Clifty Falls State Park

This past Sunday, while we were still down in Madison, Indiana (part of our Jefferson County tour), we visited Clifty Falls State Park. I had seen many, many pictures of this park from my friends who regularly visit that part of the state, and I knew it was beautiful. And I feared we wouldn't get to FULLY enjoy the beauty because it was supposed to rain (storm, really) the ENTIRE day. We knew we couldn't control it, so we alternated between holding our breath and praying hard, and my goodness. God gave us a BEAUTIFUL day to enjoy His creation in ways we never had. We were so, so grateful.

If you ever decide to go there, they do have an inn on the grounds, but it was a bit above our budget, so we didn't stay there. I've heard really good things, though! Also an interesting note...this park doesn't have trash cans or bathrooms scattered throughout like most other ones we've been to. I figured that would make it really litter-filled, but I have to say it was the cleanest state park I've seen. When we stood on bridges and looked down into creeks, I didn't see any cups or chip bags or anything. Interesting! I do wish they would have had more bathrooms because it was a hot day and I wanted to drink way more water than I did, but I knew I couldn't have bathroom breaks. (Nine miles on two bottles of water on an 80+ degree day worked out okay, but I was nervous!)

We started at the observation tower, which I did climb, even though they scare me to death, but it was a bit too foggy to see much:

Six hours later, during take #2, it was much more scenic:

I took a bazillion pictures and won't subject you to them all, but here were some of the moments we encountered that day. I will add that this was the most rugged hiking I've ever done. I know compared to what some of you do, this is NOTHING, but for me, it was rugged. And many of the trails were mostly rock, and the rocks were wet from recent rain, so we did a lot of slipping and sliding and slogging through mud. My shoes look GREAT! :) And many of the trails were straight up hill. STEEP! Toward the end, Ryan found me a good walking stick, but I did most of it very carefully.

There were definitely lots of cliffs and falls throughout!

HUGE!

(I was too chicken to climb up where Ryan was on that one. That was the only thing I wish I would have tried that I didn't.)

We came upon this tunnel, which was really a cave with two entrances. They said it was manmade, but they also said bats live in there, so I don't care who made it or what it's called. It's a cave. You could ALMOST stand up straight inside. Especially toward the middle, you had to crouch to get through. Someone told us it's about 600 feet long, and when you're in the middle, there's a bit of a bend, and you can't see light at either end. The ground was made entirely of rocks covered in water, so it was pretty much all my fears wrapped up into one. But of course Ryan wanted to try it, so we did. I quoted a LOT of scripture and did a LOT of praying.

 WE DID IT!!!!!

 I only slipped once and Ryan hit his head on the top once, but otherwise, no humans or cameras were injured in the cave trek!

 I did the rugged one, thankyouverymuch.

 It was called Cake Rock. Yes please.

We crossed a couple of creeks (like IN the creek).

 The delicate art of washing mud off your shoes WITHOUT falling off the rocks.

 He ran up the hills.

 I went a bit more slowly.

But oh, what a fun day! We saw people along the way, but for the most part, we had the trails to ourselves. It was warm, but the trees provided nice shade. We saw NO snakes. The waterfalls were stunning. It was a worship-filled day and a great experience to have together. Loved this park!

Saddletree Factory Tour!

What's a saddletree? Great question! A week ago, I couldn't have told you. But now I know!

While we were having afternoon coffee in Madison last Saturday, Ryan found information about a little factory in town that offered tours. We love a good story and a bit of local history, so we walked over to check it out! We lucked out in being the only people there at that time, so we got our very own private tour!

The Schroeder Saddletree Factory is no longer in operation, but it provided a fascinating glimpse into manufacturing in another time. Our tour guide compared it to Pompeii, because when it ceased operating, nothing was moved or cleaned up. It all just sat as it had been and gradually fell into disrepair until a grant provided the funds to restore it and make it a part of Madison's history.

Ben Schroeder was a German immigrant who began his own saddletree business in the late 1800s, and his children carried on his legacy after his death. Oh wait...you might still not know what a saddletree is! It's the wooden part of a saddle that you really never see, because it's covered by another material - usually leather.

Ben came to America with nothing and apprenticed in this trade under another local saddletree maker and eventually opened his own shop. He was a bachelor when he started out, so he built a simple house and it served as both home and workshop. He got married, and his wife lived with him amid all the sawdust and projects. After they started having children, she suggested he build a separate workshop area so they could have a defined home, so he did! His home is what you see in the first picture above, and the factory buildings are in the second picture. The tour guide told us his goal was never to make a bunch of money, but just to make quality products. So at the most, his operation ran with about a dozen people.

We got to walk through the actual shop areas and see how they worked!

The bucket to the left of the stove, which kind of looks like a butter churn, is actually a paint barrel still stained with yellow paint. The guide (who is in the back of the picture there) told us the stove warmed up the cans of glue they used in manufacturing.

 If you look closely, you'll see a metal hand (minus a thumb) sticking up off that table. In addition to manufacturing saddletrees, they made a few other odds and ends, including gloves. This was the glove making area!

 The light makes this kind of hard to see, but if you look to the right of the clamp on the table, you'll see how the wood dips a bit from the top and bottom. That's where the guys sat to work, and eventually their *ahem* seats actually wore away the wood! They flipped the whole work plank over and started carving again from the other side. Lots of hours of sitting for a double-carved seat, right?

 More work stations.

This was the blacksmith area. The guide told us this stove was originally the stove that heated the house, but they upgraded to a better (read: less messy) model in the living quarters, so this one took on a new job in the shop. Also interesting: ever seen wooden floors in a blacksmith shop?

These pictures are from the separate building workshop. Lots of saws and belts and boilers in this area!

 The guide told us Ben was kind of a hoarder, so there were all kinds of papers and records left over in addition to the things in the shop!

 A catalog of yore.

 Oh yeah - forgot to tell you they made clothespins too!

 The big tumbler where they combined raw clothespins with walnuts to sort of sand down the clothespins and give them a bit of a stain.

 Trial runs at patterns. He said most were made out of food boxes or other random paper/card products found around the place.

 Tried and true patterns were made from wood.

Always good to know where the bathroom is while you're on a tour, right?

And another classic Ryan:

Such a fun tour. Worth the time and very affordable. ($4.00 per person.) Check it out sometime!

Our Day in Madison

We chose to spend this past Saturday poking around the little town of Madison, Indiana, which as I told you earlier, is a very quaint and adorable little town. Lots of amazing old homes with more character than I can possibly explain, lots of really cute little shops, and a ton of history!

One really nice thing to know (if you decide to visit there) is they have a bunch of public parking lots, and they're all free! That's really nice if you're not into parallel parking (me! me!) and if paying for parking isn't part of your budget. We parked in the morning when we arrived and didn't pick our car up until the end of the day!

We started at a little coffee shop. They have three of them downtown, and we visited all three before the weekend was over. :) The first one we visited actually saw us twice that day. It was called The Red Roaster Coffee and Eatery, although Ryan alternated between calling it the Red Rooster and Kenny Rogers' Roasters all weekend. REALLY good coffee there. (We never had food. Just coffee.) Also a special shout out for the clean bathroom, because let's face it: when you're spending a day in town, you need to know where the clean bathrooms are!

In the morning, we just grabbed our coffee and left, but in the afternoon, we actually sat for a while in the comfy chairs, used the free WiFi, and took a break. Lots of college students in there studying, so it was nice and quiet!

When we left the coffee shop, we started our day by walking the entire riverwalk. It is really nice. It's all bricked and paved and gives a great view of the Ohio River. (It rained on us while we were out, so we paused to check out an antique mall until the rain passed, but then we resumed our walk and finished the whole thing!)

 You have to look closely to see it...it looked like a noose to us!

Awkward!!!!

 Ryan was flipping through an old National Geographic when the guy a few booths over let a string of super colorful words fly in his phone conversation. Always interesting while hunting for treasures.

The antique mall was three stories tall. Books? Okay! I'll climb!

 Three cheers for HUMIDITY. (Read: watch Bekah's hair grow.)

When on vacation, you dig out quarters for ridiculously short amounts of viewing time.

Found a pretty fountain!

We paused for lunch at a 50s style diner called Hinkle's Sandwich Shop. I'd read good things about it, so we wanted to try! It wasn't my healthiest meal of vacation, but it was TASTY! They had slider burgers, so at least my sandwich was small! :) Good fries, and my favorite: a little chocolate peanut butter milkshake that was 100% worth every single calorie. It's hard to find a good milkshake, and this was good. Ryan even got one, and he's not a huge milkshake lover like I am. His was chocolate mint, and he said it was delicious! Super friendly people in this shop, and super busy. It wasn't very big, and we actually got the last table when we walked in. We never saw an empty table for more than about 30 seconds the whole time we were there.

Oh, and yes. The hair was in a pony by lunch. SO HUGE!

We resumed our shopping and touring after lunch, and of course, had one more stop at the Roosters. I mean Roasters. :)

Ryan found a sword. No, we did not buy it.

 Back at the fountain!

 Yeah, this reminds me a lot of our yard too. I mean....

The yards all through town were spectacular, but I felt like a creeper taking too many pictures. :(

BEAUTIFUL courthouse.

 And a bell!!! (I used to collect bells, so it felt appropriate to get a picture with this one.

After this, we went on our big adventure for the day, but I'll tell you about it tomorrow! :)