Well, even though that little bluebird made a mess of my mirrors, I had to post another picture of him. He was so beautiful. And Terry went out with the windex and cleaned off my mirrors. Thanks, Babe.We drove on north and crossed into Indiana at Louisville. We camped at Charlestown at the state park. Indiana has a lot to learn about campgrounds. While this is a beautiful campground, I find very few campgrounds worth $34+ a night, even with full hookups. That is what they are charging. Last year we stayed here in the same site with FHU's and the cost was $24. That is a pretty hefty increase in just one year. What are they thinking? I can tell you what people are thinking. . . it was a gorgeous weekend, each day hit 84* and there were probably fewer than a dozen campers in the entire camp. What purpose does raising the price to a prohibitive amount serve and then letting this camp sit empty? I know the state is trying to save/raise money, but a small increase would have been better. One that would put more money in the state coffers but not scare people away.
We stayed two nights there and did some sightseeing. One place I had always wanted to go while we lived in Indiana was the Falls of the Ohio. 
There at the Falls are some of the oldest fossil beds and during periods of low water, they are not only visible, but people are allowed to walk out on them and get a closer look. That was not possible now because this is a period of high water. The falls actually look more like rapids now because the river has been dammed up and a barrier put in place to section off the fossil beds. I think that was done more for navigation as the falls are the only barrier for over 900 miles of the river. The falls originally were a series of small falls dropping a total of 26 feet. When you see the water roiling now you can understand just how dangerous these rapids would be to an 
unsuspecting boater. The pictures show the amount of debris that is covering the approach to the fossil beds. Some of the beds are visible, but the trek over the driftwood and other trash was prohibitive. Spring cleanup will take care of a lot of the debris, but for the present, we observed the fossils in the rocks that were relocated on the grounds of the park. This is a very interesting park and there is an interpretive center that provides more information about how the fossil 
beds were formed. A school bus in the parking lot and noisy kids in the center made us decide to opt for the self-guided tour. On the grounds was a bronze statue of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the place where they met, thus starting the Lewis and Clark Expedition which was to find a water route from the midwest to the Pacific ocean.We left the Falls park and drove on down the levee to the cabin of George Rogers Clark. He was a brother to William Clark and was a Revolutionary War hero whose efforts claimed the entire area northwest of the Ohio River. In doing this, he took out a lot of loans on the promise by the President that they would be paid back. When they weren't he ended up bankrupt. The government eventually paid him back
in land along the Ohio River where he built this cabin and lived out most of the rest of his life. Eventually most of his land was confiscated by creditors and a stroke made it impossible for him to live alone. He moved in with a relative on the other side of the river and died a few years later of the another stroke.We moved from Charlestown yesterday and drove through some drizzle to Summit Lake State Park near Mooreland, Indiana, where we used to live. We like this park and right now it is quite cheap. But we only have electric, as they haven't turned on the water yet. It is actually on the same par price wise as Charlestown, but cheaper now because of reduced services, whereas Charlestown is all up and running. We are here because a colleague of mine from my teaching days has invited us for Easter dinner. It will be great to see friends again. Tomorrow we are breaking camp and will travel north to Goshen for some maintenance on the apartments.
Till next time. . .
Dale
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