Day 6 COVERED BRIDGES

Day 6  10/06/2116

I was up and at um at 0430 and took The Boys for a walk and then fed them back at the camper. They must have been tired as they did not wake us up in the middle of the night. 

Decided to make a simple breakfast this morning so we can hit the road to see the covered bridges. Have learned there is a working grist mill on one of the Bridge Routes  in a town named  Bridgeton.

Skies are currently partly cloudy and the camp ground is very quiet, well there are only 4  of us here using the 150 spaces. Also the spaces are not even close together like some campgrounds. 

We were on the road early to explore the covered bridges of Indiana. The heyday for covered bridges was from 1805 to 1885. Back in those days a covered bridge was more than just a good looking bridge, as they were built with timber the covering helped protect the structure from the elements. As the bridge was sometimes the largest covered structure in the local communities they became a place to gather for weddings, revival meetings, and political rallies. 

In 1930 the Indiana Historical Society formed a Covered Bridge Committee and the 202 bridges at that time were identified and a directory of the finding was published.  It was not until 1998 the number of covered bridges had dropped to only 98. Some fell victim to apathy, others arson, and reckless drivers as well as vandals took their toll on these structures. Here in Parke County Indiana there are 32 covered bridges for visitors to enjoy. Some you can still drive across and other can be visited and walked across. On our journey to see these bridges we discovered one being rebuilt as the foundation was being repaired. 

We had hoped for some fall colors but the nature was not ready for us. This is ok, we are here about a week before the Covered Bridge Festival starts, we keep hearing about the thousands of people who will be visiting and the craft booth tents are starting to spring up. I can not imagine driving down some of these narrow, winding, blind curve roads when there are so many people here to see them. We did see one other person stop at one bridge where we were. 

I think the festival would be fun for the crafts and food, but the crowds would be crazy. Yet many interesting places were not open. One I really wanted to visit was a grist mill, and buy some corn meal to make cornbread with, but it was closed. 

We had packed a picnic lunch and were lucky to, by chance, find a bridge with a covered picnic table for us to enjoy our lunch. We did take The Boys for a walk and they found a nice mud hole to get the paws and legs rather muddy. So after cleaning them up we continued our search for covered bridges. 

Lynn said we saw 20 of the bridges today and we were out most of the day on many a back road to locate them. We were pretty darn successful. Thus we stopped at the DQ for a treat before returning to the campground. 

We got back to the campground at about 1500 and it is rather warm, so I am glad we have electricity and AC. 

Tonight for dinner I will cook up some ham, potatoes, onion and peppers. We will also do a pup walk when things cool down as the temp was 84 when we pulled in.