Indiana

The week off is over. It was fun and my cousins have a home to be envied. More resort than home.  Nice to know we are welcome anytime we pass through. Thanks again to them.
We kidnapped one of the cousins.  Brandon (11) who joined us for a month last year will be with us for two weeks. His mom could barely see him go. He is a gymnast and a good acrobat.  he will be learning the trapeze and lyra too. He may even try the tissue or aerial silk (it goes by many names).

Our drive was uneventful except we saw a whole bunch of Amish. I mean they were all over the place.  We avoided the turnpike so we went rural highways and still made it here in great time. But as we got into Indiana we started seeing buggies and bicyclists, all Amish. Many buggies were parked in front of what I would say were pretty normal looking country homes.  There was even what looked like a buggy dealership.  Now the bike-riders were interesting. They all wore wool caps on their heads. Why?

AS we got into town, just 5 minutes and 2 blogs from our hotel the police had all the turns that we needed blocked off due to the heavy fair traffic. So we ended up driving out of town turning around and driving to the other side then down back roads to get to our hotel. One road had train tracks right down the center of the street just 20 feet from people's front doors. At the bend the tracks came as close as 10 feet to the corner house.  Then after being let into the traffic by a nice trucker I found I was half sitting on those train tracks for traffic to move.  Thankfully no train came.

A few back roads later and we were here.  It was hot and sticky.  Only 86 degrees but ever degree of it had humidity in it. As Mami made jambalaya James, Miles, Nick and I made the trek by foot to the fair. It was only a Mile and we took short cuts thanks to my navigator on my phone. We cut through old residential areas and an old abandoned factory.  In sharp contrast to the boarded up windows, broken walls, cracked parking lot with grass popping up from the cracks two teeny-bopper girls brightly clothed and riding a line green scooter rode cross our path.  It was a bit surreal. 
Our whole experience in Indiana has been a bit surreal.  I certainly hope it continues that way, in a good way.


One of the hard parts of traveling is the sleeping situation. I usually stay at the RV but since it is parked in the hotel parking lot tight now I am regretting my choice. Only battery power (I ran the generator for a while but it sounded in bad shape.....I was supposed to take it in for a check up in Toledo but didn't get to it. Coming back to haunt me now. 
So I will open the vents and windows and sweat the night away as the kids and family are all snug in air-con rooms.   Oh, and since the sunrise is at 6:29AM ALL the non-human family members are in the rooms too. 
I don't know the area so I will be snug in a rug and armed all night. 
Tomorrow thing will right themselves as we move everything to the fairgrounds.