Sunday, July 2, 2006

driving in amish country

Fort Wayne isn’t an exciting town, and it loses many of its good points when you don’t have a car to get around. This is the situation Mayo and I found ourselves yesterday afternoon when my mother’s car broke down in the Fort Wayne Visitor Center’s parking lot. Our plans for the Art Museum and the Botanical Gardens were dashed by what turned out to be a bad connection to the battery.

We made up for doing nothing yesterday by spending four hours at the zoo this afternoon. We saw giraffes, monkeys, penguins, tigers, and more children than I want to count. There were few, if any, other visitors not accompanied by a child in a stroller or a child-leash. I even saw an old high school gym teacher who had gotten married and had two kids in the past six years.

The evening ended with a trip east of Fort Wayne to Grabill, an area in northeast Indiana home to many Amish. The Nolt Family Dinner Haus offers a home-cooked meal of mashed potatos with chicken gravy, candied yams, vegetables, chicken, and cornbread. After stuffing ourselves, we went for a buggy ride. The nice Amish grandpa let Mayo drive.

Tomorrow, we will participate in the traditional summer activity of all Northern Indiana residents - going to the lake.

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