This weekend was good, even though I didn’t ride at all; Sarah and I spent Saturday driving around the countryside, eventually ending up at Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge near Seymour, IN. I planned to go on a nice long bike ride yesterday, but I wasn’t feeling well.

Saturday was a lot of fun, after getting some lunch, we set out with no real destination in mind. We drove east until we hit Columbus, IN, then headed south. In the middle of nowhere, we came across Granny B’s CDs and DVDs, a smallish shop that was just packed with CDs, DVDs, books, and VHS tapes. We were puzzled to find this shop in such a remote area, and bought a few things very cheaply. It was an intriguing find.

Shortly thereafter, Sarah saw a sign for the Chateau de Pique winery. We followed a couple of signs and found ourselves at this small winery that is new as of last year, and as the woman we talked to stated, is “poised to become the #3 winery in Indiana.” We tasted several wines, including their Sauvignon Blanc (good, and very refreshing), Chardonnay (more intense than the Sauvignon Blanc), the Chandelle Cherry wine (tart, and better than I expected), and their Cabernet Merlot (a little mild for my tastes). All were pretty solid, but we preferred the slightly stronger Chardonnay to the Sauvignon Blanc. We bought a bottle of the Chardonnay to take home with us and took a few photos of the surrounding land.

Tent

Rows of grape vines

Grapes

Tendrils

Barn and field

Sarah, with her new camera

Open

We didn’t stick around too long, and drove on to Seymour, then to Muscatatuck NWR. There are a number of marshy areas here, and we saw tons of wildlife, mainly in the form of dragonflies and birds. I even tried to get a few dragonfly shots … it’s more difficult than you’d think. They can be really elusive.

Dragonfly

Wildflowers

Marsh

Pond/marsh

Lilly pads

Creek

Geese

Great egret in the distance — there were several of these and a couple of Great Blue Herons

Ripples

We also hiked the Turkey Trail, a one-mile trail, although we took a wrong turn and hiked half of the bird trail, too. It was a lovely day for a hike.

We also saw a bunch of black and white dragonflies, like this guy

Sarah on the Turkey Trail

Brown dragonfly

We also kept seeing some green dragonflies but I couldn’t get them to sit still long enough to take a photo. Alas.

Wetland

After we finished hiking, we drove pretty much directly home. It was getting to be pretty late in the day. This was different from our normal outings, but we certainly enjoyed it. Muscatatuck is a cool place, but it’s more geared toward observation than hiking, overall. We had fun, but stayed a little too close to the car most of the time.

File under: Driving, Hiking, Nature, Photography