Gentle giants

Two laid back Belgian horses, Mike and Joey smoothly glided our canal boat on the Whitewater Canal.   Originally 100+ miles were built in the mid 1800’s.  It took years and over 1 million dollars and it was all made obsolete by the railroad after only a few years of service.  Good idea, bad timing.   Indiana has restored about 14 miles as part of an historic site. Joey n Mike pulling comp_0056

Our ride included a journey across the only remaining water over water aqueduct in the country.  A burr arch, covered bridge actually carries the canal across a creek.  The tow path doesn’t cross the aqueduct so we traded our 2 horsepower for 1 “manpower” until we coasted out of the other end and Mike and Joey (who had crossed the creek on a modern bridge) took up the effort once again.

They have restored a grist mill too.  The waterwheel, drive shafts and belts are all intact but we didn’t get to actually see it run.  They already had more cornmeal than they would sell on a weekday.  It was a good visit but the 90F and 80%+ humidity ran us indoors by mid afternoon.  That pent up heat met a cold front and made for some mighty storms and a pretty soggy campground.

A local turtle came over and took shelter under the car….his regular digs were probably under water!

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