For our fall 2001 vacation, we left home (Saint Paul, MN) in the rain on
a Saturday morning.
The rain cleared by the time visited the
NorthWestern Illinios chapter NRHS
meeting in Rockford, IL, and afterward we saw the last run of Amtrak's
Lake Country Limited into Janesville, WI (Very late
~ 2 hours due to poor WSOR dispatching).
Sunday we saw the Soo Line 1003 steam special running on the WSOR near Zenda, WI,
on it's way back to Fox Lake, IL.
We stayed overnight with friends in Milwaukee both Saturday and Sunday evening.
We drove through Chicago on Monday afternoon; traffic on I-94 downtown was horrid because of road construction.
No lanes were shut down, but the road was being prepared for an overlay, so it
was anything but smooth. Once we got past downtown, we jumped on the express
lanes with our trailer - something I'm not sure I was allowed to do but what the
heck. Stayed overnight in
Crawfordsville, IN and the KOA
campground. Crawfordsville is about 50 miles west of
Indianapolis.
We chased semaphores Tuesday and saw a train, but due to circumstances we were unable to photograph it near these
interesting old signals.
Tuesday night was spent in the Cloverdale RV park, a former KOA campground.
Cloverdale is about 50 miles west-southwest of Indianapolis. We believe
that we forgot our trailer's water fill hose here.
Wednesday we traveled to the southern part of Indiana - We were interested specifically
in the Orleans to Campbellsburg section of the railroad. This section of the CSX's ex-Monon railroad is about 50 miles northwest of Louisville, KY. Late in the day we caught a train at semaphores; it was a
CP rail train operating
on trackage rights obtained many years ago by the Milwaukee Road. Wednesday evening was spent at
Spring Mill State
Park, near Mitchell. Spring Mill state park is very nice, and for anyone who
does not like to camp there is a Inn / Hotel with a nice resturaunt right in the
park.
Thursday was spent enjoying the restored village at Spring Mill State Park, which included a restored and operational water wheel
powered grain mill. The mill was demonstrated for visitors, and I was impressed
by how quiet it was. The operator said it was quiet because it was water powered, and used wooden gears.
Later that day, we went into town to find a garden hose to refill our trailer fresh water tank because we forgot our
hose
somewhere (probably at Cloverdale). We found a 50 foot garden hose at a NAPA auto parts store in nearby Mitchell. Shortly after purchasing the hose, we saw a train headed by
Union Pacific locomotives heading east through town, crossing the line we were chasing. Our plan was to relax at the diamonds
(at-grade crossing of two railroads) and have lunch. That did not happen because the train we had just seen was backing up, and was preparing to travel south into semaphore territory! Once this train was on the way, he really moved. We got two
photographs of it in the 10-15 miles of track guarded by semaphores. Lucky for
us, we heard on the radio he was meeting another train that was heading west, so we set up to take a
pictures of another CP train heading west.
We then called it a day, and went back to the Cloverdale RV park (they did not
have our hose.....). We stopped along the way and had dinner at a Steak and
Shake in Bloomington, IN. Steak and Shake was kind of neat - a 50's themed
full-service burger and salad place. I wish we had them at home.
Friday was spent exploring the area between Greencastle and South Raub, hoping to see a train. We
almost came up empty, but we saw a train westbound (northbound) in
Crawfordsville. We also took more pictures of these interesting semaphore signals.
Saturday we traveled to Peoria, IL to pick up Dawn's brother - he had major car
trouble and needed a ride home. We followed the TP&W
railroad most of the way. We only saw work equipment (a hy-rail truck and a tamper) on the line.
We stayed overnight in Jubilee
State Park just west of Peoria.
After breakfast Sunday with a friend of Glen's, we spent most of the day on the interstate highway system driving home. Sunday was the first time we saw a large city
(Minneapolis - Saint Paul) since we had traveled through Chicago, and I wish that
our trip could have been longer. It was very nice to be away from it all, if
only for 9 days.
-- Dan and Dawn
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