William left us before he could finish his gig as Guest Writer. So back to me to chronicle Parts IV and V of Gramp Camp 2024.
The penultimate 4 days of GrampCamp 2024 were fun in the sun and in the rainy leftovers of Hurricane Beryl at Indiana Dunes National Park, along the Indiana Shore line at the southern terminus of Lake Michigan.
Indiana Dunes, an unusual park, has tried to reclaim some of the incredible shoreline of Lake Michigan from its recent industrial history. The park's a bit chopped up and requires a bit of driving from place to place, but it works. This pic is of the Mt. Baldy Dune standing between a place to park BB and the lake. I definitely whined my way along the maybe 3/4 mile, very sandy and steep path that traverses that dune. Bill and William loved it. They were smart enough not to have worn flip flops....
Good Swimming in Lake Michigan and lots of sand play on the various beaches:
Mt. Baldy Beach
West Beach with waves and Beverly Shores Beach with rocks.
And by all accounts cold water.
And by all accounts cold water.
Beverly Shores is a small town completely surrounded by the park. And its pretty nifty. A few of The Century of Progress Architectural Homes, built in 1933 for the Chicago World's Fair, have been moved there. One is a round glass house, one is all metal, one is pink flamingo stucco (both inside and out) and all are private residences, open only once a year for tours. Gotta' love the Florida Pink Flamingo House. William didn't even glance at them on his way to the beach just beyond.
Because William enjoys it, I am plugging the National Park Services' Junior Ranger Program. It's an age appropriate activity for kids to learn about the park. Here's William with badges from Mount Rushmore, Hot Springs, and now Indiana Dunes.
The Junior Ranger program required William (and thus us) to complete a hike called the Dunes Succession Hike in which the development of the dunes and their transition to 'land' is seen. That's just what they tell the kids, though; The real name is the Diana of the Dunes Dare hike. Diana (not her real name) really has quite a story, so I'm linking the Wikipedia article that combines her story with the early story of the area's development. The hike is a dare because it involved traversing Diana's dune, mostly on a boardwalk consisting of 405 wooden steps that go up and down that thing to reach Lake Michigan. I wore shoes this time!
The pic at the top of this page is taken at the end of the hike. Below are pics, of various stages along the way. William was a mountain goat, hopping up and down the steps. Bill was right behind him, and I was pulling up the rear, hiking pole in hand!
Beginning of the hike
A couple of 'hippie' (William's word not ours -- he gets it from his dad) restaurants, a museum, a train derailer, and Octave Chanute were compensatory activities for the rain. Wait -- Octave Who?
Octave Chanute (1832-1910) studied early aviation in Miller, Indiana, a city just east of Gary that touts him as the Grandfather of Flight. William hopes to be a pilot, so a little aviation history is worthwhile. Chanute never put an engine in one of his gliders, but evidently the Wright Brothers, who did, consulted with him. Thus we took his picture:
After breakfast in our first hippie restaurant of the day, Dune Billies Beach Cafe in Michigan City, we sat in BB in a parking lot overlooking some train tracks awaiting the opening of a Comic Book Exhibition at a local art museum.
Best drama of the day played out in the railroad parking lot:
Hear the whistle blowing, see a commuter passenger train -- lots of heads in the windows -- barreling along on the main line heading west towards Chicago. It's reasonable to assume another would soon approach. We waited for it.
But, Oh No -- look the other way! Here comes an east bound freight on a siding from a power plant, speedily approaching the main line. If it continues it will be on the same tracks as our expected next west bound train and they WILL collide. Nail biting moment. Is this something we want our 10 year old grandson to witness? What should we do?
Do the railroad folks know about this???, Whew. seems they do, and the solution is right in front of us! A bright yellow device on the tracks will derail the train on purpose (on purpose!) so there will be no collision. Now that's a heck of a way to prevent it! We didn't want to witness a head on collision but we surely don't want a train to fall on us either.
A sign (red arrow) warns the engineer that if he passes over the yellow device (yellow arrow), his train will derail before it gets to the main track. He probably didn't think that was a good idea so he stopped his train just in the nick of time with only a couple of feet left before rolling over the evil yellow derailer. Two folks hop out of the engine, and using something that looks like a really long crow bar, remove that yellow bad boy from the track. The train moves slowly on and then through the switch onto the main line tracks. It remains upright the whole way! Then it stops again and the same two fellows put the derailler back. Our train drama ends quietly. We guess that train folks do know what they are doing. AND we have learned about automatic derailers!
So somewhat let down, off we went to see a really good Comic Display in Michigan City, Indiana, while waiting for the rain to stop. Which it did. That's when we ate lunch at the second 'hippie' restaurant of the day, called Vibrations in Miller, IN. We wrapped up the day with the Diana of the Dunes Dare. Day well spent!
Retirement Lesson Learned: Rainy Days are adventurous.
And don't walk on sand in flip flops.
Woyaya!
THOSE PICS OF SIR WILLINGTON THE 3RD ARE SUPER SLAY GIRLYPOP!!!
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