A paddle on the lake

Indiana Day 2

Our second day in Indiana started on the deck with a cup of coffee. Then a second cup. It was so relaxing that we almost couldn’t get motivated. The was almost not wind and the sunrise had a reddish-brown hue. Then we realized that the soft glow was likely due to smoke wafting down from the Canadian wildfires. All the way south to south central Indiana. But it didn’t seem to affect our breathing so after breakfast, we headed down the step path to the shore of Monroe Lake.

We pushed off into a warm, calm waters and headed south. It was already in the upper 70’s but with the somewhat overcast sky, it was quite an enjoyable paddle.

Monroe Lake was built in 1960 to provide water for Bloomington IN. It’s around 10,750 acres and can hold, according to Wikipedia, up to 428 gigalitres. Honestly, I didn’t know there was such a thing a ‘gigalitre’. The more you know.

We ventured south and then a little west and then headed back to complete out 90 minute outing. We only encountered a few boats and according to the occupants, the fish weren’t biting.

Back at the cabin we cleaned up and headed into Bloomington. Crumble Coffee was our first stop.

We often try to find points of interest on our tours. Sometimes famous or familiar and sometimes obscure or forgotten. I would call our next stop a little bit of both: obscure and forgotten.

We drove about 20 miles south to a small town named Oolitic IN. Oolitic is known for it’s limestone quarries and apparently the final stop for a tribute statue of Joe Palooka.

Joe Palooka was featured in a comic strip from the 1930’s. Joe was a prize fighter who exemplified an all-American good guy who stood up for the little guy. The strip, created by Ham Fisher, spawned movies and television, radio, comic books and other branded merchandise. The comic strip was published in various newspaper strips until 1984.

It was back to Bloomington for supper at Lennies Brewpub for Italian.

We started with an appetizer of chips and queso. 

Both of us could only finish half of our meals so we got carry-out boxes and then ordered a piece of cheesecake to go. After the 5 1/2 mile of winding gravel road back to our cabin, we shared the piece of cheesecake and a cup of decaf coffee on the deck watching the sun go down.