From The Road: Smokey Bear and Honey....and the flies to go with it.

The outside of the building of the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center is an impressive introduction to history on a grand scale - looking like a slice of geology, it's many layers exposed to the modern viewer. Inside there are models, dioramas, a good movie, and that seven-foot-long mammoth tusk I mentioned last time, all geared toward enlightening us about the long story of the formation of the Ohio River Valley.

This part of the country was once a huge sea In that time coral flourished and formed a reef, now exposed, which is two and a half miles long, and which interrupts ship traffic on the 900-mile-long river. Fierce-looking fish, some twenty feet long lived here, and other wonders, whose fossils are embedded in the reef. Glaciers came and went, dinosaurs roared, and mammoths lumbered here. Later the buffalo, in herds of thousands crossed the river into Kentucky to reach salt licks, in the process making a path called The Buffalo Trace. This path was wide enough to accommodate a carriage, became part of The Wilderness Road, and eventually a portion of Indiana Route 25.

We headed North into Indiana, spending balmy nights in state parks with beautiful lakes, deer, butterflies, a flock of goldfinches on thistle seed heads, generally stinky pit toilets, one park a little too near a race car track, and, at Patoka Lake, a birthday party for Smokey the Bear, who turned 63 years old in August. The rangers at that park even had a birthday cake with a picture of Smokey on it!

Camp breakfast of a balmy Indiana morning...

In the Amish communities, Peachy took her turn at stop signs with horse-drawn buggies, and Penny spent a rainy Monday morning in the local Laundromat with many ladies in white caps drying voluminous loads of work clothes in the gas driers. One thing that seems to go along with horses is the presence of flies. We stopped for a roadside sign advertising honey, and came away with honey and a collection of the flying beasties that plagued us for several days. Luckily, one of our going-away gifts was a fly swatter, and it earned its passage in Indiana! Amish businesses are closed on Sundays, even those advertising on the super highways; good for them for keeping that day apart from the usual rush of life.

In Metamora, a charmingly restored town, there was a wonderful account in the local paper about an "unorthodox" election that had been held just months before. It seems that with the increased tourist trade, public restrooms were called for. To cover some of the cost of this project, an election was concocted in which twelve candidates sought votes, each vote being $1 toward the restroom project. The winner would be declared The Honorary Mayor of Metamora, with no rights or responsibilities beyond bragging rights.

Candidates included a four-year-old named Crystal, two horses, a Doberman from out of town, and Whiffy, the skunk mascot of The Smelly Gourmet Coffee Bar. The winner was Henry Ferguson, long-time resident of Metamora. Crystal came in second, and I am sure you will be happy to hear that Whiffy was fifth. Not too bad for a skunk.

A real Horse of a Candidate...No, really...
this was one of the horse-candidates

My favorite sign so far: (Posted on the door of a church kitchen), "UNATTENDED CHILDREN WILL BE GIVEN ESPRESSO AND A FREE PUPPY" Shalom.