Thursday's drive from Hardin Ridge was short. Nine campers, usually found together at larger full-blown Gatherings of Aframes, met for a relaxing, totally unorganized get-together in Brown County State Park. The weather was great and we made it out of the park before the deluge on Sunday morning.
Friday was spent walking the streets and shops of Nashville. Only thing I bought was Lexol Leather Cleaner and ice cream cones. There was a Mustang car show near the pool on Saturday where we saw some real sharp cars, then headed about 4 miles east from the north gate of the park to the quaint little town of Gnawbone. There, we ate the best pork tenderloin sandwich I've ever had. The tenderloin was about an inch thick and prepared to perfection.
Saturday evening was the only half-way organized event of the weekend - dinner at the park lodge. The service was terrible and the food was worse. They had a buffet there, but most of the group ordered off the menu. I don't think they ever had that happen before. It was a Chinese fire drill!
Sunday morning, we headed out around 10:00. It wasn't long before the sky opened up and we drove quite a while in some pretty heavy rain. I think it was all over with by the time we hit Terre Haute, so the rest of the drive home was pretty nice.
The ride from Prophetstown was uneventful, just a lot of rain. It took longer than I thought because I had the car clock set on Indiana time, but the GPS was set on Illinois time. Anyway, we finally made it to Hardin Ridge at about 3:30pm on Sunday afternoon. It was cold and rainy, but the park was absolutely beautiful. We were practically the only ones there and the brand spankin' new shower house was only a few steps away. You can see it in the background of the first picture below.
Sunday evening, we ate something quick in the camper and watched TV. It was too cold and rainy to go outside. Monday, we took a drive around the area. The highlight was the longest historic covered bridge in the USA (see picture). After we got back from our drive, Joe and Loretta Aman, from Decatur rang our phone to tell us they were in the park looking for us. They finally found us and took the site across the road.
Joe and Loretta had a partially cut-up tree on their site, so we had our campfires there. Most of the wood was pretty wet, but with the bundle I bought in Prophetstown, we had a pretty decent fire each night. The rain let up so we were able to eat outside on Monday and Tuesday nights, but Wednesday, after we got back from another tour of the area, we went to Crazy Joe's and had pizza.
Thursday, we putzed around the camp until after we ate lunch, then packed up for the 35 mile drive to our campsite in Brown County State Park just outside Nashville, IN. It was 30 miles to the park and 5 miles into the park to our site.
Dennis Archer, a camping friend from Nashville, TN invited us to a campout/fish fry at Prophetstown State Park outside Lafayette, IN. We arrived on an sunny, 80 degree Thursday afternoon. Most of the 20 campers there were "egg" campers, like Casitas and Scamps. They have a club, too. You'll see why they call them egg campers when you look at the pictures.
Friday was warm, but cooled of with an overnight shower. We met a lot of great people and spent most of Friday in camp visiting. Saturday morning at 8:00, we headed into the town of Battleground for a group breakfast at the Eye Opener Cafe. It's the first time I ever ate breakfast while listening to a live bluegrass band!
After breakfast, we toured the Tippecanoe Battlefield and Museum, then headed to the nearest McDonald's for a Wi-Fi fix. It started raining in the afternoon and the high temperature was only in the 50's. Luckily, we had the use of a pavilion for the fish fry, but it was still pretty cold and windy. The rain didn't let up much, so most of us just headed for our warm campers to finish out the evening.
Sunday morning, we packed up in the drizzling rain and headed out of the campground, but since we had plenty of time to make it to our next campground, Hardin Ridge Recreation area in the Hoosier National Forest in Brown County, we decided to stop at the Prophetstown Farm for a look-see. We didn't make the 5/8 mile walk back to the old village of Prophetstown. Maybe next time when it's not raining.
There is a small and a large house at the farm site. The small one is an actual Sears Roebuck mail order kit house, ca. 1920. The large house is a replica of another mail order house that was available at Sears Roebuck. Interesting stuff!
