Kendallville, IN

For those of you who are paying attention, you may recognize this town as the one we stayed at last year for two nights because we found it very interesting and it also had two golf courses - Cobblestone and Noble Hawk (both of which we played then).

However, let's get back to the proper sequence from the time we left Clive, IA.  Drove east on I-80 (how original) through the Iowa countryside.  We don't think there's going to be any shortage of corn in the United States this year if the crops here are any indication!  Corn is in various stages - guess they plant at different times so that they don't have to harvest everything at one time.  Seems like there is nothing but corn and soybeans planted out here.  We thought of Michele as we drove south of Ames, Iowa and the many time Karen and Ed probably made that trip down I-35 to visit.

Lots of historical places of interest - some more important than others.  Passed Herbert Hoover's hometown in Iowa and Ronald Reagan's birthplace in Illinois (Dixon).  Stayed on I-80 through Illinois and then as we crossed into Indiana, we squiggled around to US 30.  Squiggle is a different term for wending our way from one area to the next.  We were trying to pick up US 6 to go east, but ended up on US 30 - which was a fortuitous mistake since we found Costco and cheap gas.  Gas is running around 2.05 to 2.15 which is amazing when you consider what we were paying in Reno.

US 6 was much more pleasant driving than I-80 - no trucks and pretty countryside.  As we drove further east, we ran into Amish country and their horse and buggy's.  US 6 is the Grand Army of the Republic highway and we think we may take it even further east when we leave Kendallville tomorrow.  We arrived in Kendallville on the first day of the Noble County Fair, so after checking in, we ventured out to explore the town.  Started out at the Kendallville Pub and Bar - if you look that place up in your Funk and Wagnall's, it comes up under the term "home-town bar".  Good music and lots of local folks and a very friendly bartender - Tiffany.  Strange but they still allow smoking in bars and restaurants here, so we had to move down a little to get away from the smoke.

The Noble County Fair was just what you would expect from a local fair.  Lots of food, animal barns, time trials (snowmobiles, trucks and tractors).  It was almost as much fun people-watching as it was exploring the different exhibits.  Tomorrow, we're going to head east and take some more back roads.  We plan on arriving in Rochester mid-day on Wednesday (so watch out, Tim).

Great hot tub in the room here at the Best Western, so that's where I'm heading now.  Have fun and enjoy life.  We'll see you all soon.