A Much Needed Day

11/09/07 01:06 AM | Up Chucks

The New Cumberland Bridge and Park in Matthews , Chuck Pace © 2007
I got exactly what I wished for. The auto-parts fairy, was very good to me. The High Flow Pressurized Fuel pump works as advertised, quietly and willingly. Still I dilly-dallied a little yesterday after installing the pump and starting the car a few times. It was not reluctance that caused the delay, oh contraire, it was planning. I had to decide where my wanderlust would take me. The only place I had pre-decided was Matthews, a small farming community in the Southeast corner of Grant County. I had never been to Matthews but during a long distance conversation with my father about the Rush county covered Bridge day Jenni and I had a few weeks back he mentioned that my late Uncle Donald had worked in a little town that had a covered bridge in it. It was south and east of Jonesboro was all he could remember, so I got on Google maps and narrowed the search, I mentioned Fowlerton and Gaston, but those weren't it so I zoomed in until smaller towns emerged. He remembered Wheeling, but there was no Wheeling I could find, then there she was, Matthews on Wheeling Pike, south-south east of Jonesboro. Yep, he said right next to a cemetery.
Summitville_Sunoco_Ghost_Lg

So after the fuel pump was pumping, I started finding a route that kept me away from hi-speed highways and got me into the "grid" that is the state of Indiana with a few exceptions. So with plans in hand I left at a quarter after 11:00. I decided to go from Frankton again, since my last trip through there it was dark. I stopped at the cemetery in Frankton, recognized far to many names, and then made my way north and east. From there on to Orestes and Alexandria my old haunting grounds, and a side trip through tiny Summitville. I stopped in Summitville, got a bottled water and peach pie pastry and then took small narrow farm roads to Matthews. The covered Bridge in Matthews is one of the nicest I have seen, there is a park, picnic tables, even a boat launch if you want to take your canoe or powerboat under the bridge.
Covair Farm

After Matthews it was up toward Jonesboro on Wheeling pike, which winds and meanders a bit, until it hits SR-26 which takes you to the Birthplace of James Dean; Fairmount. Once again my Uncle Donald comes into the picture, since my Grandmother; Ruth Pace babysat James Dean and Donald when they were toddlers, at a farm just a few miles from where both are buried (as well as my grand parents and other family members) in the Fairmount cemetery. From Fairmount I continued east on 26 until I was only a few miles from where my parents lived in Greentown before they moved to Florida full time about seven years ago. I detoured through a tiny, tiny burg named Jerome, also of the curvy, grid uninhibited variety of roads. This town is the home of Frank Short who's wife Sandy, was one of my mothers best friends before she passed away a few years ago. I drove through Greentown, where I haven't been since the folks sold their house and moved. Then it was time to start back toward Indy and home. After Windfall and Hobbs (which is a bend, not even a burg) I decided to

jog over to Tipton on SR-28, home of the pork-festival where they crown an attractive (skinny) pork-queen every year. Out of Tipton south again on SR-19 through Atlanta, Millersburg, Arcadia and Cicero heading to Noblesville. I chose to shoot over to Westfield and take 31 to Keystone, since the interstates would be jammed. I was arriving back in Marion County at evening rush-hour. I was home, and showing Jenni my picture record by 6:15. I took photos at all the little towns where I stopped except Greentown and Jerome. Tipton CH_Lg