Turkey Run State Park, Indiana

These two images, originally in colour, have been given a slight warm tone, similar to Agfa Fibre-based papers that I have used. Warm toned papers are more sympathetic to the eye than pure black and white for some subjects.

Walking near this lake, we had stood a moment in the silence watching the wind patterns on the water shifting, when a young buck deer quietly trotted into view about 10 metres away, looked right at us, stopping briefly, and then continued on into the trees. Disappeared in moments like he had never been there at all. Somehow, it made the silence around us more complete

Auburn and the far north of Indiana

Okay, so this picture is of an Indian motorcycle I took at the Indy 500 racetrack. I realise I didnt tell you Stubby and I had gone there and although some cars were racing around, the action was pretty quiet on the day as the qualifying times and poll positions had been set the previous day. But the museum on site was fun with all kinds of hot stuff to see.



But we also ventured into the far north of Indiana, again taking the small roads and small towns from Nappanee across to Auburn where the Auburn,Duesenburg and Cord Car Museum is. WOW! There is a 1928 Cord in the Southwards Museum at home but nothing prepared me for the sheer opulence of cars made in this era - 1920's and 1930's mostly. Style, elegance and freakin gorgeous! Why can't someone make cars liek this anymore ? I though the line up of straight eights and straight twelves was stunning but there were also some 16 cylinder engines as well

and to give you a sense of size, here is a sixteen - admittedly made for an aircraft but you still get the picture

Nappanee

Nappannee was not the only town we saw Amish, but this photo is classic because it shows that this town has hitching rail, so people can leave their carriages tied up outside supermarkets to go grocery shopping. Some carts had small trailers for groceries, and on some roads they have their own "lane" so they dont hold up traffic.

At Amish Acres we took the tour and leant about some Amish ways of life and culture....

The boys are chatting. The turkeys and rabbist were less inviting but you really have to watch out for the geese and goats - they bite!

Turkey Run

Turkey Run State Park is over near the border, and a really pretty spot. I finally got to see Racoons, squirrels,chipmunks and deer, even a buzzard along the highway

The old covered bridge in the State park which you can walk on. Later Kim and I also drove over the Cox Ford covered bridge which was as solid as the day it was built in the late 1870's.



There were also some little cabins like this one in the forest, but although it was boarded up it obviously belonged to someone, and I didnt want to trespass. But really pretty in the State Park


We spent all day here, and its beautiful. I took so many photos of the swing bridge, the limestone rocks and the sunken forest.. far too many to add here

Meeting in Indiana, and off to Turkey Run

So here we are - the family around a barbeque meeting for aslmost the first time. Its really weird to have been married eight years and only just getting to meet your father in law and brother in law over a few beers and a BBQ, but we seemed to get along just great !

And then there were more introductions to Kims old friends from Indiana University.

A few days later we headed out to Turkey Run State Park. Indiana is damn flat in the central part, lots of dutch barns because of the population of German settlers with Amish and Menonite communities scattered about all over the state

We came across these two wee men taking a roll of fencing material somewhere. The boy driving the cart may have only been 12, with dark hair and the brightest blue eyes. The little fella was hanging on for dear life