We awakened this morning to crystal clear skies. We took quite a bit of time drinking Irish Cream mixed with coffee, fired of the water heater, took showers and hopped into Charlotte for some exploring in south central Indiana. As usual, my preconceived notions about Indiana were absolutely incorrect.
We drove about a mile down the road from North Vernon into Vernon where we stopped at a place called the Log Cabin for breakfast. When we first arrived, I thought we were at a bar and my suspicions were confirmed once we opened the door and found we were in a completely unoccupied bar. We could hear some sounds coming from a door on the side of the bar and we followed the noises and, after moseying through a corridor, arrived in a little greasy spoon restaurant with local folks enjoying their meals.
The menu of breakfast items was pretty much what you would expect in this part of the world – bacon and eggs, hash browns, toast, omelets, biscuits and gravy. Right up my alley. I ordered something called the Big Humongous Breakfast or something like that and Peg settled for the bacon and eggs. When my breakfast arrived, I was stoked because my menu item turned out to be hash browns covered with scrambled eggs liberally sloshed with sausage gravy and, to take pure cholesterol to a pinnacle, shredded cheddar covering the whole gooey mass with a bunch of bacon dotting the surface. Even better, this most expensive item on the menu ran $6.50. Peggy’s bacon and eggs turned out to be exactly what she wanted and she said they were great.
Strangely, our waitress was an old girl about 10 years younger than me and hailed from El Cajon right outside our hometown of San Diego. Weird. I asked what a dazzling urbanite from El Cajon was doing in a rustic Indiana cafe but this may have been a mistake because she immediately broke into a long monologue about her entire life from the time of her birth to the present. Other folks in the place were having lukewarm political discussions about the deficiencies of the current Democratic administration in Washington and the abuses heaped on the American people by collective bargaining and unions, all accompanied by ardent shrieking from a Nazi Fox News TV broadcast in the corner. I kept my big mouth firmly shut except to shovel in more of my very tasty food.
We left the cafe, cruised through the fascinating one block long main drag of Vernon and then continued south on IN-3 for about 20 miles admiring the rolling Indiana countryside. There is a lot of corn growing along the road in small farms that are interrupted by regular sections of undeveloped forestland with mostly big hardwood trees, making for a very shady and pleasant drive. We arrived in the town of Austin and picked up some really cheap diesel ($2.34/gallon) before turning west across I-65. Once we had gone about 10 miles, we turned north on IN-31 to head back in the general direction of North Vernon. We ultimately turned back east heading for home but, on the way, found and turned into the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge. This is a neat little gem right where we did not expect it with a good visitor center with a bona fide naturalist holding down the small front desk. She was quite forthcoming with all kinds of great poop about the area and mentioned that they had a wildlife viewing room with darkened glass so the animals outside could not see us pesky humans inside. Outside the glass, they have set up bird feeders and all the local birds come here to eat so the viewing is outstanding. I sat in the room for about half an hour watching and photographing lots of types of birds we have seen before and some we have not previously spotted on our travels. It was great! It is also free, which is pretty rare.
As we were on our way out, the naturalist mentioned that there is a self-guided auto tour we could take and she handed over the guide and map. Peggy perused the attached gift shop but we got out without spending too much. Outside the visitor center there was a half mile trail through the dense, shady wood and wetlands that made for a nice stroll but was plagued by copious quantities of nasty biting and blood-sucking insects so we walked through it quite hastily. We re-boarded Charlotte and took off on the auto tour. We spotted Canadian geese and some birds and hordes of butterflies on the refuge. The entire refuge is land that was originally cleared by pioneers in the area but the Feds got ahold of the land and let it revert to nature. It is quite beautiful and, if we have enough time, I would like to go back in either early morning or late afternoon when all the local critters are out dining and drinking.