Fall colors in Brown County, IN

Our last day in the Nashville, IN area was spent at Brown County Sate Park. This park was at one time the third most visited park, including the national parks, in the USA according to our ranger guide. It contains around 16,000 acres and much of it was former farm land that was purchased by the state after the land was depleted by 1800’s farming techniques and the farmers went broke.

We started our visit at the nature center and then a brisk hike on a wooded hilly trail. The fall colors were beginning to come in but will not be at their peak for a few more weeks. We enjoyed walking and hiking to take in these early fall changes.

We noted that there would be a ranger guided nature walk and we reported at the designated time to find a young lady ready to show us around. She was very enthusiastic and as it turned quite knowledgeable as well. We found out that she was awarded the naturalist of the year for the state of Indiana. If I could only remember all that she passed on, I would know a lot about trees and plants.

It was a nice conclusion to our stay, and we head south to Kentucky tomorrow.

Nashville, IN

Our second and final stop on our anniversary caravan trip was Nashville, IN, in the heart of Brown County. The small town is best known for its Little Nashville Opry, where newcomers, the famous and nearly famous perform on a stage not unlike the stage at the original Grand Old Opry in Nashville, TN. We arrived at our planned campground with all eight motorhomes still together and set up for our regular social events. We enjoyed wonderful weather and good companionship.

We took in two shows at the Opry, the first night was “local talent” and they were very good. The second night we saw Bobby Bare, who likely hit his peak in the 1960’s. He was good and he certainly had a lot of loyal fans in the crowd, but the truth is, we enjoyed the local talent more. It often seems that the semi- amateur talent is as good as or better than the pros. Feel free to apply that to any situation you might dream up.

We also took a tour of the Bare Feet sock company, which was started in a school teacher’s basement and now occupies an old school/mansion and additional buildings that make quality USA made socks and supplies many markets including professional sports teams. While I cannot say that I have always been curious about the production of socks, I did find it interesting and developed more respect for the idea of quality socks vs. cheap. I can now say that I have a number of pairs of USA made quality socks. How about soybean, bamboo fiber and recycled plastic bottle socks?? They make them and look and feel good.

Of course, with the attractions of the entertainment and the beauty of the surrounding area, it will come as no surprise that Nashville, IN has become one huge gift shop. It continues to fascinate me how, wherever there is a natural or man made legitimate attraction the gift shop hoards always flood the area. What I find equally confusing is how there are always people buying the stuff, as if they had never seen the like before, even though it is the same stuff they sell everywhere.

When all is set and done, we had a very nice time on this caravan. It was all about the people we traveled with and not the gift shops.

Before departing the area, we will check out some of the natural fall beauty of the area in the form of the Brown County State Park.

Maumee Valley Winnies Rally

After leaving Gibsonburg, we spent a few quiet days at Maumee State Park and enjoyed a meal out with our friends Judy and Gary Buck. Then we headed to Clyde Ohio for a weekend rally at Town and Country RV, which has started a tradition of an annual appreciation weekend campout for Winnebago owners. Last year it was extremely hot and this year was much cooler, but still a good time was had by all.

This year is also the tenth anniversary of our Winnebago club, the Maumee Valley Winnies, and to celebrate this event, 8 coaches departed the weekend rally in a caravan to Union City and Nashville, Indiana for fun and some informational tours.
In Union City, we camped at a city park that is sponsored by Workhorse Corporation, which manufactures the chassis’s for many motorhomes. We were the only group there and we enjoyed the fine weather and toured the small town. Our wagon masters had planned for tours of a local lumber mill and the Workhorse factory. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the mill itself and nor any place at the workhorse factory.

Thanks to the planning of our wagon masters, we enjoyed several meals at the campground along with lots of fun times around the campfire.

The Frank Miller Lumber Company had an interesting tour. We received our briefing from the third generation leader of this still family owner business and he took the time to explain many aspects of the operation. They are one of the leaders in producing hardwood lumber, with customers around the world. The cutting machines were truly amazing and I could have spent much longer just watching them. They have a real problem with metal in the logs that can really tear up the equipment, and occasionally when the detectors fail, pieces of saw blades start flying. Outside in the yard we saw a large number of logs and partially cut lumber with the telltale blue paint of legs with detected metal. They had an outlet store which carried their products that were sold to folks off the street at very reasonable prices. They also carried a line of exotic hardwood from around the world. I particularly liked the Purple Heart wood that gets more purple as it is exposed to light. Several members of our club are into woodworking and this turned into a small shopping spree. According to them, a much better quality and price for lumber over those large chain- do it yourself stores.

The workhorse factory tour turned out to be a bit ill timed, as they had just completed inventory and the assembly line was just getting started again. They walked us thru the stations, but it would have been better watching the actual chassis assembled. Hopefully, this economic downturn will not last and we can return and see the assembly line in full swing-maybe by then they may allow pictures too.
Next, little Nashville, IN

Gibsonburg, Ohio

After completing our motorhome service, we headed to Gibsonburg, Ohio to meet two couples for a weekend camping get together. We know Kay, Marty, Barb and Paul from the local welcome club, where card games take front and center. This weekend is devoted to some hiking, campfires, and learning a new game called Mexican train dominoes. We also explored the local communities of Gibsonburg and Elmore.

There are several water filled quarries here, one on our campground and one just down the road that we discovered was extensively used by area diving clubs. Both of the communities are good examples for small Ohio towns still able to maintain their small downtown areas, even if a lot of the stores are of the gift and antique variety.

One of these I found particularly interesting. It was an antique shop for men. I could not decide if many of the items were being presented tongue in cheek or not. Two examples of this were ladies panties being offered for $7,500 and a first edition of a James Bond novel for 17,500. The panties were claimed to belong to Eva Braun (girl friend and briefly and fatally the wife of Hitler) found in the Berlin bunker. I noted that the 17,500 book was laying on the counter for anyone to thumb thru, while other books for $30 were locked in a case??? I also enjoyed some of the owner made vintage art?

After a short stay at Maumee Bay State Park, we will be heading to a Winnebago rally in Clyde, Ohio