IN

September has been miserable in the Ohio Valley – hot, dry, and dusty. It hasn’t rained in a month and temperatures have been hovering in the 90’s nonstop.  We were looking for some relief and found a whole lot of cool a hundred miles north in Madison, Indiana.

Camped along the Ohio River, we got a little breeze off the water that made a wee bit of difference in the temperature. But touring around Madison was the coolest part.

Rising Sun, Indiana
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Help! I’m at a casino and cant leave!  

No, I don’t have a gambling problem, even though I’m staying at riverboat casino. I can’t leave because the RV door is jammed and I can’t get out. 

Rising Star Casino Boat

Vevay, Indiana
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I’ve continued a short distance north from Madison to Vevay, Indiana. The locals pronounce it Vee-Vee, and they can tell you’re a tourist if you say it wrong.

Madison, Indiana
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I’m traveling a slice of the Ohio River Scenic Byway. In total it’s a 943 mile road designated as a scenic roadway because it follows along the length of the Ohio River. I’m only driving the southern Indiana portion, and as I’ve learned in the past “Scenic Byway“ does not always translate into “Easy Drive“ in the RV. The curvy, narrow, and sometimes rough road may not look intimidating in a car, but it’s a nail biter when your vehicle is over 12 feet tall and bit roll-y.

But hey, that’s the adventure part, right? Oh, and I’d like to apologize to all those folks driving behind me Tuesday morning that were late for work.

Madison, Indiana was my first stop on this journey. It’s a lively town filled with historic homes and buildings. There’s a rich history of riverboat trade and maritime industries here, and some of the old factory buildings are still standing.

Madison hosts a number of signature events, including the Madison Regatta where high speed hydrofoil boats race impossibly fast around the river. I’ve visited Madison many times before and they usually cater to the tourist business, but I caught the town napping mid-week in early August. Quite a few shops were unexpectedly closed. So I amused myself by walking the charming residential streets instead.

Madison has put a lot of effort into improving their waterfront and it’s a lovely stroll along a brick walkway with a great view of the new bridge. A couple of years ago the new bridge was built right alongside the rickety old iron span that had been there nearly a century. The old bridge was carefully dismantled and the new one was slid over in its place, inch by inch, on top of the existing piers. It was an engineering marvel!

I stayed at the City of Madison Campground with an excellent view of the river atop a small bluff. The campground is just a few blocks from the downtown area, an easy amble along historic streets. I don’t have any other transportation with me this trip except a bicycle. The motorcycle is a two-person job to load and unload, and Tim has headed up north for his annual GenCon geek convention. So that leaves me and the dog to find our way around on foot. Low gear and slow – just like my driving!

French Lick and West Baden are two historic hotels from the early 1900’s, beautifully restored to their full glory and grandeur. The sister hotels are about a mile apart and share well-groomed grounds among rolling hills.

Spring Mill State Park
Mitchell, Indiana
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It’s Guys Weekend at the cabin, so that means it’s time for Girls Weekend in the RV. What do the guys do on Guys Weekend? I imagine a lot of eating, drinking, and farting goes on. What do the girls do? Pretty much the same, only with better clothes.

I met up with my adventure pal, Rhonda, at Spring Mill State Park. By car it’s about a 2-1/2 hour ride, so that meant it took 4 hours in the motorhome. Mostly because I opted to take all secondary roads instead of the highway: average speed 45 mph.

Spring Mill has two camping sections. The larger side is a big open field. I like the wooded side better where there’s plenty of deep shade and songbirds. But it was a little tricky to back this beast into the campsite. I had to maneuver around a tree on a tight curve. A couple of miserable attempts later a fellow camper took pity and guided me in: C’mon back. Little to the left. Straighten out.

Meanwhile Rhonda was texting me from her car saying: I’m almost at the campsite. Just waiting for some fool to get their RV out of the road!

Among urban types the latest craze is to take a Forest Bath. This term is borrowed from the Japanese and simply means a walk in the woods to relieve stress. And what better place to submerge yourself in nature than deep in the wilds of Indiana. Here at Spring Mill we walked through old growth forests of towering poplar trees whose canopies stretched hundreds of feet in the air.

Spring Mill was celebrating their centennial anniversary this weekend, and the entry fee to the state park was only 10 cents. A $3 reservation also got us a boat ride through Twin Caves, where a dozen people sat straddled on a bench in an aluminum boat. The park ranger stood in front and glided us through the cave by pushing along the ceiling with heavy gloves.

The prime feature of the park is, of course, the Old Mill. It’s a three-story timber contraption fed by a long sluice of spring water. The grindstone is demonstrated every hour and bags of ground cornmeal are for sale. A living village surrounds the mill with various craftsmen demonstrating old-time arts, like broom making and loom weaving.

We spent our evenings by the campfire, and I’m ashamed to admit we got spooked by a couple of raccoons rustling in the leaves. The next morning our tablecloth was decorated with tiny paw prints, and the bag of marshmallows we had abandoned in hasty retreat was long gone.

It was a refreshing Forest Bath for a few days. And a good get-away with a gal pal. We need more excuses to take off on this kind of trip.

Indiana Dunes
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Along the sandy shores of Lake Michigan, just east of Gary, lies Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Hugging 15 miles of shoreline, this National Park Service property has a State Park located in the middle. And here in this lovely setting we are relaxing for a few days.

It’s a welcome relief to the previous couple of nights we spent in Chicago – parked on the tarmac sandwiched between tractor trailers. That was a clever spot to camp downtown, and we weren’t too terribly nervous about the dicey surroundings, but it sure is an improvement to be tucked under the trees in a calm, serene state park.

We spent several days hiking around the lake, dunes, and marshes. There’s plenty of well-marked trails to amble, mostly easy walks. We were looking forward to Trail #2 which had a long boardwalk across an even longer marshland. But after walking for an hour we found the boardwalk, well, boarded up. It was in disrepair and quite dangerous. So a quick consult of the map diverted us to Trail #9 which climbed up steep dunes with ankle deep sand. A more strenuous hike to be sure, but worth the view at the top.

These dunes are really impressive. They’re not the puny mounds of sand found in Florida, but large hillsides with old growth forest of black oak and beech. In the woods a variety of spring flowers were in bloom, and on the dunes thick prairie grass waved in the ever-present breeze from the lake. Way out in the distance, across Lake Michigan, you can see the skyline of Chicago looking for all the world like the Emerald City of Oz.

The communities surrounding the National Park offer plenty of activities for tourists. But the weather was a bit nippy for long excursions on the bike – a mid-May cold snap kept us closer to camp and bundled up in gloves and hats. I did manage a short ride to neighboring Beverly Shores, a swanky lakeside community with a public pavilion and beach access. There I found, along the lakefront, a cluster of residences called Century of Progress Homes, which were featured at the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair and relocated to this area by an ambitious contractor. Pretty in pink!

Century of Progress Home

Wabash River

Prophetstown State Park
Battle Ground, Indiana
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We are camped in northwest Indiana where the Tippecanoe River meets the Wabash. This was originally the site of the largest Shawnee Indian village in the Midwest. And here Chief Tecumseh and his brother, The Prophet, prevented settlers from encroaching westward. That was highly unacceptable to the governor of the newly formed Indiana Territory.

So General William Henry Harrison (later to become our ninth president) launched his army against the entrenched Indians in 1811. Harrison initially offered a negotiated peace and Tecumseh would have likely accepted. But his brother, The Prophet, stirred up a bloodlust among the warriors claiming that he had seen a vision of victory and that Shawnee braves would be impervious to the white man’s bullets.

The Shawnee attacked at dawn and were soundly routed by Harrison’s army, who burned the village to the ground and scattered the tribe. Disgraced and ostracized, The Prophet spent the rest of his life trying to reestablish his prominence, moving ever westward until he finally died in Kansas City. Tecumseh, however, went out for revenge. He joined up with the Canadians and spent several years chasing Americans around Lake Erie, including burning Detroit, until he finally met his demise in battle up in Ontario. Thus was the War of 1812.

Meanwhile, a popular songwriter wrote a catchy tune about the Battle at Tippecanoe and Harrison’s victory. It  later became a campaign jingle – Tippecanoe and Tyler Too – when Harrison ran for president with John Tyler. Improbably, Harrison died of pneumonia one month after taking office and Tyler became President Number 10.

Harrison

Here at Prophetstown State Park (named after the unsuccessful Chief) we have paused for a much needed rest. Interstate 65 through ALL of Indiana is a mess – terrible, broken pavement interspersed with numerous construction zones (keep working on it guys!) After five or so hours of a bumpy, turbulent ride we were happy to dismount in this quiet and secluded campground. It’s Indiana’s newest state park and they did it right with spacious sites and plenty of privacy landscaping. We paid a few extra bucks for a large pull-thru space that has full hook ups – meaning electric, water, and sewer – a nice luxury after a long day on the road.

Madison Regatta

Nothing beats a mid-stream seat for viewing a river race! Aboard our friends’ luxury motor yacht, we were a few yards from the thrilling Turn #1 at the Madison Regatta Unlimited Hydroplane Race.

Qualifying races were held Saturday, followed by a firework show staged mid-river from a special barge. Sunday’s races had us gripping the rails, as the #6 boat Miss Madison looked sure to win.

The Unlimited Hydroplane boats are super-sleek, powered by a jet engine, and rocket down the river at nearly 150 mph. They barely touch the water, skimming impossibly fast over the surface and throwing a giant rooster tail spray behind them. Careening around the tight turn in front of us, the talented and daring drivers seemed to defy the laws of physics. Remember, there’s no brakes on a boat – the drivers only have throttle control. Go Fast. Turn Left.

The Hydroplanes make a running start, three or four abreast, and it’s tricky to line them all up for the timed start. Then they run three laps around a 2.5 mile course. Our favorite, Oberto’s Miss Madison, had the fastest time but jumped the start line by a fraction of a second and were given a penalty that lost them the race. Better luck next year!