Walkabout on Wheels

So right now we are driving through Indiana. I guess we are heading straight west from here. We just passed by Marengo, site of the Marengo Caves, a national landmark. Did we stop? No. As I said, we just passed by. I thought the point of this trip was to be able to stop at interesting places we saw on the road. Not so. Brian said he was concerned that we wouldn’t be able to turn the trailer around at the caves. I think it was just that he didn’t want to see the caves. What does he want to see? What does he want to do? I am getting more than a little frustrated with this trip.

2:22 PM

Okay, so I guess maybe I jumped the gun a little bit there. As we drove past Marengo, we saw one of those mile marker signs for approaching towns. What was the first one on the list? Santa Claus! We had never heard of Santa Claus, Indiana, before. It turns out it is – no surprise here – a Christmas themed place with an amusement and water park called Holiday World. There is an RV campground there called Lake Rudolph. When Zorah heard that, she gasped “That is my favorite movie!” So of course we had to check it out.

Now we are camped here at Lake Rudolph, on Prancer Lane, if you can believe it. Brian backed in to our site, which is getting a little easier for him each time, I think. He took Zorah swimming, but I am beat! So I am staying here trying to get the wireless internet working and resting in the AC a bit. Later, we’ll supply as usual, but I am hoping I can convince them to take a trip to Marengo before we leave. I don’t think it’s too far away from Santa Claus.

August 20, 2006

So nobody wanted to do the Marengo thing. Apparently, no one wanted to do the amusement park thing either. That’s fine, I guess. The park had a great pool with squirters and a large shallow area, so Z was happy to frolic there and at the playground next door. Last night, we played pirates at the playground near our trailer and commandeered a little boy who wanted to use the ship’s steering wheel into being the captain. He played along for about 10 minutes then said: “Why am I the captain?” Once we explained that he had taken the wheel, he understood, and we dug for treasure, looked out for sharks, and held tight to the mast when the waves got too high. Zorah had lots of fun with this, but even a pirate has to get some shut-eye. So when it got too dark to see in the playground, we said goodnight to the captain and went home. Check out Zorah's prehistoric action shot below!

Last night, there was a HUGE thunderstorm! Zorah somehow managed to sleep through it, but there were some thunderclaps that scared me awake! I think the trailer was shaking at certain points. I was so tired, though, that I slept through most of it.

So this morning/afternoon, we are on our way out of Indiana, hoping to avoid more of those, destination St. Louis. We passed by some potentially interesting places like an Amish Buffet, and the Log Inn, which is the self-proclaimed oldest restaurant in Indiana. I guess it used to be a stagecoach stop. Of course, we didn’t stop to see any of these places, we just drove by signs for them and ate at Subway. Sigh.

Indiana is beautiful country. I don’t think it is part of the Great Plains, but there really are spacious skies and amber waves of grain, LOL. And also vast stretches of green with a copse of trees emerging from the haze. It is very humid here. These wide stretches evoke in me a sense of peace – when I am looking at them and not thinking about anything else. Other times I am wondering what the Marengo Caves were like, or the Log Inn. I just don’t believe that seeing the country means watching vast stretches of fields pass by on the highway.

When my family used to go on road trips, we used to stop at things someone thought looked interesting, whether it was a general store with a funny name (like Possum Junction, a sign we drove by on this trip) or an alligator farm. The general stores were really cool, because they always had some weird local regional candy to sample. Now, we drive by. I miss my family already, but this makes it harder.

# posted by Rissa and Zorah @ 11:54 PM