46. PARKE COUNTY

Parke County, Indiana

4/10/2010

We spent our second night at the same Super 8, before making the long trek home. We were soon back in Indiana and the eastern time zone. More Quantum Leap noises.

To break up the trip home we took a detour through Parke County, Indiana – the self-appointed covered bridge capital of the world. The most bustling town in Parke County is Rockville. That aside, when we arrived, it was virtually deserted. Nevertheless, it has two visitor’s centers and a covered bridge museum. That would have been great, except all three were closed. We found that odd on a Saturday afternoon in the spring – a perfect time to check out the bridges. (Another dying small town?) Luckily I had written to them before we took the trip so I had already been sent some information and had a covered bridge map to help us find them.

We decided to eat lunch in town at a place called Weber’s. Like everywhere else, it was empty. The food was your typical greasy spoon. Right before we left a man and a woman entered. The woman asked me, “Well, is this where we’re supposed to be?” I answered, “I don’t know. Where are you trying to go?” She ignored me and said to her husband, “I guess this is it.” The waitress seated them, asked how they were, and the woman said, “I’m alive, aren’t I?” We left.

The only other open business appeared to be “Aunt Patty’s Antiques” which we stopped into. It was actually a pretty nice antique store. Laura found a big, stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh for Daniel, but there was no price tag. When she asked about it, the woman running the store tried to call the seller. She got an answering machine. She then called again, complaining that the seller was behind in her rent. Suddenly, the seller called back. The seller wanted $25 for the Winnie-the-Pooh and a cookie jar. She wouldn’t sell them separately. The woman running the store said, “That’s too expensive, if you ask me.” We agreed.

Leaving town we decided it was time to see the covered bridges. Using the map that had been mailed to me, we took one of the color-coded routes. The map was stylized and not very helpful. Tip for mapmakers: Make the roads in your map just like the roads in real life. That would help. Luckily there were color-coded signs along the routes – until you got to a big intersection. Then you had to guess. Usually we guessed wrong, but since the map didn’t include most of the intersecting roads it was hard to figure out where we had gone wrong. We pretty much followed the route as best we could, but for all our driving we only saw one covered bridge.

The rest of our trip home was uneventful. We did stop for ice cream and gave Daniel his first ice cream cone. He had been such a good boy, putting up with all the traveling, he deserved it.

Eventually he started to get lonely in the back all by himself, so I went into the backseat and played with him and just looked at him. I just love looking at him. Sometimes I don't do that enough when we're at home.

Before long, we saw the skyline of Columbus up ahead. It looks so small to us now.

P.S. FROM LAURA:

I did not like driving around for an hour just to see two covered bridges. On a side note, I’m so glad that our little boy travels well. After six hours strapped in a car seat, I would be a screaming maniac. I did find that if you leave your car radio on perpetual scan, it can drive your husband up the wall. Just a little tip for all those traveling wives who want to get back at their husbands who will yell Kentuckyyyyyyyy for hours and hours….