Indiana and the Amish

When you are traveling through the Midwest in August, prepare to see lots of corn and soybeans growing everywhere.  Route 6 travels through small town after small town.  Tom got excited when he saw that we where approaching Nappanee in Amish Country. 

I was looking forward to finding some fresh vegetables for an afternoon lunch.  We stopped at the Amish Acres looking for some tomatoes.  Surprisingly, they had none for sale.  They did direct me to a small farm off of Route 6 which would have some.  We headed in that direction, passing a few buggies being driven by Amish.  We found a farm that offered exactly what we wanted.  Some tomatoes, some corn and some apples.  We made our purchase and got back on the road.

The skies were getting darker and we were getting hungry so we tried to find a park that we could eat some food and take a break.  We located Potato Creek State Park on the map and headed the 10 miles North to the entrance.  They wanted to charge us just to enter the park.  All I wanted was a place to have some lunch and head back on the road.  The woman in the kiosk directed us towards the entrance where they had a picnic table on a mound of grass in the parking lot.  Perfect.

We unpacked some lunch and the dogs, having a wonderful tomato salad and PB&J.  The dogs got a chance to stretch their legs and have an occasional tasted of peanut butter.  We were there for about 20 minutes, when the sky began to spit some rain drops.  Soon the spits turned to rain.  We packed the car in a hurry and headed back to 6 towards Gary, Indiana.

Loving my Farmer Tan

PB&J and Tom

The rain was coming down at a heavy rate when we got to Gary.  I was hoping to see the devastation of the town that I had heard so much about.  All we saw was lightning and rain.  There was something wrong with the road ahead, so we had to take some lefts and rights before heading out of Gary into Illinois.

A few hundred miles up the road was Jim Farley's childhood home.  His father still lives there and we made a commitment to him that we would stop and check it out.  We were headed to Peru, Illinois.  Jim also mentioned a State Park in that area called Starved Rock.  We decided that we would set up camp there when we finished finding his house.

The main street of Peru (also Route 6) was being dug up for some type of maintenance.  We took a right off of 6 and found the house we were looking for.  There was a dog across the street so we decided to leave the dogs in the car.  We jumped out and took these shots.

TravelingDogs at the Farley Homestead

Jim Farley's Childhood Home

We headed over to Starved Rock State Park.  We had to cross over the Illinois River to get there.  It was a pretty big park that appeared to be split over a few different areas.  We just kept on following the signs for camping, ignoring the prospect of the lodge situated there.  We eventually found the camping area.  We approached the kiosk, got a map and went to find a spot.  We were afraid that the grounds would be to wet, but found the grass at the campsites to be fairly dry.  Sweet!

We found a spot, unpacked the camping gear and set up the tent.  I went back to the kiosk to pay for the evening and to find out some info about the essentials needed for the night.  Ice, Wood, Beer.  He directed me towards a spot about 2 miles away, which we passed on the way in.  It was another campground with a bar on property.  I walked into the bar, asked for the essentials and within a matter of moments, with items in the car, headed back to camp.

Tom lit a fire and proceeded to cook up the amish corn.  It was fantastic.  We settled in for the night after taking a some warm showers.  The gaggle of turkeys that had met us upon our arrival had left for the night.  There were only a few other campers out, so it was a quiet evening for sleeping.  Perfect!