Grasslake to Amish country, IN

Our route to Goshen, IN took us through Moscow, Jonesville,

and Quincy, Michigan.  In Quincy, we noticed of a gathering of fire trucks and police cars.  Don looked down a side street and saw a funeral procession coming.  It was obviously the funeral of someone well respected in the community, maybe even a fireman.

We saw old barns

and old houses.  Beautiful old houses.

And old school houses that have been restored.

Clifford waves so long to Michigan.

And hello to Indiana, again.

We noticed that the color of the barns has changed from red to white, mostly

Now I understand why most of the barns are white.  We’re in Amish country.

About one o’clock, we arrived at Ben Moser’s house, where Mitch and Kim Moser are parked and have invited us to park for the weekend.

While Mitch and Don are figuring out how and where to park the Q, I’m hoping all our glasses aren’t in the floor!

We sat and visited for a little while until Ben came home from work.  I should probably explain that we met Mitch and Kim the year after we were chaplain at Quail Run RV Resort in Arizona while they were serving as chaplain there.

Ben drove us around with our destination to be Essenhaus.

But first we stopped at Grace Community Church where Mitch is on staff part-time.  I’m standing on the walking track outside the second story rooms.  Fourteen times around equal a mile.  They have open gym here daily for the community.

The front door and foyer from upstairs.

I love the murals on the wall in Kid City.After meeting several of the staff, we headed off again, passing Amish wagons and bicycles on the road and enjoying the countryside.

We arrived at Middlebury, IN about 5:00 PM and hungry.

We ordered family style fried chicken and they brought our meal to the table in serving bowls.  It was great.  Here’s Ben actually posing for this shot. The peanut butter in the squeeze bottle is Amish peanut butter which is: 

1 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup peanut butter, smooth

1/4 cup marshmallow creme

There are variations that use honey or molasses instead of light corn syrup.  I like the one with honey the best.  I like it so much Mitch bought a pint for me to take home!!

A few fun facts about Das Dutchman Essenhaus (eating house):

• Restaurant sets 1,100 at one time and on a busy day uses 5,225 pound of ice and serves 7,000 guests.
• The most pies the bakery produced in one day was 1,844.
• In only 1 week, the restaurant bakery may use up to 2,000 eggs *2,250 pounds of white sugar *30 gallons of apple butter *2.5 tons of potatoes *4,795 chickens * 2.530 pounds of roast beef *2,350 heads of lettuce
• The shops staff prices over 1,000,000 items annually.
• Construction on the Inn and Conference Center required 31 miles of electrical wiring and 5.5 acres of drywall.  The housekeeping staff makes 22,000 beds in one year.
• Essenhaus Foods makes up to 13.5 tons of noodles in one week and purchases bulk flour in 2,200 pound bags.  The noodles may be purchased in some large outlets such as Wal-mart, Kroger and Roundys.

I like this magnet-backed plaque I found in the shoppe.

We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and our time at Essenhaus. (picture from website)

Leaving Middlebury, the diverse traffic made me a little nervous.

Mitch said the Amish don’t mind if you take pictures of their children.  The boys aren’t required to wear the caps, but it’s kind of a fad thing with them.

We have a little more room to pass out in the country.

Amish traffic was pretty heavy this afternoon.  They were everywhere on every road.

As we drive, Mitch tells us all about the Amish ways of life, as he was born and raised here and know many of them.  He once owned a security company here before entering the ministry full-time.

We stopped to visit a family Mitch knows, Daniel and wife have five sons.  They were all so handsome.  I feel bad that I didn’t ask this young man’s name.

All over the countryside, Amish farmers were working in their fields.

An odd fact we learned:  Amish, by tradition, are not allowed to have telephones in their homes, but a few families have built a small building out by the road and have a phone put in there and it’s available for all their neighbors to use.  The small phone shack is called a “shanty.”  A phone is not allowed inside the house, but it is allowed in the shanty.  Doesn’t make much sense to me.

Ben and Mitch wanted to show us how the linear irrigation system worked on Mitch’s dad’s farm.

The corn is so prettyand this much taller than me.

Ready for pickin'

Back at the Q, we visited and I took pictures of birds on the feeder.

A few pics of Ben before he took off on his bike.

It is very interesting to be in the midst of the romance and mystery of the Amish community.  Romance and mystery is an outsiders description, of course.  Parts of the Amish religion is strictly tradition and is far from Bible based and that’s sad.  But the simple way they live intrigues me.  They are very friendly, even to the English.  It’s been a great day!  Thanks to Ben for driving and thanks to Mitch for the history and culture lesson.