Day 10    Visit to Brown County, Nashville and Bean Blossom

Off to Brown County, with an old friend of Hildebrand's, for a ramble in the woods. The wildflowers are just beginning to show themselves through the leaf-litter. Plum-blossom is out but the other trees are still thinking about Spring. I rather like it that way. Just a hint of what's to come. One day I'd like to visit again and see the carpets of flowers and the trees all leafy, but for now I'm more than happy. For one thing we've beaten the crowds. A woodpecker knocks loudly high in a tree, but we don't see any other wildlife. Maybe if we went further into the woods, but we are going to see Bean Blossom and Nashville next before leaving Bloomington. We check out the lodge and I'm pleased to see that the life-sized, stuffed, brown bear sitting on the sofa is made of some sort of synthetic material. His amber-bead eyes look sad though. While I'm talking to the bear the fellers wander off. I find them behind the postcard display. H's friend is doing little-boy-naughty gestures with his zoom-lens camera. He's a writer, a wonderful storyteller, highly intelligent and    articulate, with a mind that is scary to an undereducated person like me. He's genuinely interested in my stories, though, and in Hildebrand's and we really enjoy his. We spend the day swapping tales and taking in the sights around us like three happy children.
Nashville (it's the Indiana one of course, not the more famous place) is full of day-trippers.The gift shops sell the exact same trinkets you see everywhere. Wind chimes are a big item. American gardens tinkle with them. Garden ornaments have changed since we visited the Midwest 12 years ago. I must say I rather miss the   cement Mother Duck and Three Ducklings motif. They were on every lawn. Where are they now? Ground up and reshaped into Angels?
Bikers parade, on the hour, through Nashville on Sundays. You hear the roar of Harleys and everyone rushes out of the gift shops and cafes to line the curbs and watch them drive slowly past. The fantasy alter-ego of very male sight-seer rides off with them, casting off his XXX-large t-shirt and donning leathers adorned with silver stars and studs. As the bikers turn and head around the block there's a collective sigh from the watchers and they go back to their ice creams and their kids. We find a pasta meal. A rare thing in the American West. You probably have to be where The Sopranos live, over East.
Bean Blossom is where Bill Monroe played in a big old barn. Hildebrand often went there to see him, during his days in Bloomington. The barn burned down a while back. There's a new one there now to house the Bill Monroe museum and gift shop. We touched the piano that was played by Minnie Pearl and saw the old photographs. They still have festivals on the grounds using an outdoor stage. The camping area has streets named after Bluegrass stars from the past. It's quite a small area but near the entrance there's a parking-bay with little mini-buggies. You can tell right away who attends these festivals. 1969 was the last time Hildebrand was here. The old barn hadn't burned down then.
We say goodbye back at the mermaid-fountain motel. It's sad parting. We've had a short but very intense encounter. Hildebrand and his friend had lost touch for over thirty years before this visit, but we feel very close now, all three of us.
A last goodbye to Betty and several other friends and we get ready for our meeting with Uncle Dave-O and his wife on the next leg of our adventure.