Summer’s Last Weekend – Madison Indiana

Autumn is coming. There’s a little nip in the night air. But first there’s some glorious late summer weather to enjoy.

I came back to Madison, Indiana to spend a long weekend while the weather was still perfect. Madison is famous for hydroplane boat racing on the Ohio River. While most events were canceled this year due to the never-ending pandemic, the Vintage Thunder boat race was held at a socially safe distance.

I stayed at the City of Madison campground which is bare-bones, no frills, and crowded on the weekends. But it’s a perfect place to watch the boat race from the back of your camper.

Madison really is a lovely town. Every street is filled with historic homes and downtown is charming and usually bustling.

Having visited here before, I’ve seen most of the tourist spots. So I went looking for the quirky side of Madison. It wasn’t hard to find.

I followed Crooked Creek to a section of town I hadn’t seen before and met some locals who were happy to extol the virtues of their safe and quiet neighborhood.

Madison has preserved and repurposed many of its antique buildings and factories. But this is a big town, and there’s still plenty of old places waiting to be reclaimed.

Down by the river I saw a wedding about to begin. There were a bunch of us watching from the sidewalk as the bride walked down the stairs. Nice day for a white wedding, as Billy Idol would say.

There’s another section of Madison on the hilltop where the big stores and suburbs are, but I’ve never been up there. The historic river side of town keeps me entertained enough, and I really don’t need to visit Walmart anyway.

Glad I could catch a perfect couple of days on Summer’s Last Weekend!