Amble and Mad Scramble

06/01/08 11:33 AM | Up Chucks

....You will think this strange. When in reality it is a balance achieved. Yin and Yang are served. There is a part of each in the other and they cannot be separated. Good cannot exist without bad. Bad has no meaning without the knowledge of good.

Wednesday: The National Road, US 40 which cuts through the center of Indianapolis goes West as far as St. Louis MO (originally only to Vandalia Illinois) and East all the way to Maryland. Wednesday morning I proposed to my wife a trip that would take us as far as Richmond to the east and then North to Ceylon. Now the most brilliant of you will sparkle like Rubies and Sapphires from exotic Ceylon just of the southern coast of India, but I do not mean Sri Lanka which was know as Ceylon until 1972. I mean Ceylon Indiana (see; adding the extra na after India moves you thousands of miles closer to Indianapolis --at a considerable savings in gas too).
Gas in the car, crackers, cheeses, wine and sodas coolered and in the trunk, top down boot in place for added aero and the Garmin on the dash, we headed out at 1:18PM. A leisurely pace set (for two leisurely Pace's) we stopped at several of the Historic National Road Yard Sale stops. This is the 5th year that the states of Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois have held this event, and it will continue yearly until at least 2012 on the first Wednesday after Memorial day thru the following Sunday.

The trip east took us through Cumberland, Gem, Philadelphia, Greenfield, Riley, Charlottesville, Knightstown, Dunreith, Dublin, Lewisville, Straughn, Cambridge City, East Germantown, Pennville, Hiser, Centerville and into Richmond. Without a few stops the trip should have taken about an hour. We were in no hurry. I took a few photos in quaint Lewisville. In Richmond I stopped long enough to get a shot of their very impressive City Center building. Then ambling through a lovely downtown area we grabbed US 27 and started north towards Ceylon and its bridge on the Wabash River.
During the northward leg of the days adventure we drove through the towns of Chester, Fountain City, Lynn , Winchester, Randolph, Deerfield, Bluff Point, College Corner, Portland, Pleasant Ridge, Antiville, Bryant, Geneva and Ceylon. All during the trip from our leaving Indy to our destination I would use the iPhones "notes" feature to record times and places and oddities. The trip from Cumberland to Ceylon's Bridge took us 112 miles and 4 hours 20 minutes.
ceylon_side

At the Covered Bridge in Ceylon there is a rather nice park with a "covered" picnic area and a "covered" hand pump for fresh mineral water, a stand of tall prairie grasses and a woods with paths that lead back to Wabash River. We took dozens of photos, picnicked each having just one glass of Blue River Riesling from Sam's Club. With the food and Spirits back in the cooler I darted down the path to get a far away shot of the Ceylon Bridge before we gat in the car and went far away again ourselves. I didn't figure to se this bridge again or at least not for some time so document, document, document.
Since I had gone to Matthews alone and taken photos of the Cumberland Bridge on the Mississenewa River in the late fall of '07 on one of my Thursdays off, I thought Jenni might like to see it in all its splendor with her own eyes. Besides it was on the route I chose to head back to Indy, on a day of wander-lost. she readily agreed and we headed back down US 27 to SR 18 which goes East and West from Ohio to Illinois. Our trip would only use 20 of its approximately 150 or miles, and we joined it already in progress at Bryant leaving it again at Roll after having driven through Fiat, Matamoras and Montpelier. South on SR 1 to Hartford City then West again on SR's 26/22 until SR 26 it splits with SR 22 and heads south 2.5 miles before again turning West. At that turn point there is a road that takes you into Matthews and becomes of all things Massachusetts Avenue a 1/2 mile strip of road at a 45° angle to the N/S-E/W grid that is Indiana. Having been there once before I drove straight to the bridge and we de-verted and stretched and photographed and marveled. Then back on the road back up to SR 26 and to the Interstate for a short jaunt.
cumberland-in

We exited I-69 at the Muncie/Alexandria exit SR 28/US 35. The Petros truck stop allowed us to fill the cars tank and empty our internal tanks. Alexandria and then Elwood where I stopped to put the top up since sunburned arms were getting cold and dusk was upon us. At the southern tip of Elwood IN 13 joins up with SR 37 for about 7 miles until SR 13 continues nearly due South and SR 37 goes S/SE to Noblesville and then Indy. We stayed on 13 through Perkinsville, Fishersberg, Lapel and Hardscrabble. A mile south of Hardscrabble, less than twenty miles from Fortville I reached down to adjust my belt and seat-belt. That's when it happened. That's when I noticed.

"WHERE THE HELL IS MY iPHONE!!" I pulled over at the next crossroads, got the car out of the road and then the mad scramble and panic. Under the Seats, the armrest and glovebox, the trunk, pockets, door pockets. The trunk again all the other spots again under the spare tire in the trunk in the cooler the bags again and again.
After a 10 minute repetitive search with a full barrage of expletives a minute to compose thoughts, mentally retrace steps, plan a course of futility or recovery.
Places out of the car. McClure station at SR 28 and SR 37 to put top up. Petros fuel station and restroom SR 28 @ I-69. Matthews Bridge and park. Turn of the last century Indiana author Gene Stratton Porter house in Geneva. Geneva water tower photo opp. Ceylon Bridge, woods, park and picnic area.
Geneva

The Water-tower photo and the Gene Stratton Porter domicile, CDP © 5/28/08
WE turned around and went back, at McClure I asked and got the nopes from two station employees. Then I spent $7.00 on a shitty flashlight and two re-packaged Duracell D batteries. Petros. Nope-os. Now it is dark, we take 69 North to Marion exit then 18 east all the way back to Bryant and up to Geneva. Not in Stratton Porter parking or areas outside I visited. Spot from which I photographed Geneva tower. Nada. Ceylon Bridge in the dark, headlights , fog lights and intermittent flashlight to no avail. Back on SR 18 then to Matthews and the Cumberland bridge. Then depression set in. We were home at 1:30 AM Thursday morning for a nights sleep. 10 am Thursday at ATT to see what, and if and now what. A new iPhone is coming in a few months with newer, better and more features. so the Idea is to wait. The clerk suggests an upgrade which is in reality a downgrade and almost a torture device by comparison.
Any device designed and based on a illogical and counter intuitive Windows system is going to be difficult to use. Nothing is as easy and intuitive as the iPhone which since day one I never had to refer to a manual or even looked up anything on the computer with the iPhone. Like they say. It just works.
I spent the rest of Thursday cussing the damnable Blackberry Pearl II, and adding insulation to the garage doors. Gardening and Watching "The Good Shepherd."
cumberland_grass

The Cumberland Bridge re-revisited. Chuck Pace © 2008
Friday we went to Dick's Sporting Goods and bought a metal detector (if Travis was not on vacation too, I would have borrowed his. I have run afoul of my Luck-Dragon I guess) and went back to the 'out of car' sites again in daylight. Guess what? We found out that I still had the Phone on my hip when we left the Ceylon Bridge from photos Jenni downloaded after we got back from Fridays re-occuring day-mare.
At least I added more photos to my growing Cumberland Bridge library. More about Friday's trip in the next post; I am here for 4 1/2 hours doing this one with photos and research and I now have to go make 'eat on fire outside'. Ugg!
Chuck Pace (CDP) ©2008