by Judi Loomis
Country Roads of Indiana by Sally McKinney 120 Pages, $12.95
If you're looking for a guide to exciting Indiana nightlife, or you're searching for the best casinos and concert theatres, you won't find it in Country Roads of Indiana. What you will find is a great guide to exploring the heartland of our Hoosier State from a rural point of view.
Award-winning, travel writer, Sally McKinney has spent a considerable amount of time traveling the highways from Michigan City to Evansville, and Richmond to Terre Haute, and all the back roads and rivers in between. McKinney apparently kept a journal because she describes in depth specific roads and canals, streets, rustic inns, and historical buildings and parks. She does an excellent job of penning how to get from one place to the other using the most direct route, even though some of the spots she describes can only be arrived at by horse and buggy.
In some case you will get the impression that directions include: turn at the second sign post; go left to the first white farm house on the right; and take a sharp turn into the blacksmiths driveway. That may be a stretch in truth, but here's one example of McKinney's unique way of explaining how to travel from Monon to Fort Ouiatenon without missing the beat of great buffalo herds (in spirit only):
"Head out U.S. 24 west past the Tree House Restaurant, turn north on Sixth Street, and follow the signs to Indiana Beach, about five miles. After the honky-tonk, cotton-candy fun at Indiana Beach, return to Monticello and drive south along the east side of Lake Freeman on U.S. 421/SR 39 for about eight miles. At the sign for Hodges Float Trips, turn right on CR 600 north and take time for one of the river excursions. Paddle downstream and the river resembles a tunnel, with overarching branches. Return to U.S. 421 and drive south to SR18."
Most of the destinations described in Country Roads of Indiana are considered mini-vacations - within a day's travel. Generally, you can get to where you want to go by car; in other cases you may consider boat. For example, from one country road, you can hire a canoe and paddle along scenic Sugar Creek, the same way the Indians once did. From the water's shore you can indulge yourself in the sights of cliffs, which literally create walls around you on either side. Yet, another country road will take you to Abraham Lincoln's boyhood haunts beside furrowed fields of corn.
In addition, McKinney points out some reminders for those of us who have lived in Indiana for a number a years, in some cases a lifetime, and still can't remember our state bird, tree or flower. For the record, the state flower is the peony, the official state tree is the tulip tree, and the streaking-across-fence-posts bird of the state is the cardinal. Here's another tidbit - Indiana is located hundreds of miles from the nearest seacoast, and stretches over 36,000 miles, including 200 square miles of water.
Largely, Country Roads of Indiana takes in many of the historic and interesting places that many Hoosiers already know about. What McKinney succeeds in doing is explaining precisely how to get from here to there via major roads and marked back roads. She also lists telephone numbers and key phone contacts, along with travel instructions and a fairly broad explanation of what you can expect to see and enjoy once you arrive at your destination.
Country Roads of Indiana is McKinney's second edition. It's brought the reader up to date on new and exciting twists in the dirt roads of Indiana. Although the book is exacting in directions and specific in what is available as far as lunchtime favorites, it lacks something in terms of excitement. If you're looking for pictures depicting the sites you are venturing toward, you won't find them in Country Roads of Indiana. What you will find is a tremendous grass-roots effort at locating some very out-of-the-way spots around the state. It's more of a guide for drives, day trips and weekend excursions. Keep it handy for one of those weekends when the malls are no longer appealing and the Indiana State Fair is just a vision in the future.
Copyright 2000 Ad Media Inc.