If you have ever been to Indiana, you will understand when I say that the trip from the northern tip of the state down to its southern border with Kentucky was excruciatingly monotonous – corn fields after corn fields, with little differentiation to break up the pattern besides Indianapolis which marked the midpoint and the connection point between I-69 (first half) and I-65 (second half). And that being said, Indianapolis isn’t exactly a unique or memorable city by any measure and even less so along the I-465 beltway surrounding the city, which is defined by big box stores, Best Westerns, and Burger Kings.
After five, long, boring hours of driving, we finally arrived at our new campground for the week – the Charlestown State Park, located along the Ohio River, right across from Kentucky and the Louisville metro area. Much like our previous stop at Pokagon State Park, this place was absolutely huge and it took us about 10 minutes of driving to reach our campground after entering the park! (Apparently those Indianans like their state parks like we like our kitties – big and wide.)
Overall, we probably preferred Charlestown a bit more than Pokagon, mainly due to the fact that this place had full hooks whereas Pokagon only had electric. Much like Pokagon, Charlestown had plenty of roads/trails for us to explore with the e-bikes, including the remnants of Rose Island, an abandoned amusement park which was destroyed in 1937 following a massive flood which left the area uninhabitable.
As I said in the previous post, this stop outside Louisville marked a return to our social lifestyle. The first of the week’s many get-togethers was held at our trailer where we were visited by Sam’s aunt, Susy and several of her close friends from the Louisville area (Mark, T.J., Jerry, and Mark) who ventured out to the state park for a nice little dinner.
This crew (plus Susie’s husband, Dan, who showed up later in the week) was our tribe while we were in Louisville. I’m pretty sure that we hung out with these guys (in some combination) every day for the remainder of the week, whether it was Mark and Jerry showing us around downtown, taking us to distilleries, and treating us to drinks at their liquor store/microbar or Mark and T.J. hosting a dinner over at their lovely new home and meeting us out for a delicious dinner at a fun Cuban restaurant in the city.
Although Sam and I had probably crossed the state border about a dozen times during our week of fun and fellowship, it was finally time for Charlotte to venture out of Indiana as we made our way south down to southern Kentucky and beautiful Lake Cumberland! Tune in next time when we detail our stay at Kendall Campground and recount our explorations around this picturesque part of the Blue Grass State!