Makin' the Turn

A tremendous storm arrived in Nappanee about midnight last night, and in fact the storm stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes.  It moved roughly from southwest to northeast, and drenched most of Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio until noon today.  We had made plans to leave Nappanee early this morning because the route we wanted to take involved some two lane roads of unknown condition.  Needless to say, we didn't leave early!  About 9 the rain stopped, so we quickly unhooked and stowed the utilities and headed for the local truck stop for fuel. Just as we arrived, the heavens opened up again, and it was 15 minutes of standing in the outdoor shower! Finally about 11 we were hooked up to tow Gus, had a full tank of fuel, and were off.

Our selected road led us south towards Indianapolis, through Kokomo, a town made famous in a song!

Somewhere north of Indianapolis we ran out of the rain, and the skies turned to mostly cloudy for a nice run south.  Road construction on I465 in Indy caused us a bit of grief, but we made it through, and settled in for a 100 mile run to Louisville, Kentucky. Well, just outside of Louisville on the north side of the Ohio River, still in Indiana, and staying for two nights in the KOA Metro rv park.  This park is one of those older parks that we all fear running into, but whose online description appears appealing.  We do have a site, and the utilities all work, but getting in here was a job!  We disconnected Gus in the parking lot in front of the office/convenience store/gas station, backed up and wiggled into site number 37, just across the lane from a whole string of seasonal/full time residents and about 50 feet from the railroad tracks.  Our slides are roughly two feet from the neighbors on either side, and we have to step over their water and electrical hoses to get to our car. But the office staff is very helpful and friendly, if a bit slow, due to having to sell gas and cigarettes to other customers…..

We're parked next to a couple from Ontario, Canada, who like to watch Jeopardy on tv and drink beer. I only know this you understand, because we're so close…

So, 261 miles from Nappanee, we're about a 1/4 mile from the Ohio River.  This mighty river rivals the Mississippi and Missouri in width and shipping volume, and is very impressive here in Louisville.  Seen from across the river, downtown Louisville looks interesting, as well.  We're looking forward to checking it out.

Just 3/4 of a mile west of Clarksville is the Falls of the Ohio State Park.  Clarksville is not named for the famous explorer, but a statue in front of the interpretive center at the park commemorates the meeting between Lewis and Clark as they met to begin their epic journey to the Pacific.

They met here, made their way down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to the Missouri where they officially began their trip. The planning for the trip was all done while they journeyed between the Falls and the Missouri.

The Falls of the Ohio is an interesting place. Not very steep as to elevation change, the rapids extend two and one half miles, making the Ohio impassable at this point. Today, concrete walls and locks control the flow of water and shipping traffic as well as sending river water to hydroelectric plants.

In the distance you can see the main shipping channel on the far side of the retaining wall.  On this side is what remains of the falls.  The "rocks" that you can see are the fossilized remains of huge corals that were alive when this was a subtropical ocean near the equator millions of years ago.

Several of the coral formations are accessible, so we walked down near the river to check them out.
There are remains of thousands of small creatures embedded in the rocks.

The falls were once a barrier to travel on the Ohio, but now are an archeological point of interest.

The sun was setting as we left the park, with storm clouds on the horizon.

So, we've made the turn south.  A few stops along the road will get us going west towards home.  We are looking forward to it.