Last Resort Campground, Hanna, Indiana
The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me.” Then Abraham returned to his servants and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba. ~ Genesis 22:15-19 This shows more confirmation that the “angel of the LORD” is actually a preincarnate Jesus, for an angel would never “swear by myself”. Now some might say that it was an angel speaking on God’s behalf, but I think it was the Son of God speaking directly. Irregardless, it’s a lesson in how God rewards faith. And while Abraham is promised land and dominion for his descendants, it is the part about ALL nations being blessed because of Abraham’s faith that is most important. Those ‘all nations’? That’s you. And that’s me. And that’s anyone who’s not Jewish. For it is through Abraham’s line that Jesus came to save us all.
What do you get when you put together three-sevenths chicken, two-thirds cat and one-half goat?
Chi-ca-go! (that’s a blast from my young teen years! lol)
The Indiana Sand Dunes National Park sits 40 miles southeast of Chicago, and we sort of expected to see their skyline across Lake Michigan from the Park today, but conditions over the lake were too foggy and hazy. Drat!
Next question. When was the last time you actually recognized that you were out of shape?
Today was that day for us – well, more so for me. I knew it the minute I put on my Park Ranger recommended hiking boots and took my first step. They felt heavy, like I was dragging a five-pound weight around each leg. And again, as we climbed up and down hills that just a few months ago would’ve been easy, but today they weren’t.
And it was hot, and just got hotter the more we exercised on the dunes; sweat soaking our shirts and unmentionables. Despite that, blessings abounded! These dunes are not quite like the ones in Michigan. Michigan has huge piles of mostly exposed sand. Here, they’re mostly covered with vegetation – towering shade trees and undergrowth – and that provided much needed shade.
Having been a National Lakeshore since 1966, it was recently elevated to National Park in February 2019, making it our 61st National Park. It has 15 miles of beach, includes 15,000 acres and has 50 miles of hiking trails. There are also bridle and bike trails. 350 species of birds have been spotted within its boundaries.
Sitting in the middle of parts of the Park (it’s made up of little dibs and dabs of property strewn along the coast), is an industrial center consisting of several mills that are called the Port of Indiana.
It also surrounds Indiana Dunes State Park which was established first. More on that tomorrow.
Today’s visit was all about taking in the sights and getting some much needed exercise, and we managed both! All told, about 10 miles worth of exercise, and more sights and history than we were expecting!
all the purple flowers were closed up! So glad we saw them when we did!
An elephant!
(Look to the clouds) : )
Still a beautiful sight to see!!
Even though they look like dandelions, they’re not. They’re Yellow Salsify.
Each of the flowers is roughly the size of a quilt pin head! God is sooo amazing!
Incredibly, not much sand inside, but look at the dirt! And the sand seemed beige or white when we walked it!
As a side note: It took soaking and a lot of brush-scrubbing of our socks to get them clean. Sigh…..
We were sitting at a picnic table in a pavilion at a fairly new Park building.
After this stop, we came to the conclusion that this is the most convoluted park we’ve ever visited! My friend texted and asked if we were having a good day, and at the time I answered, “This probably isn’t the best time to ask me that.”
Besides being strung out all along the coast, the main access road was closed, and there weren’t signs to help us get to where we wanted to go. After driving all over kingdom come, we finally gave up our main objective and headed back towards home, stopping at an area near our Bog trail, that listed a farm.
Much prettier than our picture shows!
No clue where the middle generation are buried.
I couldn’t take a picture through these windows because they were too dirty.
Along the way, we accidently stumbled upon one of the other sights that were mentioned in the Visitor Center video we watched this morning – – “futuristic” homes that were displayed for the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1933, and were brought over to Indiana and “planted” here. Pretty interesting find! And all but one of the homes is currently occupied! People who choose to live here lease their homes from the Park, and are required once a year to open their homes to the public.
Our final stop for the day was at the far east end of the Park – Mt. Baldy – the highest peak in the Park. Unfortunately, nowadays, you aren’t permitted to the peak unless you’re with a Ranger. Read the sign board to see why.
And once there, I watched streams of sand spilling down the side, prompted by my footfalls.
Our momentary frustrated driving time aside, we had a marvelous day! Tomorrow, we’ll check out the State Park.