We put on a lot of miles getting to Hamvention and back. Over 1,500 to be exact. While that’s certainly not the longest distance anyone has traveled to the world’s largest ham radio gathering, it does offer plenty of road tripping opportunities.
This week’s video: Our Ham Radio Hamvention road trip adventure! explores some of the sites along the way and puts some parks on the air https://youtu.be/SBXC_PyZB0o
The road trip
I could make the drive from Northcentral Wisconsin to Xenia in one day. Working for a former employer, I’ve driven to Columbus, OH many times. But it is a soulless slog down the interstate, winding through the traffic of Chicago and Indianapolis. Not something I like to do pulling a trailer. So we like to break the trip up into two days and favor two lane roads when possible. Not only is this more relaxing, we get to see a lot of the country you miss when on the interstate.
Our first leg of the trip is uneventful, four lanes on I-39 through Wisconsin, and into Illinois. We cut across east on I-80 until Morris, IL and then two lanes into Kankakee River State Park near Bourbonnais. This is our first night’s stop. The Kankakee River runs from South Bend Indiana through Northwest Indiana and Northeast illinois until it meets the Illinois River. Much of the river has been channelized in Indiana, but flow free along it’s original route through Illinois. At the park the river is fast moving and majestic and the long narrow state park by its name offers plenty of recreational opportunities.
We didn’t get much time to explore the park, pulling in at about 4pm and leaving the next morning. There are two campgrounds, one with electrical hookups and a primitive campground without. We stayed at the Potawatomie campground, although we didn’t need the electricity, it was the one with modern shower house. Sites are all level, mostly shaded, and of good size.
Leaving the next morning, we head east into Indiana. Mostly two lane roads as we wind through the backcountry of Illinois. Once we cross the border, our route veers southeast through the state of Indiana. Our goal is to hit Kokomo for lunch.
Kokomo may seem like a weird spot to pit stop, but there is a regional travel show called John McGivern’s Main Streets that explored the city and they featured a lunch spot, Artie’s Tenderloin, that we had to try. Famous for its pork tenderloin sandwiches, they did not disappoint. Christine had the classic tenderloin sandwich while I ordered the Manhattan sandwich. Similar to a open faced roast beef with potatoes and gravy, Artie’s substitutes the beef with fried tenderloin. Delicious! These hole in the wall places always have the best food.
Moving on, (we had hoped to spend more time in the city, but also had a schedule to keep), we continued, predominately on US-35 through Muncie, crossing into Ohio and catching Hwy 49 that took us into Dayton. From there we work our way around the city until we get to Caesar Creek State Park, about 20 miles south of Xenia. This will be out home for the next four nights.
Returning home, the trip home followed a similar path. Hwy 49 to Greenville, US-35 to Muncie, and then Hwy 28 straight across Indiana, with a short stint on I-65, until we got to West Lafayette and Prophetstown State Park.
Prophetstown, Indiana’s newest state park, is located where the Tippecanoe river meets the Wabash river, and historically is a long time native settlement. The park gets its name from Shawnee Chief Tecumsah’s brother Tenskwatawa, also known as the Prophet. Tenskwatawa was a Shawnee religous leader and diplomat, and was instrumental in the forming of an alliance of native cultures to resist westward US expansion. The establishment of Prophetstown, near where the park is, was a gathering place and center of the resistance alliance.
I think the coolest part of Prophetstown State Park is the Farm at Prophetstown. Inside the park is an 152 acre recreation of a 1920’s Indiana Farmstead. On the property are two Sears prefabricated houses, sheds, coops, and a beautiful red barn.
It’s fun to explore the farm and houses, and you really get a feeling of what early 20th century farming was like. The 1920’s is a turning point in American agriculture as we are on the cusp of gasoline mechanized farming and rural electrification, so you see this interesting mix of both the old and the new. Touring the Farm is free, other than vehicle admission into the park.
At the park I was visited by with Dwight, N9DEK. We met up at Hamvention and he wondered if I was activating any parks in Indiana. I told him of our overnight plans, and since the park was about an hours drive away, invited him to stop by. Band conditions weren’t the best, but we managed to get a few contacts on 20 and 40 meters in the log that afternoon.
Our last night on the road featured a steak dinner. We had nothing in particular planned for dinner, hoping to find inspiration on the road. I figured we would run into a small town grocery and find something interesting to put together. We found the Harvest Supermarket in Elwood, Indiana. It wasn’t fancy, but had an excellent meat counter. Sirloin was on sale, so we picked up a steak, some asparagus, and a couple of odds and ends for dinner. The steak received a simple salt and pepper rub and pan fried, aspargus was sauteed and seasoned with butter and soy sauce, and we had a few little potatoes left over from a previous night that were foil pack baked in the fire. What a great way to cap off our adventure.
Our last day was a big 7 hour push home. From Lafayette we grabbed US-52, which took us to US-24 westward were we connected to I-39. From that point it is straight north until home.
Finishing up
This road trip video is the last of three that I have planned from our Hamvention trip. If you missed the other two, I encourage you to check out: Wandering Hamvention, which highlights the hamfest itself, and My Hamvention Haul, where I recap what I found at the event.
Looking forward, I’m excited to announce that I will be on the air Saturday June 7 at part of Museum Ships on the Air. Listen for me at 1600 UTC from the USS Cobia, a Peto class submarine berthed at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, WI. More on that next week.
I hope to catch you on the air
Michael
KB9VBR
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