Bloomington

Saturday, July 30 - It's late, and I'm tired, but we're going to the Brickyard tomorrow, and I know I'll have lots of new material, so I want to get this one posted tonight (and it's now 11:00 p.m.).   Correction to earlier blog about the blue buses -- they don't transport people in them, they use them like wagons to transport the melons.  They have removed the seats and windows, and the buses go faster than they can pull the wagons.  Joe straightened me out on these facts (he got behind in his blog editing.)

Joe M. had a couple of appointments this morning, so after Cathy fixed us a delicious bacon/egg casserole for breakfast, she and I drove over to the Farmer's Market.  It is noteworthy that we drove (it's only a couple of blocks) because I got a parking ticket there.  Although we parked directly in front of the sign "Pay to Park," neither of us saw it, so she and I are going to split the $20 fine.  Welcome to Bloomington!  Me and Collins now have common experiences with parking tickets!

Anyhow, the Farmer's Market was a happening event.  There were 5 or 6 rows of vendors, and they really were farmer's produce.  A lot of Amish were merchants at this Market.

We bought a few things, including a bag of freshly popped kettle corn for tomorrow's race.  Cathy didn't remember if they sold it at the track.  Brenda and I always have to have kettle corn at NASCAR in Phoenix. 

We stopped by a local butcher shop because Joe M. is grilling steaks tonight, dropped them off at the house, and then headed out to Monroe Lake, which is where we would have camped if we couldn't get our rig in here.  This is a beautiful reservoir with 152 miles of shoreline.  It is 19 miles long and 2 miles wide at the widest point, with several boat ramps, multiple marinas and a very nice resort.  We even saw some people fishing -- should have been us!

We stopped at the Scenic View restaurant for lunch, and we did enjoy a scenic view.  Joe and I posed for the front side of the statute -- a tender moment.

Here's the senior version of this statute -- in living color!

We drove around more of the lake, and down to the spillway and dam.

 This is Salt Creek coming out of the spillway.

Joe M. is busy with his camera too (and he has a much better camera than I do, plus he's much better at it than I am).

The lake was very busy, with lots of boats and swimmers.  We saw a string of boats all tied together partying and enjoying this beautiful summer day.

Joe thought it was time for me to stick my toe in the water again -- it had been a while, and he told Joe M. my toe was famous because it had been in the Arctic Ocean.  So we drove down to the beach, and Cathy and I got our feet wet.  But the water was bathtub warm, so not very refreshing.

Finally, we headed over to the Fourwinds Resort and Marina, and had a drink.  This is a very nice resort, with a wonderful view from the deck, and a good-sized swimming pool.  Maybe not quite on par with some of the big lodges we saw last year at the national parks, but a nice surprise in this area, which is off the beaten path.

Our final stop was this little business we had passed earlier that had outside on display huge fiberglass animals, as well as some cement yard ornaments.  I really wanted the bear, and Joe's personal favorite was the hippo with the pink mouth.  But the fish was also really nice, and there was an elephant bench that was quite unique.  And the horses and wagon was quite nice.  But I need to figure out how to get that bear in the RV.

We got back to the house about 6:30, hot and tired.  I came out to the RV and did yesterday's blog, then Joe and I watched the Nationwide race.  Cathy had run out to Kohl's to get a pair of shorts to wear tomorrow, and Joe M. started making the peach pie.  We had a great steak dinner (at 10:00 p.m., a half-hour earlier than last night, so we're doing better), but the pie was too hot for tonight, so we can look forward to that when we get back from Indianapolis tomorrow.  We are leaving at 6:30 a.m. (Yikes!), so it sounds like it will be another long day.  We just hope it is not too hot (yes, Arizona, I know its hotter there).