Shakamak Scenery

This past Sunday, Erin and I took a hike out to Shakamak State Park, just outside of Jasonville, Indiana. There's not much in Jasonville besides the park, although they do have the market cornered on the "privately owned restaurant which used to be a franchise restaurant (usually Dairy Queen or Hardees) until the fire." I love these places. People buy them, tape their own product names over the Dairy Queen names on the drive-up menu screen, and off they go. I had a lovely Blizzard, er, Shiver at one of these fine establishments. Anway....

I wanted to take Erin to Shakamak to see the site of my infamous "pukey boy at camp" episode. When we arrived at the park, we immediately headed to the group campground. It looked exactly as I remembered it, and I was able to show Erin the cabin where my hot dogs escaped to the solace of my bedside. She noted that the campground was pretty ratty, which made me feel better. Apparently my experience there wasn't colored solely by the experiences of that fateful first night.

Since we were there, we went ahead and hiked around Lake Shakamak. One of the things I remembered about the lake was the presence of this massive diving tower. As a camper, we weren't allowed anywhere near the thing, but I can remember watching other kids jump off it from our campground. I wasn't completely surprised to find that the tower has since been dismantled. I suspect the local personal injury attorneys had permanently reserved spaces in the campground at Shakamak during the tower's tenure. I found a website where a guy is lobbying to have the tower put back. Good luck with that.

The hike was pretty non-eventful, but there were tons of bugs and snake holes. A few weeks ago at Turkey Run we encountered a small snake, and I don't think Erin has ever fully recovered. She spent a fair amount of time jumping around the holes, as though her four inch vertical leap would save her from the impending jaws of a Shakamak boa. We didn't see any actual snakes this time around though, so perhaps her yelling at them to "stay away" actually worked.

The other landmark we went through on the way to and from the park was Clay City, Indiana. Erin and my inlaws have been dying to go to Clay City ever since they moved to Indiana, primarly due to it's self-proclaimed billing as "Mayberry of the Midwest." We have relatives that live in Clay City and are lovely people, so I will tread lightly. But calling Clay City the "Mayberry of the Midwest" might be a little bit like calling a rusted out 1973 AMC Gremlin the "Mercedes of the Sub-Compact World." I think we pretty safely covered all there was to see at 45 miles per hour.

This weekend we'll be visiting some relatives and enjoying the splendor of Spring Mill State Park and Bedford, Indiana -- "Not Quite Mayberry, But Still Featuring A Drunk Called 'Otis.'" I've called and requested that all the snakes be cleared from the premises of the state park.