Catching up – Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky

I realized I left off a very important stop that I made while in South Dakota.  I went to the famous “Mitchell’s Corn Palace”.

Every year they redo the designs and this year it was “America’s Destinations” and yes, they are all made out of corn.   I was there about 5 minutes – I told you it was important.  Interesting, but a few minutes was enough. 

While visiting my sister, I stayed at Lake Wissota State Park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Nice park, but in my camp site there were 2 trees that had these berries that looked like large blue berries.  While there, it was stormy and a lot of these berries ended up on my RV and car. 

After visiting with Amy and her family, I went to the “World’s largest Cranberry festival”.  It was packed.  The festival was basically a huge arts and crafts festival and a flea market.  Plus lots of good fair food.

After leaving Wisconsin, I traveled to Shipshewana, IN – part of Indiana’s Amish Country.  While there it rained a lot.  But I did like driving around and looking at the farms – Amish and English (as the Amish call us).  Also, while there I discovered the world’s best doughnut – In my opinion.  It was a caramel doughnut made at the Rise and Shine bakery.  Yum!!!!   Also while there I went to the Shipshewana flea market and auction.  I’m not really into flea markets, but the auction was interesting.  At 9:00 a bell went off and then 9 auctioneers in different areas of the same room started auctioning off items.  It was so loud I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but very interesting.   I also enjoyed watching people – both Amish and non-Amish.  

  

When I think about the Amish, it always makes me think about what we have and what people can do without. 

Then I went to Hueston Woods State Park in Ohio.   This state park is known for their fossils and unlike in many parks you can collect here.  So in addition to a few small hikes, I went fossil hunting.  I didn’t have to hunt too hard. 

 

While in this park, I noticed something very interesting.  There were quite a few of these green “brain-like” things.  Below is a picture of the “brain”  (with a key beside it to show how large it is) and the tree they grow on.  Anyone know what this is?

After Ohio, I camped at Levi Jackson State Park in Kentucky.  While there I went to Natural Arch in Daniel Boone National Forest. It’s only about a mile hike, but I loved the arch.

I also went to Cumberland Falls State Park (in Kentucky).  One of these days I would like to be there during a full moon.  They claim to be one of the few places in the world where you can see a moonbow. 

Unfortunately it had been raining the previous days, so the river/falls were muddier than normal.

While traveling the last month, I have seen some interesting things on the road.

I don’t think my toes need service, but it’s good to know that if they do I can get it 24 hours a day!

I don’t know what uses tires this big, but I thought it was interesting.  On the truck in the front, they had tied a small  “Michelin Man” to the tires..

 

I’ve since been to Tennesee and am back in Georgia for a few weeks.  While in Ga, I’ll finally make time to do some of the maintenance items on my RV that I have been putting off.  I’ll post on that later!