Varied Skies

Morning.  The sun stretches beyond the tips of the trees basking the trail in sunlight.  Even at this early hour the heat is oppressive–the kind of heat from which there is no escape.  The swaying Indiana oaks provide only illusory relief.  And though the trees sway, the air at trail level remains inexplicably stagnate.  Through the thick air, two weary youths traipse the trails of the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in search of answers; answers that increasingly seem unimportant as the temperature rises.

That the youths would even make this journey speaks to the power of determination, the desire for recognition, and the allure of the satisfaction that comes from a task well done.  Just the day before, the tired youths battled the Indiana sun to assault the establishment known far and wide as the Holiday World amusement park.   With only free soft drinks, sunscreen, and rations provided by their benevolent protectors to sustain them, the two youths conquered Voyager, Thunderbird, The Legend, The Raven (twice), and countless other equilibrium altering amusement contraptions, but not without much energy-sapping effort.

Willing themselves through the forest mere hours after taming Holiday World, the intrepid travelers pass 12 large stones, taken from places like Gettysburg and Ford’s Theater, before finally reaching the destination they hope will reveal the answers they seek.  Before them is the site of the former home of Abraham Lincoln.  Just beyond that lies a working farm and cabin plucked from the early 19^th century and authentically run by 21^st century pioneers apparently immune from the heat.  A woman toils with a hoe in a large garden.  Three women man the cabin with a fire in the fireplace.  A variety of pork cuts hang in the smokehouse.  A workshop houses numerous wood cutting tools used to craft the furnishings of the cabin.  A bull shades himself in a small barn.  The only water source, a freshwater spring, gurgles 100 yards away down a hill.  The message is clear:  life as a pioneer was tough.

Sufficiently educated, the two youths race back and emerge victorious from the forest in the shadow of Old Glory.

Their induction as Junior Rangers awaits in the confines of an air-conditioned oasis known as the park visitor center.  Denied on their first visit, they present their completed booklets and are sworn in as Junior Rangers.

Reinvigorated, the now not-so-weary youths lobby for a quick return to Holiday World, for this world has another hemisphere dedicated to water rides that went unexplored on day one.  The spry youths don the latest fashion in water wear and knockout the tornado-coned Zinga, the two longest water coasters in the world (Wildebeest and Mammoth), and several lesser, but still fun, rides before exiting the park just before closing.

Free thrills awaited at the campground in the form of a golf cart parade.

And so ended their last day in Santa Claus, IN.