PRETTY COOL!

April 5, 2013
PRETTY COOL!
Amish Country Auction
MONTGOMERY, ILLINOIS

We decided to drive the country roads and see some of the Amish and Mennonite farms. It's interesting to see the contrast of lifestyles between the two orders. The Amish people are certainly the more simple; modest homes with modest amenities, horse and buggies for transportation, small schools, modest dress and looks.

We came upon a funeral procession and we stopped. You would be proud of me, Vern. Not like the last time. The procession was a mixture of cars and buggies, horses and horse power. The cars were different colors while all the buggies were black.

The Amish Auction was called Dinky's. It was a large facility and today was their first auction of the season. We arrived about 3 hours early to look around at all the stuff, gems of the prairie. As we walked around and surveyed used, well used, and very well used merchandise, people kept bringing in more and more. There were 9 different auctions going on at the same time after they started at 6:00.

We especially enjoyed the small poultry and "critter" auction. I think their auctioneer was the best one! It was fun to watch the big Amish man pick up the baby goats, pot belly pigs, ducks, all kinds of chicks, geese, turkeys, and many others, and hold them up for bidders to see. A couple of people were really stocking up! Looked like they were starting their first farm!

A lot of people turned out for this auction and a lot of people were buying. It was fast moving and one had to pay close attention to bidding to not lose out on a bargain. These guys talk REALLY FAST!!

It was a fun evening. I really wanted to get the grandkids a Pot Belly Pig but didn't want to haul them around in the Sienna!

INDIANA

INDIANA

Indiana Sightseeing
Not much going on in Santa Claus today. Apparently, he is still vacationing in the Bahamas after a very busy winter! We ran to the Post Office to mail a couple of things. From there we drove around sightseeing.

We headed out to visit the historic site of the Lincoln homestead, where young Abe Lincoln grew up. He was actually born in Kentucky. Because of some confusion and corruption in the government regarding land ownership, his father took a trip into Indiana and laid claim to a 160 acre piece of land and moved his family across the border to start a new life. It was interesting to think about Abe as a young man growing up and working around here. This area is now a National Monument and, as usual, my "Codger Card" got us in for free!

Time to move on. We located an historic covered bridge and finally found it about 10 miles out in the Indiana boonies. Huffman's Mill Bridge, built 150 years ago, was only recently mothballed. It still stands for pedestrian traffic and photos. This was also the site of a Gristmill where young Abe Lincoln and other local settlers brought grain and corn on horseback to get it ground.

From here we drove to St. Meinrad and walked around the Benedictine Archabbey and snapped a few pictures. The Monastery was a beautiful piece of artwork. It looked much like the European Catholic churches we toured. The Benedictine tradition came to the Midwest in the 1850s, when the Swiss Abbey of Einsiedeln sent two monks to Indiana to start a new foundation. About 90 Monks live and work here today. This is still the Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. It is also the home of The Abbey Press where many publications we've seen are printed.

After a quick sandwich in the gift shop cafe, we headed North to visit the Toyota factory. We found out that this is the place where our Sienna was born! We could not get a bonafide tour today but we did have a look around in the Visitors Center. They had the history of Toyota on posters and displays. We saw a brand new 1965 Toyota Corolla alongside of a 2013 Highlander in the Center. They have a fly away view of a Tundra hanging from the ceiling by a series of braces, wires and cables. Pretty cool! Too bad they did not allow photographs.

As we left, our Sienna wanted to pose for a photo in front of the Visitors Center and we complied.

We were now just a bit over an hour from our destination. We were headed for Amish country. We are staying in Montgomery, IN at Gasthof Inn, an Amish village. Our evening dinner was in the Amish Restaurant next door, a superb place to eat.
Tomorrow, we explore!

SANTA CLAUS, IN

SANTA CLAUS, INDIANA

After the Enfield Monster scare, we left Enfield and drove NE towards a little place called Santa Claus, in Indiana. We thought it might be a good place to spend the night. This time of year is "off season" so it's not too crowded at Santa Claus. But it's interesting to be in a town already ready for Christmas! In a couple of months they open for tourists who flock here for camping, amusement park rides, water park and all kinds of events and activities.

Tonight we are staying in Santa Claus Lodge.
Hey, Maybe tomorrow we'll see the old guy!

ENFIELD, ILLINOIS

ENFIELD, ILLINOIS

We left Interstate 64, taking a state highway toward Mill Shoals, thinking about food. We desperately tried to find something in south Illinois to go see. We kept driving and reading and surfing the Internet, but to no avail. Apparently nothing happened in this part of the state...ever! We had a hunch that Mill Shoals would have something. But there was nothing to eat in this town. We saw no cars and no people, as well! The city limit sign said the population was 200. We decided to continue driving and take the back roads to our destination in Indiana.

The countryside was brown, gray and vacant. So far not one vehicle came up behind me as I was driving the double nickels speed limit, and the Illinoisy's drove faster than me all the time! What I mean is that traffic was scarce. Then off in the distance I saw the headlights of a car with a half dozen others behind the first as they rounded the curve. As we neared the vehicles, I commented as to an apparent rush hour in the country. But as I drove past them we noticed the first car was long, black and shiny! Oops! Sorry, Vern! I didn't mean to show disrespect for the dead. The little town of Springerton, population 109, apparently, now, would be 108.

Just up the road a couple of miles was the town of Enfield. It was a much larger town with a population of 650. Debby spied a small sign nailed on a stick that had an arrow pointing the way to BILLY BOB AND NINA'S RESTAURANT. apparently, it was THE place to eat in Enfield. It was also the ONLY place to eat. The food was good, especially the homemade pie and cobbler. Too bad we didn't get here earlier. Tuesday is Fried Rabbit day! BUMMER!

As we sat there I decided to see if anything ever happened in Enfield, so I pulled out my IPhone and checked Google, the source of all knowledge. Right below "Endfield, IL" was "Enfield Monster". I was curious. Here is part of their story:
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"There, standing on his stoop, was the same red-eyed monstrosity that had terrified his own children and assailed the Garret child less than an hour before. McDaniel backed away from the entity in horror, slammed the door, stumbled to nearby closet and retrieved a flashlight and his .22 pistol.

While his horrified family waited, Henry returned to the door and — with the conviction of a man dead set on defending his family and home — threw it back open, revealing that his first vision of this unbelievable beast had not been an hallucination. Later, McDaniel described the creature to the police:

“It had three legs on it, a short body, two little short arms coming out of its breast area and two pink eyes as big as flashlights. It stood four and a half feet tall and was grayish-colored… it was trying to get into the house!”
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Okay, I'm back. So, 4-1/2', glassy eyes, and grayish, kind of sounds like a Codger! I KNOW some of those guys!

Go ahead and Google "Enfield IL Monster", read the whole story.

So, see! Something DID happen in Enfield, Illinois!

CAPE GIRARDEAU

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO

We ended our stay in Searcy after our lunch date with Paige. We dropped her off at Harding and then headed for the Freeway. The drive all day was uneventful. There was little traffic to contend with and we made it to Cape Girardeau in plenty of time before dark.

We drove across Cape Girardeau Bridge, spanning the mighty Mississippi River and into the State of Illinois. We turned around and returned to Missouri and headed towards downtown old town. Many of the buildings are unique; worth seeing.

We headed back to The Auburn Place Hotel. It was time for dinner so we walked across the street to CRACKER BARREL Restaurant. Life is good when a Cracker Barrel is near. (Other times too!).

Tomorrow we head for Illinois.

HARDING UNIVERSITY, SEARCY, AR

SEARCY, ARKANSAS

Leaving Branson about 0900, we set out for Arkansas, my old home state. Our first stop was Mountain Home, AR. The Tackett family has lived here for more than 40 years. Although the population is about 12,000, Harold said its doubled since they moved here. Retiring from the USAF, he took up full time fishing the nearby Norfolk Lake. It was a tough life but he caught fish! It was great seeing them again! This was our third visit since I first met them in Angeles City, The Philippines, where we were stationed at Clark Air Force Base. Harold, June, Kathy and Vicky were my family away from home and I spent a lot of time at their house. I think the kids were 7 and 13 and a lot of fun to be around. This trip has been amazing to renew old acquaintances! Thank you Harold, June and Kathy for taking time for lunch! We also got to have lunch with David Pitchford and his wife. David was a fellow teenager when we lived in Kansas back in the 60's.

We arrived in Searcy about 4:30 and grabbed a room at the La Quinta, then headed two miles down the road to Harding University. We are a out 150 miles from where I grew up as a kid. We started texting our Metro teens and met up with, Stephanie Hoover, whom we almost missed as we had no phone directory with us! We also met Loryn McCaughan, David Gallespie, Shelby Trauber and Zach Hailey, all students from our home church in Oregon. We took them to dinner at Chili's and had a wonderful fellowship of food and laughter. It's always great to see familiar faces when traveling far from home! And good food to hungry teens is like baiting a bear trap.......they always come!

Our meeting was great! They are such wonderful kids and we love them! Later in the evening we went to the home of Kyle and Rebecca Williams, a newly wed couple, also from Oregon that we've known for a while. In fact, Rebecca has been on two of our Wilderness Treks with us! She is a lot of fun to be around. They are seniors, graduating this year and moving back to Oregon. Kyle is taking a position as Youth Minister! We has a great, but short, visit, and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Today we meet up with one more student. Debby's cousin, Paige Spiller, is also a student. We are picking her up for lunch. She's one of our favorite people in the whole world and have known her all life. It will be a fun day!

God is good, all the time!

BRANSON, MO

BRANSON, MISSOURI

We ate our usual breakfast with Debby's Mom Sunday morning in Mount Vernon. Later we kissed her good bye and headed for Ozark, MO, South Street Church of Christ to worship this Easter Sunday with Debby's sister, Teri and her son, Cody. It was a great service in a smaller congregation than we are from, but the message of the folded linen was very good.

After church we headed for Lambert's, home of the "throwed rolls", a southern restaurant noted by great southern food and a guy walking around with hot, dinner rolls, ready to chuck them clear across the restaurant to upheld hands. Other waiters walked around with big pans of other foods like, fried okra, fried potatoes, tomatoes, sorghum molasses and black-eyed peas, dishing generously and as often as you like. Debby ordered a Chicken Fried Steak while I decided to try the center cut ham steak. The food is served in a 14" skillet with two sides. My ham covered 2/3rds of the skillet! We brought food home for later!

We holed up in Branson for the night in Mom's house just relaxing. We finished sorting our things, laundry and packing the car a little better. It was a good evening.