A Camping We Will Go - Lake Rudolph and Holiday World

This last weekend was our first trip camping since my son was born 13 years ago. That last trip was to the Salamonie Reservoir in northern Indiana, and it was a nightmare! Never, ever, if you wish to die of old age, ever, take your pregnant wife camping in a primitive location in the middle of Indiana's monsoon season. Everything was wet, the air was extremely humid, and we were utterly miserable. By the second night I couldn't take it anymore and we ended up packing up shop and staying at my husband's uncle's house, who happily lived close by. Until recently, I had had no desire to repeat the experience.

I'm not sure what changed my mind. My brother and his wife frequently go camping while on vacation and it always sounded like fun to me. Tony, my boyfriend/ex-husband (and that's all I'll say about that), was agreeable to the notion of trying the camping thing again, so we set a time and a place at Holiday World, to keep my son happy. There were nature trails around the campgrounds, so we hoped to do a little trail hiking as well. We bought a tent for Tony and I, and a selection of gear to get us through a couple of days in the woods. As it turned out, we were rather unprepared.

Here are some significant lessons learned: 1) Always buy a tent that has twice the footprint of whatever size airbed you are using. We had a queen-size bed in a 9x7x4 tent. It fit, but it was a close one. My boyfriend and I are typical somewhat overweight Americans, so a smaller bed would have been impossible for either of us to sleep on (especially with his snoring!). 2) Water protect your tent. I took great pains to do so, and happily it paid off. We had a significant amount of rain Sunday and Monday morning, with only a minimal of water leakage. Unfortunately, one of the areas that leaked was the zipper to the door. I haven't figured out a fix for that yet. My son had the same problem in his tent. 3) Keep track of all of your things. Don't leave anything in the showers. They will get thrown away. I spaced it on the first night and forgot to grab my shampoo, conditioner, and soap out of the shower stall before heading to bed and they were gone when the cleaning crew came through the next morning. Oh well.....

4) Unless you're a purest, having access to electricity and a laptop can be of great help, particularly during the two rainiest days of a drought-filled month (it's a little like washing your car...go camping, it will rain!). We were able to watch the weather and judge the best opportunities to go to the amusement park. And finally, 5) Make sure you unpack and wash everything when you get home, just in case you have any tag alongs and to reduce the potential for mold to set in.

We did get to do some hiking between our area and where the camp store was located. Lake Rudolph is rather hilly, so it was definitely a bit of a workout heading up to the store and then trying to keep from falling coming back down (the paths were covered with gravel). I would have liked to have done more, but there wasn't enough time and the weather was generally not working in our favor. Oh well, maybe next year!

A Hiking We Will Go - Indianapolis Parks

I've always been lousy at keeping a diary and unfortunately, the blog thing is not going much better. I'm going to have to work on that, I admit.

Just to bring in possible readers up to speed (not that that will take much) I'm new to the worlds of hiking and camping, so this blog is going to be all about my various misadventures. My boyfriend and I have been doing the hiking thing now for a little over a month. He's trying to make a breakthrough as a nature photographer (see his work at http://www.photograp3r.com/) and I'm looking for a little natural inspiration in my artwork, so choosing to go hiking has been a real boon to the both of us.

Until this last weekend, we had been pretty much restricted to local area parks and nature trails, which don't get me wrong, Indianapolis has a great collection of! We've visited three parks so far. They are, Southeastern Park, Eagle Creek Park, and Holliday Park. All beautiful in their own distinct way. I have been doing some photography of my own (not nearly as good, but I hold my own), concentrating mostly on floral and fauna. Of the three parks we have visited in Indy, I highly recommend Holliday Park, which I mentioned in my last blog, as the most visually interesting, although Southeastern Park has some really nice creek bed areas and pathways. Unfortunately, Southeastern Park also taught me my first big lesson...Beware of the tall grass! I know, I know. It's something that's ingrained in most of us as children, but our first trip to Southeastern went on without so much as a hitch, so I just wasn't thinking about the possible repercussions of walking in tall grass near a creek bed until it was too late. My son was with us for this particular trip and had the most skin exposed. The chiggers found him an easy target!

Now I know some of you are screaming, why aren't you wearing some sort of bug repellent? We were. I had sprayed Deep Woods Off on my son and myself, but evidently wasn't as thorough with it as I should have been when I did my son. I came out of it with only a couple of bites. My son got them all over his knees! With a lot of restraint and a thorough shower when he got home, he was able to bring them under control and be rid of them within a week, but was none too happy about it. Needless to say, we have chalked this one up to experience and have tried to be more thorough in the repellent treatments ever since.

The Amateur Hikist

Introduction

All my life I've wanted to take up trail hiking, but could never seem to find the time or ambition to do so. Recently, I've put that interest into action and started hiking around some of the local parks located in Indianapolis, Indiana, my home town for the last three years. There are some great treasures to be seen out there that I had never known about until now! My blog, "The Amateur Hikist" is about my various adventures (more like misadventures), some of the advice that I have found helpful, and some of the pictures that I have taken along the way.

For example, the little creature you see at the right is a darling little chipmunk that I tripped across while traipsing along the trails at Holliday Park. Cute, isn't he?! He sat there, quite still, on a tree root and just watched me watch him for about five minutes. This was the closest I could get before something (probably more like someone) scared him off.

Next is a stone manuscript and a fabulous statuary ensemble, found in the same park, called "The Ruins". This find was completely unexpected. We came looking for nature shots and found some great architectural features instead. Turns out these pieces were originally from a building in New York that had been slated for demolition. The artist commissioned for this work was Elmer E. Taflinger, an Indianapolis native. The whole installation is a beautiful piece, but the waterworks are no longer functioning. In essence, it has become its name, a ruin, which is a huge shame. Hopefully someday the Indianapolis parks department will see fit to refurbish it and bring it to life again.