Indiana - Day 21 - Madison

Clifty Falls State Park, Madison
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

Today I was aiming for 2 things: the town of Madison and any laundromat I could find in the town of Madison.  Being dragged through the mud did nothing to improve my wardrobe, now that my only hooded jacket and my only pair of jeans that fit are mud-colored.  Conveniently, Madison has a state park almost right in town, and it was a park I wanted to visit.

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 a field that had 6 big vultures in the middle of it, one with its wings stretched out like an Anhinga getting the sun to dry them.  Impressive wing span.

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

Just as well I had something pretty to sustain me because this campground was absolutely packed (sunny June weekend).  Kids and bicycles and balls everywhere, sending Gracie into a total panic, making it impossible to get her outside long enough to pee, poor thing. 

We're all having our problems.

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.

Indiana - Day 19

O'Bannon Woods State Park
Wednesday, 19 June 2019

Campground life
I just had to rest and rain was predicted and Wednesdays are usually light days at campgrounds, so I decided today was a stay-in-place day.  I spent most of the day figuring out where I was going next and catching up on my blog, except I didn't get caught up, obviously.

The air was so full of moisture this morning that on our second morning walk it felt like I was swimming instead of walking.

I saw an older woman - she looked like my mom did when she was in her 80s - going from the restrooms to her camper.  She was using a cane and acted like she actually needed it for balance.  But she had to test every step because there was so much moisture in the ground she couldn't always put the stick down and expect it to support her.  Not a hazard I'd ever thought of for camping while elderly.

The woodpeckers showed up again.  I'm certain there were 3 of them.  I think the males and females look pretty much the same, but the young ones don't so this wasn't a family group I was seeing.  Just beautiful to watch them fly.

Serious bugs also showed up.  I think they were gnats, but they were bigger than Texas gnats so I'm not sure.

Several times today we had downpours, but when the sun came out it was really hot.  And humid.

Indiana state parks
The state parks here are almost all very well cared for.  They're staffed and the staff are pleasant and helpful.  The price for weeknights is usually pretty good (it varies from one park to another but is usually around $25), but it gets knocked up to around $30+ for weekends, which is close to the cost of private campgrounds.

The irritating thing about them, though, is that they also charge an admission fee to the park, separate from the camping fee.  In other states, the admission fee is waived if you're camping, but not in Indiana.  And that fee for out-of-staters ranges from $9 to $12.  They say it's just a one-time fee - you don't have to keep paying every time you leave the park and come back - but you have to pay at each park.

You can buy an annual pass for $65, but when I first stayed at a state park I wasn't sure if I'd be staying often enough to make it worth my while to buy the pass.  By the time I realized how well-run and conveniently located they are, I'd already spent enough on entrance fees to make me irritated.  So if you're coming to Indiana, it's something to consider.

The thing is, there just aren't as many private campgrounds as you might expect, which is why the state parks start looking so attractive.  In some areas, they're almost the only game in town.

Indiana license plates

the newest official plate

previous official plate

official utility vehicle plate - except I've seen some on SUVs

typical specialty plate

Indiana - Day 18 - Lincoln City

O'Bannon Woods State Park, Corydon
Tuesday, 18 June 2019

Shakamak State Park is a very pleasant campground, but I unfortunately have no wifi signal and no phone signal here.  And since I had a substantial drive ahead, I left fairly early.

today's route

Driving south
Because I didn't have the benefit of the internet last night or this morning, I was left to my own devices (thank goodness for AAA maps) and chose what looked like a straightforward route.  And except for another detour and some stops on imaginary shoulders to regroup, it was.  I drove through a lot of farm country this morning.

There was water, or evidence of water, everywhere thanks to yesterday's heavy rain.  I passed one field that was on a slope (yes, they have slopes in Indiana) and it looked like the farmer had planned around the rivulets that probably form with each rain and had planted the crop only within a certain distance of the path of the rivulet.

Driving through so much corn made me wonder what percentage of US corn is grown here in Indiana, so I looked it up.  What I found was something I thought more interesting.   www.indystar.com/2019/06/10/indiana-farmers-behind-corn-planting

When I say I saw standing water in the fields, I really mean it.  I got stopped at a road construction site so had time to take this photo:

You can see why Indiana farmers are having so much trouble getting their crops in.

As I moved south I noticed first slopes, then hills, and realized southern Indiana was like southern Ohio.  After so much time in flat land, the hills come as a relief in more ways than one.

We made a rest stop in a town called Loogootee.  Really.  I looked it up and the only explanation I can find doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  Per wikipedia, it's most likely a mashup of the names of the town's land owner (Gootee) and the engineer of the 1st train through town (Lowe).  I'm not buying it.  Nobody pronounces Lowe as loo, even in the early 1800s.  And the trains were certainly important to settlement of the area, but naming the town after the train's engineer?  Why not the train's owner?  So who knows, is the answer.

I saw a sign that said Cornish Irish Heritage Center.  At least, that's what I thought it said, which I thought was really odd, which is why I looked it up.  And apparently it said Corning Irish Heritage Center, honoring the Irish immigrants who settled the town called Corning.  I liked my way better.

Some of the corn I'm passing is now 3' high.  Other fields are barely planted.

I saw a herd of cows in a field - no people anywhere around - all heading to a gate.  I knew they were headed there because some of them were already there.  And I saw a calf running after its mom up ahead - really cute.  But I wouldn't have thought this was a regular time for anything - it was only about 10:30 or so in the morning - so I couldn't figure out why they'd all be headed for the gate.

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial
In 1816 when Abe was 7, his father left Kentucky where they'd been living and went up to Indiana to check things out.  Finding good farming country, he went back and gathered up his wife and 2 kids (Abe had an older sister Sarah) and their belongings and moved north.  According to the museum here, lots of Kentuckians were moving to Indiana due to Kentucky's land laws that were costing some people their land.

Thomas, Abe's father, was known for his physical strength, his honesty and his integrity.  He was also a mighty good storyteller.  Abe learned a lot from him, clearly.

Two years after they got to Indiana, Abe's mother Nancy died of milk sickness.  This sounded odd to me but it was very common back then.  A plant called white snakeroot grows (or grew, maybe still does) in the Ohio River Valley.  Cows eat it.  The plant contains a poison that kills the cows but, before they show signs of illness, they produce milk that humans drink.  Or maybe the human has killed and eaten the cow.  And humans get just as sick as the cows and get just as dead as the cows.  And this is what killed Nancy.  Abe's sister Sarah was just 11 but had to assume all the duties her mom had been doing because Thomas and Abe were earning money.

Abe was 9 then, but he was big and strong for his age and the family needed the money.  Abe's cousin Dennis moved in with them because his family had also been victims of the milk sickness.

A year later, Thomas went back to Kentucky and married Nancy's cousin, called Sally, who was a widow with 3 children.  She was a good mother to Abe, uniting the 2 families and encouraging him to read.  She gave him books, one of which was called Lessons in Elocution.  He acquired biographies of Washington and B. Franklin and learned what had caused the American Revolution.

Abe worked hard but he also spent time at Gentry's store, listening to neighbors discuss issues of the day.  Gentry, also a farmer, hired Abe and his son Allen to take a flatboat down the river to Louisiana to find a market for his produce.  While they were there, they came across a slave market - the first time Abe had seen anything like this.  His parents were anti-slavery, but seeing people being bought and sold was a shock to him.  They came back by steamboat, another big experience.

Abe, known to be good with an axe, chopped wood for the steamboats to earn more money.  Once he was asked to take some people out to meet the steamboat, and that gave him an idea.  He built his own rowboat and started taking people out regularly to catch the steamboat.  The local ferry company took Abe to court, claiming he didn't have a license to take folks across the river.  Abe argued to the judge that he wasn't taking anybody across the river, he was only taking them to the center of the river.  The judge agreed; Abe won his first court case.

Abe's sister Sarah died in 1828 during childbirth.  She and Abe had been really close all their lives and he was devastated by yet another loss.

Two years later, the family moved to Illinois - they'd heard there was better soil, and the milk sickness was returning.  Lincoln lived in Illinois until he became president.  But it's interesting to see how much of who he was to become had its roots in these 14 years in Indiana.

There's nothing left in Indiana that relates to the family's life here.  Even Nancy's grave is lost with time.  But this memorial was built in the 1940s because Indiana wanted something to show what Lincoln meant to them.

There's not really a lot here.  There's a memorial for his mother Nancy, who was buried somewhere here on this property.  And there's a plaque to mark the site of the cabin they lived in.  They've got a little film reenacting his boyhood.  Like that.  But none of the photos is original, for instance.  None of the artifacts belonged to him or his family.  Instead, they've constructed a memorial and an explanation of the time he spent in Indiana, which makes sense.  And because my opinion of Lincoln is about as high as it can get for a human being, I'm glad I came.

The facing sections are carved to illustrate periods of Lincoln's life.  I think this was a WPA project.  I'm putting these in chronological order, not in the order they're displayed.

1809-1816

1816-1830

1830-1861

1861-1865

"And now he belongs to the ages."

And here we see the passage of time.

1846 - earliest known photo

August 23, 1860

November 8, 1863

March 6, 1865

He was killed April 15th.

Back on the road
Just a few miles away is an establishment called Dr. Ted's Musical Marvels, and I'd intended to stop and visit.  But by this time I was tired and still had a bit of a drive to yet another campground so decided that'd have to be one of the things I see when I come back to Indiana.  But you can take a look.   http://www.drteds.com/

Clouds were starting to look really quite tornado-ish for a while, which worried me quite a bit.  But I kept going and found with relief that my path was taking me out of theirs.

And I was greeted at the new campground by several Red-headed Woodpeckers, which I've never seen before but are completely unmistakable.

This is obviously not my photo, but this is what they looked like.  The broad white band near the end of the wings spreads out when he flies and, with his all-white breast, it almost looks like a white bird is flying.  And that red head is really red, especially if he's in any sun.  Just stunning.

Indiana - Day 17 - Vincennes

Shakamak State Park, Jasonville
Monday, 17 June 2019

today's route

As I drove through Crawfordsville this morning, I thought you'd never know it's summer from looking at the town.  Despite being situated on a river, with people in the campground carrying around canoes and so forth, I saw no businesses at all that catered to that sort of tourist activity, or in fact any kind of tourist focus in the town.  Maybe they aren't interested. 

Crawfordsville is a small pleasant-looking town that's got a steel manufacturing plant and a printing plant and (unusually) 2 daily newspapers, and it's the home of Wabash College, designated in 2008 by Forbes as #12 in the US in undergraduate studies (I'd never have guessed it).  Aside from the Ben Hur connection I mentioned before, Crawfordsville has been the home of Will Shortz (NYT puzzle editor), the "Steve Roper" and "Mary Worth" cartoonist, and Dick Van Dyke (briefly).  So I guess they think they've already got enough going for them.

I drove for quite a while through fog, covering a broad area.

I heard on the radio that the rate of smoking is increasing in Indiana.  It's surely one of the few states in the Union where that's happening.

I passed through the small town of Brazil and saw a sign on the Eagles Lodge talking about Highered Guns.  I swear.  I'm really really hoping it's just a whole town that can't spell, rather than some religious statement.

The farms in this area appear to specialize in peaches and apples and corn.  Or at least that's what the roadside markets say they would be selling if it were the right season.

As I drove into Vincennes (pronounced vin-SEHNS) I saw a sign telling me it's the home of Dan Beery, Olympic Gold Medalist in 2004 for rowing.  I've been interested this whole trip by the number of Olympians who come from very small towns.  To me it shows that what's really needed to succeed is talent and perseverance, and that outside assets are only assists.

State Historical Sites

I came to town for its history as being the capital of the Indiana Territory, which was created July 4, 1800, out of the western part of the Northwest Territory.  It included part or all of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota (much of which I'll be traveling through for the next few months).  Vincennes was designated the capital, and there are still several of the original territorial buildings there.

territorial capitol building

Elihu Stout's print shop

The print shop, the first in the Northwest Territory, wasn't set up as a business but to service the territorial government.

The historical folks have rescued a number of other buildings from that era and moved them all together in a row facing a green area.  They're open for tours every day except, of course, Mondays (today).  Right behind this lineup is Grouseland, the name Gov. Harrison gave the house he built, which is open every day including Monday.

Grouseland

Grouseland

explains the house

William Henry Harrison, appointed territorial governor by Pres. John Adams, served here 1800-1812 (he left when the War of 1812 broke out).

The sign (at right) says the house was built as a fortress, and I learned during the tour that the walls are 4 bricks thick.

I came here partly to learn more about Indiana and its history, and partly because I hadn't been able to make it to Wm. H. Harrison's primary home in Ohio and wanted to know more about him.  I was partly satisfied on both counts.  This historical site has two problems: it wasn't Harrison's primary home so it doesn't have many of his artifacts, and it fell into disrepair over the years and was about to be demolished when the Daughters of the American Revolution rescued it in 1911.  The museum now displays what you might call a mixed bag.

** They have 3 portraits of Harrison.

1) he was 41 at this time

2) painted 3 months later by Rembrandt Peale

3) official presidential portrait

from wikipedia, this is how he's usually shown

Just shows if you want your portrait painted, be careful who you ask to do the painting.

** In 1828 Harrison was the US Ambassador to Colombia, at the time of Simón Bolívar.  While he was there he was given a Macaw (the museum has a picture of it) he named Charlie who lived more than 100 years and was passed down to various owners via their wills. 

** Harrison was president for only a month, dying of pneumonia complications.  He was the first president to die in office and had the shortest tenure in US history.  The museum has a few exhibits about campaign politics of the time, which sound pretty familiar.

"let's keep the ball rolling" started here

free hard cider at campaign rallies!

In 1836, Van Buren beat Harrison; in the 1840 rematch, Harrison won.  Van Buren probably wished the election results had been the other way around.  He won in 1836 but the Panic of 1837 - a stock market crash - defined much of his presidency and gave him the nickname Martin Van Ruin.  He also continued Andrew Jackson's inhumane Indian policies, and the Trail of Tears was carried out during his one term.

Van Buren, by the way, was the first president born a US citizen, not a British subject.  He was the only president who spoke English as a 2nd language; another of his nicknames was Old Kinderhook, from which we get the word okay (OK).  I visited Van Buren's home in New York - this is just a refresher, based on info at this museum.

** Probably because Harrison's term was almost nonexistent, little is heard about his wife Anna.  According to the museum, this obscurity is undeserved.

a quilt Anna worked on, c. 1840s

info re: Anna

** As I've said boringly frequently, I'm not much for seeing ancient personal items, and this museum mostly has of-the-period stuff, rather than their actual things.  But I thought these items were noteworthy.

I just thought it was beautifully made

why do we no longer have such an item?

this quilt dates to the 1840 presidential campaign

I didn't take a photo of it, but the museum displays a shoe that was found in one of the walls during renovations; there was a superstition at the time that putting a shoe in the wall of a house being built would bring good luck.

The wheel with the thread on it is called a weasel.  At the museum they told us when it gets too full, the thread pops off it; however, internet sources say the machine makes a popping sound when enough yarn has been spun for a length of cloth.  Take your pick.  We all know what this has led to.

** The one other oddball piece of information I got at this museum came from the cracks in several of the walls that hadn't been covered over during renovations.  The cracks came from the earthquakes in New Madrid (pronounced, here at least, as MAD-rid).  One of the people in the tour group mentioned that quake caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards.

These earthquakes aren't something I ever remember hearing about so I looked it up.  New Madrid is in Missouri and was the epicenter of a series of earthquakes between Dec. 1811 and Feb. 1812 that still hold the record for most powerful US quakes east of the Rockies.  For a more technical, and probably accurate, account, try this link.   en.wikipedia.org/New_Madrid_earthquakes  And for a more colorful, and certainly parochial, account, try this link.   www.new-madrid.mo.us/Strange-Happenings-during-the-Earthquake

** And as a final piece of Vincennes information, I offer these:

the millstones in person

re: upper and nether millstones

I've heard that our expression "like having a millstone around the neck" should actually be "like the upper and nether milestones" referring to distance markers.  This sign tells me, though, that millstones is most likely the correct word.

Continuing the drive
It's lucky I was able to walk the dogs a couple of times at the historical sites because it started raining just as we were leaving. 

I was lucky enough to hear a song that was new to me called Texas (When I Die), with these immortal lyrics:
   When I die I may not go to Heaven
   I don't know if they let cowboys in
   If they don't just let me go to Texas
   Texas is as close as I've been

The farther north I drove, the more it rained, which made it harder to find the next campground I was going to.  What made it even more difficult was the road closure about 5 miles from the campground and no indication of where a detour route might be.  I was making a U-turn to go back and find a general store or something when a nice man in a pickup pulled over and said I could follow him if I wanted to get around the closure.  Which I did, barely squeaking down the little streets in the little community he led me through and, sure enough, there we were on the other side of the closure.  Nice guy.