From Amish Country to Pro Football

While we were in the South Bend area we went to the town of Shipshewana to see the Hostetler’s Hudson Auto Museum, which turned out to be a good private collection of a classic car. The Hudson was a sleek car that had lots of innovations like safety glass before they appeared on other cars.  

True horse power at the gas station in Shipshewana

The real highlight of our time in Shipshewana turned out to be learning about the surrounding Amish community. When our GPS sent us in the opposite direction of the rest of the traffic on the road to Shipshewana we were leery but the back way into the town took us down country roads lined with Amish farms. Driving by them we saw  ground-driven farm equipment we had only heard about. Shipshewana itself was filled with tourists but also with Amish bakeries, horses and carriages, beautiful handmade furniture, and Amish culture. We were lucky enough to strike up a conversation with a local historian who told us about the Amish and how craftsmen in the area still create crafts in the traditional ways.

There were a series of gardens throughout the area planted to mimic quilt patterns.  This garden in Shipshewana is planted in the pattern of a double nine patch.

Another striking thing we noticed about Amish country was the food. Everywhere there were jams, jellies, plenty of baked goods and ice cream. After a long day of sightseeing we couldn't resist an ice cream cone at the Amish ice cream stand outside Shipshewana.

Hey, only one is mine--the other is for Russ.

Our time in Amish country continued when we moved from Indiana to Ohio where we stayed in Mount Eaton, a small town with a large Amish community. Several of the employees at our RV park were Amish as was the only grocery store in town where barefoot kids in bonnets and straw hats followed  their mothers through the store. As we filled up the RV for our trip out of town Russ waved at an Amish boy in a passing buggy who gave Russ a shy wave in return.   

On the county road from Mount Eaton to the interstate we towered over the buggy in front of our RV while we waited for oncoming traffic to clear so we could pass.  Just as we started to pass a little girl in a bonnet popped up in the carriage and looked back at us with a wide-eyed look at our big rig. You can barely see the two little heads of the children in this photo of the carriage I took from the front seat of the RV.

Just outside Mount Eaton we saw an oat field where the oats had been harvested by hand and gathered in shocks before being processed with a thrasher to separate out the grain. We know from experience how hard farm work can be, so we respected the ability of the Amish to farm using only horsepower.

Can you spot me in this photo?

It was surreal passing buggies on the road and 30 minutes later being in the Professional Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The Hall of Fame was initially the reason we came to this part of Ohio. All Russ has to say about the Hall of Fame is that now he’s been there. It didn't  include as much about the history of the game as we expected like recognition of the outstanding seasons of the great Viking and Bears teams that used to dominate the game.

There were just a few examples of early equipment like this helmet and football. In our purely subjective opinion, both the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame were a let down.