Why the heck are we so excited to go to Corydon?!!! If you don't know, we hope you'll find out. :) Corydon, Indiana is Matt's first home, and a place we wanted to "camp out." We hoped we'd find a cabin to stay in when not visiting his parents. Corydon is also historic: it used to be the capital of Indiana. Corydon is set in Harrison county, named for one of our U.S. Presidents, William Henry Harrison. He is the one who set the capital as being Corydon. Learning the histories of places we visited was also one of our goals for the trip; so we met our trip goals. Yay!

[Journal type entry ahead!!]

We headed from KC as early as we could, and drove the long, hot trek through Missouri, crossing a few more rivers, (we've crossed some rivers more than once!!!) only a couple wrong exits, before we hit Illinois. Illinois was fairly easy and a bit prettier than Missouri. I just didn't get Missouri. I just didn't know what to look at as far as scenery, I guess. Some of the rest stops were nice, though. I discovered Uncle Ray's potato chips in Missouri. The Bible verses printed on the back of the chips really seemed to inspire me at the time. His personal biography (Chapter Twelve) was also a very interesting read. I highly recommed these chips! I also found some really cool flavors of them like, "Roasted Garlic." Too bad they are not available in my area. Anyway, on to Illinois.

Alas, Illinois was not that memorable. Remember, we are just driving through. Eventually we got on the right highway to Indiana and found the steamy air quite inviting. We even had to add another hour to our clock as we passed onto Harrison County. (You see, their county didn't choose to honor Daylight Savings Time.) Isn't that cool how you can choose that?!

Well we met up with Matt's dad at Kaufman's gas station in Corydon. He was to take us further on to our destination: a place he rented for us called Abe's Motels and Cabins in Brandenburg, KY. That's right, Kentucky. Oh, well. It was exactly the kind of place I wanted to stay. They actually were log cabins with rustic furniture and all. Affordable, had a fridge and coffeemaker.. (and of course the Disney channel) We had a blast and felt like we were partially camping.

We made it!!!

It's hard to believe we finally got to our destination! We are stretching our budget but feel it will be worth it. Basically, the short story is that we visited Mom & Dad, watched some movies, went to some restaurants we don't have around home, and toured some historic places.

We had a quieter time than I expected, but that does leave more for next time.

We did have more fun visiting just those places than I thought we would. In fact we had a blast!!!

Things we did visiting family:

• Went through Matt's Uncle George's (deceased) stuff to see if we wanted to inherit any of it, which we did choose a couple appliances, books, videos, mugs, and a lamp complete with shade!!

  It was fun learning about his uncle as we looked at his things and listened to stories about him and Mike.

• got to see Mike's latest rustic furniture:
  

• saw Mike Smith's (Dad's) extensive land as we trekked through the Smith woods on a pull-cart

• went shopping to various places like BIG LOTS!!!

• had a cookout with a homemade fire pit

• visited Aunt Susan and Uncle Ted

• enjoyed delicious homecooked meals!!! (Thanks Mom!)

Restaurants we went to: Polly's Freeze, a popular family-owned outdoor ice cream & food shop that is run out of their own home! We actually drove to another town for this one! Lee's Chicken of Corydon, and White Castle of Corydon.

Historic places we went to: Spring Mill , a real-life town that used to exist.. now it exists as a tourist spot in the Spring Mill State Park. They used to manufacture lime, used in building brick homes, in the 1800's, and had a grist mill that ground corn using the power of the river to turn the wheel. It's quite a machine; if you've never seen a grist mill, I have a photo. June 16, 2005

June 16, 2005

In the Grist Mill, Hallie found some old fashion toys the early settler's children played with. (Some of them looked pretty well-played with!!!

Spring Mill was maybe my favorite spot in Southern Indiana. The history lessons were a lot fun. Another of my favorite spots is Squire Boone Caverns. We love visiting the little historic shops. Matt actually used to work there. They have a working grist mill, bakery, soapmaking shop, candlemaking shop, rock shop, and more.

Dad, Matt, Hallie, and I went and looked for the Lenora Brown one-room schoolhouse in Corydon, which we found, as well as the Courthouse, O'Bannon forest & historic cemetaries, and toured the Plaza's historic buildings, antique shops, and Butt Drugs. We had an old fashioned phospate and butterscotch soda there and some "majeskas." (when you go, you'll have to ask what they are.) Just the way they used to make them there, at the same counter, for the last 50 years. It is still a working pharmacy, and we sure enjoyed the great a/c and hospitality!

Now there are a lot of things in Indiana that are quirky. This is part of why I liked visiting there so much. Like the roads. They actually used to be horse-and-carraige routes that they just paved over. This leaves them quite narrow, unmarked, and they like to go over hilly roads, not cutting into the earth at all. This made it quite the experience!

We are already planning our next trip...