At The Table

It has been great driving around northern Indiana seeing all the sights, including Amish buggies, lakes,  small towns full of unique shops but we also took time to eat.  Let me tell you the people in this part of the country do know how to cook and bake and fry and roast and smoke - well you get the picture.  Everywhere you go there are places to purchase hand-made cheeses, candies, canned and pickled vegetables and some of the best baked goods you have every put in you mouth.

There is a place called Rise & Roll Bakery just outside of Middlebury, Indiana where you walk in the door and want at least one of everything they have on display.  You can gain 5 lbs. just breathing the air inside.  Just down the road from them is the Guggisberg Deutsch Kase Haus Cheese Factory with over 20 kinds of hand-made cheeses that are all out of this world.  Believe me you will not go hungry around here.



In addition to what you can buy to take home there is a restaurant on every corner with home-made meals served family style.  Every meal is topped off with a large selection of pies, each better than the one you tried the last time.  Thank goodness there are also many bike and walking paths to counter-balance some of that great eating.  I just have to remember to do more of the walking and less of the eating.

Part of the walking has been through the woods to find the every allusive morel mushrooms, more commonly know as yellow sponge.  I am glad for friends and family who have shared some of their findings as I have logged over 12 hours in the woods and have found a whooping 7 mushrooms.  At least I can't be accused of hogging more than my share.

Farming Unplugged

If you have ever farmed or lived in a farming area you will appreciate all the work that goes in to doing everything with horses.  I could not believe how easily the Amish can handle a six or eight horse hitch and how much ground they can cover in one day.  It was fun to watch one field being plowed by a tractor with eight huge tires and a 24 row disk and across the road a 4 row disk pulled by eight horses.

I think the reduction in overhead is what makes them do what I showed them doing in a past blog - making a trip to Wells Fargo Bank.  It's good to have the men in the field as it gives the women time to do all the great cooking we have been sampling.


Until next time - Unplug and travel safe
Jim (unplugged)

Turn Back the Page

You don't need a time machine if you visit this part of Indiana.  My wife and I really enjoyed seeing all the horse and buggies darting everywhere but I am sure it would be different if you lived here all the time.  I did notice one thing that I found interesting, they still need Wells Fargo Bank to store all that money they tell you they don't have.

                                                                                         

Back Home Again in Indiana

Okay, we are completely setup and starting to enjoy the surrounding sights.  Yesterday we took a short drive to Napanee - the very heart of Amish Country.  A close friend told us about a place , Rentown where you can buy some of the best cheese in the world at some really, really cheap prices.  I may never go to the bathroom again if what my mom told be about cheese is true.  I'll do more research on that subject before I eat all the cheese.  In addition we picked up some homemade noodles which is just what we needed for the cool weather that has moved in.  My wife combined them with some white meat chicken, a little celery, carrots and some secret spices and my life warmed up to topical level.

We have dodged many horse and buggies on the highways and byways of the area.  It is so cool to go back to a simpler time and how uncomplicated life can be.  Then you see the buggy veer into the parking lot of your local Walmart or through the drive-thru at Arby's and pick up a beef & cheddar with curly fries to go.  It kind of punches a hole in the whole romantic view of the simpler times but at least they don't blow by with only the loud bass sounds rattling your side mirror. I will go out tomorrow with the camera and try to get some pictures of this unusual mode of transportation.  I say try as they are not big on getting their picture taken but for my followers I will put my life on the line.

As I had mentioned earlier it had turned a bit cold here and will be that way for the remainder of the week.  It was nearly 8o degrees over the week-end and last night we had the furnace running to keep our toes warm.  Still better than the snow we would have had if we would have been back in Colorado last week.  I need the sun to come out bright so I can find some morels (yellow sponge) mushrooms.  My wife and I have not had any for many, many years and I will spend days in the woods if needed to come up with these small treasures.

I'll be in touch soon with more B-side/Unplugged info - have great travels.  Jim (unplugged)

Well after two overnight stops from Colorado to Indiana we made it to the Hoosier State without any problems at all until we got here.  We could not get the RV leveled the first day and no one was at the RV Park besides us so no one to give me the advise you always get from your camping friends.  It took us two days to get setup when it should have been about two hours.  As a final act we had the jaws on our fifth wheel hitch release before we had the front jacks completely down and let the RV rolls back.  The pin came out of the lock and the RV dropped down on the back of the truck putting a big dent in the bed rail and bent out the tailgate.  We will have the truck fixed and no one was hurt so it is forward with life.  Last night we even got a chance to set down in our new gravity chairs and have a beer.  Ain't retirement great.

We will start looking over the surrounding area tomorrow and I will be giving you some great B-side/Unplugged places to visit if you are ever it this area.  I will be snapping some photos of the local sites and giving you some insight of the Amish culture as we are smack in the middle of their country.

Until later I'm wishing you great travels and warm memories.

Jim (unplugged)

Snow to White Sand

This is the scene we will soon be leaving behind and heading for the sun.  I will keep you posted on where we will be, what we are doing and where we are going.  I will also give you some insight on why I chose the name of this blog.