Events of Wednesday, September 15, 2010

          Today could be a day uniquely titled “Hurry Up and Wait”. Today, we hurried everywhere to wait. First, while the kids were still asleep, we hurried out of our Walmart parking lot and on the road in order to reach Prophetstown State Park outside of Lafayette. Once we arrived in the park, Mom announced to all, “Time to get up!” Out of habit, we started undoing and making the beds. Surprisingly, Mom told us to stop making our beds (I never thought I would hear her say that!) and hurry and get dressed. We were in a great hurry to help with the 8 am chores on the 1920 replica farm at Historic Prophetstown, which has cows, horses, hogs, calves, and chickens. Chores would include gathering eggs, milking cows, and feeding the livestock. We hurried until Dad came back from his fact finding mission and told us to stop. Dad had found out, the employee did all the chores alone at 6:00 am since they only allow help with morning chores during weekends, when tourism is up slightly. So our morning slowed down significantly and sadly to say, we had to make our beds.

          Luckily, there is more to life than doing chores; there was a whole farmstead to see! First, we saw an introductory film, and then headed off to see the Sears Roebuck Catalog House. I thought this idea from the 1920s was very cool—you go to the Sears catalog, pick the house you want and they deliver it to you via flatbed train car. You haul it out to your land with a tractor, set it up, and then move right in. The price tag on one of these products: $3,300 for the large, 3-story house, $940 for a small one-story house. That was in 1920, though. Today, it would be about ten times that. Still not bad! The house was furnished with authentic 1920 furniture. However, we found out that this is where Sears lost out to Montgomery Ward. While Sears offered a good deal on houses, Montgomery Ward offered a free grandfather clock when you bought three rooms worth of furniture.

          It was fascinating to go through these homes.  We found it interesting seeing the tools and technology that they had back in the day. They heated their irons on a cast iron stove, had a party phone line installed between 11 other farms in their community, and had a player piano. The house had a fun little scavenger hunt, looking for unique items of the era. We had a lot of fun with the food quiz, when we tried to guess which year certain food products were invented. The oldest of these was the Hershey’s Chocolate Bar, which began in 1903. The house also had a bedroom where there were dresses and other period clothes. Lindsey tried on some old dresses and a fur coat. I tried on the only men’s piece of clothing in the closet—the soldier’s uniform. 

          Since the Belgian draft horses were close to the fence in the pasture, we decided to leave the house to meet and greet them. They were constantly nibbling at the tiny remains of grass in the pasture. In order to get a more personal interaction with the horses, we picked grasses from around the corral and fed them. They entertained us for 20 minutes before we were forced to move on. We then saw the smokehouse, the chicken coop, the tractor/equipment barn, and the Model A truck garage. Dad, Caitlin, and I got in the Model A truck, but there weren’t any keys in the ignition. Sadly, Caitlin couldn’t get her first driving lesson today. She will have to wait just a little longer. However, Dad did spend some time explaining all the various knobs, buttons and pedals to her. (But this Model A truck is very different from the Honda she received for her birthday.)  We next entered the corn crib, where we found some loose kernels and fed the ever-present chicken. I’m certain they all gained weight today, especially after all we fed them! We took a quick glance at the empty livestock barn. Since it was such a nice day, all the animals were out in their corrals. Having seen what we wanted to see in homestead area, we walked the half mile over to the Native American Settlement. It wasn’t great, but we got to see some of the structures the Indians would have used. We headed back to the RV and drove through the park to find a lunch spot.

          After lunch was the three hour drive to Madison. For those of you who aren’t experts on Indiana’s geography, Lafayette and Prophetstown are on the western side, a little north of the middle of the state. Our drive took us southeast around Indianapolis and then toward the Indiana-Kentucky border, the Ohio River. Madison is a quaint little town located just west of the southeastern tip of the state. Have I thoroughly confused you yet? Good. If you are, just look at a map of Indiana.

          The “highlight” of our drive was the ‘scenic’ drive on Highway 7. This was another “hurry up and wait” circumstances. As we started on the scenic portions, Mom commanded us to open the blinds and look out at the scenery. Hurry hurry hurry! … Wait, this isn’t scenic! I think the really scenic part came a little ways after the tiny little town of Vernon. Here, all of a sudden, the scenery changed from suburban mess to a nice, tree-lined road lined with quaint farms and houses. I thought it was nice, but it got a little boring. Once we arrived in Madison, we tried to find the visitor’s center, but it was closed. We continued on to our RV Park, which is right on the Ohio River. We can see Kentucky from our campsite!

          While hurrying to get dinner, we had to take time to cook our Michigan spaghetti squash. Since we had easy access to the river, we decided to wade while we waited. It passed the time well, and we made some discoveries. First: we found that the slime was an inch thick on the rocks. Slippery, slimy, and gross—blech. Second: you never know what you can find at the bottom of a boat ramp. As Caitlin walked across the ramp, she saw a queer shape under the water. She reached in and found a folding chair that was once pink and purple—before it was covered by a layer of muck. Caitlin set it up on the ramp. When we look toward the river now, we laugh, seeing a lone folding chair near the river’s shore. Third: muck=yuck. Once we got past the few feet of rocky ground, we sank past our ankles in muck. It was gross and thick, and for our tactile-sensitive friends (Caitlin and Lindsey), it was too much. For Abby and I, it was a cool and relaxing massage for our feet.

          After we hustled back to the RV and washed all that slime away, we were ready for dinner…except it wasn’t quite ready for us. While the spaghetti squash finished baking, we had a large appetizer of salad—so large that we didn’t want to eat much else. Until the Whoopee Pies (purchased from an Amish bakery at the Shipshewana Flea Market) came out, that is. After dinner it was time for showers and then we Skypped our cousin Timothy to wish him Happy Birthday as today he turned 2! Happy Birthday Timothy and Good Night!