There's nothing to do in Terra Haute

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

October 4, 2022

After our day at Indiana's state capitol city, we drove southeast on I-70 to the smaller city of Terra Haute. We're staying at another Boondockers Welcome host, taking up most of their front driveway. We are amazed at hosts like this that inconvenience themselves to make this parking option available to complete strangers like us. Our hostess also brought us home-made chocolate chip cookies that were delicious. Her husband had left that morning for Florida, where they own a winter home. Their home was still standing after Hurricane Ian made land-fall. But he was taking a pickup load of repair supplies to help their Florida neighbors. This summer has certainly renewed our faith in the goodness of people across the country.

Even though our hostess has lived her entire life in this area, she didn't have any great ideas for something to do here. We certainly didn't know of any big-name attractions here either. Maybe there's nothing to do in Terra Haute?!? But we did find a couple bike trails to get a little exercise. The first was the Wabashiki Trail, that started at the Dewey Point County Park. This 6.8-mile loop winds its way through the trees of the wildlife management area.

It also leads to the kayak launch area. It looks like a first-rate kayak ramp and dock. The only problem is that there is no water in sight right now. The weeds have taken over the lake bottom that used to be a good kayaking site. This is more evidence of the drought that is affecting much of the United States.

As we looped back to the parking lot, the last mile was on a first-class just-finished causeway. We shudder to think how much it cost to build this mile of trail with overhead lights, water-proof decking, and wooden rails. It was very nice!

The only problem was its proximity to the highway. When Denisa panned the camera to the right, we could show how close all that traffic is to the bikers and hikers.

We loaded up our bikes, and drove the pickup ten miles to our second bike trail of the day. The trail head for the Jones National Road Heritage Trail was in East Glenn, Indiana. We found some nice fall foliage along the way.

The Heritage Trail is flat and paved--two of Denisa's favorite adjectives when describing bike trails. It was a six-mile ride to the campus of Indiana State University. We parked the bikes and walked around this compact campus. We found some six-foot-tall coke bottles, and had to do some research to find out why. In 1915, the Coca-Cola company sent out a challenge to glass companies to design a "bottle so distinct that you could recognize it by feeling it in the dark or lying broken on the ground." The Root Glass Company created the winning design, making Terra Haute the birthplace of this iconic shape. There are 39 of these painted bottles scattered around the city.

That bottle is painted blue, with sycamore leaves. That's because the unusual mascot of Indiana State is "Sycamore." We had no idea, but both our sons knew it when I sent the picture of the college football stadium and asked for the mascot name. They are both well-versed in sports trivia.

We made a 1.2-mile walking loop around Indiana State's campus, including eating lunch in the student union. The students here are lucky to have a local Greek cafe in the union. Then we started back on our bikes for the return ride to the pickup. Our bike ride took us by another football stadium. The crowds are smaller at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology stadium.

We had a few more miles in our pedaling legs, so we took the additional Maple Avenue Lake loop. Some of the maples are turning lovely fall colors.

We saw the lake . . .

and then headed back through the forest. This additional loop was hilly and rocky--two adjectives that Denisa does NOT like when describing a bike trail. But we rejoined the paved Heritage Trail and got back to the pickup about the time our legs wore out.

We biked 22.2 miles today, and hiked another couple miles. We had great weather and it was good exercise. While we started the day thinking that there was nothing to do in Terra Haute, we managed to keep ourselves busy and learned a little local history and trivia. It looks we found something to do in Terra Haute, after all.

Welcome to Indiana

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

October 2 and 3, 2022

After attending church in Celina, Ohio, we weren't in a big hurry to leave our comfortable camping site at the fairgrounds. This is one of the few campgrounds that doesn't have a check-out time, and they encouraged us to stay as long as we wanted. So we enjoyed the electric hook-ups until 4:30 in the afternoon before we hit the road. That's because we are headed to an overnight spot with no electricity about 80 miles away. But first, we crossed yet another state line into Indiana--the crossroads of America. Their welcoming sign also pointed out that this is the home state of President Benjamin Harrison, as well as Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home. Welcome to Indiana!

The drive was flat and uneventful--just the way we like it. We met some big-wheeled agricultural vehicles . . .

as well as some narrow-wheeled buggies on our drive into Indiana.

We arrived at Harrah's Hoosier Casino not too long before dark.  This is our first casino boondocking stay for the entire summer. We walked from the RV parking lot to the casino to let them know that we were spending the night, and to see if they had any freebies for new members. We got player's cards, and spun the wheel to see if we would win up to $1,000 in free play money. For both of us, the wheel stopped on the minimum prize--$5 in food credit. So we left the casino with two free pieces of pizza and no great gambling winnings. We did win a quiet night in the parking lot, and spent the rest of the evening making reservations for the remainder of our path to our oldest son's home near Kansas City. Speaking of which, we also got a phone call from that household this evening. Our almost two-year-old grandson requested a call to Doo-Dude (his way of saying Grand-dude). The facetime call ended with him holding his arms up for us to pick him up, and then he kissed the telephone screen to tell us good-bye. That's one of the reasons we are picking up speed as we are nearing the end of our summer's journey.

The next morning we left the casino parking lot, and made the 43 mile trip to a Walmart in Indianapolis. We wanted to avoid rush hour because we had heard that I-70 going through Indy is closed, so everyone must take the outside loop. We were in heavy traffic even at 10:30, when we parked the motor home at Walmart and then drove the pickup into the city center. We drove by the stadium where the NFL Indianapolis Colts play their home football games.

We got to downtown, which is an interesting mix of modern tall buildings that mirror the old green domes of historic buildings nearby.

We were lucky to find a good parking spot on the street near our destination--the Indiana State House.

It's hard to get far enough away to get a picture of this impressive building, made of Indiana limestone.

We got a private tour of the interior of this state house that was built in 1888. It's one of the few state capitols that still hosts all three branches of state government under one roof.

The Senate chamber looks more like a hotel atrium. But instead of hotel rooms ringing the chamber, behind the windows are the offices of the Senators.

When viewed from the upper gallery, the most impressive part of the House chamber is the giant chandelier that hangs precariously overhead.

While the legislative chambers have been updated over the years, the Supreme Court still looks just like it did when the building opened in 1888. Even the chairs inside the court are original. When this state house was built, it used gas for lighting. It was wired for electricity because the architect knew that option would be available soon. If you look closely at the light fixtures on the wall, you can see upward facing gas light fixtures, that are coupled with more down-ward facing electric bulbs.

The third member of the government branch trifecta is the governor. He still does business in this large office in the state house.

Old pay phones are long gone from the state house, but their private cubicles are still available for a more private cell phone conversation too.

While the state house was lovely, the crowning jewel had to be the stained glass window in the dome.

Before 1980, visitors would have looked up into dome to see a blackened ceiling. Because of the steam heat and the gas lights that had been used for almost 100 years, the German stained glass had turned to black. So a very careful cleaning process started in 1980 that cleaned every single piece of glass to its original glory. What a beautiful dome!

While the interior of this state house included its share of impressive statues and paintings, our favorite piece was this bronze copy of the state of Indiana poem. We encourage you to read about "Ain't God good to Indiana?"

After we finished our private state house tour, we wanted to do a little exploring in downtown Indy. The center point of interest has to be the Soldier and Sailor Memorial in the busy central traffic circle. It was beautiful against the perfectly blue sky, ringed by the downtown skyscrapers. If you look carefully, you can see Mark standing at the base to give a little bit of the scale of size to this tall memorial.

The elevator that takes visitors to the top was not running today. So we were limited to views from the bottom of the memorial. Indianapolis has one of the most impressive veterans memorials we have ever seen, taking up prime real estate among the big buildings.

We found another memorial nearby--the 9/11 memorial that features two 11,000-pound beams from the World Trade Center.

We had planned to move the pickup to the nearby White River State Park, but we found that our metered parking spot near the capitol was cheaper than the park's. So we unloaded the bikes and set off to explore Indianapolis on two wheels.

We rode the 3.4-mile canal loop, plus part of the White River Trail. 

The canal trail took us to the museum zone, and a photo op to become the "I" in Indy with a back drop of downtown.

In front of the state museum was this unusual steam-powered clock. We waited around to hear its steam-powered chimes.

We rode our bikes by this tall tower of colored tiles named "The Tent" (we don't know why), as well as the NCAA Museum, the children's museum, and the art museum.

The bike trail also took us beside the White River on our right, and the tall walls of the Indianapolis Zoo on our left. There are no cracks in that tall wall that allow a peek into the zoo--ask us how we know.

It was a lovely weather day to enjoy a very nice urban bike ride. We're pretty impressed with Indiana's capitol city--except for a big homeless camp we found when we tried to bike away from the tourist section of the trail.  

We also found that Indianapolis doesn't have any good camping options. So we loaded our bikes back onto the pickup, and drove back to the Walmart where we had left the motor home parked. Then it was an 82-mile drive on to our next camping spot--but that's a story for the next blog.

 

Oktoberfest

We are way behind in getting travel posts published this summer because we're having too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

October 1, 2022

On this beautiful October 1st, we are heading towards one of the largest Oktoberfest celebrations in the Midwest. But we're doing a little sight-seeing on the way. The lake on the edge of our town is called Grand Lake St. Mary's. So we are stopping at the town of St. Mary's on the way to Oktoberfest. Situated on the opposite side of this hand-dug lake, St. Mary's also has a section of the Miami-Erie Canal running through town. This is the canal that connects the Ohio River with the Erie Canal. The town has a nice tow path bike trail that took us by a replica of one of the canal boats that floated through town in the 1800s. 

Horses and mules walked along the canal, pulling the boats behind them.

We also found the local covered bridge in the St. Mary's park. You already know that Denisa doesn't cross a covered bridge without getting a picture of it.

She's almost as bad about wanting pictures taken when we find wings.

When we were leaving town, we looked up to see this bright "sun dog" in the sky. While a rainbow is left after a rain is over, some say that this is a sign of rain to come. Oops, we have lots of outdoor activities planned today, and we'd rather they not get rained out.

Our next little town stop was New Bremen, Ohio. It was situated on the canal as well, with wooden lock gates that can still be opened and closed by hand to change the level of the canal. If you look closely on the left hand side, you can see Mark closing those big wooden gates.

Beside the canal lock, the town has a restored lockkeeper's house, where the person in charge of raising the water level lived. In front of the house is a statue of a young boy and his mule. The statue is titled, "Partners" because the two worked together. The boys were called "hoggees" and they were young farm boys that used their family's mules to tow the boats up the canal for several miles. Then the boy would switch the boat-towing duties to another hoggee and his mule further down the canal.

We walked to the adjacent New Bremen town park to find all sorts of interesting things. We liked the lion family sculpture . . .

that included Ohio buckeyes for eyes.

Even after reading the warning sign that cautioned about this "fast slide" Mark tried it anyway.

We can report that this was the slowest slide we have ever seen. Denisa actually came to a complete stop when sliding down this "fast" slide.

We explored the park to find musical instruments scattered throughout,

and an electronic game that had us running around in circles trying to press the buttons that randomly lit up. That's good exercise!

It wasn't a planned stop, but we spent more time than we had planned on this beautiful blue sky day in New Bremen, Ohio.

But our real destination of the day was the town of Minster, Ohio, for their annual Oktoberfest. We arrived in time for the opening ceremonies, where a young local man proposed to his girl friend in front of hundreds of guests. That was a nice start to the festivities! We also posed for the traditional photo. As the picture below would suggest, Oktoberfest is all about food and beer, and perhaps a little dancing.

We started with the food vendors, lined up in a tent where all the local Minster organizations are preparing different versions of German food. We stopped by this booth to try the sauerkraut balls that were being formed and then fried.

We'd never heard of sauerkraut balls before, but we found that they are stuffed with sausage and sauerkraut, deep-fried, and served with thousand island dipping sauce. 

The next food course was cabbage rolls, German potato salad, and pumpernickel bread served by another local organization.

While we didn't participate in the beer part of the Oktoberfest, we can tell you that we were certainly in the minority. Cheaper by the half-gallon, most people seemed to be walking around with a partially filled jug at their side.

Another required component of Oktoberfest is music, and we listened to several groups during the course of the day. We stuck around for the headliner group, a polka group called the Klaberheads. They are well known in the polka world, and their fans were rushing the stage. The place was so packed we couldn't find a clear spot to dance a polka.

We also found that Minster hosts some serious Oktoberfest competitions. There was a large crowd cheering on the participants in the Jug Holding contest. They had both a men's and women's division, and the goal is to hold a half-gallon of beer at a 90-degree angle from their body with their arm straight and their thumb up. Referees were monitoring all the participants, making sure the jug didn't drop below the 90-degree angle or they didn't raise their other arm. When one young man raised his first in celebration after the Ohio football team scored a touchdown in the game shown on the giant television, he was disqualified. This is serious competition, but even the losers get to keep their half-gallon beer for entering.

Another well-attended contest was the Beer Tray Relay, where teams of four race around an obstacle course while holding a tray of glasses filled with beer.

Obstacles include crossing balance beams and crouching below limbo poles and weaving around cones. Then the runners had to pass off that tray to the next runner while using only one hand.

Winners are determined by a secret algorithm that takes into consideration the race time, as well as the quantity of liquid still left in those four cups. A very busy table of judges were weighing glasses and computing formulas while the races continued. We were surprised at how many teams signed up for the contests.

Likewise, the tent with the German Fraulein contest was packed with locals cheering on their favorite young ladies. 

The sun dog was wrong in its prediction of rain today. We enjoyed absolutely perfect weather. That's probably why the Oktoberfest enjoyed record crowds this weekend.

As the day progressed, we noticed more slurred speech and loud behavior among that big crowd. We decided that it was time to drive out of Minster before some of these people got behind the wheel of a car. So we headed back towards our little town of Celina. Approaching the Grand Lake St. Mary's from the south, we stopped for yet another lighthouse picture on this side of the lake.

For our final exercise of the day, we found a little hike down a peninsula that jutted into the lake. We saw movement beside the trail, and managed to snap a quick picture of a fisher before it disappeared among the rocks. If you look at the very center of the picture below, you can see the face of this secretive dark animal that we have never photographed before.

We spent our last evening in Celina enjoying another lovely sunset at the Fairgrounds. The pink clouds reflected on the side of the motor home as we saw October first's Oktoberfest come to a close.