A Road Less Traveled: Rough Starts ...but we're on the road

October 16. 2015

Delayed by a day, we finally hit the road on Monday, October 12th…. Indigenous People’s Day! We would only travel three and half hours from Chicago to find ourselves at Turkey Run State Park. Who knew Indiana rivaled the dells of Wisconsin in this area. We were about to enter prehistoric Indiana. The glacier recession a few thousand years ago carved the rock formations and canyons we will hike.

With camp all set, we settled in for the night, excited to go exploring the canyons of this park. At 6am Kole, our cat, bolted out the door. Kole has all her claws, but for the most part has been sheltered by a cat fence around the Duluth house. Gerard always thought she wouldn’t know her way back if she ever took off on us. He was so right. We spent the next two days scouring the woods and ravines around and within the campground. We never made it into the state park.

I notified the park staff, called the Humane Society, the County Sheriff and even the local lost pets board on Facebook. I let everyone know on my Facebook and asked that they visualize her walking out of the woods. Power in numbers right?

Our campsite was booked for the extra day we wanted to stay and search so we had to move camp sites and into another loop. We made our move and Gerard went searching the ravine one more time. I showed everyone I could a photo of her. We had our big ugly cry knowing we would have to pull away in the morning without her. I took some food and her bed over to the people who were occupying our previous site in case she did find her way back and just at that moment Gerard called me…. Kole walked out of the woods into the loop we were now camped!!!!!! The spot where she walked out was a site I had just shown a photo to the people camped there. They said “oh my god, there’s that cat!” They went calling for Gerard.

I can’t tell you the relief and joy we felt and exhaustion–Gerard stayed up all night watching and waiting for her. And here she is –a long haired cat covered in burs is still a sight for sore eyes.

Forever grateful that Ms. Kole is back in our care, We were able to move on. Actually, we would take a shorter excursion through the trails at Turkey Run SP.

Turkey Run State Park Trails

Trail #3

We didn't want to move on without seeing at least a few of the 31 covered bridges in Parke County. Every town in this part of the state seems to have a festival. Park County’s Covered Bridge Festival always starts on the second Friday of October and runs for 10 consecutive days. Headquartered in Rockville on the courthouse lawn since 1957, the festival attracts thousands to Parke County to see the shining stars of it all, 31 historic covered bridges. The fair encompasses arts and crafts and all the fair food you can imagine. It is also a pickers delight. In fact, as we traveled down Highway 59, 46 and on to Highway 135, it appeared to be a state wide rummage sale.

The Story Inn

Along Highway I35 we found Story, a quaint village founded in southern Indiana in 1851, nestled between the Brown County State Park and Hoosier National Forest. It became the largest settlement in the area. In its heyday 1880-1929 the village supported two general stores, church, schoolhouse, blacksmith, sawmill, grain mill and post office.

Story never recovered from the Great Depression as families abandoned their hilly, marginal farms looking for work elsewhere. No new construction followed the Great Depression and fortuitously, no one attempted to “modernize” the aging structures. Story is perhaps the best preserved example of a 19th century small town that survives in the American Midwest.

Our stop was a well needed rest and an answer to growling stomachs. Our intention was to make it to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, but our pace was slow due to the turns and twists in a ribbon road where speeds were 10 and 15 miles per hour for those turns. We continued our trek down Indiana 135 and came across Starved Hollow Recreation Area, perfect place to set camp, get some rest and a hot shower before continuing down rural back roads heading into Kentucky.

A smile after a good grilled cheese

Even though the busy days of summer have fallen away, the falling of leaves brings out scores of folks to see the color. We arrived on a Friday at Mammoth Cave National Park early enough in the day to choose a preferred campsite; however, by late afternoon the campsites were all but filled. We gained an hour by traveling back into the central time zone, so it seems ridiculous how early I will be drifting off to neverneverland.