wandering outside Indiana

My wife and I always go away for our anniversary-often times staying within the boundaries of the Hoosier state, but also wandering outside from time to time. It is healthy to go away and come back-see the larger world out there.

Our trip this year took us to Galena, IL, a great little river town in the northwestern part of the state. The town is quite picturesque, as is the rolling countryside. A few things stood out to me. One was the absolute and whole appreciation that area, all of Joe Davies County, had for their history. It was evident in the preservation of their architecture throughout the region, in buildings large and small. Well tended farms, residences, commercial buildings, even public amenities such as parks and streetscape all bear the mark of a genuinely thoughtful public. The second thing that stood out was how prosperous the small farms appeared....that the farmers didn't hurridly section off their land to sell for mobile homes. I can't imagine the quality of the land is that much better than Hoosier soil. So why were the farms intact and appear prosperous?

I love Indiana................but we've really got to change our thinking, and fast. We're tearing down, splitting up and parcelling off probably our best asset: our rural charm and character. My father-in-law was in a meeting with our Lt. Governor recently and she made it abundantly clear that Indiana towns have to start thinking about quality of life issues to make our state a desirable place to live. This doesn't happen by pinching every penny, but by a progressive approach to economic development. Progressive and Hoosier are non-synonymous terms. We've got a lot of work to do.

I have to put in a plug for Galena's annual Halloween Parade. Now this is something to see. It has burners on the baskets of hot air balloons scattered throughout the parade route, on floats. This creates great excitement as shadows are cast on the buildings along Main Street and the fire glows and reflects in the windows. I rate this event pretty high on a must do list in the Midwest.