Wednesday, 26 June 2019
Remember I'd mentioned Lily's brief love affair with Aunt Alice's gloves? Well, it hadn't occurred to me there might be repercussions so it was quite a surprise to me when I was wearing them to coil up the power cord and wiped a bug off my face - and got a faceful of cat hair. Of course Lily's shedding a lot, and the gloves must have acted as a magnet for her hair, to be released when they found another surface - my face. I kept feeling it on my face for a while after that, but it gave me a laugh.
 |
| today's route |
And I mapped a route that would take me through the main part of town, over to the campus, and then on to Elkhart.
I should say all the photos today have come off the internet. I was never in a position to take pictures without going to a lot more trouble than I thought it was worth, what with the traffic and trying to keep my bearings and all.
The drive northwest
In these country areas where I've spent much of the month, I often come to what I've come to think of as an Indiana intersection: a 4-way stop with fields at each corner and flat land running to the clumps of trees in the middle of sections of fields. Like in the beginning of Hoosiers, Gene Hackman stops at one of those intersections and he gets out of the car to try to see which way to go but doesn't see anything but flat fields. (I do too spend time on things other than watching movies; these 2 just happen to relate to Indiana.)
The small town of Markle has a happy face on its water tower.
Considering all the agriculture in this state, I've been surprised to find so much industry too. A lot of car plants, chemical plants, and agribusiness-related plants.
I got stopped at a RR crossing right at the beginning of a train that had a lot of tanker cars on it. After staring vacantly for a bit, I started to notice that some of the cars said what was in them, and it wasn't always good. Several said they contained ethylene oxide (inhalation hazard! they said), and several had 50% sodium hydroxide. But there were also many cars of corn syrup. Several flatbeds were piled high with car or truck chassises (what's the plural?). I'm spending a lot of time on this trip seeing how goods move in America, thanks to the semis and the railroads.
I passed a farm with one of those yellow caution signs saying "Percheron Crossing."
I drove about 20 miles along Route 9 and learned it's called Highway of Vice Presidents. This was too obscure for me so I looked it up and learned we've had 5 US vice presidents from Indiana and 3 of them came from towns along Route 9: Thomas Hendricks from Shelbyville, Thomas Marshall from Columbia City, and Dan Quale from Huntington. So regarding the 2 you haven't heard of: Thomas Hendricks was VP under Grover Cleveland, and Thomas Marshall was VP under Woodrow Wilson. Marshall was also the only sitting VP who was the target of an assassination attempt (which I find seriously weird).
 |
| Whitley County Courthouse |
And clearly Columbia City was the place to be right now because one of the blocks alongside the courthouse was blocked off for rides for a carnival. Looked like a lot of fun is happening this weekend.
Down the road I passed through the town of Warsaw, "Orthopedic Capital of the World." A claim sufficiently startling enough that I looked it up and learned that DePuy Manufacturing, the company that made the first orthopedic device in the world, is located there, and that several competitive firms have also located there (probably a skilled labor pool). That first orthopedic device, by the way, was a splint made of wire mesh and/or wood, which just shows what a long way orthopedics has come. (Even the spelling has evolved since I first learned to spell it.)
Warsaw also says it's the City of Lakes (not an exclusive claim but reasonable: it's located amid 3 lakes).
South Bend
My carefully researched and written-out route through town was derailed almost immediately. I knew I was supposed to drive up Rt. 31, which would become Business Rt. 31/Michigan St., which appeared to be a main artery through town to Notre Dame and would give me a look at some of it. The trouble was that I'd had a hard time convincing the online programs to let me go this route, so I didn't trust all the details - such as, how many miles to go to where. So when I saw a highway exit sign saying Bus. Rt. 31/Michigan St., I took it, even though it came sooner than I'd expected.
Even then I'd have been okay, but I was supposed to go straight off the highway to get on it, and instead I turned right, thinking that was it, which it wasn't I discovered when I saw a street sign. So then my top priority was finding a place to stop, walk the dogs, have some lunch and regroup. I found a church parking lot with a little parking offshoot from its main lot, and we settled in there. The regrouping consisted of looking at an aerial photo of South Bend, finding the lot corner we were stopped in (so small I almost didn't find it), and figuring out how to get to Bus. Rt. 31 and where it'd take me if I started here instead of farther in town. Since I wanted to see South Bend, I figured this road was just going to show me more of it than I'd intended, so that's where we went.
But by then I'd lost track of the careful mileage between points (Michigan St. is packed with rotaries, for instance, so it was hard to figure out which ones my directions mentioned). I ended up passing streets that I recognized the names of without knowing whether to turn on them and what I'd find if I did. But I'd seen during the regroup that Bus. Rt. 31 would take me right past a lake on the edge of Notre Dame's campus, so I thought maybe from there I could see the famous dome of the administration building, which was what I was aiming for.
Driving through South Bend I saw a big sign proclaiming The World's Largest Chocolate Store. Turns out the South Bend Chocolate Co. isn't the only one to make that claim, but I hear they've got a really big place. Some other time I'd really like to stop and visit.
I passed several public buildings that let me know South Bend's been around for a while.
 |
| North Pumping Station |
 |
| Morris Performing Arts Center |
The pumping station, built 1912, still pumps water for the city's water supply.
 |
| South Bend Civic Theater |
 |
| Main Building, built 1879 |
Michigan St./Bus. Rt. 31 went just where I expected it to go, but I wasn't able to see Notre Dame's dome (shown at right). Even if I hadn't been distracted by the traffic and the other things I was seeing, I still wasn't likely to see it because I drove by a lot of trees that were probably planted by that lake by campus which would likely have screened the view. Today was a bright sunny day so I thought that dome might be gleaming brightly enough to be seen from a distance. And maybe so, but not from my vantage point.
On that west side of campus I passed by St. Mary's College and Holy Cross College. I saw a sign at an entrance to the campus saying the University of Notre Dame was founded by the Congregation of Holy Cross, all of which left me to feel that Catholics seem to play a large role in this town.
I passed multiple signs directing traffic to the appropriate parking lots for football games. Those signs seem to be permanent and not put up just for the games, which won't start for several more months. They have separate parking areas based on the kind of seats people have bought and whether they're driving RVs - I'm guessing they've made special provision for RV parking because people use them for tailgating now. Used to, tailgating meant pick-up trucks and people's car trunks. Hard to keep up with the times, sometimes.
Of course I saw a Rockne Dr.
Mishawaka
I'd never heard of this small town immediately next door to South Bend, but its buildings tell me it's old. Actually, I looked it up and learned it's only 2 years younger than South Bend (1831 vs. 1833). These are some of the buildings I saw there.
 |
| Mishawaka High School |
 |
| Beiger Mansion |
The high school has 2 wings that you can't see in this photo; they're the same size as the main building, which was built in 1924.
 |
| Mishawaka 1st Presbyterian Church |
The church was built in 1888 and has a bell tower that can be seen from the outskirts of town (I noticed).
All this for a town that has only 48,000 residents.
Actually, Mishawaka has another claim to fame, which is the New York Central Toys and Trains Shop. I saw it as I passed by and really wanted to stop, but it was already nearly 2:00 and I was tired and wanted to get to the campground. Maybe another time.
Elkhart
Elkhart is another town I've wanted to see just because I've heard of it, though not from Katharine Hepburn. I've known about it for many years as the center of the RV manufacturing world, including the one I bought. I didn't know if I'd have a chance to go see any of its attractions before my month is up but did want to drive through town and get a view of it.
Once again the online routing programs didn't want to send me there, but I insisted and picked out a grocery store to go to. So I did get a look at some of it but am not sure I'm much enlightened. Actually, Elkhart seems to have 2 parts, as so many cities do: rich and poor. At first I came through the old-and-tired part, where I saw lots of new building and renovations but also lots of decay, so it was hard to tell what's here.
Once I'd left the grocery store (where the clerk told me she loved living there, spent most of her life there except for a few years down in Florida) and kept driving east, I came upon the Elkhart River, which may be the town's divider (forget railroad tracks as a divider - there are too many of them). Across the river, the road I was on continued to follow the river, which at first I thought was a lake. But the lake kept going on and on, and then narrowed to river-size, which made me realize what I was actually seeing. And all along it were beautiful houses and trees, all built before 1950 and many of that brown brick I see up here but not so much in Texas. Really pretty area.
Later I saw something saying Elkhart's a happening kind of place, and I'm willing to believe it even though neither of the 2 views I had - of building and decay, and of riverfront wealth - seem to fit that description.
The final drive
I'd been making decent time on Rt. 120 - slowing for towns and up to 55 in rural areas - when suddenly all eastbound traffic began a stop-and-slow pattern that went on for miles and miles. We'd move along slowly, then suddenly stop for no reason I could see. This went on for a long time until finally I saw up ahead one of those signal cars that usually have a sign on them saying "follow me" for going through construction areas. I couldn't read the sign and I couldn't see a construction area, and we kept on with the go-slow-and-stop-and-go-slow routine until then I noticed cars up ahead were pulling over to pass on the 2-lane road and I thought maybe the follow-me car had pulled over for folks to go around. But that still wasn't it, I discovered when I got up there too. The sign on the car said "wet paint - striper ahead." It was warning us to avoid the paint the machine was putting on the road up ahead. And what the stop-and-slow had been about was apparently people waiting until they could get to a place where they could pass both the signal car and the striper machine. I found when it was my turn to pass that the striper machine was actually quite a way ahead of the signal car, which was making passing harder. But if I were going to be in Indiana longer I'm sure I'd be glad to have the stripes painted clearly on the road. It wasn't newly paved, it was just old enough that the striping had worn off.
I passed 2 houses with driveways guarded by stone statues. One had one of those seated stone lions - but only one lion (don't know if they'd just wanted only one or if the other got broken - couldn't tell); the other house had 2 stone geese, one on either side of the driveway. Actually, I'm not sure the geese aren't as much of a deterrent as a lion would be. But I figure those folks have a sense of humor.
And so back to where I first started Indiana and back to the site I had before. Felt comfortable after all those nights of moving around to a different place.
Actually, Mishawaka has another claim to fame, which is the New York Central Toys and Trains Shop. I saw it as I passed by and really wanted to stop, but it was already nearly 2:00 and I was tired and wanted to get to the campground. Maybe another time.
Elkhart
Elkhart is another town I've wanted to see just because I've heard of it, though not from Katharine Hepburn. I've known about it for many years as the center of the RV manufacturing world, including the one I bought. I didn't know if I'd have a chance to go see any of its attractions before my month is up but did want to drive through town and get a view of it.
Once again the online routing programs didn't want to send me there, but I insisted and picked out a grocery store to go to. So I did get a look at some of it but am not sure I'm much enlightened. Actually, Elkhart seems to have 2 parts, as so many cities do: rich and poor. At first I came through the old-and-tired part, where I saw lots of new building and renovations but also lots of decay, so it was hard to tell what's here.
Once I'd left the grocery store (where the clerk told me she loved living there, spent most of her life there except for a few years down in Florida) and kept driving east, I came upon the Elkhart River, which may be the town's divider (forget railroad tracks as a divider - there are too many of them). Across the river, the road I was on continued to follow the river, which at first I thought was a lake. But the lake kept going on and on, and then narrowed to river-size, which made me realize what I was actually seeing. And all along it were beautiful houses and trees, all built before 1950 and many of that brown brick I see up here but not so much in Texas. Really pretty area.
Later I saw something saying Elkhart's a happening kind of place, and I'm willing to believe it even though neither of the 2 views I had - of building and decay, and of riverfront wealth - seem to fit that description.
The final drive
I'd been making decent time on Rt. 120 - slowing for towns and up to 55 in rural areas - when suddenly all eastbound traffic began a stop-and-slow pattern that went on for miles and miles. We'd move along slowly, then suddenly stop for no reason I could see. This went on for a long time until finally I saw up ahead one of those signal cars that usually have a sign on them saying "follow me" for going through construction areas. I couldn't read the sign and I couldn't see a construction area, and we kept on with the go-slow-and-stop-and-go-slow routine until then I noticed cars up ahead were pulling over to pass on the 2-lane road and I thought maybe the follow-me car had pulled over for folks to go around. But that still wasn't it, I discovered when I got up there too. The sign on the car said "wet paint - striper ahead." It was warning us to avoid the paint the machine was putting on the road up ahead. And what the stop-and-slow had been about was apparently people waiting until they could get to a place where they could pass both the signal car and the striper machine. I found when it was my turn to pass that the striper machine was actually quite a way ahead of the signal car, which was making passing harder. But if I were going to be in Indiana longer I'm sure I'd be glad to have the stripes painted clearly on the road. It wasn't newly paved, it was just old enough that the striping had worn off.
I passed 2 houses with driveways guarded by stone statues. One had one of those seated stone lions - but only one lion (don't know if they'd just wanted only one or if the other got broken - couldn't tell); the other house had 2 stone geese, one on either side of the driveway. Actually, I'm not sure the geese aren't as much of a deterrent as a lion would be. But I figure those folks have a sense of humor.
And so back to where I first started Indiana and back to the site I had before. Felt comfortable after all those nights of moving around to a different place.
No comments:
Post a Comment