2015 Road Trip: Part 5 (OH-IN)

Ohio to Indiana

Day 8

4.21.15

Next stop on my trip was to visit my fellow violist, Teal, at IU in Bloomington.  From this point onward, every mile I drove west would be the furthest I've ever been.  So far, my record was Oberlin.  No longer! This is exciting because it's fun to expand your territory.  Along the way, I found many road closures.  This was frustrating not necessarily because of taking a longer route, but because I got pretty damn tired of "when possible, make a legal U-turn" from the GPS.

On a lighter note, I found some very fun roads to drive along that weren't all flat.  There were some cows too.  As you drive south into Ohio, it gets a bit more hilly, but there is still plenty of farmland to go around.

Endangering myself to get this picture.

Since I have been on the lookout for fire towers, I found that there were a few left standing in Ohio.  I guess they remove most of them, leaving very few choices for people like me who like to check them all out.  This one was in Mohican State Park, which was somewhere near Ashland and Mansfield.

The experience could have been better.  It was cold and windy unless you were standing directly in the sun with a nice greenhouse around you to shield the wind.  It made for a good lunch spot, even though the cabin was once again locked.  Grrr.  There was some amusing graffiti right under the cabin that said "MALLARD DUCKS! lets live".  Every once in awhile you get some funny stuff.

I found another covered bridge on my way out of the park to find some highways.  This one was drivable, so that was a perk.  I was somewhat wary of it for some reason.  I mean why would it collapse?  But it still crosses my mind.

This was a road along the top of a dam that was much to high for the current water level.  Dams are cool though, so I snapped a picture.

Driving along the highway on this day was terrifying because it was very windy, and that always blows you around in the lane (or out of it if you're on careful!)  Due to some changing circumstances, I wasn't able to see Teal that evening, so instead I went directly to this place called Blackwell Horse Camp, just south of Bloomington in the Hoosier National Forest. It worked out very well that I came directly here, because I got to see it in the light before setting up camp.  This is the most western state in Eastern Time, so I was amazing at how late I was able to see.  I think it was still light around 9pm.  This never happens in Maine this time of year.

I pulled off to the side, and got this corner of the field all to myself.

This was the first test of my cooking setup.  On a whim, I grabbed a camping stove I saw in our attic.  It is a beautiful piece of technology. The smell of boiling water will never fail to soothe me.

First try at night photography.  (Sorry for repost from facebook.)
This one is full res if you want to use it as your desktop wallpaper!

I closed out the evening by pulling out my accordion.  There were other campers around, but we were very spread out, so I could barely hear them, so I assume they could barely hear me.  Though who doesn't like accordion music?  Yes, I'm biased.  My fingers got cold after playing through the tunes I know, but I love just jamming on my big mechanical lung in the open air.

This is the progress map for this leg of the journey, adding 407 miles to the journey, and making the total 1650 miles.  (This included my day trip mileage around the Oberlin area.)

Yellowwood National Forest
Day 9
4.22.15

I awoke after a peaceful night, and toasted some bagels on one of those cool stovetop toasters like I used while working at Baxter SP.  That's camping luxury right there.  Also having a car right there with everything you could possibly need.  But I won't mention that.

I have a tendency to gravitate to placed called Monroe.  Bloomington is in Monroe County, IN.  Below is a picture of Monroe Lake, which is also in Monroe County.  (I think they planned that.)  It was overflowing the banks, since there were many trees that were underwater.

Underwater picnic bench, Monroe Lake, IN

To occupy myself for the morning until Teal was free to be bothered by me, I went out to explore the Yellowwood National Forest, which is a short drive east on Rt. 46, and then on a few back roads.  I chose this gravel road, which was reminiscent of the park tote road through Baxter. This road was considerably wider, and the forest more open.  There were lots of pinkish flowers in this area.  If I cared about plants, I'd be telling you what they are, but I was content just seeing pretty pink flowers.

I found a trailhead for "Trail Y".  I had found a vague map of the area, but it didn't really seem to match anything I was seeing.  Luckily it was a wide path that was said to be used for firewood harvesting, so it was easy to follow.  After around 2 miles, I made it down to Yellowwood Lake.  I was presented with this beautiful meadow with a hump in the middle.  Perfect picnic spot.

Yellowwood Lake and a meadow

After entering the meadow, I saw a herd of geese and a number of small birds that seemed to be ground nesters.  Maybe bobolinks or the like? They looked more black though, so I'm not sure.

After my excursion to the lake and back, I met up with Teal to go to a smoothie place called Soma.  Made with real fruits!  Later, we had some dinner, played some night frisbee on the IU campus, and as you can see by the picture, we were completely civilized during the entire time.

Aren't we flattering.

I came back to the same spot in the Hoosier NF for another night.  It was cold and clear, and according to the weather forecast, no rain, so I didn't put the fly on the tent, and got a cool view of the stars.  The drawback was the coldness, but the sleeping bag did its job on everything except for my nose.