unreasonably contaminated. I usually let fruit flies pretty much alone, but I killed all I could find of these to keep them from thinking this is a good place to try again next year, or next breeding season, or however often they reproduce.
But the ants are something I regard differently. Outside, I'll try hard to keep from stepping on them or disturbing their hills, but inside is my territory, not theirs, and they're fair game.
Except they can hide in walls and there were so many of them that the game stopped being fair.
Remembering what my cousin Angie's been teaching me, I went online to see if anybody maybe does pest control for RVs, or if any other RV folks had any good ideas for how to deal with this problem. Turns out a whole lot of people have had this problem, and I saw lots of advice of various kinds - everything from wash the dishes daily to Comet sprinkled around the outside to more serious bug remedies. Borax mixed with powdered sugar seems to be popular, though apparently potentially hazardous to us mammals. And there's a product called TERRO, that sounds like it's a commercial version of the borax-and-sugar solution.
I figured that for today I'd just keep killing everything I saw and keep my stuff sealed up as much as possible. Then tomorrow I'm going to Columbus, a decent-sized city, so I'll see what I can find in the stores there.
But yuck!
On a much lighter note, I saw an entire flock of those pretty bright yellow Blue-winged Warblers in the campground. As a reminder:
 |
| Blue-winged Warbler |
We're all having our problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment