We hate to complain, but we've had some really hot weather here in Illinois. We've heard the weatherman saying that we're experiencing temperatures that are 15-20 degrees higher than they should be for this time of the year. So we're wearing shorts and short sleeves on this 80+ degree day for a bike ride. The trail started on a pleasant down-hill section, and we didn't break a sweat because we didn't have to pedal for the first mile. Even though that's fun for now, Denisa's mind is sweating that long up-hill section to get back to the car at the end of this bike ride.
Today we have made the 20-mile drive in the car to get to the nearby city of Decatur, Illinois. We keep giggling every time we say we're "in Decatur," because it sounds just like "indicator." We laugh out loud when we say things like, "This heat is an indicator that it's unseasonably warm in Decatur." (We're pretty sure that you're laughing too, right?!?) The falling leaves and changing color of the trees around us seem to be an indicator of fall.
We are riding the bike trail that starts at Rock Springs Conservation Area. It's a 7.5-mile trail to Fairview Park, and a lovely ride through the trees and beside the water.
Even though we were in Decatur, the deer along the trail was an indicator that we were in the country. We saw a little wildlife on our ride on the Fairview Trail.
It was a little warm, but the breeze from the bike ride kept it pleasant. Then we hit that last section, and it was up-hill the entire last mile. Now we're sweating!
Adjacent to the nature center is a historic old farmstead, where visitors are welcome to walk around the house and the garden. The fall garden crops are still producing.
That includes sweet peas, one of Denisa's very favorite crops.
Then we spotted this wispy crop in the corner. We recognized it as the same crop we had seen growing in large fields in Michigan. Just like then, we didn't know what this mystery crop could be.
So we were certainly glad that the gardeners here at the Rock Springs Nature Center left an identification marker. It was a whole field of asparagus that we had seen growing earlier!
The picture below is an indicator of what it is like driving in Decatur. This city has lots of railroad traffic and we drove under many overhead train crossings. It is a motor home driver's worst nightmare to see these low crossings. We must hurry to read the numbers indicating the height, and hope it's over the 13-foot height of our coach.
Sometimes it is not. This seems to be a bad indicator in Decatur. The sign below was particularly worrisome as we were in the motor home at the time, and this bridge would surely sheer off our air-conditioners. But if you have time to read the entire pole, that low clearance is actually on a road to our right, and we were going straight. Whew!
Our campground host had told us all about the Staley Company, a major manufacturer in town. All the smoke in the air is an indicator that this is a big employer in Decatur.
We also watched as more than a dozen big trucks were lined up to unload their corn. Even though the old-timers still call the company "Staley" it was actually bought out by another company years ago. They are one of the U.S.'s biggest producers of high fructose corn syrup. So that's where all that corn was going!
As we left town that evening, their company headquarters were just lighting up in shades of pink and purple as the sun was setting. The volunteer at the nature center had talked about this company too, including the very distinct smell that comes from cooking up so much corn. He described it as a burnt-french-fries-smell, and the wind can carry it many miles over central Illinois.
So as we left town, we purposefully drove north over the river bridge with our windows down. That warm south wind was carrying the mill smells north, and we both smelled it at the same time--burnt french fries.
So we have learned more things about life in Illinois today. We got some exercise biking in anticipation of consuming some of that high fructose corn syrup that is mass-produced here. But our favorite new piece of knowledge is that the smell of burnt french fries is an indicator of corn cooking in Decatur. (Doesn't that just make you want to giggle out loud?!)
After we saw a life-time of covered bridges in just two days, it was time to hit the road again. We've been traveling south for the last two months, but now it is time to turn west. We crossed into a new state that the motor home has never traveled in--Illinois.
It's fitting that the state sign is beside a corn field, as it seems that Illinois is mostly corn. This crew just finished up this field, and they're ready to move those big 18-wheelers out to the next assignment.
We are learning about these new-to-us crops of corn and soy bean. We read that the same combine can harvest both crops--they simply have to trade out the header. Denisa was raised on a wheat farm, and she even drove a combine one summer (when her Dad was really desperate for good help). But we learned something new this year. This implement is called a combine, because it combines so many tasks--it cuts off the stalk, it separates the cobs, it takes the corn off the cob, it winnows the dirt and chaff, it elevates the grain to the bin, it releases the waste plant material back to the ground, and it augers the clean grain to the waiting trailer. That's a lot of jobs to combine into one rolling machine called a combine that can harvest either corn or soy beans.
Today's trip was 88 miles straight west to the little town of Cerro Gordo. We found this little town because of its half-price Passport America campground, but we actually ended up staying at the town's fairgrounds. We are always amazed at the things we find to do around a little town that is off the beaten path. For example, we spent some time at Allerton.
No, we had never heard of this place before either. Built in 1899, the mansion was the home of the heir to the family fortune. The Allertons owned 78,000 acres of farmland at one time, and they were especially fond of this part of Illinois. So young Mr. Allerton had this Italian villa mansion built as a show place, and then had it surrounded with massive gardens that stretched as far as our eyes could see.
When we arrived at the visitor center, we couldn't find anyone to give us advice on how to best enjoy this unusual space. We did find a display that explained the Allerton family's wealth, and a map, so we headed out to explore on a garden walkway that just kept going and going and going and . . . We found a garden filled with this long line of "Happy Chinese Musicians."
We also found this long line of "Foo Dogs" that stretched all the way to the forest on both sides of the walkway.
We can say that we don't completely appreciate all the "art" that young Mr. Allerton chose. Googly-eyed blue dogs with horns and tongues sticking out aren't pretty to anyone. But we did appreciate the setting and the fall foliage in the background.
Most of the sculptures in the gardens forgot to wear clothes, so in order to keep this a family-oriented blog, we just included the smiling musicians and the dogs. But we do have to include this statue in the forest that told a story. An Indian hunter had killed a bear cub, and it was still hanging from his belt. But a very angry mother bear has appeared to get revenge. It looked like it was going to be a triple fatality since the hunter managed to plunge a knife into the big bear's chest. There's a lot happening in that single sculpture, and Mark is just standing there smiling like nothing is going on.
Even though the Allerton heir sunk a ton of money in this grand estate, he spent almost no time living here. Without any heirs himself, these grounds were donated to the University of Illinois. We did find a university employee readying the mansion for a meeting that would be held on the grounds tomorrow. The expansive rooms in the house are used for conferences, weddings, and social events of different sizes.
We were told that there is only one groundskeeper, and we could tell that all those grand-sized gardens would be overwhelming. Even though everything was grand, that didn't mean that all of it was manicured.
We got some good exercise on a walk through the woods, where natural is better than manicured. Check out the naturally curled walking stick that Mark found along the trail.
After an interesting stop at Allerton, we also found the little town of Dement, Indiana. When we crossed the state line, Illinois proclaimed itself as "The Land of Lincoln." We are finding that this state documents every event possible in their most famous citizen's journey to the White House. For instance, this little cottage in Dement is where Lincoln and Stephen Douglas first met to talk about the rules of their famous debates. Mind you, it's not one of the places where the Lincoln-Douglas debates were held--just where they met to talk about it. But that makes it a state historical site, and one of the many "Looking for Lincoln" places we encountered.
Our friendly campground host also told us that a thirty-minute drive south of us would take us to the little Amish town of Arthur, Illinois. We were worried that we were going to run out of homemade Amish goodies, so we were glad to get to stock up once again. It was a rainy day--perfect for a little shopping. The clouds make an ominous background for another buggy sighting.
We were wandering down some of the rural roads, and we saw that much of the corn harvest is done. The Amish still use these sturdy horses to pull simple implements that don't "combine" all the steps in the harvest process. That wire silo is completely full of feed corn still on the cob on an Amish farm we drove by.
Seeing a buggy passing by the big harvest trailers, you get a picture of the difference in harvest techniques between neighbors in this mixed community.
One of the stops we made was to the "bulk foods" stores, which carries home-baked goods as well.
Denisa used to can jelly and pickles. But her canning efforts look minuscule when compared to these Amish ladies that buy 240 canning lids at a time at the bulk food store.
We had to take a picture of the lights throughout the store. Those are the same gas-powered mantels we used in our old Coleman camping lantern.
Between the rows of gas lights and the sky lights, even on this rainy day it was bright enough for shopping.
Light was also coming in through windows, and it was fun to see the buggy horses peeking in.
You know you are shopping like the locals when there are as many spots at the hitching post as there are parking spots for gas-powered cars.
Besides very practical goods, the Amish are also champions at growing fall mums and pumpkins for decorations.
We also enjoy Amish stores like "Country Salvage." We found some great deals on discontinued or dented goods, but you always need to check for expiration dates.
This was our loot from our stops in Amish country. Shopping for cheap eats is almost as much fun as hunting for covered bridges! We think we're going to like it here in Illinois!
After successfully hunting for covered bridges yesterday in the northern part of Parke County, Indiana, today we're tackling the southern half.
Again, we have to include a picture from each bridge to verify that we really did find it. Besides, it's fun to take pictures of historic bridges in beautiful settings.
With a total of 31, Parke County has the largest number of covered bridges of anywhere in the world. So it seems obvious that they would host the world's biggest covered bridge festival. It runs for ten days in the fall, and it is scheduled to start just four days from now.
But we decided that it would be more fun to travel these little roads and have these bridges to ourselves. So we purposefully arrived before the crowds of the festival got here.
It turns out that was a great decision. When we got to the little town of Mansfield today, we found that this is one of the hubs of the festival. Because they are already setting up for the festival, the picturesque Mansfield Bridge is already sandwiched between a BBQ trailer and a corn dog place. It takes a little away from the bridge pictures, doesn't it?
We walked through the bridge, and found a sea of vendor tents and food trailers already setting up. It's going to be a zoo during the festival!
The historic mill is at the edge of the mayhem, and every empty space in town is being turned into temporary retail space.
We found out that two MILLION people usually arrive to these tiny towns during the ten-day festival each fall. We can't imagine what that will look like!
But we're glad that we'll be missing that spectacle. We have now arrived to the tiny town of Bridgeton, where this unusually long bridge has its own waterfall flowing underneath.
That fast-flowing water once powered the wheel of the Bridgeton Mill, built here in 1823.
Just like in Manchester, Bridgeton is being transformed into a giant retail stop for two million people. We purchased a slice of premium-priced pumpkin cake roll made from flour milled right at the old mill. That was our expensive snack for the road today.
We were glad to get away from the crazy little towns that already feel crowded with only the workers setting up the temporary trinket and food shops.
Now we better understand the driving loops that have been set up, with arrows that indicate which direction you must drive.
With two million people on these narrow dirt roads, everyone should be going the same direction. We also noted that some of the bridges weren't included in those pre-determined loops.
We didn't mind going off the main roads to find the more obscure bridges, but we probably wouldn't have tried that with the kind of traffic that the festival will bring.
We're guessing that the Parke County farmers aren't thrilled with that kind of traffic on their country roads while they are trying to complete corn and soy bean harvest.
The grain trucks and trailers made our drive more interesting even without the festival traffic.
So while we usually run towards interesting festivals, this time we actually ran away from the covered bridge festival.
After two full days of bridging, this was the first time that we had to share a bridge with anyone else. We actually had to wait until the other group moved out of the way to get this picture from the inside of the bridge.
But it was also the first time we got a picture of the two of us together inside that same bridge.
We had two days of temperatures in the 80's, and we keep hearing that is unseasonably warm for this time of year. But we've used that warm weather to explore the nooks and crannies of Parke County, Indiana, and we certainly enjoyed all her covered bridges.
After two full days we are satisfied that we have seen most of them, walking and/or driving through each one.
We also discovered that Parke County is home to a good number of Amish residents. Driving down these country roads, it was fun to see young Amish couples walking down the road together on Sunday evening date night. We also saw barefoot school children walking home from school, with their straw hats and lunch boxes. No pictures, but we love the feel of Amish country.
We also like stopping at the Amish bakeries and stores that we found in the northeast section of the county. We bought an entire pumpkin cake roll for just one dollar more than the slice we bought earlier today. And those peanut butter and chocolate buck-eye candies were half the price we saw them for sale at the mill.
We've had a great time at the covered bridges of Parke County, Indiana, and for once we're so glad that we missed the festival!
