Soon after we got settled into our campground my brother Bob's family came by to welcome us and invite us to attend the local Japanese Obon Festival with them. What fun to meet my new niece and nephew while enjoying the dancing and food at the festival.

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My brother's house is located in the historical part of downtown Indianapolis just down the street from this restored 16-room Italianate Victorian mansion that was home to Harrison until his death in 1901 except during his senate and presidential terms. The house was built in 1875 and is a museum today containing artifacts and personal belongings of the Harrison family.

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This is an incredibly beautiful state capital building both on the outside and inside. Work on the building began in 1878 and was completed 10 years later at a cost of $1,980,969.

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Even in this land-locked city we had some beautiful sunsets.

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I can't say it better than this sign does! I know why I live in wonderfully dry California - I can't take the humidity!!

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We decided it would be fun to take the kids on their first train ride so we headed to Knightstown for the train that would take us over the Big Blue River to the town of Carthage and back.

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A good time was had by all!

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We figured a trip to this area wouldn't be complete without a trip to the speedway. This proving ground and racetrack for automobiles was built in 1909 and is the oldest continuously operated racecourse. It is the site of the largest one-day sports event in the country. The NASCAR Brickyard 400 was running on Sunday when we arrived in the area.

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We decided it would be fun to try food from kid's native country, Ethiopia. It was truly a new experience for us. The food was spicy but tasty and eaten without utensils. It was served with a flat bread-like food called "enjera" that you tear in pieces and use to scoop up the meat and veggies.

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The quaint town of Rockville is located in Parke County, touted to be the world's covered bridge capital. Our friends Karen and Dennis, whom we met on our Scandinavia trip, decided to take us on a tour of some of these old structures located throughout the county

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Rising 3-1/2 stories from a sandstone foundation on the banks of the Big Raccoon Creek is this mill which was built in 1819. It contains the original 1880's roller process equipment and today grinds corn meal using an 85 horsepower Rodney Hunt turbine that was installed in 1886. We watched them grinding the corn and couldn't resist buying some of the cornmeal.

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We saw many covered bridges. Among them was Crooks Bridge, built in 1856, which spans 132 feet over the Little Raccoon Creek,...

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...what we thought was going to be an animal auction and turned out to be a hillbilly junk auction,...

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...cornfields lining the road that were begging to be stood in,...

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...Roseville Bridge, built in 1910 and 263 feet long,...

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...wonderful barns standing watch over the corn and soybean fields, and...

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...beautiful swallowtail butterflies.

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Today we took one last chance to check out a few more sights of the city with Karen and Dennis. We first went to the canal area, a place where city dwellers can rent a paddleboat or bike and pedal about.

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Walking along the canal gave us a view of several of the museums, Victory Field, a minor league baseball park, the new Colts Stadium and finally took us the White River.

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We saw the beautiful Shriners Building...

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...the Children's Museum...

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...and finally a stroll through the gardens of the 26-acre estate that was the home of J. K. Lilly of the Lilly drug company. The three story 1930's mansion has been restored to its original elegance and contains many original furnishings and decorative art objects.

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