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| The beach on Lake Michigan at Indiana Dunes State Park |
It was fun to wake up this morning and see what a great
campground we’d found. We’d arrived
after dark having traveled 520 miles in one long day. When we left Niagara Falls, I looked ahead on
the Rand McNalley atlas for a state park on our route that might have an RV
camp. Since we were on the road earlier
than planned, we figured Indiana Dunes State Park, about 6 miles north of
I-90/80 near Chesterton, Indiana would work.
I googled it on Keith’s iphone, and called the office, which is open
until 11pm! It was $10 to enter the
state park, and $17.30 to stay overnight with electric hook-up. Our lunch stop, made it a push to get there,
but well worth it. And by going so far
we had an hour of time-zone advantage. The wooded campsite was in full fall regalia. The showers were nearby and clean. The camp has140 sites, but very few were
occupied on this early October weeknight.
It’s less than a mile to the south end of Lake Michigan,
still in the state park, where we spent some time enjoying being the only
people in sight on a beautiful 3 mile beach of fine sand with gentle breaking
waves from the north wind. This place
had some great rocks…very flat, with interesting colors and shapes…shale? We filled Keith’s pockets for Henry’s
souvenirs! There was a huge, two-story,
art-deco style bathhouse from 1929, locked up for the season. The grey skies prevented views of Chicago to
the west, but made the place seem even more special. It’s hard to imagine that beach on a busy
summer weekend, so close to this huge metropolitan area. But, we can definitely
recommend the spot.
When he realized we were on the shore of Lake Michigan, Dad
remembered crossing the lake on a large boat as part of an FFA leadership
training camp. He was 17 years old, and
state president of the Nebraska Association.
Mom said her parents crossed Lake Michigan on a ferry when they were on
their honeymoon. And, the trip to Lyons when she was 14 included a boat
crossing of Lake Michigan. We decided
this would have been the same trip that she had mentioned earlier…something
about a teenage crush and trip to ……point with one of the Boeheim boys in
Lyons! This name came up when we checked
for cemetery records at the Boeheim-Pusateri Funeral home in Lyons, NY. We did a google search the other day and
found that Jim Boeheim, successful basketball coach at Syracuse University, was
also from Lyons!
The next destination was Amana, Iowa. Amana is home of the Amana Appliances, now
owned by Whirlpool. The Amana colonies
were started in 1855 by Inspirationists living a communal way of life. There are lots of shops in the seven
villages. We checked out the quilt shop
while Keith and Dad napped.
We are back to central Iowa early. 2,623.3 miles on the RV right now, at the Flying J where we washed the RV before returning it tonight. Keith and Jan will be on the
way to Kansas City soon. Mom, Dad and I
will stay in the Des Moines area overnight.
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| Dad wanted to push the button to bring in the slide-out this morning! |
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| Happy Birthday Mom. We’d do it all again! |
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