Then we watched her walk back. We rolled down the window, and she said that she was focusing so hard on not forgetting the parking ticket, that she forgot her keys! We couldn’t believe it! But we did the only thing we could do, which was hop back in the car and go back to her house to get them and then come all the way back. I won’t lie, it sucked. But it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world and we were soon on our way again.
We drove right by Chicago. Last Thanksgiving we had actually went out and visited, so it wasn't a big deal that we didn't go into the city. I still snuck a few pictures of it, but it was a little smoggy. We also passed by the Chicago White Sox baseball stadium. I think it’d be fun one day to take a road trip to different baseball fields.
After that, we quickly came upon the lovely—heavy sarcasm—state of Indiana. Right from the get-go my mom and I did not like this state. The first thing we did was pass through the toll. It took forever. There was a line of like 10 cars and it was crawling by. Finally when we get close, we see what the hold up is. There isn’t an attendant taking your money, but a machine! And I have to add that there are no signs telling you how much money to have ready until you get right up to it.
So anyway, this older woman was in front of us. She must have been 80-years old judging by how much her hand was shaking. But here she is trying so hard to line up the dollar to put it in the little machine. And then she has to put in a couple of corners. My mom felt so bad she was ready to jump out of the car to help her.
Then it’s our turn. Of course we only have a $20 bill for the $1.50 toll. So we put it in and then we hear the clanking of coins. And would you believe it, but it gave us $18.50 in gold dollars and quarters!! I didn’t even know people still used those! However, we gladly gave most of these coins back to Indiana in all the different tolls we passed.
We stopped at a welcome center in Indiana and found out that we were only 15 minutes from South Bend. I didn't know the significance of this until today, but that meant we were very close to Notre Dame. Of course we went to visit and it was a very beautiful campus. The bookstore was huge and I decided to buy a shirt. I probably won't be there again, so it was definitely a cool stop.
East Indiana wasn’t very pretty, but once you hit Amish Country it was very pretty with tons of farms. I might add that Ohio is now the 4th state of corn. It’s amazing how much corn there is—but only about %12 of all the corn grown in the U.S. is actually eaten by people.
We went to this family style restaurant called Das Dutchman Essenhaus. Here’s the link to a site about it: http://www.essenhaus.com/. (Just as a side note, I think it’s weird that there are websites about the Amish Country. It kind of goes against everything they stand for). But anyway, this was some of the best food I’ve had. They served us amazing fried chicken, with mashed potatoes, stuffing, chicken noodles, and corn. Our waitress was very nice but it was really interesting overhearing her conversation with the man next to us. He asked her if the french fries were the best, and said that she liked them, but had never had anybody else’s fries before. It’s so interesting that there are these towns of people living a completely different life than the town right next to them. There really was no fine line between Amish Country and the rest of Indiana.
After dinner, we got to pick a piece of homemade pie. My mom picked banana cream pie and I picked Dutch apple pie. It was the most amazing apple pie I have ever had. I wish I could go back all the time, but sadly it’s in the middle of a state I really didn’t like. We did a little shopping of the touristy stuff they have, and then we had to hit the road again.
On our way out of Amish Country, we realized the highway was only a half a mile away from Michigan. So of course we stopped by to take a picture of the sign and say that we’ve been there. That was our last stop though before Aurora, Ohio.
We are so lucky to know people in Ohio. The parents of our long-time family friend have graciously opened their home (and kitchen) to us. It’s been so fun to see them in their beautiful house, instead of seeing them in California when they come to visit their daughter and grandkids.
We’ve decided that we’re going to stop again tomorrow before Connecticut so that we’re not rushing the whole day. Not sure where we’ll end up, but I’m glad we don’t have to leave here at the crack of dawn and instead we can enjoy a good breakfast with fun company.
Really enjoying these posts. You guys are having a trip to remember!
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