Jones' on the Road: August 2006

Alice writes:

We just spent a soggy couple of days in Middlebury, IN - Amish country! What a cool experience. Horses and buggies everywhere - even toured the town of Shipshewana by buggy at a blazing speed of about 3 mph. Dined at a local Amish eating spot - all of us so interested in Amish families - buggies tied up in parking lot right next to cars, fresh faces on all the children, beards in all shades and so very friendly to us "gawkers'. We toured the Menno-Hof Amish/Mennonite Visitors Center - wow! A beautiful building built in 6 days as a community project - if you have a chance look this place up on the web. It was nice way to start our time here as we felt as though we had a better understanding of these cultures before we ecountered them. We wondered if you lived here how long it would take to get used to seeing gas lights at night in homes, buggies and bicycles cruising along the road.

While the boys went off today to the RV Heritage Museum in Elkhart, I spent some time on the geat quilt hunt.....had seen some yesterday and couldn't decide so went back to this wonderful Amish home where there was no electricity - looking at quilts on a cloudy day inside was bit of a challenge, but........I found a treasure! I found throw size log cabin pattern that we will take home and use in our cottage. The whole experience of meeting, choosing and then purchasing Edna's handiwork was a memorable experience.

Being in Amish country certainly reminds one to slow down and enjoy the moments and i was nice to have an some extra time here.

We have just arrived in East Harbor State Park, near Port Clinton, OH. Am cooking some beef stew that I put together from farm raised beef and stew base that I picked up this morning in an Amish store on the way out of town. With some crusty home baked bread - we should have a great supper. Boys are outside throwing football, loving stretching their legs after several days of little outside activities b/c of weather. East Harbor State Park is on Lake Erie and we hope to have time to see the lighthouse at Marblehead tomorrow - the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the Great Lakes. This park is beautiful - nice to be out and away from sights and sounds of any city, and NO RAIN! Hope the weather holds as we have plans for a great campfire this evening!

Blue Earth, MN

Side trip to see the Jolly Green Giant

Here are a few pics from our time in Madison. Again, having some technical difficulty so will post more photos later. I actually hesitated even putting these on as I don't want to offend anyone's sensitivities. On our last day in Madison, we went to see the downtown area and encountered a Neo-Nazi rally. There was certainly a strong showing of prostestors and it was an interesting event to observe to say the least. Generated lots of good conversation with Noah. We left as the Nazi's made their entrance and did not stay to hear any of the speeches - went on to enjoy a wonderful lunch in a little Greek restaurant and then a walk through the Univ. of Wisc. campus for great ice cream, overlooking Mendota lake - a much better parting memory.

While in Madison, we experienced the true midwestern storms and Bart and Heidi were kind enough to invite us to stay in their home - lots of strong rain, thunder and lightening. The night before we arrived they had had several tornado alarms go off in the night! Were glad we didn't encounter that - although we did learn later that a tornado touched down just north of the route we had traveled the day before on our way to Madison. The storms knocked out phone and internet service for the time we were there so will spend some time playing catch up the next few days.

We are in Middlebury, IN and will explore surrounding Amish communities tomorrow and, surprise, surprise - may tour an rv factory!!!

Capital Building in Madison lit at night

Lots to look at........rally in Madison, WI

Drummers on the street at the rally

The city is prepared

Rally at the capital, Madison, WI

Rally at the capital in Madison, WI

Alice writes -

Oops - I was reminded by my astute brother - thanks, Tommy - that we had neglected to post our pics from our visit to the Poppens'. We had some technical difficulty that day with loading photos and I forgot to go back and do it. So here they are - the ones at the end would have been much funnier had I gotten them in the right order, but you get the idea. We are having fun!

Tommy - the windmills are 274 feet tall and have a staircase inside the column for workers to get to the engine at the top. My understanding is that most often farmers lease their land to the power companies - and the companies reap the rewards. The windmills operate year round but I don't know how much wind there has to be to make it move. The pics I posted were the most we saw in one spot - have seen other areas that had just 2 or 3.

Now off to bed........