Spent Saturday afternoon at the Golconda Shrimp Festival. What a cool festival and town. Street was lined with motorcyclists, most of whom seemed to congregate outside the saloon. Great view of Ohio River at the end of the main street. Nice marina. Plenty of food on the street. Bands playing. Reasonably priced beer, though you had a different ticketing/token system than with the food vendors on the street.
We decided to camp at Dixon Springs State Park, nearby. This is a good place for day activities but questionable for camping. We camped there because it was convenient to Golconda and the Shrimp Festival. The park is right off IL 146, but that is one of the negatives. While camping, we could hear highway traffic all night.
Ghost Dance Canyon Trail is well worth the hike, with rock formations, small caves and a creek. However, again, you could hear the highway traffic the whole hike.
Campground was clean and it was nice to have tent campers (as we are) outnumber, or equal, RVs. But, mighty startling as we were setting up, was the loud, bellowing, otherworldly sound of chanting. We finally realized it must be coming from the Impact Incarceration camp next door to the park. We rode our bikes over, about 7pm and were greeted by a guard who told us the noise had been the prisoners engaged in tug-of-war. They quit at 7:00. However, we were awoken at 5:30, or 6:00, the next morning, to the sounds of prisoners shouting their way through calisthenics.
On the whole, a good time, though. We had a great campfire. Steaks and sweet potatoes over the open fire, bottle of wine, cards and great weather. Had another great breakfast fire, over which we perculated coffee, and made eggs, bacon and toast. Worked it all off with a bike ride through the park and a hike through the canyon.
