Fall Road Trip #3 (in search of still waters)

I know this entry is quite late in coming. Other priorities kept pushing this project to the back burner. But I didn’t want to not document this final fall road trip because I learned something very interesting on this trip and also reconfirmed a lession I should have learned by now. I’ll explain that later. I didn’t take many pictures on this trip because we didn’t get out of the car much.

This trip was mainly to scout out some small lakes where we could take our Gumby (our canoe) and go fishing. We prefer small lakes as opposed to the larger reservoirs because it’s easier to row in calm waters and, well, it’s just plain nicer and quieter and a better nature experience than dealing with tons of people and large boats whizzing by creating waves and noise pollution.

Since we hadn’t really been anywhere east in a long time, I thought that would be the way to go. I did some research on the Internet on the DNR website and looked at maps trying to find small lakes in that direction. A lesson I should have learned by now is you can’t trust absolutely everything you read on the Internet!!

We headed east towards Rushville on a cold, windy, and rainy Sunday that eventually cleared up. We even had some nice stretches of sunshine throughout the day. Our first stop was a lake called Champion Acres Lake. Not too hard find, but what I didn’t know from what I saw onthe Internet is that this was once a private campground/lake getaway. What it is now is a medium-sized hole filled with water behind a house with a few rundown dilapidated trailers around it. Eek! I turned around quickly and got back on the road.

The second lake on the list (and I can’t remember the name now), we never did find. We ended up out in the boonies in a place we really didn’t want to be. (Eric called it Deliverance territory, if you get the drift.)

The last stop was a little north of Connersville; a place called Manlove Lake. (I know! Strange name.)

After we stopped for lunch in Connersville I came to the realization of something quite interesting and totally unintentional. During these three fall road trips we had managed, quite by accident, to visit all the birthplaces of our puppies. The first trip took us through Kirklin where Nikita was born. On the way back that day, we drove through Kokomo, Rosko’s birthplace. Sasha was born in Laurel, which we had just driven through. Finally, Smokey, was born in Connersville. Strange how things like that happen.

Anyway….we found Manlove Lake without any difficulty. What an interesting place. This is actually a DNR property, but it’s maintained by the county and used by a local conservation group and local residents for a camping getaway. Much like Sugar Creek in Greenfield. The campground sits to one side of a 15 acre lake. The place was filled with old and interesting looking trailers that were closed up for the season and wrapped in tarps in various and unique ways to keep out the winter weather. The lake is accessible for fishing through the winter, but only open to pedestrian traffic. We bundled up and set out to walk the nature trail around the lake. Below are the only pictures I took on this trip.

I don’t know if we’d actually come back here as it’s about an hour and a half drive. But it’s always an option if we’re looking for a quite place to fish.

That’s about it for this trip. On the way home I reflected back on the realization that we had visited all of our puppies’ birthplaces. Who knows why this happened. It certainly wasn’t a conscience decision. But who ever really knows why we do what we do. Though there must be a reason, it will forever remain a mystery to me.

~~Many of you have asked out the remodeling of our bathroom. So…I have created a Bathroom Blog. If you want to keep up with the progress of this “little” remodel job….in the words of John Mellencamp….check it ut!~~ www.ourbathroomblog.blogspot.com