I dunno, maybe everybody around these parts knows all about the place. Then again, I’ve lived in this sprawling megalopolis for going on seven years now and I swear I’ve never heard anybody make the slightest reference to Spring Mill State Park.
The Loved One and I went on a day date there yesterday. We had a ball.
First off, I’m a space geek so Mitchell, Indiana — the town nearest the state park and the boyhood home of original Mercury Seven astronaut Gus Grissom — is like a mecca for me. The house where Grissom was raised still stands on Grissom Street (formerly, Baker Street). And there’s a neat little Gus Grissom museum at the entrance of the state park.
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TLO was particularly interested in seeing the Spring Mill Inn, a Civilian Conservation Corps project with quaint rooms and a countrified buffet restaurant that I’m eager to try out soon.
I whipped out my still-new smart phone (yeah, I finally surrendered and tossed my old flip phone — don’t get the idea that you can text me, though, because I’ll just ignore it) and started clicking pix like…, well, like a tourist. Here are some of the images:
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Mitchell and Spring Mill State Park are only a tad more than 30 miles south of Bloomington, a 45-minute drive down SR 37. Guaranteed, we’re going back as soon as we can.
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Big Listen (And Big Read)
Just finishing uploading all the original, full-length, unedited (pretty much) audio tracks of the interviews I’ve done thus far on Big Talk.
Big Talk — Here, There, And Everywhere
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You’ve no doubt caught Big Talk, a regular Thursday feature on WFHB’s Daily Local News as well as its companion print and other online incarnations. The DLN features are only nine minutes long, as a rule, but I do an hour to an hour-and-a-half of recording with each of my guests. Several of them have asked me to put the entire interview up, so, that’s what I’ve done, wahoo!
Go to my Big Talk page on this site for links to the WFHB features and the print interviews. You’ll also find the full audio tracks of the original interviews, so listen up, people!
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Today’s Birthdays
Man (and Woman), I’m itching to get back to putting up my birthday notices for notable people, living and dead. I love doing that kind of stuff and it serves as a simple — often simplistic, I must admit — lesson in our species’ glorious (and not-so-) history.
Problem is, I’m way too busy these days to spare the hour or two it often takes each day. I may get back to it — or I may not. Here’s hoping. Of course, if I could figure out a way to squeeze money out of all you freeloading Pencillistas, it’d be that much easier for me.
We’ll see what happens.
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