5/21/16
We have arrived in Mitchell, IN, one of our goals for this trip, but let me catch you up. We left St Peters, MO on Thursday, drove through St. Louis, across southern Illinois and arrived in Evansville, IN. I got my masters degree from Masters International University of Divinity in 2008. The school is a distance learning divinity school, but their headquarters are in Evansville. I also took an onsite seminar here with Dr. Dennis Frey, who happens to be the founder and president of the university.
Dennis and his wife, Sharon, are wonderful people and dedicated to serving the Lord. They have traveled the world in pursuit of that service. Nevertheless, they were gracious enough to allow us to treat them to dinner at Olive Garden. After dinner, they invited us to come back to their home, where we sat in their beautiful backyard until almost dark chatting and enjoying one another’s company.
We left the Freys and went back to the Burdette Park campground, where we had left the trailer. The park is beautiful, covered with maple and oak trees and set on a hillside with the RV park being terraced. It is a lovely place and we were a little sorry to leave, especially since it rained pretty consistently for the duration of our drive to Mitchell, about a hundred miles, give or take.
We arrived yesterday afternoon at the Spring Mill State Park, another gorgeous area of Indiana. The park is enormous and features, in addition to a large campground, a historic Inn, built in 1937 by the CCC, a preserved/restored pioneer village, a lake, a large swimming pool complex and acres and acres of hardwood forest.
Having arrived on a Friday, we were grateful to find the campground was not completely full, although it began to fill up as the afternoon wore on. Once we were set up, we decided to explore the park. We drove to the Inn and explored it. It is a beautiful place oozing rustic lodge style charm. The interior finishes are all done with native hardwoods, and the exterior is made of limestone, which is also locally derived.
After we left the inn, we drove past the lake and arrived at the pioneer village. There was a village in the area that was centered around a mill. The mill was built by two brothers in 1816 and apparently prospered. In addition to the mill, there are a handful of houses all made of logs. There is a weaver’s shop, a distillery, a tavern (which was more like a hotel, back in the day), a small school house, a community garden and some other buildings we didn’t have time to explore.
Spring Mill Lake
A creek greets you as you enter the village.
The weaver's house.
This is a hotel, IIRC
The Mill
One of the brothers lived in this home with his wife and eight children.
The other brother lived in this home with his wife and HIS eight children.
I guess they didn't want to run out of millers.
One of the bedrooms.
The distillery and wood shop and the mill flume in the background.
The Tavern
The distillery and wood shop.
The village was one stop along a stage line that went from Vincennes to another city, and part of the stage road is preserved in the park as a walking path. We always enjoy seeing a glimpse into the way people lived in the past, and this village is a wonderful place to do that.
I was fascinated to see that the buildings were built with different styles of joinery work.
Later this morning, we will get together with a family that we met at my graduation from the divinity school. Jim and I were classmates in the seminar I mentioned earlier, and at the graduation ceremony, Jill unknowingly sat next to Jim’s wife, Guyanne. They hit it off as well as Jim and I had in class. We have maintained a friendship with these wonderful people by mail and email and Facebook. Now we will be able to spend a few hours with them in their native habitat, which is a 26 acre farm called Eden’s Hope Farm. But more about that later.
No comments:
Post a Comment