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!