On the road with Jim and Pat: Hello from Eureka, IL

Hello from Eureka, IL

Saturday evening May 16, 2009 (Fourth travelogue of this trip)

We are parked in a vacant lot in the little town of Eureka, IL (map). This morning I made my last trip to Elkhart to exchange a rear view camera that I had purchased earlier this week at one of the salvage stores.

We have had almost non-stop rain for the past few days. Indeed, it rained most of the days we were in Goshen. As I had mentioned, we were parked next to a small river. It was at least 15 feet below our level when we pulled in, but this morning it was up at least 5 feet over the original level we experienced. On our way here, we saw many fields that were severely flooded. Some spots on highway US 24 had several inches of water in the low spots.

It had also rained a great deal in Iowa on our way out and then on the way to Goshen. When I went to drive the truck, it ran terribly. It took several minutes for the engine to get hot enough to dry out the ignition.

It rained most of the way today as well. We are ready to get back to the dry Colorado weather!

On Mothers' day we went to Amish Acres in Nappanee. This is a preserved Amish farm as well as a theater and large restaurant. We had made reservations for the play (Nunsense II: The Second Coming) and then dinner. The theater has been converted from a huge round barn. It seats about 400 people. The play was about 5 nuns and their lives. It was a very fun and enjoyable play, We took the walking tour which also included a wagon ride pulled by an old Farmall tractor. Dinner was another great Amish-style dinner. Pat got her play ticket free, since it was Mothers' day.

Monday we spent the morning setting up our booth for the Monaco America rally. In the afternoon we did some tourist type things in Shipshewana and then went to Elkhart to the salvage store (again).

The rally was Tuesday through Thursday. We had signed up for the meals which included 3 breakfasts and 3 dinners. The breakfasts and two of the dinners were catered by the Essenhaus which is the restaurant we mentioned in our last post. Great food!

The Wednesday dinner was really a great experience. The group split up and went to various Amish homes for dinner. About 70 of us went to the Yoder Home. Another great Amish meal. The Amish were typically farmers, but their population has grown so much in recent years that many have started cottage industries, since there is not enough farm land available to support all of the families. These group dinners are one of those industries. They build buildings separate from the house. Electricity is not allowed in the house, but the dinner hall can have electricity. We are not sure if our building had electricity. The lights were gas fired and we did not see anything in the kitchen powered by electricity. We did see a small generator working outside the building, but it was not big enough to run any kitchen appliance.

The people at this rally were very welcoming and friendly. Several of the ladies made sure that Pat knew that she was welcome to attend their Tea. When she won a small door prize there were quite happy. Often times, the vendors are considered outside folks and virtually excluded from any of the activities. As has been the trend over the last year, our sales not that good. That was true of almost all of the vendors. The economy has really affected people's spending habits.

I am posting a few photos. The first one is from the RV Museum mentioned in our last post. The picture of the “wild” male turkey was taken at Amish Acres. Another photo shows the ruts in one of the roads around Shipshewana. The horses seem to travel in the same path on the road and their steel shoes wear a distinctive pattern in the pavement. We found many of the roads in the area had these wear patterns. Another photo shows our group dinner at the Yoder house. If you look closely, you will see the gas light in the ceiling.

Probably our favorite photo is the buggies in front of the Wells Fargo Bank in Shipshewana. As I mentioned in our last post, I went into the bank and there were several Amish folks doing their banking. At that time there were six to eight buggies at the same hitching rail as that shown in the photo.

Pat and I don't know exactly why, but we are very fascinated by the Amish lifestyle. It is not possible to put into words how their very basic lifestyle is somehow comforting to us. When we left today is was kind of sad.

We will probably be back in Prescott, IA tomorrow for another visit with our relatives and then back to Evergreen.

That is all for now.