Tag Archives: Woods-n-Waters Kampground

2014/04/27 (N) Camp Turkeyville (MI)

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.

The path from Camp Turkeyville to Cornwell’s Turkeyville complex.

Bruce at the Turkeyville narrow gauge RR X-ing.

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.

The Turkeyville narrow gauge RR. You can just see the two trestles from here.

The Turkeyville General Store (gift shop).

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.

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.

 

2014/04/26 (S) Columbus (IN)

We planned to leave Cave Country RV Campground at 8:30 AM this morning and ended up pulling out around 9 AM.  We only had 156 miles to travel but would cross into the Eastern Time Zone “adding” an hour to our arrival time.  Construction on northbound I-65 between Elizabethtown and Louisville had the highway down to one lane and traffic was stop and go, but mostly stop.  It took us 45 minutes to travel four miles and complete the merge.  A restroom break at a Pilot Truck Stop added another 15 minutes turning a three hour trip into a four hour one.  We pulled into Columbus Woods-N-Waters Kampgound around 2 PM EDT.  We set up quickly, and a PB&J sandwich and some water, and headed for Columbus, Indiana.

Major traffic jam on NB I-65 between Elizbethtown and Louisville, KY.

First Christian Church, Columbus,IN.  Eliel Saarinen (1942).

First Christian Church, Columbus,IN. Eliel Saarinen (1942).

RVers and pickup truck owners may be aware of the existence of Columbus, Indiana as the home of Cummins, Inc.  The corporate headquarters are here along with the Plant One production facility.  The Midrange Plant is five miles south of town in Walesboro, not far from Columbus Woods-N-Waters Kampground.  We planned a one night stop here because it got us 156 miles farther north on I-65 and because Columbus is a town I have wanted to visit for a long time.  Not because of Cummins, although we would have enjoyed a factory tour, but because the town of only 44,000 is famous for its modern architect-designed buildings.  It started with a church designed by Eliel Saarinen in 1942 and now includes churches, businesses, schools, government buildings, and public art.

Sculpture by Heny Moore in front of the Columbus, IN library.

Sculpture by Heny Moore in front of the Columbus, IN library.

St. Peters Lutheran Church,  Columbus, IN.

St. Peters Lutheran Church, Columbus, IN.

We put the address of the visitor center in our GPS and made that our first stop.  We purchased a map for $3 that marked the location of 78 things to see.  The map included a picture of each object along with the name, architect/artist, year, and address.  About half of these were in the walkable downtown area and the other half were spread out through the rest of the city.  We walked the downtown area first and then drove past a few other sights before heading back to camp.

 

 

St. Peters Lutheran Church, Columbus, IN.

St. Peters Lutheran Church, Columbus, IN.

Among the architects who have designed buildings in Columbus the best known are Eliel and Eero Saarinen and I. M. Pei.  Among the public art the best known artists are sculptors Dale Chihuly and Henry Moore.  The Cummins, Inc. corporate headquarters building occupies a whole city block and we took our time walking around it and photographing it.  As it turns out, Cummins was a major factor in how Columbus came to be a center of modern architecture.  Starting in the 1950’s, the Cummins Engine Foundation made funds available to cover the architect’s fees for any school building project in which the architect was selected from a list drawn up by the Foundation.  The community responded and the Foundation expanded the program to include other public buildings.  Other companies and congregations decided to pursue world-class architects and “modern” Columbus emerged.  This place looks and feels different, embracing “the concept that the built environment is crucial to a quality community.”

Linda at the Cummins, Inc. World Headquarters complex.

Linda at the Cummins, Inc. World Headquarters complex.

We have tried these last four months to not race from one thing to another.  If we decided to visit a place, we tried to allocate enough time to experience it.  Not completely, of course, as I am not sure that’s ever possible, but at least sufficiently that we felt it was worth the trip.  We have not always been successful, but on balance have done well with this approach.  Columbus, however, is a place where we could have used more time and more energy.  We also found most of downtown closed on a Saturday afternoon.  The next time we pass this way we will try to plan 3 – 5 nights, not all on a weekend, but not this time.  We have our sights set on home.

 

 

Entrance to Children's Hands-On Museum, Columbus, IN.

Entrance to Children’s Hands-On Museum, Columbus, IN.

Columbus Woods-N-Waters Kampground is a Good Sam park, but not the sort of place we normally stay.  It is carved out of a stand of tall 6″ to 15″ diameter trees with gravel roads that meander through the forest and gravel sites that split off this way and that.  The arrangement appears almost random, but I suspect it was dictated by trying to save as many trees as possible.  Most of the rigs here are pull-behinds with an equal mix of trailers and 5th wheels, a truck camper with a tent, and six motorhomes, including ours.  Every rig is in a site, but it looks like people parked wherever they wanted.

There are large groupings of people here involving multiple RVs.  The group across from us must have 40 people, including lots of kids.  They had a NASCAR race on.  Around 9:15 PM someone shot off fireworks.  Yup, fireworks.  Not really our kind of place, but we are only here for one night and it was convenient to the highway with reasonably good site access and 50A power.  And we picked 27 OTA TV stations from the general direction of Indianapolis.  Only 10 of them were useable, but they included PBS and Create, so we were happy.