August 4, 2020 - We drove the six mile long trip from Shipshewana Campground North to Shipshewana Campground South. We had to wait until noon to depart since we were required to depart at 12:00 and could not check in until 1:00 pm. They let us in early at the new campsite. Gettiing into our site was pretty easy. This campground has a lot of transient traffic where people stay here for a day or two and then move on to other locations.

We went for a tandem ride on the Pumpkin Vine Bicycle Trail. It is paved for about 17 miles and goes from Shipshewana to Middlebury and then on to Goshen. It continues on to Elkhart, but it is not paved on that section of the trail. It is a hard packed crushed limestone that is so small that we can ride on it with our tandem. It does tend to get more dirt and debris on the chain and cassette. The trail is awesome and is like a tunnel in many locations. The trail is smooth and has periodic stop signs when it crosses a major road. In Middlebury, it has quite a few stop signs, but once you get through town, you are off to the races again. On the second leg of the journey, the trail goes through open fields of corn and beans. It it absolutely gorgeous. The trail also goes by numerous Amish and Mennonite homes that are beautifully manicured. We ended up getting 37 miles in on this trail. Lots of fun and very pretty.

I wanted to get in a ride on my single bike to day, so we drove to the beginning of the Pumpkin Vine Trail. Lisa decided to walk while I rode my bike. She ended up walking eight miles for the day and I picked up another 36 miles by riding the same route that we had ridden on the tandem.

On Saturday, August 8, 2020 we went to the "Menno Hof" facility in Shipshewana. It seems that the town opened a flea market in the 1970s very similar to Denio's Market in Roseville. At the flea market, people were very interested in the history behind the Amish/Mennonite/Huttite religious movements. Most of these people are not overly excited about having their picture taken. So, the community decided to build an information center directly across the street from the flea market for the sole purpose of introducing people to these religious ways of life. The building was framed in just one week as a barn-raising by the religious groups and local volunteers. The facility provides a guided tour and some parts as a self-guide tour. It was very informative and we could have any questions answered.

After the tour, we went to dinner at a local restaurant called "The Blue Gate." Boy, was the food good tasting!! It was also way more than we could eat, so we brought some home for tonight's dinner.

Sunday, August 9, 2020 - It is a Sunday and Sundays are special in this area. I would estimate that about 80% of the population here goes to Sunday services and for the Amish/Mennonites, this amounts to a 3.5 hour service. The Amish meet at the home of a family in their Amish community. I worked on the computer trying to get the blog caught up since we now have a MiFi and strong access to the Internet. At 11:30, we decided to go for a ride on the tandem. We rode on country roads heading east to LaGrange and then southeast to Topeka and then back to Shipshewana for a total of 33 miles of riding. What made this ride nice is that there were no cars on the road and it was rare to see someone outside their home. The farms were beautiful. We also saw about six homes where a large number of Amish families had met to conduct services. The Amish do not build churches. They believe in community, so they meet the home of a group member and the homes are rotated. The services are held on simple benches and last for up to 3.5 hours. After that, a meal is served and the kids play together. Quite often, the girls play together while the boys play together. They are very nice people and wave to us when we wave to them.