We had a pretty good nights' sleep at the RV park, as our parking spot was under trees, helping to keep our RV cool in addition to being able to run the fan overnight. While the park is old (we found out that the campground had been around for well over a century, although there were more cabins back then!), it was clean, and Sheila had lots of grassy spots to sniff and wander around for her morning walk.
The RV park used to be part of the House of David (also called the Israelite House of David), a religious group (some would say cult) founded in Benton Harbor in 1903 by spouses Benjamin and Mary Purnell. The community flourished in the 1910s, but declined and split in various factions in the 1920s, after Benjamin was accused of sexual immorality. Because members (called Israelites) were expected to give up everything they owned when they joined the House of David, they owned a ton of land and assets.
We drove to where most of the remains of the House of David are today, seeing a century-old massive white mansion, the remains of a now boarded up restaurant, and a baseball field. Interestingly, the House of David had a baseball team that toured rural America from the 1920s through the 1950s, playing amateur and semi-pro teams. They also had a basketball team, and a musical band.
Beyond the House of David, there wasn't much to see in the town of Benton Harbor. In fact, it looked really run down in areas (as we'd noticed from our laundromat experience yesterday), so it's not a place to spend time in if you're not local.
Entering Indiana, and Kokomo
And just like that... we crossed the border to Indiana, state #27! We noticed that there was a Trader Joe's in the town of South Bend, and near there is the University of Notre Dame, a private Catholic university, which we drove through and saw the Golden Dome (although unfortunately couldn't stop to go into, as there's a lot of construction and it was tough to navigate and impossible to find parking).
After a grocery shopping stop and fairly decent drive through--what else--load of corn fields, we made it to the town of Kokomo, which sounds nothing like the place described in the famous Beach Boys song (apparently it's off the Florida Keys and is a idyllic, tropical, beautiful place by the beach--we're nowhere near this in Indiana)! Instead of sand, beach umbrellas and cocktails, we were here to visit Kokomo Opalescent Glass (KOG), which we learned Frank Lloyd Wright used in his architectural designs, including at the Dana-Thomas House that we'd been to in Springfield, Illinois. When we were on the tour of this house the docent had mentioned to visit KOG, so of course, here we were!
Founded in 1888, KOG is the oldest producer of hand cast, cathedral and opalescent glass in the country, and is known for its hand mixed sheet glass. We arrived with about 30 minutes left until closing time, so we saw a bit of the factory, and walked into the main office where we could see the variety of colored glass that they produced, which is used in everything from windows, lamps, decorative mirrors, and trinkets. We immediately were able to connect what we saw to the glass features we saw in the Dana-Thomas house, such as the windows and lamps. KOG offers tours ($6 per person), which we would have done had it not started at 11am the following day--we didn't really have much to do in town beforehand to be hanging out that long! But it would have been cool to see the workshop and how the glass is made, and learn more about the different glass pieces that are designed.
Heading Towards Indiana
Rather than hanging around Kokomo, we continued our way towards Indianapolis, as it was still a decent drive south and we'd be closer to exploring the capital of Indiana tomorrow. Our random stops included heading to the town of Carmel, where we passed a large structure of Googly Eyes on a hill as we went onto a roundabout (traffic circle), apparently created some years ago by a local resident as a way to make people smile.
Michael was craving frozen custard, so we drove into the town of Carmel after finding a highly rated store, Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard. Unfortunately, unbeknown to us, the streets were incredibly narrow and busy, with virtually nowhere to park on the crowded streets which were filled with people heading to the shops, cafes and restaurants lining both sides of the road. Lisette had to practically tuck and roll out of the RV while Michael drove around the block, and Lisette just ordered something for Michael, hoping he'd be okay with what she chose. It turned out to be a rather expensive order, a mix of chocolate/vanilla flavored frozen custard, with cheesecake and almond toffee crunch on top. Perhaps she ordered the wrong thing, because it was sadly the worst frozen custard we'd tried, overly sweet and not particularly flavorful. We learned that it's a chain from Pennsylvania. Maybe we should stick to Midwest frozen custard options, because we've liked Culver's and loved Ted Drewes in St. Louis (the latter is still at the top of our list).
It was getting late in the day, so after our long drives today, our last stop was The Pyramids, three 11-story, pyramid shaped office buildings and overlooking a lake. Despite being part of a 200-acre commercial development, the structures stand out, and currently seem to be mostly unoccupied, as noted by the "Available For Lease" sign at the front.
A short drive away, we arrived at the Travel Center where we'd be resting for the night. Tomorrow, we'll be exploring Indianapolis!
Route Map
