The Covered Bridge "Festival" Sucks

Sarah and I went to the Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County over the weekend and let me tell you, it was awful. Don't get me wrong - The weather was nice and it was nice driving around on the country roads and seeing the bridges. The scenery was nice for sure. It kind of reminded me of being back home in Martin County. And even I'll admit the bridges are pretty cool. Seeing them kind of takes you back in time a bit. But the "festival" itself was terrible. Let me explain.

So the bridges are located throughout Parke County and there are different routes you drive on to see them. Along the routes are towns which are holding the "festival". Driving around the countryside and seeing the bridges wasn't bad at all and was even a bit enjoyable. However, once the routes got into the towns it was a different story. Each town was a complete cluster. We spent literally hours in traffic jams. I spent more time in the car sitting than doing anything else. The jams even started before the towns on the major highways as every single house on the way had garage sales where people were aimlessly wandering across the highway and cars parked just inches off the road. As we slowed to a crawl I noticed that every sale had the same thing - junk. I've never understood the fascination with garage sales. Why would I want to buy someone else's junk they didn't want? Anyway, once we got past the jams and into the towns where the "festivals" were held, there was nothing there except block after block of fair food stands and more people selling junk. That's it. And, so many people that it was difficult to walk or move. And most of them were smoking copious amounts of cigarettes and looked like they just got out of jail. I found the whole event to be just awful.

Unless you like sitting in the worse imaginable traffic jams and buying junk, I'd skip this "festival". If you like the bridges do yourself a favor and go on a random weekend when the "festival" isn't taking place. You'll thank me later.







Also, on a side note, Go Cards! They've made an amazing run to get into the playoffs and so far so good. I've got a good feeling about how this post-season is going to end.