For those of you who don't know, this is paraphrasing the advertising slogan for Indiana Beach in Monticello, IN an amusement park (in this case, I'm using the term "amusement park" very loosely) roughly an hour's drive from Lafayette. Last weekend, I took a long overdue weekend road trip. My first stop was an unplanned stop to Oliver Winery, the largest winery in Indiana. Located just north of Bloomington, this very scenic stop just off IN-37 also offered free wine tasting and was well worth the small detour. http://www.oliverwinery.com/
The next stop was Bloomington, the home of Indiana University. http://www.iub.edu/ I had been told by people familiar with both Purdue's and IU's campuses that IU's campus makes Purdue's campus--and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, for that matter--seem ugly by comparison. After spending an afternoon walking around Indiana's campus, I am sorry to say that I think that they are right. If you didn't know better, there are spots on campus where you might think you were walking in the woods instead of a university campus. IU was one of only 28 charter members of tree campus USA in the nation, and it has earned the award. In addition to the natural beauty, the architecture is also very impressive. Many buildings are made from limestone from nearby quarries and avoid the cookie-cutter brick model so common at Purdue. Unlike both Illinois and Purdue, IU's campus appears to be designed so that the streets accommodate the campus instead of having the campus haphazardly arranged to accommodate roads. The National Order of the Arrow Conference was taking place that weekend, and I'm sure the scouts were impressed with the area. Returning to my scouting/camping roots, I stayed the night in a campsite in Hardin Ridge in the Hoosier National Forest near Lake Monroe. The SW part of Indiana actually has hills and forests, unlike most of the state, which is flatter and has far fewer trees. As luck would have it, I had trouble installing the rain tarp on the tent and it rained that night. I had to pack the tent wet, but fortunately it dried out OK without damaging the tent. http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/recreation/hardin_ridge.htm
My drive from Hardin Ridge to Santa Claus, IN (home of Holiday World amusement park) was quite the test of my navigational skills and at times, my patience. http://www.holidayworld.com/ Trips like this are the reason people get GPS systems. But I did make it there in decent time. Most amusement parks are located near major metropolitan areas, but Holiday World is far off the beaten path by comparison. It's over an hour drive from Louisville and roughly an hour from Evansville. On the plus side, there is no charge for parking, drinks, or sunscreen inside the park, which really saves a lot of money. If you like ricketty, jerky wooden roller coasters, you'd like the amusement park section. Otherwise, there isn't much there in terms of rides except for younger kids. But the water park is by far the biggest attraction there. Apparently there's a law in IN that says you can't go on a water slide without something (raft, mat, etc.) under you because none of the water slides outside the little kids area had them. Nonetheless, between the wave pool and variety of slides, it was still a fun day. The $10 meal I had (turkey leg, dressing, sweet potato casserole, flavored green beans, refillable drink) would have been a good deal anywhere, and for an amusement park, it was a steal. Overall, it was a fun, inexpensive weekend getaway that helps me enjoy summer while leaving plenty of time (and to a lesser extent, money) for me to play in the snow (i.e. ski) in winter.
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