As the anniversary traditions go, the first year’s gift is often paper. Symbolizing a blank slate, a reference to the beginnings of a new life together, a clean canvas to begin your story. Chris and I discussed various options for what we might like to do for our anniversary (7-22) a road trip seemed just the thing. So I suppose our gift was a [paper] map to tell our story. A Google map, with the navigation set to avoid highways.

We opted for something close, convenient, yet out of our Kentucky comfort zone. We thought about the campground where we tent-camped on the first night of our honeymoon road trip last year and remembered how fun it was, right by the river and relaxing with a pool. We decided to revisit the Wolfe’s Leisure Time Campground, located in the rural “Americus” section of Tippecanoe County, Lafayette, Indiana. This family-owned campground was just as fun, convenient, and hospitable as we remembered. Although we had a destination in mind, we didn’t plan anything else and knew that exploring the surrounding areas would offer plenty of entertainment.

We enjoy finding hidden gems, secret spots, and simple attractions that the average person may pass up. Along our route to Lafayette, we ventured to three covered bridges, being careful not to visit the same ones we saw on our last trip north. The covered bridges included Wooded Glenn Covered Bridge, James Covered Bridge, and Scipio Covered Bridge. Our lunch pit stop was in North Vernon, a quaint railroad community with murals, nicely kept public spaces, and a variety of stores. We enjoyed the Brick Street Restaurant, located on the last brick street in North Vernon. The aesthetics and decor of the restaurant were a fun time capsule, making one feel as if they needed to finish lunch to hop on the next train departing town. For dessert, we savored a refreshing juice at Succulent Smoothies before continuing on our adventure.

As Chris drove, I looked for the next fun stop, however small it may be. These stops seem to break up the monotony of any long drive and make it a heck of a lot more fun. Plus, we may find one on the GPS but discover three cool things once we make the stop. We paused for a short bit in Columbus, Indiana to check out the 6th Street Arts Alley and an impressive veterans’ memorial. The The Bartholomew County Memorial for Veterans was designed by the winner of a national design competition, Charles Rose Architects. A grid of 25 pillars of rock-cut Indiana limestone, the memorial honors the county’s veterans of 20^th century wars.

We enjoyed walking around the city a bit, and while we didn’t need food at this time, it would have been a fun place to discover a new restaurant as well.

Once we arrived at our campground, we made camp, and cozied up to a fire while savoring a warm cup of tea. We enjoyed the perfect temperatures of a cool July night and slept longer and more deeply than we have in so long.

Day two of our year-1 Anniversary coming next…