We left Rockford Illinois on Monday without really exploring the area. It had rained,the mosquitoes were terrible & we couldn’t get motivated & we were okay with that.

Our next stop was Middlebury Indiana. As we got closer to it, I started to see Bob Evans billboards & the turnpike signs started showing distances to Toledo, signs of home!! It was hard to not keep going east.

I love Amish country. It’s not everywhere that you see sights like this

This part of the country is home to the second largest Amish population in the country. I wonder if it might be the quilt capital too as there are quilt shops everywhere. I only went into a few but had a little sit and sew at one of them😜

Most of these little towns take a back seat to Shipshewana which is a huge tourist attraction, but they have The Heritage Trail driving tour. You can pick up at CD that narrates the drive & takes you through several towns. We didn’t drive the whole thing but were able to get a few shots of some of the 18 quilt gardens.

For my quilting friends, I think you can google Heritage Trail quilt gardens to see them all & get the patterns.

The towns all had beautiful hanging flowers & quilt murals

The town of Shipshewana hosts a huge flea market & auction building that sits on 100 acres. It is open on Tuesdays &Wednesday & is the midwest’s largest outdoor market. We did the unthinkable. We parked in the back, walked down one row, checked out a few shops downtown & left. All under two hours! We did spend a little time admiring the Amish made furniture

One day we went to a creamery to see cheese being made—the curds & whey being separated.

We stayed at the Middlebury KOA & one night when we came home from dinner, our neighbors had opened the side of their tow trailer & were providing entertainment.

They were from Ontario Canada & were on their way to an organ festival in Dayton Ohio.

We had reservations for a week at a Muskegon campground. When we arrived & went to our spot everything went south. After changing sites twice & sparing the unpleasant details, we got our money back & left. Luckily, the KOA in town had a spot for us for one night. It’s a really nice park on a lake & we wished we could have stayed.

We were again lucky to find a family owned place across the expressway on a lake.

It’s bike weekend in Muskegon & this place is packed!! Of course it has rained the entire weekend ruining the fun of the bikers. It let up for a bit this afternoon so we spent a little beach time at Pere Marquette park.

We found this gem & have eaten here three nights & probably will again. They sure know how to fry their fish. So far we’ve had perch, blue gill & walleye

I have never seen Blue gill on a menu & have been talking about fishing for them this whole trip.

The first night I had bluegill & Jeff had the perch. The next next we both had the walleye dinner. Two drinks each & our dinners & the bill was $26.00. Amazing! Last night I had perch. I am definitely getting my fill of lake fish.

The weather is supposed to clear up later today so there’s more exploring in the future.