After our exciting venture on the ferry, we set up camp at Fox Ridge State Park in Illinois. This park had rolling hills and thickly wooded ridges along the Embarras River with nine hiking trails throughout the park.
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| Lincoln's Boyhood Home |
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| Cover Bridge in Green-Up, IL |
A visit to nearby Lincoln's Boyhood Home (1845) and farm left us wondering why blue doors? Of course, due to our limited time the Visitor Center was closed so we never learned the answer to that question. We continued through a Town called Green-Up only to discover a Historic Train Depot now a Museum and a Covered Bridge that was worth a picture and the World's Largest Cross which was in Effingham, Illinois.
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| Two-Story Out House |
Proceeding to our next destination, Lake Shelbyville where we stayed at an Army Corp Engineering park, we passed through the Town of Gays, Illinois where there was a Two Story Outhouse -- a pit stop worth stopping for. Our campsite was not near the lake but our stay was short (1 night). We then proceeded into Indiana near Clinton which was our camping destination at one of our Thousand Trails Membership Parks. Since there were so many Covered Bridges in this particular county we decided to stay a few nights to discover them and of course capture this Covered Bridges of The Heartland. First of all, a little history about Parke County. This area is the "Best Kept Secret" and Nationally Recognized as the "Land of
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| Deer Mill Covered Bridge 1875 |
Covered Bridges" with 31 of them located in this county. There is even a Covered Bridge Annual Festival which will be October 12 - 21 this year (2012). The Coxford Covered Bridge is located in Turkey Run State Park with canoeing and kayaking on a very popular Sugar Creek. Then of course we visited The Deer Mill Covered Bridge, The Wallace Covered Bridge and Adam's Mill and Bridge -- a bridge our motor home could not fit through.
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| Look Thru Adams Mill Bridge |
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| Adams Mill 1831 |
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| Mansfield Mill 1867 |
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| Bridgeton Mill / Covered Bridge 1823 |
The Bridgeton Mill Covered Bridge, after repeated floods, vandalism, arson, and tornado's is better then ever and running strong. The Grist Mill Stones are 200 years old. Whereas the Mansfield Mill and Covered Bridge has three floors of mostly milling equipment. The back deck overlooks a view of the water turbines that power the mill. Both of these Mills sit on The Scenic Big Raccoon Creek. Tours, Festivals and Special Events take place April through October each year.
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| World's Largest Egg |
We ended our stay at Horseshoe Lake with a Chicken BBQ fund raiser cooked by the Volunteer Fire Department nearby in Clinton, Indiana . Finger lickin' good!!! Our last day we spend planting flowers at our RV park to help beautify its entrance way and other locations throughout the campground. Another interesting stop was to see The World's Largest Egg in Mentone, Indiana. The last campground in Indiana we stayed overnight was Pokagon State Park near the Michigan Border where it rained the whole night we got there and of course, we left first thing the next morning in sunshine heading to Our Final Destination, MICHIGAN!!!!
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| World's Largest Cross |
We have finally returned to Michigan for One Main Reason: Our daughter, Kelsey graduated from
Michigan State University on
