Indiana, Part 1 - Houses of the Past and Future in Indiana Dunes National Park [240602-03]

We spent most of the time on our first pass through Indiana exploring Indiana Dunes National Park.  The park is somewhat different than most we've visited up until now, in that it's not in some secluded out of the way place.  It occupies a discontinuous strip of land on the well-populated south shore of Lake Michigan, and is broken into fragments and odd shaped pieces by both public and private beach communities, as well as the Indiana Dunes State Park (which the national park completely surrounds).  It would take several days to "fully explore", and we did our best to hit the highlights.

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Sunday morning, we pulled out of our camp site at Starved Rock State Park for the last time and headed east.  Our first stop was in the city of Morris about 40 miles away for a Walmart grocery run.  The village of Tinley Park (another 40 miles down the road) had the first Bank of America we had seen in months, so we stopped to there next to reload our cash supply.  The ATMs there were a little . . . unexpected.  Instead of being free-standing or mounted to the side of the bank like we're used to, they were all located in a little drive through - with a stated clearance of 9' 8".  While the T42 might have been able to squeak under, we decided not to risk it and Christine walked through the drive through instead.

Afterwards we decided to go to the Tinley Park Library to use the WiFi.  We arrived at 4 pm and - being Sunday - they closed at 5 pm so we were only able to spend an hour working inside, which was a shame because the interior was actually quite pretty.

Because of a large fountain and other landscaping features, the parking lot was too far away to pull the WiFi from; but it was a warm evening so we sat on the benches out front after closing and continued to use the WiFi from there until dinner time.  Our original plan was to have dinner at the Tinley Park Cracker Barrel and then overnight in their parking lot (which would have been our first Crackerdocking experience of the Trek), since our campground reservations at Indiana Dunes wouldn't start until tomorrow night.  But after reading the menu ("comfort food", that probably shouldn't be eaten too often 😉) we decided to save that particular adventure for somewhere later in the Trek "where we really needed it" - particularly since we had also read that the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center allows you to overnight in their parking lot as well.

After a late dinner and dishes in the library parking lot, we continued onward.  Tinley Park is only about 45 minutes from the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center, and we crossed over the border into Indiana just before 9 pm.

There appeared to be a couple of other vehicles overnighting in the RV parking lot as well when we arrived (photo is from early the next morning).  They foyer of the Visitor Center is open 24 hours so we were able to get a bit of information to start planning our visit before heading to bed that night.

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Monday morning, we popped into the Visitor Center to get some advice on how to plan our visit, and then headed to a small parking lot that was sort of centrally located to our first day's activities.  This very old looking fellow was hanging out by the bridge over the stream.

We started our adventures by hiking around the old Bailly Homestead.  Joseph Bailly was one of the first (1822; Indiana became a state in 1816) homesteaders in the Calumet Region and made his living as a fur trader.  The most prominent structure on the current homestead is the "new house", which he began construction on in 1833, but never lived in because he died in 1835 before it could be completed.  From the looks of things, it's seen better days; normally we'd be disappointed that we couldn't go inside to look around, but when they're propping the walls up with poles we're happy to stay outside.

The brick house in one corner of the homestead was built for Bailly's granddaughter in the 1870's.

The cicadas were also out in force at the Bailly Homestead.  Not only could we hear them (quite loudly), but we actually saw a number of their molted exoskeletons clinging to the tops and bottoms of various leaves, as well as few live insects as well.

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About a mile away was the Chellberg Farm, a restored/preserved Swedish and Northwestern Indiana Farmstead.  Swedish immigrants started coming into the area from Chicago in the 1850's to work in the sawmill, and started purchasing land for farming and working in other businesses in the 1860's.  Although there was no human activity at the farm (since open house days are apparently on Sundays) the site was still more lively than the Bailly Homestead had been, since there was a working windmill dutifully pumping water, and chickens, goats, and cows were milling about in their respective enclosures.

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After the farm, we hiked back to the T42 to have lunch.  While we were eating, a newer model white K Travato parked a few spots away.  We waited for the owners to come out so that we could go say "hi", but they ended up driving off after a little while without ever exiting the van (we're guessing they're not TOWB members - or at least not sociable ones).

After lunch, we unmounted the bikes in order to bike some of the Prairie Duneland Trail.  Getting to the trail from where we were parked was a bit challenging because you have to bike through town for a bit, and the connecting "trail" is non-existent for a few blocks so you have to bike on the road.  The Prairie Duneland Trail itself was reasonably nice - shaded and pretty - but very repetitive, so we only went a couple of miles down it before retracing our route back again.

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Being still only mid-afternoon, we decided to do the Lakefront Drive.  We stopped at the one and only NPS parking area along the Drive (the rest are private / "by permit only" parking areas) and popped out for some quick views of Lake Michigan.  Tom is not used to seeing lakes that are so large you can't see the far side!  We didn't stay for long, though, because the parking spots were all perpendicular to the very narrow road, and our butt and bikes were sticking out significantly into the lane 😬.

Also along the drive are the 1933 Chicago World's Fair Century of Progress Homes.  They're only open for touring once a year, but the rest of the time you can drive by and (if you can find a spot to pull over) read the interpretive sign in front and take a photo.

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For our last activity of the day, we decided to drive out to Mount Baldy.  Now: anything named "Mount . . ." anything in Indiana should be taken with a grain of salt, because the state is essentially flat (the highest elevation in the state is 1257 feet).  We guess when your state is that flat, you name any little bump "Mount somethingoranother" just so that you have some.  Mount Baldy was no exception:  it not only is not particularly tall (rising only about 120 feet above lake level) nor an actual mountain (it's a sand dune), but you're not even allowed on top of it (supposedly for safety reasons).  All in all, it wasn't particularly worth the drive out.

We did, however, pass this kind of cool looking marsh area along the way.

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After a fairly full day, we proceeded to our new campground and got settled in.  The mosquitoes started coming out while Tom was grilling dinner, and increased as the evening progressed - a harbinger of things to come...