I decided late in the week to go to Tell City because the Pour Haus pub there had been on my mind lately. Not that it’s particularly noteworthy—it’s just how this particular day-trip itch popped up for me. So with a few episodes of The Emerald loaded up, I headed south.
After brief visits at family graves, I stopped first at Saint Joseph’s Holy Family near Bristow. It’s a wonderful folk shrine that I’ll definitely be visiting again when I can walk it more slowly.
Religious devotion is blended with natural beauty very effectively here.
The caretaker told me they had a Eucharistic revival at the site a couple of years ago, complete with a tent and a week’s worth of Masses. Who knew Catholics had tent revivals?
From there I drove south on 545 to Troy and then on 66 to Tell City for lunch. I made a quick visit to Cannelton just to drive over the Ohio River bridge into Kentucky, where I made an immediate U-turn. So I was in Kentucky for 30 seconds.
Back up to Troy and visited the Christ of the Ohio statue—one of my favorite things in southern Indiana (and therefore the world).
I drove north again on 545 and stopped at the Chapel of the Vierzehn Heiligen, or the Fourteen Holy Helpers, on a family farm near New Boston. It was inspired by German roadside chapels and modeled on the Basilika Vierzehnheiligen in Bavaria, according to a Jasper German Club newsletter found by ChatGPT.
From what I can tell, the Holy Helpers were fourteen already-known saints that began to be invoked together during the Black Death in Germany because their various patronages worked against plague symptoms. Forgive the analogy, but they feel like a medieval Avengers. Devotion to the group continued through the centuries and spread all the way to a farm in southern Indiana.
Further north I stopped at the Monte Cassino shrine in St. Meinrad. There are candles available there that are formed from the leftover wax of votive candles. I always pick up one or two when I’m in the area.
At that point I felt home tugging me back. I made one last stop at an antiques store in Loogootee with a good supply of old tools. I was looking for a splitting maul but nothing caught my interest. I already have a secondhand department store model that will certainly serve the purpose—but I’m keeping my eye out for a cheap, more interesting one.
In the evening, as I said yesterday, I took Rachel to a old time music jam in Paoli. I loved it and I plan to go to more, even if Rachel’s decides not to play! Steve and Nancy Dickey were there. Watch this excellent little video for an introduction to Steve and his locally famous father Lotus. Lesser known fact: the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival in Bloomington is actually named for him, not the flower.