Adventure is worthwhile in itself.----------Amelia Earhart

Leaving Goshen we decided to take a Southerly route, meandering toward Kansas City. We intended to circle Indianapolis on I-465 arriving at our campground in early afternoon. It was a great plan. The city/state picked that day to stripe the highway at the exact time we arrived at our exit, and we were trapped in traffic unable to make the turn. We thought "What the heck, we'll just drive through town instead of turning around! After all, it'll be a lot shorter." The first few miles we moved along quite nicely, but soon the suburbs slowed us down. It was a fine drive though; with lovely old homes and grand estates on the north side of Indy. Stop lights began to show up more often but it was still fun. Soon it became apparent that we were going to go through the urban core, but hey-we're O K with it. Too bad there was so much construction going on making for narrow lanes and problems maneuvering the trailer.

This beautiful park is very close to downtown. Isn't it lovely?

This is a Civil War/Assorted Other Wars Monument in the middle of a traffic circle. It's really impressive on a grand scale.
Monument Circle is the epicenter of Indianapolis. The lanes were kind of large and drivers were nice about sharing space with us. A traffic circle isn't the easiest thing to navigate with our rig, but John got us through with flying colors. We made the half-circle and got back on our street to continue the journey, knowing it would all be easier from now on. Five or six blocks further this is what we found.

That's Union Station on the right. Restaurants and shops- bars galore- what a fun place. On the right you can almost see the intersection where a one-way street comes in to join the festivities. On the left out of frame is a narrow alley leading to a parking lot. Look closely at the underpass. See the sign that says 12 ft 9 in? That's how much clearance you have. See all the scars and chunks of missing concrete? That's what happens when people hit the bridge from underneath because they're too tall. We're too tall at 13'6" to make it under the bridge, we can't turn down the street on the right because it's one-way the wrong way, and we're to big to pull into the alley. The street is too narrow to turn around in because we're too long. In the next photo you'll see how far John had to back up to get out of there!

Having taken the driving class I'm SURE I could have done it too, but I had the important job of ground guiding John and waving cars around us on the path back. A police officer pulled up and asked what was wrong. DUH! When I pointed out there was no sign warning of a low bridge until you had committed to the street, and no option but to back out, he seemed to realize we weren't exactly thrilled with the situation. I told him we'd need help backing through the intersection and he assured me that a traffic officer was at the corner to help with the problems caused by the construction going on.

When we got to this point I got the police officer to block the intersection and we backed through. Construction workers at the site knew the route to take, avoiding other obstacles.
We turned right at Nordstrom's and the adventure ended.

Signs of the times

You know I love weird signs. I found this one in a shopping mall in Shopshewana, Indiana; a primarily Mennonite community.

There were no toilets upstairs old or new.

I'm fairly positive Mennonites don't get tattoos, so an ink parlor named "New Toilet" isn't likely.

Does anyone tattoo their toilet and need a new design?

I'm confused, but that happens a lot more often lately.

I have no comment.

Goshen, Indiana

Here we are with John's cousin Terri and her husband Frank. We were glad to finally meet Frank and we have plans to stay in touch with them.

That's our home in back. We spent a week here camping with other owners of Montana fifth-wheels, and I have to say they're a friendly bunch.

The manufacturer is based here and we toured the factory, spoke with representatives, etc. We got to see the newest models and found out that our Big Sky is still our favorite.

There were several classes at the factory for wives wanting to learn to drive the RV's. You could pull the trailer, learn to hitch up and learn to back up. I'd already pulled the other fifth-wheels we'd owned and found they generally followed the truck. I think if I absolutely had to I could follow all the necessary steps needed to hook the truck to the trailer. I wanted to learn how to back that sucker up!

We wives were taken to a big parking lot at company headquarters and split into groups of five. We met our instructor (that poor, poor man) and climbed into a truck that some fool had loaned for the class. It was already hooked to a new trailer and parked at an edge of the lot just down from one of the entrances. Our job would be to back down the side of the lot and into the entrance. That driveway was waaay wider than any camping space but it would be a start. I drove second and I was fabulously amazingly perfect if I say so myself. All my co-students thought I was a plant. They didn't know I'd been dragging that 8-foot motorcycle trailer all summer, and the longer the trailer the easier it is to back up.

Goshen has a large Mennonite population. The local Walmart has a hitching post in the lot for the horse-drawn buggies, and the farms are loaded with horses used for work and transportation.This photo was taken in Shipshewana Indiana, a nearby town and tourist attraction. Shipshewana is loaded with Mennonites and their wagons. One of the parking lots must have had forty wagons in it on the Saturday afternoon Terri, Donna and I visited.

We were told that Mennonites didn't like their picture taken, but when I asked this young man for a picture of him and his pony he was happy to pose. He was so proud when I told him I'd noticed Misty stepping along at a good pace earlier. He told us she had a colt at home! His younger sister had just left to take something to one of the stores.
The three of us women shopped all afternoon and had a great time. Donna recommended another antique shop outside of Indianapolis that I'll definitely hit.

Springfield Illinois

We are camped at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, on our way to Goshin, Indiana for an RVers rally.

While here we checked out Lincoln historic sites.

The above statue greets visitors at the State Fair.

This bust of Lincoln is on display in front of his tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery.

It's a tradition to rub his nose for luck.

It's so tall I had to stretch to reach it.

This is Lincoln's final resting place.

He was moved many, many times prior to being placed here in 1901. In 1876 a plot was hatched to steal his body for ransom. An empty sepulcher was left on display while Lincoln in his coffin was moved from one location to another in the original tomb. He is now resting 10 feet under the floor in a steel vault covered with concrete. The casket was opened in 1901 to insure that it was indeed Lincoln, and he was reportedly very well preserved.

This is inside the Presidential Library.

If you look behind the Lincoln family to the left you see a figure leaning on a column.
That's the likeness of John Wilkes Boothe.
I'm kind of ashamed to admit I'd never been to a President's Museum before. It was really interesting and filled with artifacts.

John has always been interested in the history of the Civil War so this was a fabulous place to begin.

One of the exhibits was a presentation called Ghosts of the Library. We went into a large theater with tiered seating. When the show began a man walked on stage. The speaker described many of the items in the library and their historical significance. He spoke for 15 minutes or so. At the end of his speech he put on a Yankee Sergeant's coat, explained that he'd died at the battle of Vicksburg............and disappeared! Slowly!

Tomorrow we leave for Goshin, Indiana. We are going to a rally for owners of Montana fifth-wheels. We haven't done anything like this before and are hoping to learn some stuff about our RV. I'm hoping to take the class named "Wife Drive". It could be a chance to find out if I can maneuver the trailer without ripping a side off. When I say the trailer I mean their trailer, not our trailer.

Weeds, Wildflowers and One Weird Tree