Lake Monroe, Bloomington, and Nashville, IN

 

Friday we hiked a couple miles on a nice trail down to Lake Monroe. It is a huge lake and there are many recreation areas with campgrounds, marinas and boat ramps along the shoreline, which is all part of the Hoosier National Forest.

The weather here has been almost perfect since we arrived, other than a thunderstorm last night and some clouds today. It’s been in the upper 70’s to mid 80’s, and getting in the low 60’s at night, which feels wonderful.

Our friend Ellen came over to see our “house” Friday night, then we went out to dinner. We think the last time we visited her and Doug was circa 1992 when they lived in Dallas, but we aren’t positive.

This is a photo from the late 80’s when they lived in Pensacola and Ellen worked for the state with Jim as a probation officer. She is now a children’s librarian, quite a change in careers. (Hope you guys don’t mind I put this in the blog!)

We ate dinner at the Scenic View Lodge and Restaurant, only about 10 miles from the campground. They have a huge outdoor deck with a beautiful view of Lake Monroe. It was a lovely night to watch the full moon rise over the lake, and our vegan waiter recommended a unique pizza for us that wasn’t on the menu. Barbeque sauce, red onions, capers, fresh spinach and candied walnuts. It was one of the best pizzas without cheese that we’ve ever eaten.

Yesterday we picked up Ellen at her condo, which is really in a great setting on a golf course, and drove into downtown Bloomington. She took us to the county library where she works, then we toured the campus of Indiana University.

These are the Sample Gates, leading into the historic Old Crescent area of campus, where a wedding party was hamming it up for the cameras. There is a pretty chapel nearby on campus, and according to a sign there were three weddings there yesterday.

We also walked along a pedestrian/bike trail downtown, which has some interesting sculptures on the trail, like this huge dining table.

We ate a late lunch at The Owlery, a vegetarian restaurant in a cute old house. Our grilled tempeh sandwich was really good, but not as good as the pizza Friday night. Ellen had the coconut Macadamia fried tofu dipped in peanut sauce, which even tofu haters would have to love.

Today we had breakfast at Panera in Bloomington, bought a new GPS at Target, and tried it out on a 15 mile drive east to Nashville, IN. It is billed as an artist community, and it was a really cute town with blocks and blocks of shops and restaurants but it was mostly touristy stuff. All we bought was a bag of Pennsylvania Dutch butterscotch candy, which we thought was funny considering we’re close to Indiana’s Amish country.

 

We’ve had a great weekend in the Bloomington area, and really enjoyed our time with Ellen. We decided to stay until Tuesday so we can just hang around the park tomorrow.

Hardin Ridge Recreation Area, Bloomington, IN

 

We drove about 90 miles today and saw more cornfields than we’ve ever seen before.

We found a nice site with electric in the Bluegill Loop of Hardin Ridge Recreation Area, just southeast of Bloomington, IN. It would be hard to dry camp and get any charge from the solar panels in these deep dark woods.

Took a bike ride this evening through all the campgrounds and down to Lake Monroe. Too bad there are no sites overlooking the lake.

We found out what Indiana does with it’s old Hoosiers.

This appears to be a really nice area and we’re looking forward to seeing our friend Ellen tomorrow and checking out Bloomington.

Katy Trail, Friends and Land of Lincoln

 

Yesterday we took our bikes across the Missouri River to Weldon Springs and the Katy Trail State Park, a 237 mile bike trail, the longest rails-to-trails path in the country. The trail is not paved, but the surface is very hard packed crushed limestone, and it was surprisingly easy to ride on. We had a nice 20 mile ride along the Missouri River, and didn’t realize until we stopped to eat lunch that we were on part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. In fact, they supposedly camped close to our lunch spot.

 

We met a couple on the trail from Colorado who had ridden their bikes from Denver, on their way to Virginia. He said they thought they were going to become permanent residents of Kansas, as long as it took to ride across the state in the sweltering heat. I think they picked the wrong summer for that trip.

Jim has an old friend and former coworker, Eric, from his Burlington Northern days, who lives in the St. Louis area. The last time we saw him and his wife Lela was probably 25 or more years ago, when we met up with them in Memphis after Jim was laid off from the railroad. They invited us to their house for dinner last night, and we had a very nice evening catching up after all these years. They have a  sweet 16 year old son with Down Syndrome who was more than happy to take our picture.

Now here we are in Memphis the last time we got together. Can these be the same people?

Today we left St. Louis and are spending the night at Red Hills State Park in Sumner, IL. Not a bad place, but the sites are really close, and we wouldn’t want to be here when it was crowded. Luckily there aren’t many people here at all.

Tomorrow we are moving on to the Bloomington, IN area to visit another friend. And it has finally cooled off.

Beer, Pizza and a Little Culture

 

Couldn’t visit St. Louis without a tour of Anheuser-Busch Brewery.

Up to 5,000 people per day visit the brewery, but I’m guessing those numbers would go down if they didn’t give each person two free beer samples at the end of the one hour tour.

It was actually very interesting. We saw the stables that house the Budweiser Clydesdales.

The Brew House, where the beer is actually brewed.

Inside the Brew House were the Mash Tanks. The guide said it was 30 degrees warmer than outside, and it was in the mid 80’s that morning.

 

This was a beautiful building. The four story chandelier was from the 1904 World’s Fair.

The Brew Tanks.

The Beechwood Aging Cellars. It was only 50 degrees in this building.

The smell of hops was in the air everywhere we walked. We were finally shuttled back to the Hospitality Room, where we got our beer. We aren’t too crazy about most of their products, but Jim tried the Wild Blue, a blueberry lager. It was really tasty and refreshing, although it didn’t  taste much like beer. I had a Stella Artois, which wasn’t bad, and we shared a Shock Top Raspberry Wheat, which we also liked.

After the beer, we were ready for lunch, and decided to try Pi Pizzeria, which we read was one of President Obama’s favorites on the campaign trail. He even had the chef and staff come to the White House in 2009 to cater a pizza dinner.

We had the signature deep dish, made with a unique cornmeal crust. I thought it was really good, but Jim just thought it was okay. I think there were too many vegetables on it for him.

Today we went back to Forest Park to the St. Louis Art Museum, another free attraction. It is a very impressive place.

View from the steps of the museum.

We spent about two and a half hours walking around and looking at all the exhibits, including paintings by van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, etc.  Our favorite thing was this sculpture of Pan, the Greek god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music.

The detail was amazing.

And we only got reprimanded twice, once for standing too close to a painting, and once when Jim used the camera flash. Can’t take us out of the woods!

Babler State Park/St. Louis Zoo

 

 

We are about 30 miles west of downtown St. Louis at Dr. Edmund A. Babler Memorial State Park, surrounded by high dollar subdivisions and lovely estates in the rolling green hills. More shopping than anyone could possibly need is just a few miles away, but the park feels very rural. We got the only site that was available for an entire week, and could only get level if we pulled in instead of backed in. At least we have some shade part of the day.

Yesterday we had breakfast at Panera and headed to Forest Park, site of the 1904 World’s Fair and the St. Louis Zoo. We parked for free near the World’s Fair Pavilion, and walked a half mile to the zoo, rather than pay the $12 to park in the lot.

When I did my orthoptic training at the St. Louis Eye Clinic in ‘77-‘79, I lived near Forest Park and spent lots of time walking around the park and the zoo since admission is free. What a bargain.

We spent over three hours there and didn’t see everything, but it was getting warmer and we were thirsty, hungry, and tired of walking. Luckily it was overcast and only got up to 91 yesterday, and there is lots of shade, so it wasn’t too bad.

We thought it was every bit as nice as the San Diego Zoo. Here are some of the animals we saw.

Swimming Hippo.

Hyena.

 

We felt sorry for the elephant after recently reading Water for Elephants. Haven’t seen the movie yet but it’s a great book, by the way.

Chimps.

Lots of birds and waterfowl.

Roseate spoonbill.

Vulturine Guineafowl.

White-crested Turaco.

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Golden Blue Macaw.

 

Double Crested Cormorant

Saddlebill Stork

Golden Pheasant

Red-legged Seriema

The elusive tiger.

Beautiful leopard.

Somali Wild Ass. They are related to zebras, as you can see by the leg stripes.

Transcapian Urial. Can you imagine the horn envy? The one with the largest horns gets to be the leader of the pack.

And finally, Jim had camera envy watching this photographer, although he didn’t think he would enjoy carrying it around.

It was a great day at the zoo, and on the way home we stopped at Trader Joe’s, which is only 7 miles from the campground. I just love that store and we’ve decided that wherever we end up settling down one day, it’s got to be within 25 miles of a Trader Joe’s!