2020 Family Gathering, Turkey Run State Park, IN, July 2020

The family gathering was held at Turkey Run State Park this year, in spite of COVID-19. The epidemic did manage to impact the gathering, though, making it the smallest reunion we've had yet. The Moyar clan elected to sit this one out due to concerns about having been exposed from recent visitors and unwilling to risk exposing the rest of us. The younger generation all had two week isolation orders placed on them by their employers were they to attend. Betty decided at the last moment she wasn't comfortable taking the additional exposure risk associated with travel, so she dropped out. Nevertheless, the gathering went on. Kathy and I arrived a day early, Mom and Dad, traveling with Craig and Lora, had taken a leisurely trip, camping along the way. Dan and Dee drove down from Wisconsin, and Adam joined us for a couple days at the end.

While most of Indiana is flat and relatively unexciting, the area around Turkey Run State Park is very interesting. With cliffs, gorges and a beautiful river sporting several covered bridges, there is much for the hiker or canoeist to explore. We drove back roads through Indiana on our trip down, making it more interesting (except for getting stuck in a construction detour around Crawfordsville. Our site (#220) was nicely shaded and relatively close to a water supply and the bath house. I recommend avoiding the Twin Oaks loops due to zero shade and overcrowded sites.

After getting settled in our site, Kathy and I took an evening walk through the campground and then did hike #7, easily reached from the north end of the Twin Oaks loop. In spite of the full campground, the trail was empty, and we enjoyed the short walk down to the base of the cliffs along one branch of Turkey Run hollow.

The following day, we expanded our hike to include both #6 and #7, exploring all of Turkey Run Hollow and getting our first overview of Sugar Creek. The river was full of canoes, kayaks and tubes, convincing us to avoid weekends on the river. The rest of the family (except Adam) arrived that afternoon, and we greeted one another with "virtual" hugs. Kathy and I made chicken burritos and margaritas for dinner. Dan had brought along his new Blackstone gas griddle, which made cooking for a group very efficient.

Sunday was the hottest and muggiest of the days. We hiked #6 and #7 to share the views with the rest of the family, then attempted to take #1 to #2. Unfortunately I made a minor map reading error and we ended up in a parking lot instead of on #2 -- oops! We worked our way back to camp to relax, while Craig, Lora and Dee went off in search of a water hole for swimming. That evening, Craig and Lora hosted dinner with Italian chicken and vegetables.

The following day, we again tried #1 to #2, this time being successful. We discovered a nice little waterfall on #2 that allowed us to cool down from the oppressive weather. We regrouped with Mom and Dad, who had explored the Inn and historic chapel, and drove to Up The Creek Boat-ique, a cute caribbean-themed restaurant and store for ice cream. Storms arrived that afternoon, and we were glad we had set up tents over the picnic tables the previous evening. Mom and Dad seved BBQ pork, corn on the cob and coleslaw for dinner.

On Tuesday, Connie, Mike and Dianna, Kathy's friends that had gotten to know Mom and Dad from visits to the Smoky Mountains, joined us for the day. We explored trail #3, which is by far the most popular trail in the park. The trail follows cliffs, riverbeds and waterfalls, with climbs on vertical wooden ladders and is beautiful. Our new-found hiking partners stayed for lunch then headed out. Craig and Lora took Mom, Dad and Dee hunting for covered bridges. Dan and I took naps in our hammocks while Kathy got some reading done.

The women decided to try their hand at making peach cobbler in our cast iron skillet on Dan's griddle. Unfortunately, the direct heat proved to be too much, and the bottom and sides of the cobbler burned pretty badly. The center part tasted good, but the pan was a disaster. Kathy's typical scrubbing technique using coarse salt proved useless against the carmalized debris. We wrapped it up to take home for later cleaning (see below for that adventure).

Wednesday was canoe day. Sugar Valley Canoes was just outside the park, so minimal driving was required. We took the 12-mile trip (3-5 hours), which starts above Shades State Park and ends just before Turkey Run State Park. It was a great trip! We spotted a few Great Blue Herons, a Bald Eagle and a couple snapping turtles. We enjoyed several rest stops, wading and soaking in the river.

After an early dinner of burgers by Dan and Dee, we hiked trail #5.

It rained most of the following day. Craig, Lora, Dan, Dee and I were undeterred and decided to hike Shades State Park. Kathy took Mom into town for some shop exploration. We had the park trails to ourselves and enjoyed looping through the ravines and up the ladders on trails #4, #5 and #7, then on to view the Devil's Punch Bowl. Back at camp, we picked up Dad and headed back to Up The Creek for lunch.

The rains finally subsided by dinner time. Adam came in later that evening, so we visited briefly then headed to bed.

Friday we finished off the trails at Turkey Run (#3, #10, #4) and ran into a gentleman who recommended we look at Pine Hills Nature Preserve for additional hikes. So, after lunch, Dan, Dee, Adam, Craig, Lora and I headed to Shades State Park to pick up the trail to the Preserve. It was another interesting place to explore. Dan and Craig were a little apprehensive about Devil's Backbone, which was only 6-feet wide and 100-feet high at one point, but we all made it. It was getting late when we finished, so we ordered pizza to go from Up The Creek and enjoyed ice cream while waiting for it to be prepared.

We departed for home on Saturday. Mom and Dad followed us, with plans to visit Aunt Micki in Grand Blanc the following day. We retraced our back roads route through Indiana then hit the highways to home. Betty joined us for dinner, allowing her to socialize a bit, something she hasn't been able to do for several months with this crazy epidemic.

Link to Craig's Blog

 

Cleaning the Cast Iron

After unloading the trailer, we had to deal with the burned on debris in our skillet. Kathy attacked it with a special scrubber that resembles a rubber sponge covered in a coat of armor, but it was resistent. We tried salt plus the scrubber, but still no luck. Finally, based on some Internet suggestions, we decided to put it through the self cleaning cycle in the oven. Well, we have had previous issues with that oven. Once, during a power surge, it decided to lock the door and go into a cleaning cycle on its own. Trying to cancel it didn't work, so Kathy had cut the power to it. When the power was restored, the cycle just continued, so she finally had a service man come out and stop it. Since that time, it decided to try to engage the lock on its own again, so I bent the lock down, preventing it from locking. Well, that also seems to have prevented the cycle from running, because when we tried to engage it, it ground away for a while, then flashed an F9 warning. When we tried canceling it, it just started again! So, I threw the breaker to cut the power for a while. When we restarted it, it just ground away for a while, then flashed the warning again. I bent the latch back to its original position, allowing it to move, but the error message persisted. Finally, I accidently leaned agains the door, heard a click, and the grinding sound stopped. Now, the cancel button worked and stopped the error message. Plan B...

Not to be deterred, I decided to replicate the self cleaning cycle in my propane grill. I fired up all three burners on high and set the pan inside. The thermometer pegged out above its ability to measure and a small amount of blue smoke was coming out from the grill, so I assumed something was happening. When I glanced outside a little later, I saw a large volume of smoke billowing from the grill! Dashing outside, I realized there was a pretty good bonfire going on in the bottom of the grill, so I shut off the gas, moved the grill a bit farther from the garage and let it burn itself out. When all was quiet, I restarted the grill, this time with the three burners set just a bit higher than medium. The thermometer again confirmed a nice high temperature, so I finished working on the trailer and let it bake. After shutting down the grill and allowing it to cool, I took a look. The pan was clean! All that remained was some fine black ash. We brushed out the ash, cleaned the pan in soap and water, dried it in the oven (which thankfully worked again), then went about re-seasoning it. My grill was the cleanest I had seen it in a long time, too! That meant I needed to re-season the iron grates in that as well. After about a six hour process, the pan and grill are good as new!