September 9, 2001     St. Mary Church     Aurora Indiana

It's familiar territory when I head for Lawrenceburg and Aurora. My aunt lived on Ludlow Hill, near the hospital, whom I visited many times. I recalled the boat ramp on Tanners creek where Dad and I and usually one or two more would launch my Boston Whaler and try to catch a few catfish on the Ohio River. 

Route 50 was designed to be a limited access highway between Lawrenceburg and Aurora. Every time I travel this stretch of highway, there seems to be some new business springing up. A new Wal-Mart replaced the old one a year or so ago. It's quite a store and we picked up a few things there on the way back.

We headed through Aurora towards the river and parked on the main highway along the park. We arrived shortly after the dinner opened (hours 12-4) and had only a short wait in line. We took a plate and were served chicken, string beans, mashed potatoes, noodles, gravy, slaw, dessert and a drink. I like dark meat and the server gave me three thighs.

The food was in Styrofoam containers to keep things hot. The dinner is held in a large tent and the food must be prepared at a location away from the serving area. However, the chicken was cooked in portable fryers only a short distance from the tent. 

We seated ourselves and wound up eating at our table alone. I heard one of the workers talking to a friend about how nice it was to not need to serve food at the tables (up until this year the dinner was served country style). She explained that refills were available on all items. It seems that the workers would get it for you or you could go back to the line to get seconds. We didn't need more (but I gave some thought to sneaking back through the desert line.)

The large tent was roughly divided in two and the dining area was not that large. The other part of the tent had games and items for sale. It was a warm day, but there was a nice breeze from the river. When we left, the line was still fairly short and there was plenty of room in the tent. We paused for a little while to enjoy the river view. Years ago, there was a ferry at Aurora. You could take it to Kentucky and be at Rabbit Hash in minutes. The I-275 Bridge removed the need for the ferry.

We drove into town to see the St. Mary school and church. Elaine Haas was principal at St. Williams for several years and is now the school principal at St. Mary. Edith said that Elaine had relatives here and also a summer place on Laughry Creek. It's a much smaller school than St. Williams but her ties to the area made it an easy choice for making the change.

I was taking a few pictures for my Web page and met an involved parent who was picking something up from the school. It turns out she belonged to St. Dominic in Delhi for a number of years, but finding a place in the area where she could raise her horses lured her away from Cincinnati. She was very complimentary of Elaine.