What Can You See at Oxbow County Park

In order to build bone mass, Sparky has been trying to walk at least three times a week at the local county park, Oxbow, in Goshen, IN. It's a beautiful park and we live about 15 minutes away from it. There are 12 trails that you can mix and mingle together to get a wide variety of walking experiences. You can climb stairs, you can climb small hills.

There's an archery range, you can fish from platforms or along the banks of the river, there's a 24 hole disc golf course there....They also have some athletic fields for soccer and other sports. In the winter, they groom a couple of the trails so you could cross country ski or snowshoe if there's enough snow! The trails are mostly heavily wooded so it's nice and shady during the hotter days of summer. Many many grills and picnic areas for family get togethers. 

Sparky has been enjoying passing by a little fairy vignette each time she walks the trails. Someone was adding to "the story" as little objects were added. There was even a little scene behind the blue door. Unfortunately, somebody with ZERO appreciation for the whimsy in life, destroyed the little fairy setting the last time Sparky walked by it. It looked intentional, not like an animal destroyed it.

It was so clever how the door fit into the tree trunk space....It was very sad to think that someone might deliberately destroy a little bit of joy along the trail!

But--Sparky loves that other people choose to leave a little piece of themselves on the trail sometimes in other forms.

In crossing over this boardwalk, just a few seconds before taking this photo, a deer was trying to figure out how to get over the boardwalk, pacing back and forth and coming up to it, then backing off. Sparky got her phone ready to capture the shot, and just as she raised the phone to center the shot, the deer jumped over the boardwalk and was gone, just like that! Missed! You'll just have to picture the graceful leap over the entire width of the boardwalk. It's in her mind's eye forever.

The geese with their little ones were out and about....

And there were beautiful pinecones budding with varying shapes and sizes along the trail....

In the woods there are Eagle Scout projects that have been built....This is called the "Critter Corner" and various brush piles of "artworks" were built for creatures to hide and folks to wander through...

There is an observation tower to look out over the fields and trails. Great for a quick cardio pick-me-up, not so great for recalcitrant knee and hip joints.

Sparky loves seeing the wildflowers pop up in the early spring, then the changeover to the summer flowers and warmer weather. These are called the Great Waterleaf.

Sparky was shocked to see lupines at this park a couple of weeks ago...She thought they were mainly in the northern growing zones.

So much to see and appreciate at Oxbow County Park. We are lucky to have such a beautiful park so close to us to enjoy....Happy hiking, walking and moving to you!

A Restorative Hike

It's been a long time since Sparky has posted for Where's Eldo? You might have wondered "Where's Sparky?" as well.... She's been battling breast cancer, diagnosed back in December. If you'd like to know about that, here is a link to what's been going on with her....https://lobularbreastcarcinoma.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-long-journey-about-to-begin.html

 

After going through five months of chemo treatments, Sparky is starting to feel a little better and wanting to feel "normal" doing "normal" things. It's April and spring has arrived here in Northwest Indiana....A burst of blooming Callery pear trees, also known as the Bradford pear, has blanketed the area with beautiful white blossoms, almost like snow covering the tree limbs and they are everywhere here in the Elkhart/Goshen Indiana area, blossoming suddenly in April with the first sign of warming temperatures. Apparently, the Bradford pear/Callery pear doesn't smell very good and is considered an invasive species. The state of Ohio has banned the sale and cultivation of the Callery pear because of the invasive nature of the tree species. They are pretty, though!

Time for the first bike ride on the Pumpkinvine Bike Trail. Twelve miles later and feeling the six months of no bike exercise, Sparky did enjoy the beautiful ride today despite "feeling it"....the first wildflowers in the woods are popping up, Virginia spring beauties...little white or pink flowers with pretty centers....

So many pretty spring trees and new wildflowers. A weeping cherry tree greets you as you first start out on the trail from Abshire Park in Goshen.

Besides the little Virginia spring beauties that blanket both sides of the trail, there are the yellow and brown trout lilies popping up in clusters here and there.

The magnolia trees are in full bloom...

The Eastern redbud trees are just starting to show their buds and some have bloomed already.

At about six miles into the ride after starting at Abshire Park in Goshen, there is the Amish ice cream shop just off the trail, Mooey's, in case you need a little treat. They have a little farm out back with some goats, turkeys, pigs and a donkey. You can feed the animals. Sparky has posted photos before of the Amish who love to frequent the little shop/farm, but this photo bears repeating, as it is Sparky's favorite shot from the ice cream place on a hot summer day.

When not riding the Pumpkinvine, Sparky hikes about three miles up and down the trails at Oxbow County Park. It's a beautiful little park in Goshen. There are steep stairs for a cardio boost, and some little up and down hills to make it interesting. The photo above takes you through a swampy part where lots of cool birds hang out. There are lots of trails intersecting and going off in different directions, none of them very long, but you can mix it up and get a wide variety of good walking/hiking. You might see deer foraging in the forest. Sparky averages about three miles every time she goes and always sees some beautiful birds and flowers. The trillium are almost ready to bloom.

One of the trails has a little fairy house at the base of a big ole tree, and someone has added to it lately, another little abode.

Are you wondering why there is a photo of a pair of Dutchmen? (Hint: It has something to do with wildflowers.) Read on!

The newly emerging wildflowers are in abundance at the park. Here is one that caught her eye--Dutchman's breeches. They look like upside down Dutchman's pantaloons, don't they?

Here are some of them tinged with a little pink....They are a key source of nectar for early bumblebees. However, they are toxic and can cause skin rashes.

What is Eldo up to, you might wonder? He's getting ready to be assistant golf coach again, for Concord High School girls' team. He's also got his golf clubs out and swinging them at the driving range a bit. Hopefully some rounds of golf are in his near future.....

And that is the latest from Where's Eldo? We shall see you later.....

Love Those Indiana Small Towns!

We had some errands to run in Goshen, IN today so off we went. Goshen is about 15 minutes from where we are currently staying. Goshen is a very pretty small town of about 34,000. The downtown is lovely. 

We stopped at a wonderful shoe store, called Woldruff's for Eldy to get some new slip ons. They had an amazing selection of some of the finest shoe brands. If you wanted to shop local and get a good shoe, this is the place to go. Eldy got a nice pair of Skechers slip ons. He absolutely loves them! Super cushy.

Right across the street is Jojo's Pretzels, one of the best known places that locals love, for freshly made pretzels. The whole store is Coke themed, so of course, Sparky LOVES that shop! (She drinks a Coke for breakfast every single morning, explains Eldo.) There are LOTS of wonderful small stores to shop local for clothing, shoes, a True Value hardware store right there, and several wonderful restaurants we hope to try. One is called Biebs & Ash, which gets great reviews and supposedly has a terrific burger.

We had sour cream and onion dusted pretzels with great lemonade. We sat outside at little tables provided by the shop and it was a gorgeous spring day, sunny with a little breeze. Goshen is a college town too, so it's great to see that students shop downtown here as well. There are several remarkable independent stores to shop at, such as Found, an antique store in historic Goshen. And of course, there are also several big, beautiful churches.

Downtown Goshen has some beautiful architecture in their building facades. Several of the buildings are dated in the 1800's. The brick building to the right is dated 1878.

love this facade!

They have multiple art installations all over the downtown area. Sparky loved this one, called "Raindance" by Sunday Mahaja. Here is a closeup of the head....So cool!

And a view from farther away.....

There was an alleyway full of art works--appropriately titled "Art Alley".

It had chalk art and panels displayed.

Just a wonderful small town vibe, clean and beautiful, and not to be missed if you are in the area....There are also several parks, two of the more notable ones are Fiddler Pond Park and Oxbow County Park, with some great walking trails. Don't forget to visit the Olympia Candy Kitchen store, too! An original candy counter dating back to 1912, a soda fountain and lots of sweet confections to choose from, make this a must top if you have a sweet tooth!

sculptures around town

                 We love visiting Goshen! Don't miss it!

Time to Leave Elkhart

Elkhart, IN     High:  63    Low:  48

All good things must come to an end...Eldo has indulged Sparky to no end, uh, wait, make that to the tune of about five pounds this month...Sparky has been able to imbibe and eat at her most of her faves-Hanayori of Japan on Grape Road in Mishawaka......Hanayori is a Japanese style restaurant where they cook your food to order at the table, crack corny jokes and play with fire. :-)  Here they build an onion volcano, set it on fire and sprinkle salt on it to make it sparkle.

This is Sparky's favorite restaurant in South Bend for celebrating special occasions for over 30 years! Many birthdays have been spent here....

We've also visited Heinnie's Back Barn with Eldy's friends, Chubby Trout, both in Elkhart, Carrabas in Mishawaka....Eldo has gotten to eat Columbo's Pizza, his absolute all time favorite pizza place anywhere....We've visited with our family, seen our good friends, got all our doctor, dentist and eye appointments out of the way with great reports, and we're good for another year. We biked the Pumpkinvine Trail three times and tried to get our exercise despite the weather which was unusually cool and wet for this time of year. The leaves are really flying off the trees now....

On our last visit to the Pumpkinvine today, Sparky took some family photos of Kristi, her husband Ted, and their son Connor. Sparky's favorite one is of Ted and Connor....

Connor had fun in the park where we took the photos..Oh, to be that young and limber and able to bend over and straighten back up without something popping and crackling!

Eldo has had hitch itch for the past week and a half...Sparky not so much, she's been enjoying the cool fall weather, soaking up the colors of the leaves, and enjoying the really cool fall temperatures. But the leaves are past their peak color here, and the high winds lately have blown many of the trees bare.

She's not ready to head back into temps in the eighties, but---we've been here a month....Time to move on...and just when the weather is heading into the seventies in Elkhart this week! We have reservations for a month for November in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We're going to take our time getting down there and it looks like we'll be in the Mammoth Cave area in Kentucky for a week for starters? That's a question mark because you just don't know where Eldo is going to go! Sparky loves new scenery and exploration. We visited Mammoth Cave last year but it was a short visit. Sparky is ready to go back and check out the area some more.

It's hard to say goodbye to family and friends, but our immediate families are coming to Florida for Christmas, so we'll see them again soon!

There were a few things we missed seeing while we were here...Sparky is putting Defries Garden on the list for next year...A thirteen acre homestead with a 1830's Victorian style home surrounded by perennial gardens and a CALENDAR garden located on County Road 46 in New Paris, IN. The calendar garden is a giant circular garden and flowering calendar. The paths are a compass that leads to a pond in the middle. It has the equinoxes and solstices with native plantings and others that follow the seasons through the year. Sparky would love to see this next year so on the list it goes.....

We didn't visit the RV Hall of Fame in Elkhart, we did that last year, but it's an awesome tour of lots of vintage RV's and their history and shouldn't be missed! We didn't play frisbee golf this year at Oxbow County Park's 18 hole disc golf course, but it's on the list for next year. And there's so much more, if you count South Bend in on the list of things to do and see.....We love coming back to the area for all these things and for our friends and family....It was wonderful to be "home".....Even though "home is where you park it", we will always consider Elkhart/South Bend to be our hometown.....It's on the road we go!

Sparky Had Good Intentions....

Elkhart, IN     High:  55    Low:  38      Bright, sunny day!    Yay!

Sparky had good intentions today, she really did! She was going to ride the Maple City Greenway...for quite a few miles....The Maple City (Goshen, IN's nickname for all the beautiful maples in the city) Greenway consists of many trails of many differing lengths. The city has been designated as one of just 190 communities all over the United States as a "Bicycle Friendly Community" because of its demonstrated ability in providing safe cycling and encouraging residents to bike for recreation and transportation.  Eldy had errands to run, so he dropped Sparky off at roughly the beginning of the trail and Sparky WAS going to ride from Elkhart to Goshen, the original plan. The Maple City Greenway runs alongside the railroad tracks for miles, then passes through neighborhoods, a cemetery, etc. and then Sparky was going to be meeting Eldy at the other end.

Three miles down the road, Sparky rode by Oxbow County Park, a BEAUTIFUL park with lots of amenities and paved roads. Sparky decided to do some riding inside the park, then venture back out onto the Maple City paved sidewalk style trail. Sparky decided to enter the park via the Greenway trail which can lead into the park if you want to cross the street. Sparky did....

Oxbow is a county park but they charge 2.00 to get in. They have a really nice disc golf course, but they charge 2.00 to use that. Sparky wasn't going to play today, but she did stop for a moment to reflect on the sign they had posted.

She looked both ways as she rode along the road, next to the paths for the disc golf course through the woods on each side of the road. No discs flyin' around to the right....To the left---------

TWO does!  Wow! How about that?! They stood there long enough for me to take a photo, then a big snorting "WHOO!" they got my scent and boogied outta there.

The park has an archery range and they charge for that as well. There's a canoe/kayak launch, not sure if there's a charge for that or not.

Canoe/kayak launch

There used to be an observation tower, sort of like a fire tower that was a tradition for people to climb. Arsonists burned it to the ground. No matter, Sparky remembered how beautiful the park is, how far you can ride or walk inside the park, and you can get lots of miles in for a ride if you wanted to...Sparky thought she would keep riding through the park exploring and racking up some miles, but that was not to be......Sparky passed through a short lowland section of the park with a little boardwalk bridge and causeway which is often flooded when there's been a lot of rain and then is closed to vehicular traffic. There was a sign that said, "CAUTION--SLIPPERY!" which Sparky duly noted but didn't take a photo of. Today, there was some runoff, but not a whole lot. Sparky raised up her legs out to the sides and sailed through the little flooded roadway....WHEE-E-E-E!

Later, after seeing the deer and exploring some more of the park, Sparky decided to come back through the little causeway (?) saw the "SLIPPERY" sign again from the other side coming back and briefly debated (you know what's coming, don't you?) whether to walk the bike over the little bridge or not. There was a couple standing on the bridge, so she decided NOT to take the boardwalk. She cheerily called out to the couple, "Hey, did you see the deer?" and started to sail BACK through the little flood, feet out to the side just like before....Only this time, the tires had gotten enough coating from the slippery lichens laying just beneath the surface of the water the first time through.....(Ya didn't see the greenish tinge in your photo the first time did you, Sparky?) Nope!  And the tires did a tip over, a slide over, like they were coated with grease, heading downward so fast, Sparky didn't have time to react much except to lay the bike down, probably a lot like a motorcycle rider does when he goes down on the bike.

Only Sparky laid the bike down with her left leg extended outwards, which thankfully, slid forward and not at some weird angle, but stretching some tendons and muscles MUCH farther than they were intended on her left leg. She landed on her butt, HARD,  with a SPLASH! right in the middle of the deepest part of the puddle, thoroughly soaking her jeans on her left side. Talk about feeling stupid....The folks called out, "Are you ok?" And Sparky, with injured pride and a probably pulled back thigh muscle replied, "Oh, FINE!" and looked down at her pants. "I'm gonna have some explaining to do when I get back to the car," she says. And with supreme effort, walks the bike out of their sight, trying very hard not to limp. Sparky was really lucky. She WASN'T wearing a helmet. She could have just as easily fallen backwards and hit her head instead of her butt. She IS going to wear a helmet on all future bike rides from here on out. It's been about a 50% of the time thing with the helmet.

She called Eldy and just said that she had fallen, nothing was broken, the bike was ok, and he asked if she wanted him to come get her. Not having gotten in a good workout, really, only about four miles when this happened, she dumbly said she wanted to explore the park for another twenty minutes and then she'd be ready to go....After trying to ride a little more and take some more photos, getting off and on the bike which REALLY hurt more than riding the bike did, Sparky called it a day.....Time for ice!
Ice, ICE, baby!

One of several observation platforms

Another beautiful spot over the Elkhart River at the park