March 30th 2023

This could be our last pilgrimage to Texas. Amy and James are in the throws of moving to Florida. This move has been in the making for a couple of years. Circumstances have now pushed the moving date up from 2024 to 2023. We are making this trip with Sunday the van and also are pulling our snowmobile trailer. We will fill up the trailer with the initial load of items to be moved to Florida. sometime in early May. Amy and James will pull their travel trailer and we will caravan together at that time.

We left Grand Ledge on a sunny cold morning and headed to Delphi Indiana. Our destination was The Wabash and Erie Canal Park.

This park features the only remaining stretch of the original canal. There is a very interesting and well done museum that covers the canals history. The park also offers 7 campsites. The park docent was so excited to tell us about the museum. We paid the $5 bucks each which also made him excited. The ingenuity and determination of man is always so amazing. The need to move people and product has always been a great motivator. The Wabash and Erie Canal stretched 468 miles and was the second longest canal in the world. The canal was 4 ft deep, 40 ft across the surface, 26 ft wide at the bottom, had 73 locks, 5 river dams, 20 aqueducts and turn around basins in all the port towns. The amount of man power to accomplish this is mind boggling.

The park has walking paths along the old tow paths. In season there is a canal boat that gives rides up and down the canal.

We had the place to ourselves, which we love. One of the disadvantages of traveling so early in the season is that the rest/shower facilities are not open., but we had the place to ourselves!, This was a great find and we were able get in at least 3 miles of walking on a beautiful afternoon.

Apparently whiskey was a key component in the digging of the canal.