The Sights of Indiana

We didn’t want to get up and head home at the crack of dawn. If we did, we’d arrive home in the heat of the day. And even though it had cooled off a bit at home, it seemed the drive would be more pleasant if we stayed as far north as possible during the heat of the day and made our way south during the cool of the evening. 

So to kill time, we decided to go to Cataract Falls in Indiana. The largest waterfall in Indiana and just down the road from Cloverdale where we were staying. After all, we’d gone to Brandywine Falls in Ohio - this could be the "theme" of the road trip. (Chasing down the covered bridges of Putnam County seemed like it might consume more time than we wanted to expend. Although most counties aren’t all that big. - In retrospect, it may have been a better idea.) 

I'd noticed the sign when we’d got off I-70 the day before. The falls were the opposite direction from the campground. Plus the campground owner told us it was there - “It’s not Niagara or anything but it’s the biggest waterfall in Indiana.”

“By the way, what time are we supposed to check out?”

“Check out is 11 AM”

“Oh, well. It’s almost 11 now. We thought we’d go check out the falls, but it doesn’t look like we’ll have time.”

“Go ahead and go. As long as you’re out of the space by 1 PM.”

“Thanks!!”

We had some time but we didn’t have all day. We really did have to be out of there by 1 PM. The first thing I found is that the signage for Cataract Falls is seriously lacking. Our GPS couldn’t seem to locate it. We were looking under the “Attractions” category. It was probably somewhere else. Garmin has issues. 

I started Googling it on my phone. There it was. Everything you wanted to know about it except how to get there! Then I figured out that it was part of Lieber State Park. Garmin knows where that is. We drove up and saw that there was a $9.00 charge for out-of-state vehicles. We decided to make sure the falls were actually down that road before pulling out any cash. 

Turns out they weren’t. The booth attendant sent us back the way we came. (We’d gone about 30 minutes out of our way to get to the wrong place.) When we got to the right place, we were once again faced with a $9.00 charge. They didn’t take credit cards. (Seriously! Who doesn’t take credit cards??) and we only had six dollars cash on us because we’d spent four dollars buying air for our tires. (Now that's capitalism at it's finest - charging for air!)

Anyway, not wanting to lose a customer the state park ranger advised us that there was a general store down the road and we could get cash back with a credit card. (Ummm, that’s only if you use a debit card, which I don’t use since they switched over to Visa.) 

But the fact is we were going to run out of time. And I'd already run out of patience. How much did I pay to look at Brandywine Falls earlier in the week? Zero. How much did I pay to look at Blackwater Falls a few years ago? Zero again. How much did I pay to look at Niagara Falls? That’s right. Zero. Why would I pay to look at some falls I’d never even heard of until the day before? Like the guy said, “It’s not Niagara or anything.” 

I didn't see the biggest falls in Indiana. I took all the cash I had and spent it on sweet corn and fresh tomatoes. Because, unless you got your sweet corn in Ohio or Indiana, it’s probably better you feed it to the pigs.