The Martin's Blog

 May 28, 2010 – Drove to Madison, IN, which is a historic Ohio River town (population 12,000) that was ceded to the government by the Indians in 1805.  It has 133 city blocks listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.  We walked around town, along the river and through the antique and craft outdoor market called “Old Court Days,” that was set up around the courthouse for the Memorial Day weekend.   

The Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial was next on our agenda.  Lincoln was born in KY but his family moved to this location in 1816 when he was 7 years old.  Two years later, his mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln died of milk sickness; she is buried here.  The following year, Thomas Lincoln married a widow with three children.  It is said that this is the place where Lincoln grew from a boy to a man.  In 1830, when Abe was 21, the combined families moved to Illinois.  We went through the Visitor Center and then did the mile trail to the living Historical Farm.

May 29, 2010 – After a “healthy” breakfast of granola, fruit and yogurt at our B & B in Lewisport KY, we drove 2 hours to Vincennes (Indiana’s first city,1732) to see George Rogers Clark National Historic Park and the “Spirit of Vincennes Rendezvous.”  The park commemorates Clark taking Fort Sackville from the British in 1779 and that is the period that is depicted at the Rendezvous.  It is a large affair with the encampment of many period reenacting military units, craftsmen, Indians, farmers and towns people. We especially liked the Irish washer woman who, among other things, described how she got stains out of white clothes by using urine and drying them on the grass.