WE have had a very quick busy week in Goshen. Sunday morning Bill and I went to church and met our friends, Bob and Jackie, there. After church, Bill and I had a couple of errands to run and we also found a "Dunkin' Donuts" and a Target. After that we came back to the rig and relaxed for most of the afternoon. Our opening ceremonies were that evening so we joined the others in our group at the grandstand here at the fairgrounds.
Monday morning at 9 is when all the seminars, the "store" the vendors open so Bill stayed here waiting on repair people to come and I went to the store to see what apparel was new this year. He had walked down to the Atwood stove place to see if they would come look at our stove as only 1 burner would light automatically. He didn't get anywhere with one of the guys so I walked down and another guy was there. He brought me back and fixed our stove and told us he would bring new grates for us.... we had originally ordered some through Newmar.... but we wouldn't have to pay for these! Yea!!!!
After that we hung around and sat outside and visited with others who would walk by or some of our group here. Monday evening, Bob and Jackie and us, grilled some chicken and ate together and then played Joker for the evening.
Tuesday am, we (the women) had to "work" at entering the crafts for the craft contest held at each International. There were 83 entries ranging from quilting, knitting to glass, woodwork, beading...... very neat stuff and everyone was hopeful! I told the ladies afterward I felt like the Antique roadshow host inspecting each item as they entered it!
So after that it was lunch time..... Bill went to a couple of seminars and I stayed here getting some things done here. When we are here at these rallies... usually we just lay stuff down and they don't get put where they belong....
Tuesday evening, John/Patsy, Ron/Nancy and us drove to Middlebury to eat at the Das Essenhaus.... a huge restaurant that serves homestyle meals..... we had chicken again! It was delicious!!! They are also very well-known for their homemade pies! YUMMY!!!!
Wednesday morning we drove to Shipshewanna again for the flea market..... we drove across country and saw how more of the Amish live..... so interesting is this area with the whitewashed houses and barns, neat and clean acreages. We stayed at the flea market for a little while and ran across an "auction" going on..... inside a huge building were about 8-10 "auction rings" auctioning antiques!!!! It was amazing ....it was so loud and noisy that Bill and I decided it wasn't for us so we left..... but what an amazing thing to see..... we left the flea market shortly after that and drove to a couple of places in Shipshewanna and then to Middlebury for lunch. After lunch we drove to a cheese factory and got some cheese. They had all kinds and varieties. Then back to the fairgrounds we came. We had a potluck with our Kansas group that evening hosted by our State Directors, Larry and Sherry. Guess what we had.... KFC chicken!!!! I'm beginning to cluck!
This morning, 4 other gals and I, did our own quilting shop hop! It was fun and we had a great day.. we started out at an Amish quilt shop that was mostly handsewn quilts....they were so gorgeous and so many different patterns! The shop was at someone's home in a seperate building. They had wall clocks...I'm drawing a blank here.... like cuckoo clocks. They had jams, jellies, pie fillings, quilt patterns and many types of placemats, potholders, etc. handmade. Such a neat place. They did not have elec. lighting but gas and many windows. The man who came to open the store was Amish. The quilts were varied sizes and hung for you to see. Their prices were very reasonable for such exquisite hand work....
Our next stop was a huge outdoor patio equipement store....they had adirondack chairs, porch swings,...any type of ornament you could ask for from lighthouses to plant sticks.
Inside was more neat stuff...... Thomas Kinkeade paintings, gas appliances, wood stoves, general store type things, kerosene lamps, kitchen items and some clothing.
One stop shopping!
Next we went to Yoder's Deparment store .... I finally found some backing for a 30's fabric quilt I had been working on. Bill and I had been there last week so I kind of knew what they had.
Then onto a store called Davis Merchantile. Actually it was a huge building that had 4 floors...... quite a lot of boutiques.... but they had a gigantic quilt store called Lolly's! What a store.... Yoder's Dept. Store boasts 12,000 bolts of fabric and they have all kinds of fabric..clothing type and quilting. Lolly's is just quilting...... and I'm sure they have at least that much! Such a nice store. They also have a bargain store in the basement that had a wooden "boat" in it filled with fatquarters.....
We ate lunch on the 4th floor at a small restaurant. Outside the restaurant is a large carosel.... it was very pretty. We looked out and there were some Amish kids riding the carosel barefooted! 2 little girls and a boy..... Most of the Amish do go barefoot at home or we have seen them wearing Crocs!
We drove back to the fairgrounds and one of our ladies had a meeting to go to so we took a break before venturing out again. Midafternoon, we drove west to a couple of quilting stores we found listed. They were different and someone usually found something that came home with them.....
Bill spent the day here with the guys and got my list of things done he neeed to do...like pickup the parts he wanted and go to a farmhouse we saw that had fresh produce.
We had another potluck tonite with our Region 3 group and guess what we had ...... yep....more chicken!!! I know I'm beginning to cluck!
We came home and began getting things gathered around so we can leave early in the morning. We hope to make it to almost St. Louis before stopping tomorrow..... We have had such a good week...I really hate to see it end. If you ever get a chance to explore this area you will be amazed at this area!
So until next time on the road!
BJ
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