Day Three: Travel and Rain

Day three started out with rain. It also ended with rain. And nearly the entire time in the middle was rain-filled too.

I can’t tell you how much fun it was making a million and one trips from Travis’s to Fran’s car this morning. In my family we have a saying of looking/feeling “like a drowned rat”. And really. I took a shower and after one trip to the car, I felt like a drowned rat already. Even though I had an umbrella.

It did not matter how well things fit in the trunk, if we could shove it in somehow and get the trunk to close it was good enough. Things probably aren’t as neat as they should be on only the third day but we weren’t about to straighten everything out in the absolute torrential rain.

We took off, and said goodbye to Travis and Chicago.

Our next stop was to Amish Acres, the place I found on RoadtripAmerica.com the other day. We stopped somewhere in Indiana to get gas, for $3.72. Not sure of the name of the town, but it could very easily have been called Hickville. Already felt as though we were in the deep south. We were lucky too, because as we were leaving the parking lot, the gas price went up to $3.88.

Made it to Amish Acres a little before two. I knew we were close when I saw an Amish man riding his bike across the street, and I may or may not have squealed with delight, but not enough to wake a sleeping Fran next to me.

We bought our tickets for a farm and house tour, a wagon ride, and a documentary view for $12.  The woman told us our trip would be the first to include the wagon ride for the day because the rain hadn’t allowed for it earlier in the day. So once again, we got pretty lucky with our timing.

For those of you from Wisconsin, the place reminded me a bit of Old World Wisconsin. We were both pretty disappointed there weren’t actual Amish people at this place, but I feel like we learned something at least.  Was a little hard to hear the tour guide sometimes with this old grandma who was shouting things to her daughter the entire time, who kept shushing her  saying “the lady is trying to talk!”. Made me laugh.

The Farm and House tour was first, followed by a little break and then the Wagon ride. During the break we went to the gift shop. I bought some apple butter which was super cheap, and a postcard to send Kaity and Shae.

The garden

The home

I think this is where they dry the fruits..

Three generations of the Amish family who lived in the home. The guide said she had no idea how the photographer convinced them to let him take their picture considering they don't normally do that sort of thing...

Typical Amish Clothing

The chicken egg incubater (took this one for Kaity and Shae!!)

The Kitchen... Learned that the Amish often have the colors blue, green, and brown in their homes, to represent the sky, the ground, and the soil.

Original kitchen cabinentry

Stove

Bedroom

living room-ish area. They Amish don't believe in closets, so they hang their clothes around the house. I think i'd need to add on to the home just to make room for my clothes.

The blue bed against the wall is where you went if you were sick. mmm.

milk barn

When we walked back outside, we knew it was only a matter of time before the sky dropped yet again. We went and grabbed our umbrellas and waited for the wagon ride. We made it halfway, to the one room school house before it started pouring. We all met in the school house for a little and then got back on the wagon to finish the ride. However, half of the seats were SOAKED with rain water. The guide lady was just like “well it’s just water, it’ll drive and we can’t leave until everyone is seated”  so… I sat. And regretted it not three seconds later when I notice a towel is being passed around to dry the seats. UGH.

                                                              buggy. and rain water. told you so.

Nappanee, IN (where this was)

raining. this is the school house we took shelter in.

Kids had to memorize a bible phrase that was kept on the board every week.

Fran took a picture of my wet pants. I hope none of you ever see it.

So yes, I walked around with wet pants the rest of the afternoon. Last time I follow directions.

Next up was the documentary. Fran bought some buttermilk Amish cookies and so we each ate one while watching the documentary. I felt like I was in high school, obligated to watch a movie until the bell rang. Fran just looked at me after a while and was like “um. Do you want to watch the rest of this?”

So we left, and hit the road again.

Next stop? Erie, PA. 5.5 hours away. 
                                                                              197 miles before a turn!!

I’m in the car right now, typing this all out on a word document (as a PASSENGER, mind you.) and I can honestly say, I don’t think we’ve had more than 5 minutes of rain free time the entire drive. This whole storm system has followed us the entire way. The lightning is beautiful, but really. I just want the rain to stop. I guess I am thankful that we didn’t have this weather yesterday.

Fran and I have taken turns driving, have listened to some awesome CD mixes made for us by friends, and putzed around on my Kindle.

I realized In Indiana that I forgot my bed sheet that I brought to Chicago at Travis’s. SO mad about that. I love that sheet. Reminds me of home and now I don’t have anything to cover with when I want to nap in the car. I thought I was super diligent while going through his apartment to make sure I had everything, but obviously not diligent enough.

BAH. I will get it back, eventually.

We stopped for dinner at Wendy’s. We hadn’t really eaten normal food all day besides a bowl of cereal in the morning (gushers and a buttermilk cookie… doesn’t really count) and a peanut butter sandwich wasn’t quite cutting it. We had a nice lady named Sheila at the counter who took our order. She was quite animated and stopped by our table later asking if we’d fill out a comment card and mention her name. Fran took it and filled it out, marking everything excellent and praising Sheila to an extreme, just for fun and to be nice. Fran handed the card back to Sheila at the counter and I swear, Fran made this woman’s MONTH. She turned to her co-workers and was like “LISTEN TO WHAT SHE SAID ABOUT ME!!! :D”

Haha made me remember how little things like that can legitimately brighten up someone else’s day.

Anyways, it’s 10pm here (Easter Time) and we’re still 40 minutes from the Hotel. Pretty excited to have a bed to sleep in tonight.

The lady at the Amish place told us that she went to Erie once and highly recommended the boat tours. She also said a stop by Hershey, PA to get some chocolate wouldn’t be a bad idea. We’ll see what we have time for tomorrow. We may go for a run by the lake tomorrow morning… didn’t do too much walking today and won’t do too much tomorrow either.

Tomorrow will be a long drive through southern NY to Beverly, MA to stay with my sister.

Can’t wait!

*with any luck, pictures will be added tomorrow*