Vincennes, Indiana, small town America…

As I was in the motorhome Friday morning making preparation to leave our friends' house in Newton, Illinois, Sharon came in a little red faced to tell me we had a problem.So excited was she at pulling into the driveway when we first arrived she realized now she never turned the key out of the ignition upon our arrival.  We hadn't unhooked the car so the keys went forgotten in the excitement and greetings.  Mike moved his truck over to the car, Sharon found our jumper cables and boom we were back in business.  So we said our goodbyes and pulled out heading east from Newton.

Our plan was to stay at a nice park near Bloomington Indiana about an hour and a half down the road.  It had over a hundred spaces and although we never got an answer when trying to check availability we decided with that many spaces, surely there were openings. Call it a premonition or whatever, something told me to have Sharon call once more to make sure.  This time we got an answer from the host but it was bad news as every single space was taken for the weekend. With Indiana University still 45 miles away I thought this park would be fine even though they had a home football game… guess not! 

Thankfully we were two miles away from Plan B, Red Hill Lake State Park.  We called there and were told plenty of spaces were available. Whew!  So after about a 30 mile drive we had a nice pull through site with plenty of shade trees and we knew we would enjoy a night or two or three here.  I built a nice fire and Sharon set upon her goal of finding a good CBS station so we would be able to watch the big Texas A&M vs. Alabama football game on Saturday.

Sharon became frustrated with the fact she was able to tune in ABC, NBC, CW, Fox, etc. but no CBS.  I did not have a happy camper.  After researching the problem I found that Vincennes, Indiana, a short 25 miles away, had a nice little park, Kimmell City Park, on the Wabash River and if we couldn’t get CBS there at least there was a Buffalo Wild Wings there where we could watch the game. So we moved down the road and set up… no CBS here either. Plan C took hold and we caught the game at Buffalo Wild Wings and although our team lost, we had a fun evening and it was still a good game.

The next day we explored Vincennes University,  the first college in Indiana, a small but quaint college near the Wabash River. Not too far from the University is the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park that commemorates the conquest of the Old Northwest Territory. They say it is the largest national monument outside of Washington, D.C. The Memorial is located on the site of the former British Fort Sackville which was captured by Colonel George Rogers Clark and his army of 170 frontiersmen and Frenchmen. The moment of the fort's surrender on February 25, 1779 marks the birth of the United States north of the Ohio River. Pretty cool building with some interesting American history.

    

Other cool attractions here that we visited were the William Henry Harrison Mansion called Grouseland, Old French House showing the style of the French Creole architecture and some nearby interesting historical buildings. To Sharon's delight there was a cell phone number to dial and hear historical facts about each site. Next we also discovered that Red Skelton was born here so we drove by the house he was born in. Later in the afternoon we played at a small 9 hole disc golf course at Hillcrest Park.  

Who would have thought there would be so many interesting things to see in do in this sleepy little town on the Wabash River… It never ceases to amaze us the sights we stumble into once we park our big rig and get out to check out these neat little places in America… Now we need to get more serious about planning our route to Florida as we have made our Mayo Clinic checkup appointments early in November.