Oregon, IL Sculpture Trail

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Once the other RV ladies headed home, I stayed at Lowden SP for an additional night to bring Colt to the dealer for winterizing and warranty work.  I spent some of the day looking for the sculptures located around Oregon and just some other wanderings thru parks.

Makin' Hay by Daniel Ingebritson

The Bountiful Bench by Christine Murphy

Agriculture, Mother of Civilization by David Seagraves

The Soldier's Monument by Lorado Taft (dedicated in 1916) honors veterans from the Civil War, Spanish-American War, War of 1812, Mexican War, and WW I.

 

Paths of Conviction, Footsteps of Fate by Jeff Adams.  One side shows Abraham Lincoln.

 

The other side shows Black Hawk.

This little fountain was not part of the sculpture tour, but it was cute, showing 2 children hugging fish.

Solar Reef by Andrew Langoussis representing the sun.  Around it's perimeter are embellishments of landscape elements such as fields, hills and structures.

 

From the Waters Comes My Bounty by Ray Kobald located on the Rock River.

Some miscellaneous sites around town.  The spillway with Oregon in the background.

 

 

The only water fowl I found.  Canadian geese.

 

A last bit of Autumn color

The Black Hawk statue looking over the Rock River.  I'd guess about 3 stories tall.

View of the Rock River from the Black Hawk statue.

The camp hosts and I had the whole campground to ourselves on Sunday.

Zorro, a good camp dog.  Maybe watching a squirrel.

Lots of Oak trees.  I have no idea how some of the larger rigs get into the tight spots between trees.  My site was shown as a pull-through, but to follow the road in the correct direction was impossible due to trees on the road, so I just backed out the same way I parked.

Halloween Weekend at Lowden SP, IL

One more camping trip for the maiden year of Colt.  Two of the ladies from the women RV forum and I met at Lowden SP, IL.

Friday, October 30, 2015 was arrival day.  After we were all settled in we did a short hike in the park, following Heckman Train down to the Rock River.

Eileen (left) and Kathy (Right)

We came upon a long flight of stairs, that we guessed led up to the statue of Black Hawk.  I knew Zorro couldn't do that many stairs and wasn't sure I could do them either, so we just continued on along the river.

 

On the way back, and before we head up the trail, I tried out the timer for the first time on the camera.  It wasn't as cold as we look and we definitely do not look like happy campers! :-)

Saturday, October 31st was a rainy day so we decided to do inside things.  First stop, a small art museum, the Eagles Nest Art Colony, located on the second floor of the library in Oregon, IL.



The actual Black Hawk statue that looks over the river from the campground is being restored and is under wraps, but this is what the statue looks like.  The real Black Hawk statue was made by Lorado Taft in 1911 in concrete.

The museum also had a small version of The Blind by Lorado Taft.  The full size statue is located at the University of Illinois. The woman at the museum said all of the figures in the stature are blind except for the child being held up by the woman in front.

Frank O. Lowden, former governor of Illinois and who the state park is named.

We then headed to Sycamore, IL to their Museum of Natural History.

 

Only one live exhibit, Emerald the iguana.

Us with Sam the grizzly.

Shipshewana, Indiana

September 18 - 22, 2015

On to the second get together with the Women RV ladies.  All of the ladies in Rockville Lake Park headed up to Shipshewana Campground South to meet some of the other ladies from the forum for another few days.

Back row L-R: 
     Nan (Gentleladybear), Eileen (beazle), Sarah (bluepinecones), Sue (Colliemom), Carol (carolinagal),
     Roberta (bertk523),  Claudia (Wings), Tina (BirdbyBird), Kathy (gingerK)
From row L-R: 
     Liz, Brenda (Sue's friend), Cheryl (IrishIroamed)

And a few came up for the day:  Chezza, MelissaD & Phoenix

The site were a little closer together than I'd like, but it made the visiting easier.

But the view was fine by me!

Zorro and I experienced our first thunderstorm in Colt (the trailer) and I kept an eye on the radar.  If any tornado warnings were announced I was planning on getting us to the shower building, even though dogs weren't allowed.  I would guess the campground folks would have understood.  I think Zorro had a good time, he was enjoying playing with all the other dogs.  Here he is looking for Howdy to come out.

Nothing was preplanned, so as ideas for things to do came up, we just broke up into individual groups to check out the stores or to go for something to eat.

On Sunday, Sarah, Claudia and I went to breakfast in Elkhart (everything in Shipshewana is closed on Sunday) and then toured the Ruthmere mansion.

Yes that's a real cardinal at the fountain near the coach house.

Shipshewana is a very large Amish and it was fun to see all of the different carriages and bikes, including hearing the clip-clop of the horses hooves on the street. Seemed like I never had my camera with me to take a picture of a carriage going down the street, so the best I can do is a weather vane.

A couple on their bikes going to Sunday service.

Carriage rides are also available.

A few of the murals in Shipshewana.

The Amish are also known for their beautiful quilts.  The town also has some samples of the different patterns for quilts as art through out the town.

Nan was also nice enough to host a pot luck at her rig one night.

And what's a get together without the camping puppers! Unfortunately, I missed Spring, Bear & Remi.



Sue's Molly

 

Sarah's Nicki

Claudia's Howdy

Tina's Stuart

Tina's Audrey

And Audrey getting some love from Mom.