A Journey of Another Kind.....

Winter is coming with a lot of things that depress people....shorter days with darkness coming earlier and earlier and for some, seasonal affective disorder, a depressive state caused partly by lack of sunlight and is considered to be a form of depression. Sparky doesn't have S.A.D., so she doesn't mind the shorter days, or even the cold and dreary ones. She loves winter, snow and the brisk temperatures. She loves being outside in the cold! She loves the holiday season. She's weird about loving winter...(that's what Eldo always says, lol). So, time for one last 18 mile bike ride on the Pumpkinvine Bike Trail before putting the bike away for the season. Here is a photo of the last hurrah of the beautiful fall we had here in northwest Indiana.

There were even some roses still blooming on a bush near the trail in mid-November.

The seed pods are settling down for a long winter's nap....

The Amish will be still walking the country roads for church services, but Sparky won't see them again till spring....

The foxtails have come and gone.....

Shortly before Thanksgiving, Sparky and Eldo decided to check out the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train that travels through limited portions of the US every year to raise money for food banks. The cars are decorated with flashing light scenes and holiday music plays. In some towns at a decent hour, the train will stop and put on a show for train watchers. There is no cost except for a donation of food items. The route just happens to pass through northwest Indiana every year, but you have to get up somewhere between 2:30 A.M. and 4:00 A.M to see it. Eldo is a train buff. Sparky is a little kid at heart, so this year, even though Sparky was working the next day, we decided to get up and go see it in Goshen, IN. Although we got up at 2:45 A.M., the train was an hour late.  And it was shorter than we thought it would be! It was there and gone in less than two minutes, but it was COOL. 

In mid November, right before Thanksgiving, Sparky got some bad health news...She has breast cancer. She had been waiting for the shoe to drop for the last couple of years, since it is in her family. There was no evidence on a mammogram last year, but this year was a little different, something suspicious. The doctors have always said that she has extremely dense tissue and mammograms were tough to read. This time an ultrasound was ordered and two highly suspicious malignant lumps were found. After a biopsy in early December, the diagnosis is 1. invasive lobular carcinoma with a tumor of at least 16mm in the breast, and 2. with metastatic carcinoma in a lymph node. From here, a consult with a surgeon soon. It's going to be a long journey. Sparky will probably not say much here on the blog for awhile, but will post an update now and then. 

We still might post things we do for fun, that's important! Like go see the holiday lights in Shipshewanna and other places in the next couple of weeks. Sparky is going to go see her daughter in Houston before all the you-know-what hits the fan, and Eldy has a cruise with his son's family that happened to coincide at the same time, so we are going to enjoy ourselves and the holiday before settling in for the long haul.

Thank you for reading and following us....

            Best wishes for a happy holidays and quality family time....

                                    Sparky and Eldo

Hay, There!

 Did you know that culinary tourism is becoming more popular? The US boasts many unique drink and food trails all over the country. In all our travels, we have heard of the Kentucky bourbon trail, salsa trails (in Arizona), the Boise potato trail (Idaho), the margarita trail in New Mexico, (how did Sparky miss THAT one??!), a pork tenderloin trail in Indiana, (oh, yes, there is such a thing!), the North Carolina Oyster Trail, the Macon Bacon Trail in Georgia, the Buffalo Wings Trail in New York, and many many more....winery trails, whiskey trails, farm to table trails, a BBQ trail in Alabama AND the Beer City Air Trail in Grand Rapids, MI, home to over 40 craft breweries. (HOW did I miss that one?! wonders Eldo.) 

But if you aren't a foodie, and live in northwest Indiana like we do, you can check out another kind of trail, the 2024 Straw Hay Bale Art Trail in Shipshewanna and Middlebury, IN. Both towns are decorated up the wazoo with all kinds of all decorations--TONS of them! while you are driving around the towns looking for the hay bales, be sure to check out the beautiful and whimsical fall decorations in both towns.

"Be the 'I' in Shipsee"

It's part of the Autumn Adventure in the   fall in Shipshewanna and Middlebury, IN. Two towns, 24+ festivals and events in the area, and 30 giant hay bale pieces of art, depending on the eye of the beholder. On Sunday morning, we headed out to Middlebury and Shipshewanna to see how many we could find. It was a BEE-YOU-TI-FUL day and here was our first one:

"Thank you for your BEES-ness" says the sign where there were two of these cute bees in front of the shops at La Guana. There were MANY hay bales to be found in Shipshewanna. Quite a few creatures...."Henry the Panda"....

"Jack the Mouse and His Cheese" at the Heritage Creamery....

"Farmhouse Frederick the Steer" at the Farmstead Inn in Shipshewanna....

"Bacon the Pig" at the Ace Hardware store in Middlebury....

Some famous characters....Stuart and Bob of the Minions...(Sparky LOVES the Minions!)

Some popular fair food items...popcorn and pies....

"Life is Short, Eat the Pie!"

And a "Cheeseburger in Paradise"....

This little camper above, "The Mini Morton Camper" was out in front of the Morton House in Shipshewanna, right downtown. So cute! It was Sparky's favorite of all of them. There were many more. We saw about 26 out of the 30. It was fun driving all around Shipshewanna and Middlebury. They are small towns and the art bales were easy to find. You can find a map to all the hay bales artwork here: https://visitshipshewana.org/straw-bale-art/

We hope you enjoyed our little travel adventure this weekend! Thanks for stopping by to have a read....

                                    

                                    Sparky and Eldo

Charming Charlevoix and Shipshewanna

It's been a long time since Sparky saw her family, so in early August we went to Charlevoix, MI to a small family reunion. Charlevoix is a charming harbor town surrounded by three lakes--Lake Michigan, Lake Charlevoix, and Round Lake. It's a small town, population of about 2300 people, but it most certainly is charming and a lovely place to visit. We were only there for two days, so we missed lots of possibilities of things to do. It's only 48 miles to Mackinac Island, and 17 miles to Petosky. Had we had more time, we would have definitely explored a lot more of the area!

One of the coolest things about Charlevoix is the "Mushroom Houses".  They were a series of houses designed and built without blueprints by architect Earl Young, back in the early 1900's. The houses are affectionately nicknamed "gnome" houses or "hobbit" houses. If you look carefully, there is a gnome sitting in the second window to the right in the photo below.

They have signature cedar shake roofs, wide wavy eaves, exposed rafter tails, and are a horizontally designed build instead of vertical. They are designed to blend into the landscape as well. There are 26 residences in Charlevoix and 4 commercial properties in downtown Charlevoix that are mushroom houses. They are made of limestone, fieldstone, and boulders found in northwest Michigan. The nice thing about these houses is that you can see a great many of them clustered in parts of town and it is definitely a walkable tour.

One of the coolest ones is called the "Thatch House". The original walls were set in 1919. In 2013, Michael Sietz purchased the house and put his own spin on it. The roofing material is real thatch, designed to last for over 60 years. He renovated the inside to make 6 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, with three fireplaces and two living rooms. You can rent this house! No idea what that costs, but it's a year round vacation rental.

The Thatch House

 Several of them are near the hospital in a section of town called "Boulder Park". Here is a map showing the clusters...

In the short time we were there, Sparky took some daily walks to the Mt. McSauba Recreational area. There was a challenging 18 hole disc golf course there, dunes along Lake Michigan, a .7 loop hiking trail on a beautiful wooded trail that wound in and around the disc course and the beach. 

silly Eldo!

While we were there, we enjoyed eating at the Weathervane Restaurant, another Earl Young design, and watching the drawbridge go up about every half hour. The food was fantastic at the Weathervane Restaurant and the views of the channel with the boats and ships passing right outside the restaurant made dining there a pleasure.

We had a wonderful time with family...It was a lovely visit full of laughter and love. Here is Sparky's extended family....

Anything else you want to add Sparky? asks E. Well, while in Charlevoix, you could take a ferry to Beaver Island, the largest island in Lake Michigan, but we didn't have time to do that. For a small town, there a lot of places to visit  and some fine eating establishments as well. All too soon, we had to return home as Sparky needed to start school with an early first day long term subbing assignment.

Once back in Elkhart, it didn't take Sparky long before she made her semi-weekly trip to Shipshewanna, to get holiday crafting ideas, view sewing projects in her favorite fabric stores, and get a fresh homemade pretzel at JoJo's Pretzel shop. Look at how beautifully decorated Shipshewanna is for fall!

Here is a fun vignette of scarecrows....

Sparky's favorite....

And that's the latest from Sparky and Eldo...Happy fall, y'all! See you down the road.....

Heritage Garden Quilt Trail 2024

If you spend any kind of time in Elkhart, IN this summer, May 30th through September 15th, you really should check out the Heritage Garden Quilt Tour 2024. Sparky checked it out for you if you are not able to be in the area this year. For those waiting on RV repairs, or camping in the area for the summer, it's a great family activity and really beautiful to see. May 30th is when the 13 gardens (this year) have been planted, and early September would be when they are winding down in their beauty, but it's still a fantastic way to see the Amish countrysides of Elkhart, Bristol, Goshen, Middlebury, Nappanee, and Wakarusa in the summer months. It's also a great way to see the several small towns in Indiana that are always mentions as some of the best small towns in America on various surveys. 

There are hand painted quilt themed super sized art murals to be seen as well along with the gardens. They are mounted on the sides of buildings, some near the gardens, some are not. The same painted murals go up year after year until they need replacing as they gradually age out. On the map, the quilt gardens are marked with a red square. The hand painted murals are marked on the map with an orange square. Some fun facts about the quilt gardens:

1. All the wall murals are handpainted by one man, Jeff Stillson, from Nappanee. They go up when the gardens are planted, then are taken down when the last flower is dug up. They have a shelf life of about 10 years and are stored over the winter.

2. The quilt gardens started in 2007 with two test gardens, one at the famous Amish style restaurant, Das Dutch Esssenhaus, in Middlebury. Sometimes the locations change each year, but Das Essenhaus has always had a garden every year since the beginning.

3. Two hundred plus volunteers plant, weed, water, and maintain the gardens.

4. There are an estimated one million blooms in all the gardens put together.

5. Four quilt gardens are located at sites with historical significance-Ruthmere in Elkhart, Krider World's Fair Garden, Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds and the Elkhart County Courthouse.

6. Two of the quilt gardens are more than 2,000 square feet! Essenhaus is the largest at 3,142 square feet. Dutch Country Market is another large one. 

butterfly chair $309.00

Linton Enchanted Gardens in Elkhart on Cty. Rd. 17 used to have a really big one as well, but a butterfly garden has replaced the quilt garden this year. Some amazing beautiful Asian lilies there, along with everything you could possibly think of for gardens--plants, statues, seating, fountains, knick knacks, etc.

We visited that site thinking there was a quilt garden, there wasn't, but Linton Enchanted Gardens is a tourist worthy stop of its own! It's the largest garden center in the state of Indiana with 9 acres of outdoor shopping, a parakeet house, a petting zoo, and more. The parakeets were comical, fussing at each other, talking to each other, and these ones all on one row had the one on the end poking and pestering the one next to him until he had had enough and flew off. They were fun to watch. 

There are all these cool reproduction architectural structures--houses, buildings, and weird tongue-in-cheek/whimsical items among the thousand of flowers and plants displayed. Linton's also had a little go-cart track with carts, and a little tourist train that ran around the gardens that you could ride.

one of the model buildings on the grounds

It has an AMAZING gift shop, and beautiful birds flying all over the place amongst the pines. Sparky saw a baby cedar waxwing fledgling tightly gripping the park on a pine tree off to the side of the walkway, and then saw the parent waxwing come in and feed the baby right on the bark! She tried to wait out a second visit from the parents feeding the little one, but they were too cautious with her there.

almost got the photo!

(Sparky has an eagle eye for birds these days--HAHAHAHAHA! laughs E.) Ouch. 

Back to the short list about the gardens Sparky got sidetracked....

7. The gardens are composed of all kinds of bedding plants--begonias, impatiens, zinnias, petunias, marigolds, sweet potato vines, dusty miller, dichondra, curly parsley and coleus of all colors and shapes. Patterns are taken from centuries of quilt design dating back to the 1800's.

You can print out a map for the quilt gardens online, or pick one up in person at the Elkhart County Visitor's Center. Here is a direct link to the quilt gardens

There is also a free, separate audio driving tour of these areas called the Heritage Trail and can be downloaded at Visit Elkhart County.  

On to the gardens! We did it in a semi organized fashion. We started in Goshen, because that's the closest to our apartment, and proceeded to cover part of the tour on a couple different days. You could easily do it in less than a day if you wanted. There are three gardens in Goshen--the locations are Elkhart County Courthouse, the 4-H Fairgrounds, and Abshire Park.

Elkhart County Courthouse--"Many Beautiful Parts"

4H fairgrounds-"Rising Dawn"

It doesn't take that long to find the gardens, so we did a few one day this week, then covered some more the next day while out on some more errands. Abshire Park in Goshen, where Sparky usually starts off on the Pumpkinvine Bike Trail, has a pretty one called "The Sunburst". 

Abshire Park--"Sunburst"

Each garden has a sign that tells the name of the quilt inspired pattern a little bit of history about the location, and the names of the flowers planted for the design.

Next, Elkhart, the town itself. There are three gardens here....The "Take Heart Garden" downtown near the riverwalk....Elkhart calls itself the "City With a Heart" so this is very apropos. There are large painted hearts all over the city from a sculpture/artwork contest years ago that are fun to see a well. There's actually a LOT of artwork and sculptures to see in this northwestern small Indiana town. Look at this copper beauty! This is near the Brass Elk in downtown Elkhart. We think it's a nod to the brass musical instrument industry that used to make Elkhart the band industry capital of the world. (Eldy used to buff musical instruments for famous jazz players and for the Olympics!).

"Take Heart Garden"

The "Discovery in Bloom" garden near the Ruthmere Mansion...

And one very interesting one at the Elkhart Environmental Center...WOW! Three butterflies with pipes for antennae. It's called "Spread Your Wings".

Here is a closeup of the detail of the butterflies...Not a pretty day to view this garden, but we loved seeing the creative use of plants and piping anyway!

On to Middlebury's three gardens....at the Das Dutchman Essenhaus, another one of Sparky's favorites and the largest garden on the tour. This garden is called "Blazing Star Garden". Stop and enjoy a delicious Amish homestyle meal at the Essenhaus while you are there.

The second one is at Kryder World's Fair Garden in Middlebury...This is the "Box Car" garden....A little harder to see the pattern with the shade and time of day...Kryder Gardens is a beautiful stop to rest and see all the beautiful plantings, sculptures and water features. It's a spectacular botanical gardens for such a small town as Middlebury. Plants are labeled, there are beautiful benches and gazebos to sit and admire nature. It's a wonderful place to stop.

The third one is at the Dutch Country Market on Cty Rd. 16, and it's a beauty even on a dreary day!

In Nappanee, we visited the Farmhouse Inn Bed and Breakfast site, where we saw the "HIS Indian Sunburst" garden. It was a beautiful setting with the red barn in the background.

Our next stop was Wakarusa...a cool little town with a really interesting candy shop, which we stayed out of today, for health reasons, haha. But the quilt garden, the "Full Blown Tulip Garden" on S. Elkhart St., was a great way to end our little tour.

There are two more we missed, but we'll have to check those out the next time we are out and about in the county. We need to see the "Burst of Joy" garden at the Elkhart County Historical Museum in Bristol, and the "Tracking Our Beginning" garden at the Nappanee Center on West Market St.

Hope you have enjoyed seeing these amazing gardens if you are not able to do the tour in our area. It's one of many cool things to see and do in the Elkhart County area. 

We love living here!

Bye for now.....            Eldo and Sparky