Make a U-Turn, Proceed to Coxville Road…

Everybody’s definition of adventure can be different.  For me an adventure does not have to be a trip or activity that causes extreme adrenaline rushes or one’s heart to beat out of their chest.  An adventure to me, is any experience out of the norm.  These experiences can be pre-planned or just accidentally happen.  I find some of my greatest adventures growing up were the one’s where I gained more knowledge about history and was able to see or touch a piece of that history.  That is exactly an experience I had with Caroline on our way to Turkey Run State Park in Indiana for a few days of hiking.  

“Make a U-Turn, Proceed to Coxville Road…”

As we were planning our quick trip to Indiana for some hiking, Caroline mentioned that there were a few covered bridges along the way that maybe we should check out.  I immediately jumped at the chance.  I love history and I’ve always been intrigued by covered bridges.  So much so that when I was in college getting my history degree I actually wrote a paper about the history of the covered bridge and described the differences in how they were constructed for my American Landscapes class.  

“Make a U-Turn, Proceed to Coxville Road…”  

Who knew that I would be referencing that college paper in a blog some 12 years later!  And of even greater amazement, I actually found the original paper!!  My husband took all my college “stuff” and put it in a plastic tub and when I opened the tub, there it was sitting practically on top of the pile!!!  It’s pretty interesting if I do say so myself…though my professor gave me a B+ because I relied too heavily on one source.  But he did say that I conducted “excellent fieldwork!”  (Which I have to give most of the credit regarding the fieldwork to my mom who accompanied me on that trip.  Thanks Mom!!)  

“Make a U-Turn, Proceed to Coxville Road….”

  If you’d like to read my paper, I will have the link up here soon!

Okay back to the trip…Turkey Run State Park was not just near a “few covered bridges” but is found in Parke County Indiana, the “Covered Bridge Capital of the World!”  Parke County is the home to 31 covered bridges!  Thus it wasn’t hard to find a few covered bridges.  While Caroline drove, I actually found a map on google that had different “routes” that one could take to see the covered bridges.  We chose the “Red Route.”

Because of time constraints, we did not go to every bridge on the route, but we did stop at the Roseville Bridge, Thorpe Ford Bridge, and the Bridgeton Bridge; also, our hiking adventure took us to the Narrows Covered Bridge at the edge of Turkey Run. 

 “Make a U-Turn, Proceed to Coxville Road…”  

All four bridges were absolutely stunning, but what makes it more thrilling for me was that I actually got to see, touch, walk through, …. DRIVE through pieces of history!  The oldest bridge we saw, Narrows, was 135 years old!!  I mean have you ever really stopped and thought about it….”Wow!  I’m walking across a bridge that was built over 100 years ago!”  Just thinking about the history of many of these attractions often gives me goosebumps.

Even though there are still a remarkably large amount of these covered bridges left today, considering their ages, they are under constant threat.  Many of these bridges were burned down during the Civil War by opposing forces.  While today they are under threat by fires, floods, and vandalism.  It is very important  to come together and save these important artifacts and architectural wonders of our history.  They played an important role in the history of our transportation system and westward expansion.  So if you find a little extra time to get away and you’re in an area with some covered bridges, go check them out!  If I were going to pre-plan a trip, I would do it during “Bridgeton Milling Days” in September or the “Parke County Covered Bridge Festival” in October.

Sidenote

Probably the most entertaining/annoying part of our “Red Route” trip was that Caroline didn’t want to change the destination on her phone’s GPS from Turkey Run State Park because our service was not the best; and I was navigating us from a still shot of the Red Route from my iphone, so the risk of getting lost was pretty great.  Thus, Caroline’s phone kept rerouting and telling us to “make a u-turn, proceed to Coxville road” over and over.  So if you were wondering why I kept repeating that phrase throughout the post, now you know.  Pretty annoying isn’t it!  LOL

What about you?

What covered bridges have you visited?

And you don’t have to venture far from home to visit a covered bridge. Watch for a quick covered bridge adventure that is close to home.

If you would like more information about the covered bridges in Parke County, including the ones I mentioned above, click here.

The map used on this trip that highlighted the different “routes” in Parke County can be found here.