Oct 28 - Southern Indiana

On Sunday we left Corydon to go back home to Fort Wayne with a stop planned in Bloomington to visit with John. Our path took us down Indiana Route 66 and we found an chainsaw garden in someone's yard.




Further down the road we saw a huge pumpkin farm.






In Mitchell, Indiana we stopped to see the Gus Grissom memorial.




We made it to Bloomington by noon and met John at his dorm. He was able to show us a video of his last composition performed at IU, a trio performed with a violin, viola, and a vocalist. It was very expressive, beautiful and captivating, we liked it a lot. We went to a nature preserve in Bloomington and had a picnic lunch. Afterwards, John went off to practice his sax and we hit the road for the final leg of the trip back home.






Three hours later we made it home to find the roof still on the house Zack & Jenny had survived and we had two joyful golden retrievers.

Oct 27 - Southern Indiana

Today we decided to drive along the Ohio River to the west and to see what we could find. The first interesting thing we found was a dirt road that lead down to the Ohio River near the town of Leavenworth. We saw a group of barges being towed by a tug boat.



Next we went to Artist Point and saw another barge moving along the river.




Further down the road we found a bridge we had to cross that was built in 1897. The wood was really creaking and complaining as we crossed.





We went to Buzzard Roost and had lunch and Bob took a hike down to the river. Down there he saw what looks like a beaver or maybe a muskrat - can you guys tell from the picture? It looks like a beaver to me. We couldn't see them but we could sure hear the buzzards calling.









We continued down the road following the Ohio River and stopped in German Ridge in the Hoosier National Forest. It was misting at the time so Bob decided not to hike so we drove on after a short rest.



We decided we would drive on to Tell City and then head back north and return to Corydon. We found the Channelton Lock and Dam on the Ohio River along the way. Not expecting it, it came as quite a surprise. We stopped and watch a tug boat pushing 15 barges (5 rows of 3 barges) into the lock and the water rise before it took off again up the river.





We continued on to Tell City and satisfied with our river exploration we drove back to Corydon to relax the rest of the evening.

Oct. 26 - Southern Indiana

We woke up to partly cloudy skies, but with a forecast of rain showers, so we hit the road with the hope that the rain might not come. It was raining before we hit our first destination, French Lick. Our plan was to take random roads to get there and see the sights along the way. We found a county park that wasn't marked well on the map that was near English. It had a lot of camping spaces and we saw some interesting port-a-pots that were clearly marked for the different genders.


We stopped at a historic landmark on the way; Initial Point which we thought was a war marker from a battle but turned out to be where the state was divided into 6 even areas by Thomas Jefferson. It's still used today for plotting.


We stopped by Youngs Creek to have a picnic lunch and while the soup was on, Bob took a short hike in the woods.





We made it to French Lick and went to the French Lick Winery. We really didn't like their wines at all except one that Bob liked; Rhubarb Wine. So we purchaced one Rhubarb to take home and a replacement cork screw (ours was bending out of shape)and hit the road again. There are a couple of huge hotels and spas in town, plus a casino, but we we're interested in any of them.

Our next destination was Paoli that has a Pinoneer Mother's Memorial Forest. Which is a place in the Hoosier National Forest where no trees were ever cut down. So this virgin forest looks like it did to the pioneers when they lived here.
We made one wrong turn on the way and ended up seeing these guys by the side of the road.


The Holiday Inn in Corydon was our next stop for a short rest and then we went to Turtle Run Winery just a few miles outside of Corydon and made a huge discovery. This winery has been producing for just about 6 years but Jim the winemaker is brewing up some great premium wines. He doesn't make sweet wines like a lot of the Indiana wineries do, but he adjusts the yeasts in the process of making the wines like they do in Europe and uses different types of oak barrels and the results were just amazeing (both white and red wines). We ended up buying a case, but I'm sure all trips to the south will include a stop here or we may be asking UPS to do some delivering of this stuff to us.

Oct 25 - Southern Indiana

Today we woke up to a grey, cool, and misty morning. It was nice to be at the Holiday Inn with warm cinnamon rolls and cheese omelets. We drove over to O'Bannon Woods State Park and it was a pretty nice place. Lots and lots of changing trees, it backed up to the Ohio River. The campground looked very good and we would of had a really nice campsite if I didn't have my foot problem, so I think we've found a place for future camping.

I found a huge leaf among the many out there!









We drove on to the Hoosier National Forest and stopped at Hemlock Cliffs a box canyon near English Indiana. There was a slight rain at the time so Bob ended up hiking it himself while Becky and I stayed at the 4Runner and made soup and sandwiches for lunch.




We drove over to Uniontown and visited the Winzerwald Winery. It was a small mom & pop place just getting started. It was their 5th year anniversary. The speciality was German style wines and our favorite was the Gluhwein, which was a mulled red wine with cloves and cinnamon. It would be good in the cold wet tent at night, but since we're staying at the Holiday Inn we got some for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Bob putting our wine in the 4Runner.

We had read about the Sisters of St. Benedict at the Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, and decided to take a drive out to visit them. Their order has 190 sisters of whom about 120 live at the monastery. It is an striking place that stands on a hill overlooking the town of Ferdinand. We took a self-guided tour of the grounds that has a step rosary, outdoor stations of the cross, a grotto, domed church, cememtary, and gift shop.














We drove to Indian Lake in the Hoosier National Forrest to have supper. Salmon, broccoli, potatoe soup and wine was on the menu.