French Lick, Indiana

Blues skies and warm temperatures today in French Lick, Indiana.   We got to Mike's dad's house last night shortly after dark.  Long days in the car are stressful and painful for both of us, and I'm looking forward to being far enough south that we can slow down in our travels.

We're close to West Baden Springs, which has a long history as a place of supposedly-therapeutic mineral baths.  The hotel offers 25 minute baths for $40-50 dollars.  Both of us would surely enjoy therapeutic baths but the surroundings are too ostentatious and the cost too high for us.  I'm holding out for the hot springs in the southwest, the ones in more primitive settings.

Bath at West Baden Springs Hotel

Now, I'm sitting on the porch in one of our camp chairs and enjoying the sun.  There's a rooster crowing in the background and hawk floating on the currents far overhead.  The hours of sunlight are short (though the sun stays up later now that we've moved westward from Maine) and the sun has already begun its descent behind the trees off to the southwest.  Mike has embraced the warm day by donning shorts and sandals, and the dog's enjoying all the new scents.

Inside, Fox TV commentators talk to pieces the recent events in Paris.  An interesting part of this trip has been encountering people with diverse political opinions--it's a great time to take a road trip across America as we get to see the people we encounter as they respond to the views expressed in the Republican and Democratic debates.  Mike's dad is a serious Ben Carson supporter and his nephew favors Donald Trump.  I'm trying to maintain intellectual and emotional distance from the process.  For the last few years, I've disengaged from conventional politics.  I believe my participation would indicate my consent to be governed and my acceptance of the legitimacy of the current practice of politics in and by the United States.  I don't consent and I don't recognize that legitimacy.  At the same time, I recognize that I'm enmeshed within this system, and that by virtue of this enmeshment, I am both affected by it and effect others through it.