We had a somewhat longer drive today of 250 miles. That is still within our comfort zone, but we did pull into a rest stop and have a bite of lunch. Our route from Columbus Woods-N-Waters Kampground took us north on I-65 to Indianapolis, Indiana. I-65 through Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky had been a fairly good road (except for the construction backup we encountered south of Louisville, Kentucky). I-65 through southern Indiana was not as good and the condition of the road suggested that we had finally returned to the land of four seasons where a bitter winter had taken its toll on the roads.
The path from Camp Turkeyville to Cornwell’s Turkeyville complex.
Bruce at the Turkeyville narrow gauge RR X-ing.
We picked up I-465 on the south side of Indy and took that around the city to the east and onto I-69 at the northeast corner. I-69 runs northeast from Indy past Ft. Wayne, and on into the center of Michigan. In all the years we have driven back and forth between Detroit, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri the southern terminus of I-69 has always been the northeast corner of Indianapolis. Not long after merging onto I-69 we noticed that the exit signs had small additional signs stating the “old” exit number. The new exit numbers were 200 miles higher! That seemed to indicate that I-69 now started somewhere 200 miles to the southwest. Linda did a quick Google search on her smartphone and found out that the southern terminus of I-69 is now Evansville, Indiana. We have never been on the new stretch of this Interstate. Until today we didn’t even know they were building it.
The Turkeyville narrow gauge RR. You can just see the two trestles from here.
Linda at the Turkeyville General Store (gift shop).
Our destination was Camp Turkeyville, a relatively new RV park at Cornwell’s Turkeyville complex near Marshall, Michigan. The RV park had good gravel interior roads and sites. We had one of the full hookup pull-through sites as we were only staying one evening, not unhooking the car, and needed to dump our waste tanks before leaving in the morning. The sites were generous in terms of size and spacing, with angled approaches which makes getting in and out easier, but they lacked trees and shade. Most of the sites did not appear to be level (ours wasn’t) but they were close enough that we were able to level our coach.
Turkeyville antique barn (rear, left) and signs for the various attractions.
After we got set up we went for a walk and checked the place out. Some of the sites have metered electric, so the RV park is clearly looking for some percentage of the sites to be seasonal or annual residents. Amenities included a pool with a community building that had restrooms, private shower rooms, and a meeting room with limited kitchen facilities. There was a small playground and a walking path to Turkeyville. Turkeyville has a narrow gauge railroad with two trestles, a few farm animals (goats, rabbits, ponies), and a couple of dozen turkeys walking around loose. There is an antiques barn, a restaurant, a dinner theater, and a “general store,” aka gift shop with a lot of interesting food items if you are not a vegan. Our FMCA GLCC chapter has held rallies here the last couple of years but so far we have not been able to attend. It looked like a good venue for a rally of 10 -15 rigs and 20 – 30 people. The RV park will easily accommodate more rigs than that, but the meeting room would be crowded beyond 30 people.
We settled in for the evening with an eye on the weather. The forecast called for rain and increasing winds from a storm system that was causing death and destruction across the Midwest and south. That always makes for a good night’s sleep in an RV. Fortunately we had a short drive the next day and did not have to leave early in the morning.