Heading West Again

Several years ago, we stayed at the tiny campground, Arrowhead Lake, near Johnson City, Illinois.  We were delighted with both the campground and the price ($8.00 per night).

Imagine our surprise when we stopped this year, and found the campground had made some cosmetics improvements, and the price is still $8.00 (7.00 seniors)!

The campground is on the banks of Arrowhead Lake, and a walking trail runs along the banks.  These are photos we snapped of the office, picnic shelter, trail, log chapel and campground.

          

             

       

       

       

       

       

In contrast, a few days later we chose the 5 Star RV Park near Tyler, TX from our Passport America listings.  Yep, that’s the name, 5 Star.  We drove several miles down a narrow country highway to find the park.

      

When we finally located it, the “5 Star” park was nothing more than grass sites.  There was no Rec hall, laundry, or restrooms.   Texas has been in a state of drought now for several years, and the brown grass crackled underneath our feet.  To his credit, the owner said he had purchased the park rather recently, and had several improvements planned.  Our Passport price was $14, which means non-member customers are paying $28.00 nightly.  What a contrast to a few nights ago at Arrowhead Lake.

Our Second Month this Summer at McCormick’s Creek

The first weekend back at the park was a busy time.

A Tear Jerkers Rally was set for the weekend.  Teardrop trailers are tiny RVs that look like a teardrop laid on its side. The Tear Jerkers have an open policy, allowing anyone with a small RV to join.  Most of the sites in Loop A (where we were located) were rented for the rally.  27 states, plus Canada, were represented.  There were all sizes, shapes and colors from expensive toys to homemade ones.  I couldn’t resist taking several photos.  If you’d like to see them, click on the logo pictured here:

The official site for the Tear Jerkers Rally can be found here.

Ron enjoyed joking with the owners of the tear drops that our 5th wheel started out the same size as theirs until he began adding Miracle Gro to the water each time he washed it.  :-)

McCormick’s Creek 95th Birthday Celebration was held on the same weekend.  A free concert was presented by the Bloomington Community Band.  Attendance  was good, considering the temperature was 90+ degrees.   Birthday cake was served to all following the concert.  We helped serve the cake.

We made a day trip with granddaughter, Chelsey, to Shakamak State Park in western Indiana.   

 

Chelsey has worked for the McCormick Creek Stables this summer as trail leader.  Grandpa joined her for one of the trail rides.

Fortunately, the weather cooled considerably a little later in our month’s stay, and we were able to hike once again.  If you don’t mind the 150 steps plus going down (and what goes down must come up), Trail 10 is very scenic, running alongside and crossing the creek.

                 

Later in the month we enjoyed celebrating two birthdays, that of our coordinator, Connie McCain, and her husband, David’s.  Including ourselves, 4 sets of camp hosts were on hand for the party. 

            

          

We also enjoyed several family visits during the month.  It’s been a great summer, spent in a great place surrounded by great friends and family.

A Tour of the University of Notre Dame

While visiting Tom, we also had opportunity to tour the campus of Notre Dame.  Founded in 1842, the campus is very impressive.  Highlights of the tour included the main buildings gold dome topped by a golden statue of St. Mary, a famous replica (1/7th the size) of the Lourdes grotto, a 134 foot tall mosaic of Christ on the side of the library and the ornate Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  Regretfully, there was not time to enter any of the buildings.

 

To take a look at our tour, click on the photo below:  If you have occasion to be in South Bend, IN and appreciate exquisite architecture, be sure to visit the University of Notre Dame!

 

Indiana Dunes State Park and National Lakeshore

INDIANA DUNES STATE PARK

We were staying only about 40 miles from Lake Michigan, so we took one day to drive to the Lake.  Having visited Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore in Michigan, we were somewhat disappointed with the Indiana Dunes area.  That may have been partially due to the weather as it was very hot and humid.  Had the weather been better we would have explored the area far more than we did, but it was easy to see that Indiana’s dunes are far less impressive than those of Michigan.

We entered the State Park first, and drove to the beach.   Indiana’s beaches and dunes are formed by winds coming off Lake Michigan that drop sand when the wind hits existing plants and dunes.  All of the trails in the park involve dune climbing to some degree.  Due to the heat, we decided against hiking.

Instead, we chose to walk along the beach.

   

There is a huge stone beach house that has been let deteriorate.  Pictures at the Nature Center attested to it’s former affluence when it contained a dining facility overlooking the waters of the lake.  Now, it is but a shell containing only a tiny snack bar and restrooms facility on the bottom level.

We then drove to the National Lakeshore, which is not simply or quickly done.  The national property seems to wind in and out of privately owned land, and much of the roads were under construction.

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INDIANA DUNES NATIONAL LAKESHORE

Our first stop was at the Visitor Center, hoping to find a video or slideshow to better acquaint us with the park.  Unfortunately, an earlier storm in the day had knocked out power.  Running on minimum power from a generator, the park attendants were unable to show us the video.

As the day was still heating up, we again decided to walk in a shaded area, rather than on the sand and dunes.  We drove to the preserved Chellberg farm, dating back to a Swedish community of the 1850’s.  A short hike through the woods took us to the clearing containing a “sugar shack”, barn, house, etc.  The trail then completed a circular trek through the woods back to the parking lot.  For a short slideshow of our hike, click on the photo below: 

We did not take the time to drive the additional 13 miles to the National Lakeshore beach area.  Later we wished we had, when we were told it was much nicer than the beach at the state park.  Perhaps on a future visit ….

Potato Creek State Park

  During a recent visit with son, Tom, we spent some time in nearby Potato Creek State Park.  An unusual name for a state park, isn’t it?  Native Americans once collected plants with potato-type roots on this area’s creek banks.  The early settler’s English translation for the native name for the plant was “wild potato”, leading to the name Potato Creek.

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Later, a man made reservoir was built on the creek, due primarily to the dreams of a man name Worster.  Darcy Worster kept the dream of a park alive in the minds of state officials by sending them his hand-crafted insects periodically to “bug” them about creating a park.  Finally, in 1969, they agreed, and the 6 square miles finally officially became an Indiana state park in 1977.

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We enjoyed watching a masked bandit loot the birdfeeder at the Nature Center.

 

The Quaking Aspen trail gave us a chance to cool off in the shade of the  woods.

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