As we entered Indiana we had to cover more distance to get back when planned so we stopped in Effingham at an RV park for two nights (due to rain and to catch up on the blog) and then drove in to Indianapolis to see the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We did a 90 minute VIP tour of the famous track where the Indy 500 is run and visited the Museum. The VIP tour included a bus ride around the whole track (cool to see the banking angles), a stop on the finish line to kiss the bricks (the winning driver does this after the race), a tour of the media centre and the podium, a tour of the TV broadcast area, and lastly the Verizon box at the top of the famous pagoda. It was incredibly cool to see all these areas that I was very familiar with from watching the races over the years on TV. We also spent a couple of hours in the museum where they had many Indy cars dating all the way back to the first Indy 500 race in 1911 and a special exhibit to honour AJ Foyt’s racing career. Here are a subset of the photos we took.
After the Speedway we went to Mounds SP which is North of Indianapolis. Our GPS took us on a drive through downtown Indianapolis to get there but it was quite scenic along the river with the older homes. The campsite had electricity but no water hookup but that was ok as our tank had enough in it. After dinner we went for a 6 km hike around the park which went along the river and then up to the Mounds which the park was named after. We saw some Prairie Trilliums so it was making us think of our forests back home. The Mounds were an earthwork complex built over 2000 years ago by the Adena-Hopewell people for special ceremonies. The Fiddle Back and Earthwork mounds were relatively small but the Great Mound was quite large. It was lucky the Mounds had been preserved as the Bronnenberg family kept artifact looters out for many years and it went through a time period as an amusement park before becoming a SP in 1930.
The next day before heading out we stopped in at the Visitor’s Centre to learn more about the history of the park. Outside they had some cool log foot stools with carvings in the top and they had a dugout canoe. They also had a cool bird viewing area where we learned some interesting bird facts (read the details of the slides for this info). Then we had another long driving day ending up in Sleepy Hollow SP in Michigan. We did a short walk around the park and saw the lake and the Frisbee Golf course and the Daffodils in bloom again making us think about back home.
The next day we started another long drive in the rain and crossed the border to Canada at Port Huron/Sarnia (no problem crossing) and carried on to Woodstock to visit my brother and his family and to pick up our mail. It was fun to see the interactions between Dwight’s new Sheltie Puppy and their cat. After two nights in Woodstock the sun set over the lake to end this trip and the next day we journeyed back to our home.
This trip was our second major adventure with our RV and we were gone just under 5 months. The total distance travelled was 11,838 KMS and here is a link to the route we took: RV Trip 2 – GPS Log We visited 3 countries, 1 province and 14 states, stayed in 28 State Parks and 5 National Parks. In total we took 5,142 photos/videos of which we selected 1992 to use in our Blog and the blog is a 66 page Word Document now without the photos. In terms of major hikes and bike rides we tallied 190 KMS of hiking and 211 KMS of bike riding but that does not count daily walking such as when we were in cities. Overall it was an amazing journey! We realized that we prefer to stay from 2 to 4 days in a particular location and see and do as much as we can. We also realized that at our pace of travel it will take us many years to cover all of the U.S. and Canada but that’s what retirement for us is all about. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our blog as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together. We’ll start blogging again when we have our next trip, until then we wish you all safe travels.
Joel & Sharon 
Thanks! Have quite enjoyed the vicarious trip😉👍🏻😃
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Again many thanks Sharon and Joel for putting in so much effort to create this wonderful series of blogs..it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen and I’ve read them ALL. It compares to a Stuemer family..Herbert and Diane.. from Ottawa who years ago left with a 42 foot sailboat and circumnavigated the globe from 1997 to 2001 with three young boys. Diane’s blogs were sent by satellite to the Ottawa Citizen and published in every Saturday’s edition!!Congrats again!!
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