Our RV Adventures

We left for Logansport IN about 10 am, first stopping by McDonald’s for a chicken biscuit breakfast for Jan.

We made the 90 mile trip in about two hours and started driving around town. Our quest was to find the house where Jan lived in 1956 when she was 8. Her father was stationed at Bunker Hill AFB for about two years, after about a year in Logansport they moved to Peru, IN to be closer to the base.

Jan remembered her house was a block or so from the Eel River, and several blocks from Riverside Park, and its carousel. After 15 minutes or so we found her house, still at 75 18th St. The only real change beside the new siding was that when Jan lived there the front porch was screened in.

It still had the same barn-shaped garage in the backyard opening on the alley behind the house.

And across the street, what was just a vacant field when she lived there, is now a city park.

Next we headed about 3 blocks away to Riverside Park, where Jan, her sister Debbie, and their friends, would walk to ride the carousel there in the park.

And the carousel was still there too. But now it’s inside.

This carousel had a long and rich history. It was built around 1885 by Gustav Dentzel. Dentzel’s family had been building carousels in Germany since the early 1800’s. Gustav came to America with a carousel and set it up in Pennsylvania, PA in 1861, possibly the first carousel in the Western Hemisphere. And the Dentzel family still builds carousels today, with more than 30 carousels in places like Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, San Francisco Zoo, and Dollywood.

This carousel is one of the most complete Dentzel carousels in the world.

This ride still allows you try and grab the brass ring from this arm. If you grab a ring, you get a free ride.

In 1919 the carousel was moved from Fort Wayne, IN and placed in Spencer Park in Logansport. Then in 1949 it was moved to Riverside Park and placed in this building, where it was when Jan was riding it in 1956.

In 1987 the carousel was declared a National Historical Landmark and was moved inside a beautiful new building in 1995, where it resides today.

Jan also used to ride a train around the park, and it still runs today on this same track. The locomotive and two cars is stored in the small green building in right rear of this photo. When the train is running the buildings doubles as a ‘tunnel’.

We also found that Logansport has its own set of city mascots, and, of course, theirs is a carousel horse.

After a so-so lunch at Broadway Cafe in downtown Logansport, we headed back to Elkhart about 2 pm. We got back about 4, but stopped off at the new Martin’s Supermarket near the park. Very nice store.

Tomorrow we’ll do some more chores around the rig, and just enjoy the nice cool weather. Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 80 and the low tomorrow night 57. Just great!

More later…

Quote of the day:
“If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with representation.”:  Rush Limbaugh 

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Well this morning got off to an exciting start!

Jan got up about 8, but I was awakened about 9:30 by heavy rain, high winds, thunder, and a very loud roaring sound. Coming out of a sound sleep, my first thought was “tornado”.

Turns out it wasn’t a tornado, but merely the high winds making the awnings rumble like a base drum. I put on some shorts and ran out in the rain to put the awnings up so they wouldn’t be damaged. I saw that the wind had also sent the satellite dish on a nosedive.

For the next couple of hours we rode out a lot of rain and lightning. But by 11:30 it had slacked off enough for us to head out for lunch.

And following our Nick Russell Memorial Restaurant Jealousy Tour theme, we went to Bob Evans for lunch. Jan had a soup and sandwich platter, and I had breakfast. Bob Evans is a chain that Nick and Terry introduced us to last year and we always really enjoy it.

Coming home, we dropped some clothes off at the Goodwill store and got back to the rig just in time for the sun to come out. At least for a while.

I put out the awnings and set the satellite dish back up. Just in time for it to start sprinkling again. Oh well.

On a completely different rant, I finally got a chance to find out about the toll roads around here, and in the Northeast, in general.

In Texas we have toll roads, but they’re built as toll roads and are not Interstates. But up here some Interstates ARE toll roads. For example I-70 / I-80 that runs across upper Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois is a toll road.

So I know that the Interstate system was built using Federal funds from US taxpayers, so why are some states now charging us to drive on roads we’ve already paid for. But it turns out to be fairly simple, and not the ripoff I had thought. Or at least, less of a ripoff.

The thing is, the toll roads were here first. They were already in existence when they started building the Interstate System in the late 50’s. So if they built the new Interstates along side the toll roads, then the no one would use the toll roads and the bondholders would go broke. If they used the Interstate Highway funds to buy out the toll roads to make them free, then that left less money to build the rest of the Interstate System. So they just decided to leave things as they were.

So now, about 2900 of the 46,000+ miles in the Interstate are toll roads. For more info, check Toll Road History.

After more rain during the afternoon, about 6 we drove over to the second stop on the NRMRJT (Nick Russell Memorial Restaurant Jealousy Tour), Lakeshore Grill on Simonton Lake. They have good food and a great view of the lake.

We got back to the rig a little after 7, just in time for more rain. But tomorrow is supposed to be bright and sunny. We’ll see.

Tomorrow we’re going to take a day trip down to Logansport, IN, about 90 miles away. Jan lived there when she was about 8 years old, and she wants to check the place out.

More tomorrow…

Quote of the day:
Fools rush in where fools have been before. – Unknown

dAS