Amish at last!

Well after a slow start this morning (more organizing and showers :)  we left the campground and drove the back roads through Amish neighborhoods to an Amish market called Rentown.  What a beautiful drive.  The farms we passed looked so peaceful and incredibly well maintained.  I seriously felt like I was driving through a book of fairy tales.  The farms were so colorful with their vibrant green grass and trees, bright red barns, laundry lines with solid print dresses and bonnets, multicolored houses and a mixture of colored flowers.  Each farm seemed to be at least an acre and usually was home to a horse if not many horses and cows.  Almost all the houses we passed had one if not multiple Amish family members outside mowing the lawn (apparently their Saturday activity), working with the horses, hanging laundry or just playing in the yard.  The most interesting and heartwarming thing we noticed is that EVERY Amish person we passed waved at us.  I honestly felt as if we were the Grand Marshal in a parade.  It didn't matter what they were doing, how old they were, if they were driving a buggy or riding a bike, they would stop and wave.  We probably saw over a hundred Amish on our drive and I am not kidding.... every one of them waved.  We loved that!  The Amish do not like to have their pictures taken because they believe they are not being modest if they are in a picture.  So we tried to respect them by not snapping pictures of them if they were looking at us.  Well the only problem with them stopping to wave was that they were always looking at us!  Good thing I have a telephoto lens!  I managed to get a few good pictures.  I would have loved to photograph everything I saw,  The Amish kids were soooo cute!  They were driving buggies, riding horses and this one baby was sitting in an outdoor wooden sandbox.  It was seriously adorable.  

The Amish market was so cool.  We bought home made bread, cookies, cinnamon rolls, jams, candy,  apple butter, cheese, beef jerky, canned peaches, apricots and home made salsa. YUMMY!  It is so funny parking your motor home next to all the buggies.  Next we visited a more tourist place called Amish Acres.  We walked around awhile and then bought some home made fudge (I'm going to have to keep up with my jogging).   

We decided to drive to Shipshewana for the night but first stopped in Middlebury at another touristy place called Das Dutchman Essenhaus for a traditional Amish family style dinner.  Tip of the day: If you ever go to eat at an Amish restaurant, GO HUNGRY!  First course, 2 loaves of home made bread served with home made apple butter and home made peanut butter, drinks (we chose chocolate milk) and salad with a selection of home made dressings.  Second course, fried chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, noodles, and stuffing (you could add roast beef, steak and corn too if you wanted to weigh 500 pounds)  Final course, dessert choice of over 29 pies including shoefly pie or about 20 other non-pie dessert choices!  Talk about stuffed!  

After dinner we decided to take a well needed walk.  Sterling bought a Notre Dame football at the gift shop (he is collecting footballs) so during the walk the boys ran for passes.  It was a gorgeous walk.  We came across a covered bridge with a family of ducks swimming in front of it (I took about 50 pics).  When we got back to the RV we were entertained by a few Amish buggies parked right next to us.  

We then drove to Shipshewana and took a drive around the town.  We stopped on the side of the road to figure out where we should stay the night and a cop decided to join us (he was just making sure we were ok).  We got to talking to him and learned a lot more about the Amish.  Amish teens from the ages of 16-21 take a hiatus from being Amish so that they can sow their wild oats and decide whether or not they wish to remain Amish.  It's called rumspringa and I guess the kids really get out of control.  The officer said that they never have problems with the Amish except for the teens during that time.  Kinda weird that they would be given that much freedom after all the structure they have always had.  It is also interesting that 90 percent of the teens decide to remain Amish and then have to sell their car and get rid of their electronics.  They do a 180 and seem to handle it well.  

Anyway, we decided to drive 12 miles and stay in Michigan at a WalMart!  

If you didn't noticed I posted a link to our pictures.  I haven't had a chance to download all of them yet, but keep checking back.  I'm trying to download a few a day (they take a long time to download).  I also posted a weekly survey just for fun.  In addition, if you go in profile you can get our emails if you want to send us an email...Brittney, I'm working on setting up an email account for the boys per your suggestion.  Thanks again for everyone's comments!  We really love to read them!