Our Visit to Indiana

Part Deux

Greetings,

We are wrapping up our visit to Indiana and trying to squeeze in as much as possible, so I’ll just share some random observations on this part of our great summer vacation.

Before I get to that, thanks to all of you who wrote and said nice things about the first Indiana installment and special thanks to those who hated it and didn’t write. I had one sticky email and that was from my cousin (I never know where Charles sends my little stories), but that’s family and you can’t do much about that.

Now, back to the observations;

·       Lots of Amish people here, it’s like a step back in time—the cute kids, the buggies and horses and the best homemade pies you’ll ever eat.

·       Re: the above, all of the food, without exception, has been really good- this is the first time I’ve ever said this about a whole state other than my own.

·       The town of Middlebury (sorry about the name being in error on the 1^st installment) is lovely, tree lined streets, craftsman styled homes with wide front porches and people actually sitting out there, another step back in time.

·       People are so kind, to us –to each other, perhaps it’s the influence of the Amish but even when I was driving that big fat truck in the middle of town and paused in the middle of the street waiting for Charles or the GPS to tell me what to do, no one honked or yelled or saluted me with their only working finger, not one single time.

·       We actually got to visit the place where the box was made (the box or the chocolate box is my term of affection for the Evergreen 31 RLS that is our home for months at a time).  Visiting the factory was such fun and we met lots of the folks who make all of our rvs.  They were all very busy and extremely gracious to make time for us and answer questions , some of which I am sure were goofy, but this is our first rv. I know you’re going to be really jealous but, we actually got to meet Steve, the guy who does the I GO commercials and even though he is a celebrity now he’s still just a sweet , down to earth guy. We visited with Doug Lantz a super nice person that we met last winter in Austin , we saw pictures of his 5 great looking kids.  Although I still hold Doug sort of responsible for showing us the Element and causing  some crazy conversations in our home. We love the look of that thing. It is so gorgeous.

·       We toured South Bend and drove through Notre Dame—we saw the iconic gold dome, the football stadium and the statue of Knute Rockne.  How cool is that?

·       We visited 2 great museums, the National Studebaker Museum and the RV Museum, neither of which do not rely on your tax dollars and are extremely well done.

·       All of the towns that we’ve seen are really clean.  This amazes me because where we live has a huge litter problem, always has.  But, with the cute buggies and horses comes…well how can I put this delicately…the horses leave…well, leavings…When we were in Machinac and New Orleans those horses wore diaper bags, these horses don’t…so I wondered and then finally asked and this nice lady told me that nature takes care of it, that it dries to a fine powder and poof! Blows away in the wind or washes away in the rain. Odd little factoid, but there may be one other person out there who is curious and now you know. I did warn you that these would be random observations.

I always like to close my meanderings with a Charles story, as he is not only my wonderful husband but he is also the best muse a woman could have.

We went to Shipshewanna,( try it , it’s fun to say and pronounced exactly as written).  Shipshewanna is the largest flea market and shopping opportunity in the Midwest, again, who knew? We went for me to shop and Charles was going to the Hudson Auto Museum.  After an hour he called me and we met at the designated spot.  He told me that the museum was closed today due to a

quilting festival.  So I said

P:            “So, what have you been doing?”

C:           “Oh, just looking around.”

P:            “Look what I found, these cute shorts and 2 new shirts.  Did you shop?” I was being facetious here, this man does not shop, and for good reason, the last time he did, he bought cowboy boots, I asked if we were getting a ranch, he failed to see the humor. He hates to shop except for motorcycles and hardware.

C:           “Yeah I found a chair.”

P:            “A chair, like a regular put it in the living room , that kind of chair?!!”

C:           “Yes, I want you to see it-BUT I want to put it in the RV. It’s made by local craftsmen and it’s really comfortable.”

P:            “Seriously, Charles I mean couldn’t you just buy a T-Shirt?”

So off we go to see a beautiful, albeit rather huge chair.  We actually measure it and then go traipsing  back to the box---he measures the old chair and the space..Our box came with 2 rocking chairs and I was constantly tripping over those long legs and feet in the middle of the floor so I suggested that we take one of the chairs out and the space is incredible and he can be sideways, no more tripping…Then I ask him

P:            “What are you going to do with the old chair?”

C:           “Well, we’ll just put it over there where your chair used to be.”

Every fiber of my being is screaming NO but I have to stay calm…

P:            “For the whole trip, the chair is going to be squashed in there with the huge new chair?”

C:           “What? What is the problem?”

I’m getting a little panicky thinking about the door being blocked for the next three months. But then….

P:            “Ok , how are you going to get it in the rv, are you going to ask the folks at Evergreen to cut a hole in the roof and drop it?”

He looks at the door and then

C:           “Oh”.

End of discussion.

Once again, thanks for listening and please pray for us as we head out for Maine, as you can see we really need it.

THE WIFE