January 29, 2015–The motto of the Overlook Restaurant and Lounge in Leavenworth, Indiana, is, “The only thing we overlook is the view.” In October 2014, we enjoyed a return visit there for dinner with a friend from Pennsylvania.

If you’re lucky, you’ll see a riverboat cruise past on the Ohio. If you’re luckier, you may be on that riverboat peering up at the high bluff home to the Overlook.

Along the Ohio River is where European settlers first arrived to the sight of no malls, interstates or fast food White Castle burgers.

I’ve just picked off my book shelf, “Indiana: An Interpretation,” (John Bartlow Martin, 1947 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Introduction 1992 by James H. Madison). Martin (1915-1987 was a journalist and free-lance writer. His book pushes back at the popular focus on state history as marching “forward on a Hoosier highway of progress,” Madison writes. I’m intrigued. I think I’ll take this along on an upcoming trip.

We traveled to southern Indiana to visit a friend, Shirley Troyer, who lives in a nursing home in Corydon. She turns 98 years old in February. We had a heartwarming visit, full of recollections, updates, laughter, Swiss cheese, crackers and soda and a tearful yet bittersweet stiff upper lip goodbye.

We took mostly off-the-beaten-path roads home to the northern part of the state. My main impressions of that drive were forests, hilly terrain in the south, signs to caverns, field after field of corn and soybeans (and several of pumpkins), limestone outcroppings and small towns and villages. I’m intrigued; I ‘ve a lot to learn from what I’ve overlooked in my adopted state.