Endless, oppressive heat, with no end in sight. I don’t know how Russ pushed through to do 94 miles to get here one day early. Went kayaking; that was nice, but hot. Even sitting still in the shade is hot, and everything I wear is instantly damp.

One thing was worth getting hot and sweaty for: Cataract Falls on the Mill Creek that feeds the lake we’re on.

The Upper Falls was especially impressive. We explored the historic covered bridge above the falls (Indiana is very big on its covered bridges, of which they had hundreds in the 1800s).

We walked the woodland trail along the river between the Upper and Lower Falls, and enjoyed the views along the way. I found a shaded rock and dangled my feet in the river to cool down a bit. I encouraged Moe to take a dip, but he was being his anti-water Chihuahua self. Too bad, because on the way back, he was really dragging; Russ carried him halfway back to the parking lot.

On the drive back, we spotted a sign for an icecream shop in an old one-room schoolhouse. We pulled up, but to our great disappointment, the door had a closed sign. However, Russ hailed a man who came from the back of the building, and he offered to go get his wife, who ran the shop. She graciously agreed to open for us, we got cups of ice cream (Moe too) and cans of root beer, and I had the best root beer float of my entire life!

We are off to Illinois and Lincoln Trail State Park tomorrow. I only need to drive a little over an hour: Russ hopes to get to his next overnight before the expected thunderstorms hit.