Day 23 - Santa Claus, Indiana

Earthship Le Van Gogh Diary

Day 23 - Santa Claus, Indiana

No kidding. That’s where I am tonight. I remember seeing this town a couple of times when Jim and I drove this route to go somewhere - probably not back to Owensboro, Kentucky since from Louisville there was a shorter route, kind of, that could get us there quicker. I’m not really sure why we took this route, but whatever the reason, I remember the town of Santa Claus.

The campground I’m in (Lake Rudolph, lord help me) is related to the whole Christmas theme and there are all kinds of cutsie roads in this area named “Santa Lane,” and “Comet Boulevard,” and “Donder Driver.” Just how precious can we get here? Anyway, it’s definitely in the off season because the associated Holiday World is closed. And this fun city of roller-coasters and other assorted rides was always open and doing a booming business whenever we drove by it in the past. Now, however, the entire thing has been shut down for the winter, which is ironic considering we're talking about Santa Claus and all.

At any rate, the campground reflects the off-season mentality because although there were over 200 sites for me to be stuck in, I was given a very nice place near the restrooms (which meant showers, as far as I was concerned) and the laundry facilities, because I asked for them. Otherwise, my little bitty van would have been exiled to outer Mongolia where there were no signs of life anywhere. Still, though I greatly appreciated the close proximity to the showers and laundry facilities, the campground store was closed and I barely had enough change to do two loads of laundry. And when I got back from my shower and laundry visit, I discovered that the air conditioning unit was leaking onto my couch/bed so I had to strip the linens and blankets and hope that I could find some place where I could get more quarters. Alas, this was not to be. The campground store was completely closed and there were no change machines in the laundry facilities. And I had no neighbors, so there was no one in this HUGE campground to whom I could appeal for more quarters. Heavy sigh. Hence, the towels/rags/socks load, which required the hottest setting, had its time cut in half so I could dump in the sheets and blankets in hopes that they might dry a little bit.

Wellllll… They didn’t dry much at all, frankly, so I’m left with using only a sheet tonight on a couch with no memory foam cushion underneath because everything else is still quite damp. Yuck. And because it has been sprinkling all day off and on, the humidity is way up there. Even after I showered I felt as slimy as I did before. The air conditioner has been set to just ‘fan’ so it won't leak some more on my bed and I have a separate battery-operated fan blowing right on my face. I might go through the batteries for this fan all in one night’s usage. Oh, well. I have more.

Tomorrow I’m headed for a KOA just outside of Louisville where I know I can get quarters and properly wash and dry my linens and even if I haven’t gone the requisite 100 miles to get there, I don’t care. I need to get the moisture out of the van before it turns into one giant mold-bearing vehicle. Bleh.

From Louisville I’ll continue east on I-64 toward Lexington and from there down south on I-75 to Cleveland, Tennessee. From there I’ll just be a hop and a skip from Blairsville, but it’s over windey roads and “scenic” drives that generally translates into “longer.” Still, this drive I’m very familiar with as Jim and I have driven it a number of times in the past to reach Sharon’s at earlier gatherings. And then I’ll be there! Yaaaayyy!!!!

Lessons Learned:

That neither I nor the kitties nor the van like really humid weather.

That I’ve known this about myself, at any rate, since I was stationed in Puerto Rico where I felt like I was living in Jello.

That no matter how many times I bathe or how many fans I have blowing on me, in humid weather I still feel slimy.

Ew.

That on the good side, my cuticles have ceased drying up and splitting.

That I have to drink HUGE amounts of water to keep up with the loss through, um, ‘deweyness’ (that’s plain ol’ sweating for those still lost in the good old days).

Yuck.

Observations:

That in Santa Claus, Indiana, there are the following businesses to browse, and some are even open all year long: “The Silent Night Café,” the “Blitzen Kitchen,” the “Holly Tree Christmas and Seasonal Shop,” the “St. Nick’s Restaurant,” the “Frosty’s Fun Center,” the “Santa’s Candy Castle,” and the “Santa Claus Museum.” There’s also an Abbey Press Gift Shop, which is a Catholic gift shop, for those not in the know. Excuse me - this last is in St. Meinrad, Indiana. Wonder where that is?

I was in a line following trucks with lights and flags signaling a ‘wide load’ ahead. I’m not really sure what the ‘wide load’ was, actually. From afar it looked like the biggest bed I’ve ever seen viewed from the broadside. After passing it, which took over half an hour of one car after another braving the left side of the road and even the shoulder to get by, I still couldn't figure out what it was. Except that it was really big and really wide. Interesting.

While driving along on I-64, I saw on the other side of the road going west four huge trucks pulling what looked like the biggest washing machine chuggers of all time. I mean that these were spiral in nature and resembled the central section of a top-loading washer that would swish and churn your clothes to cleanliness. Only these looked like they were four stories high in length. What on earth...?

More loveliness on all sides. The corn fields were laced with a blending of gold, brown, dusky green and orange where they had ripened unevenly. And the soybeans continued their swaths of green in the midst of brown and gold. Such beauty!

And the wildflowers continued with the Goldenrod, the Queen Anne’s Lace, an unknown purple flower and a lovely yellow daisy. Thank the gods that I have not been cursed with allergies, because this land at this time of year would be a disaster. Instead it is a scene of beauty for me and I greatly appreciate it!