T.O. Fuller State park is our home for a few days.  A thick stand of oak and pine covers rugged gullies.  Mornings are filled with bird song.

The National Museum of Ornamental Metal: we checked it out.  I really liked the sculpture garden (even in the rain).  Much of the rest was really more of an art museum than the collection of ruggedly created, black smithed, cast and hammered pieces I envisioned. Still, not bad.

Graceland.  I am not an Elvis fanatic but yes, we did the ultimate Memphis tourist thing and toured the mansion.  They do a great job telling the story of his talent, his impact on the world of music and in sharing a bit about how he lived his life.  It’s worth a visit.

Sausage, that’s a good excuse for a party, right?  It is in Covington, KY and sausage is Goetta (ground meat with steelcut oatmeal and a few spices).  Goetta burgers, omelets, goetta corndogs, goetta mac and cheese, a philly cheese goetta, and goetta balls.  Add some live entertainment whole pig roasting on a spit (be here at 6PM to get a bite) and there you have it, a Goettafest.  We sampled many things goetta but didn’t make it until 6 to check out the roast pig.

A tower in the town center chimed the hour then told the story of the pied piper complete with characters circling though the little doors like on a cuckoo clock.  Fun to watch.

Sausages, every kind imaginable.  I didn’t know that there were so many kinds.  The display case at Mike’s Meat market is every bit of 30 feet long and has three tiers of shelves just loaded with sausages.  Raw, smoked, loose but mostly in casings of one kind or the other.  Spicy and plain (even boudin…that liver sausage we tasted somewhere down south).  We just looked and did not buy but, I think that we could have eaten a different kind every day for a month.

Lunch: A sampler from Babushka pirogues.  There were the traditional cheese and potato, beef, and a new one for me, a sweet blueberry pirogue.   They were a fun treat.  I didn’t make it past all the baked goods shops; we ended up with a super gooey brownie and macaroon.  It was all great but not exactly the intended fare when I headed for the farmers market with fresh veggies and such.  Well it’s not all my fault, it’s really too early here for much besides greens and just now strawberries.

Neatly kept two story farm houses set in freshly mowed lawns, encircled with white board fences accented with carefully tended flower beds.  An American Flag flying.   Run down trailers and doublewides in yards littered with objects abandoned in place, tall weeds growing through it all.  An American Flag flying.

It triggered a rather unexpected flare of patriotism.  It is a picture of the America I want to believe in, live in, and be proud of.  I love the quote, “Our country, right or wrong.”  “When right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right”.  Carl Schurz.   We have stuff to fix but this is a country I’m proud and blessed to call home.

Still made in America, GreenvilleOhio to be exact.  They make hand mixers, blenders and the ice cream maker bowls but stand mixers are their main product.  It was surprising how much of their subassemblies they do on site.  The powder coating paint operation was cool too.  It was much more flexible than I have seen before.  Since mixers come in dozens of colors (expresso is the newest color…beautiful) they switch over about 12 times a day.  Very slick.

Zinc die castings are made in the US and the little motors are actually built here in the factory.  Perhaps if we were to investigate more closely we would see more foreign content but the story they spin on the tour is certainly a great one of American manufacturing.

We dodged a few towmotors and had to get used to safety glasses again.  The tour guide did a great job.  It is well worth the stop and the $5.

Just heavy rain here though.

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. 

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!