Culture to Clip-Clop

In spite of the fun we had at Nappanee's celebration on the Fourth, we've begun to feel a bit confined.  So, this morning we jumped into the car and headed for Elkhart.  Our destination was the Wellfield Botanic Gardens.  Built on the site of the wells that produce 70% of Elkharts water, the gardens are designed to showcase conservation efforts as well as provide a cool, relaxing location to get away from the concrete and asphalt of the surrounding city.

A meandering path leads around a series of small lakes and rivers.  The Elkhart River provides a pleasant backdrop to most of the inviting views.

A side path led us into the Woodland Conservation Garden, with dense trees and vines providing a quiet place for contemplation.

The Gardens are continually updated and upgraded as funding allows.  They are completely funded through donations, private sources, and admittance fees.  An annual membership provides unlimited admittance and, if you want Fido along, a membership is available for him as well. The Gardens are well kept and artists use the site heavily for their paintings.  Weddings and important family occasions can be scheduled in some of the most beautiful areas of Elkhart.

Having been cultured, we allowed ourselves to relax for a bit and stroll along the Riverwalk.  This is a cool pathway system through an area that was the very starting point for Elkhart. The St. Joseph River and the Elkhart River join in a meandering fashion in this area, and early settlers saw the benefit to having endless sources of water.  Canals were dug, and the waters power was harnessed to produce energy for grain mills, paper and box plants, and any number of business's that required power for manufacturing goods.  Having fallen to ruin a few years ago, the area was renovated with paths, benches, and parks that are a great place for an afternoon walk.  The confluence of the St Joe and Elkhart rivers is now a quiet, lazy place to fish, but was at one time a densely populated, busy, noisy, center of industry.

After a bit of lunch at McCarthys on the river, where we watched a family celebrating a young lady's coming of age occasion against a backdrop of a quilt garden:

We headed a block or so west towards downtown, old town Elkhart.

We still had 1/2 the afternoon to enjoy, so we drove east to the town of Bristol and then south on IN 15 toward Goshen. We drove around Goshen for a bit, refreshing our memories from last years visit.  A tour of an industrial park southeast of town showed that every rv manufacturer and supplier had help wanted signs posted.  Evidently the rv business is on an upswing!

The last part of our journey brought us to US 6, a major highway connecting several small towns.  Heading west toward "home" in Nappanee, we happened upon the Nappanee Race Track, where the track was being groomed for harness racing. It's a small track, only a mile and a quarter, and so only ponies are allowed to race here, ponies being defined as less than 51 1/2 inches at the withers.  The admission was $4 each and the program was $2, so in we went!  No wagering was allowed, so Donna and I picked a horse for each race and had a contest to see who won the most times.  As usual, my superior knowledge of horse flesh stood me in good stead as I whipped her by a score of 7 to 6. The other 9 races ended with a winner that neither of us chose.

A lot of action took place, with a rider being thrown from his buggy in one race and his horse running full tilt around the track 4 times before he could be calmed down.  Another race saw a horse going down while in a tight pack of other horses and overturning the cart.  The horse stayed down for a long time and we all wondered if it had been hurt.  Eventually, with help, the horse got up and walked to the barn area.  We hope all is well.

The races alternate between "trot" and "pace" races, with the difference being in the style of gait. With a pace, both legs on the horses side go forward and backward in unison, while with the trot, both legs alternate, where the front leg is back at the same time that the back leg is forward, and the opposite is occurring on the other side of the horse.

In any case, it was a beautiful thing, and we watched the entire program with interest.

Even some of the little people got involved with miniature horses:

The purses were modest for each race, and the drivers bantered back and forth after the races, so this was a sport among equals that allowed the horses and drivers to hone their skills.  And what could be better than sitting in the middle of a cornfield in Indiana, with hamburgers, hot dogs, and homemade pie, watching some graceful horses strut their stuff and counting millions of fireflies as the sun went down?