Camping With My Sisters

One of the lakes we camped near

Two weeks ago on an early Thursday morning, I headed out for a camping trip in Indiana and Illinois with my sisters Elaine and Suzanne. We went in two cars with each of my sisters driving one. Our ultimate goal was to visit the Lincoln Historical Museum and other sites in Springfield, Ill.

 

Clifty Falls Inn with the power plant stacks behind it.

Our first two nights were spent at Clifty Falls State Park in Southern Indiana on a high point a little north of the Ohio River. We had a lovely camp spot with two sites next to each other, although we discovered the huge power plant nearby was noisy at night. Only one vehicle per site was permitted. We each had our own tents. We were tired from the long drive, so decided to eat dinner at the Clifty Falls Inn, a wonderful place with lounges, a huge dining room, large windows providing a view, and delicious food reasonably priced. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we decided to skip oatmeal in the camp and eat breakfast at the Inn instead. The servers were young high school seniors, pleasant and not only willing to answer our questions, but seemed to enjoy talking about what their life goals were when they graduated.

 

There were trees closer to the shore with water all around them.

After breakfast we went to the historical town of Madison on the Ohio River. It was a charming little town and we enjoyed touring the downtown area and all their shops including Village Lights Bookstore. Yes, I bought some books. We ate lunch at the Lighthouse Restaurant anchored in the river with a walkway that didn’t look very safe as it was floating close to the surface of a river high from all the rain they’d had. The fish sandwiches were good, simple and served in plastic baskets.

Air mattress, bedding, clothing, small lamp but no books.

That night we ate dinner at the Inn again. It was hot and humid and no one felt like cooking. As we were leaving, we noticed dark skies. However, several people with access to weather reports said it was the tail end of a storm so we wouldn’t get much if any rain. We settled into our individual tents to read as the wind blew and it started to rain. Then the sirens went off. Suzanne came to our tents and said someone reported it was a flood warning. Since we were too high for that to be a problem, we ignored them. Then the wind picked up considerably, thunder and lightning was getting severe so Elaine and I headed for her car and Suzanne went to the large wash house where many campers had headed just as the deluge was starting.  Wind reached gale strength with trees bending close to the ground. As we watched, Elaine started laughing because she saw my tent fly off the ground and get caught on the picnic table where it rested on its side. My tarp flew past the car. I laughed, too. When the rain let up to a drizzle, Suzanne came back, and we checked things out. I righted my tent, but there was no way I could sleep inside it. Everything was soaked. It was the same with my sisters’ tents. So Elaine and I spent a miserable night trying to sleep in the front seat of her car and Suzanne in hers. We went to Clifty Inn for breakfast. Afterwards we packed up our wet stuff, and on the way to the next campground, we stopped at a laundromat and dried everything.

 

Abe Martin Lodge

Our next camp was Yellowwood State Park. The camp host brought us a load of free firewood. It was a primitive campsite with no flush toilets unless you drove to the entrance where the wash house was. We had a view of Yellowwood Lake through the trees, and a trail that led down to the shore. Because it was hot and humid, we headed for Abe Martin Lodge in Brown County State Park. Abe Martin is a cartoon character created by a local inhabitant in the 1930s. It was another delightful place to eat, more rustic in appearance, but with flower gardens and a large dining area filled with people enjoying their meals. The food was delicious, ample and again reasonable. Best of all was the folk singer who entertained us. That night my air pump didn’t work quite as well filling my air mattress, but at least it put some air in it so I slept reasonably well, falling asleep to the sound of owls. At least until the baby in the next site woke up screaming and crying for almost an hour with the father grumbling and complaining. In the morning his mother said he was teething.

We went on to Clinton Lake State Recreation area to camp several nights. It was a nice campsite with glimpses of the lake. However, there was lots of poison ivy around the campsite and even worse, my air pump no longer worked. I’d set up my tent on a dry gravel patch in the campsite we shared. It was not a comfortable night.

 

The  Union Station

Next morning we went to Springfield. The Lincoln Museum was everything I wished it would be and even more so. We stopped at the Union Train Station to get our admission wrist bands. There they showed parts of the movie Lincoln and how the movie was made, videos of the stars talking about it, and the dresses worn by Sally Field and others.

We went through the park beside the station and looked at the statues before going to the museum. I can’t begin to tell everything about that museum, only that it was one of the best, if not the best, museum I’ve ever visited, and I’ve visited many museums in my years of traveling. It was so touching that even if I hadn’t read several biographies of Lincoln, I would still have felt strong emotions.

I'm standing next to Mary Todd Lincoln

After lunch nearby, we went to the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site in Oak Ridge Cemetery. It was interesting, too, but by then we were a little saturated with all we’d seen and heard so we headed back to our campsite to rest for a few hours before going to dinner at a small restaurant on the lake.

The Lincoln Tomb

I spent another uncomfortable night on the ground since new batteries hadn’t revived my pump. We packed up in the morning and headed for Whitewater Memorial State Park in Indiana not far from the Ohio border. It was a nice clean park with wash houses with showers and flush toilets throughout the campgrounds. We were able to get in a good hike – we’d only had one hike this trip at Clifty Falls. One thing that amused us at the park was a cardinal I dubbed Don Quixote because it did battle with the side mirrors as well as the front windows of both of our cars for the two days we were there stopping only for a few moments to watch us to see if we were still sitting in our lawn chairs or far enough away not to be a problem.

 

Don Quixote on my sisters side mirr

The next morning we headed home. With only a few stops for gas and food, I got home late Thursday afternoon to a happy dog, cats and ponies. My friend Laura was there to greet me. She’d house sat for me and was an excellent caretaker for all my critters. She left the house clean and in the fridge she had delicious barbecued chicken she’d made for my supper. It was a good trip except for the heat and humidity, the storm and the flattened air mattress, but still there’s nothing like being back in my own home with my critters, electric lights to read by, music on my CD player, and most especially a comfortable mattress.  

Our hike up to the top to see Clifty Falls

Have you ever gone camping?

What vacation do you remember best?