Shipshewana, Indiana – April 22 – 24, 2013

We arrived in Shipshewana, Indiana mid-afternoon on Sunday, so we would be at the Service Center of the factory early Monday morning.  One of the nice things about the Open Range Company is the two year warranty and during that time they will go through your unit and check all the systems and make any necessary repairs without charge.  As we got closer to the area, we noticed all the farms and home sites looked very neat and manicured.  We also saw a very large shoulder on both sides of the two lane road with horse droppings every so often.  It was when we reached the actual town of Shipshewana it became clear what all this meant.  There were very few cars on the road and every business was closed except for a single gas station/Subway and absolutely no one to be seen anywhere.  If you haven’t guessed it yet it meant the area has a significant Amish/Mennonite population.

The Service Center has four campsites reserved for people coming to have their units looked at and you get to stay FREE for however many nights you need to stay in the area.  We took advantage of their offer and spent a fun time exploring while they worked on our unit on Monday and Tuesday.  According to the Welcome Center a few of the places we needed to see were the cheese factory, the bakery, and the noodle factory.  Who were we to argue with the Welcome Center!  They were making the cheese and, of course, there were many opportunities for tasting and a store so you could take it home with you.  At the noodle factory we watched as very experienced workers shaped noodle dough into the various shapes and sizes available to be purchased.  No samples but lots to buy and take home.

The bakery was where we wound up eating lunch.  For most of you that is no surprise.  As soon as we walked in the door and the aroma of freshly baked bread and cookies entered our nostrils, we knew we had made the right decision.  A simple sandwich of fresh ham and cheese is so much better when it’s on the most delicious grain bread still warm from the oven with soft chocolate crunch cookies for dessert.  We did not leave empty handed either.  We found out these cookies freeze very well.

We drove around the area farms and just enjoyed the scenery.  There were farmers plowing with teams of six or eight horses.  If you think about it, that means they are holding twelve to sixteen reins in their hands at one time.  Pretty impressive!  I started thinking, although I don’t believe I could live the lifestyle, we might be better off as a society if more young people were raised thinking less about materialistic things and more about family and community with a firm root in spirituality

For dinner we went to place we were told the “locals” go to.  There we had some of the best broasted chicken I have ever tasted.  It had the seasonings and flour coating you would see on fried chicken but it is cooked in a pressure cooker.  A much better use for the pressure cooker than we have been hearing on TV lately.  Everywhere we went, people were so friendly and helpful and no one complained about anything.  Most places had Mennonite women or girls working in their plain dress and white caps and I assumed most of the men were working in the factories or the farms.  Most factories have special fields and carriage houses for their employees who come to work by horse and buggy.  Bicycles are also very popular and each place of business has large bicycle racks out front.In parking lots of all establishments you would see this sight, cars/trucks and horse and buggy 

On Tuesday we went to the Menno-Hof non-profit center constructed to teach people about the Amish-Mennonite story.  Here’s your Trivia for today:  It was Constantine who mandated infant baptism to nationalize Christianity.  Only after the invention of the printing press making Bibles more accessible to people was there a rebellion against the practice as being unscriptural and a group called Anabaptists formed requiring that adults be baptized a second time as a free will choice.  Years of persecution gave way to migration to the new world where the Mennonites settled in the Pennsylvania area and migrated further into Ohio and Indiana.  The Amish were an off shoot of the Mennonites believing the Mennonites were becoming too liberal and giving in to worldly ways.,

We are very anxious to start back home to warmer weather.  This is the coldest I have been in a long time.  The actual temperatures are in the low 30’s and wind chill puts it in the high 20’s with very little sun most of the time.  No wonder there are so many Snow Birds!