While I raised my kids I gave them something I badly wanted, but never got, from my dad. We went places and did things together.
I didn’t have enough money to do anything spectacular, like visit an amusement park. But I could often pull together enough to pay for gas, lunch, and entrance fees to hike through a state park all day. We visited Brown County State Park a lot because it is so stunningly beautiful. The tourist town of Nashville is nearby, with plenty of cozy little places to take a meal.
The road to Brown County, State Road 135, is especially beautiful from Brown County south. It rolls and winds through the southern Indiana countryside.
I made this photo one April morning on SR 135 just south of Bean Blossom when the boys were 8 and 10. But we weren’t on our way to the state park. Rather, we were beginning our first spring break trip together, one that I’ve always called the Indiana History Tour. I ate hot dogs and peanut butter for months so I’d have enough money to take the boys to historic and scenic sites all over the state. We began the trip by visiting Indiana’s first state capitol in the far southern Indiana town of Corydon, which is also on State Road 135.
There are faster ways to get to Corydon, but none as beautiful. And on this morning, the fog was lifting as we drove down into the Bean Blossom Creek valley. It was such a stirring scene that I pulled the car over for this photograph.
I always pointed scenes like this out to my sons. They were always patient as I made my photographs. I wonder how many of these moments they remember.
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