"Central America" - Mid-West and Great Lakes States
	Day 7:  Friday, October 11, 2002

Today begins the hub-spoke travel method.  For the first day, it worked out well enough.  Far less driving, got to see some stuff we wouldn't normally see, and of course, the boy engaged in some mysterious event that I'm not privy to, by virtue of having been left in the car.  (Should that happen again, though, he and I are likely going to have problems.)

We waddled off around 8:15am for Gary, Indiana (of the Music Man fame).  Yes, I've already been told that by being white-feathered, I'm less than a welcome guest in that town, but I care not.  There are things far too important to become petty about the color of your feathers or fur.  So, after struggling for 45 minutes to get onto the interstate (that wasn't a toll road, the cheapskate wouldn't go that way), we made it to Gary a little before 10am.  (Yes, it's only a 60 mile trip that took us 1 hour, 45 minutes to accomplish.) 

I would love to say the tales I'd been told were absolutely false.  But to say that would be to speak without respect for the truth -- at least of what we saw during our time there.  There were a myriad of check cashing stores, many of whom advertised 24 hour service.  Pawn shops were very common, some even taking out billboards for their businesses.  A number of businesses were closed out, and looks as though they'd been that way for a while.  (This one amused me, though -- was the building for sale, or was that just a legacy of when they were actually selling cars?).  Dejected that we didn't encounter a little bit of heaven to spite the rumors, we left.

We wandered aimlessly around narrow, 45 MPH posted country roads, and eventually bumped into a few other places to poke our beaks into.  The first was Pierceton, which while small, had a large number of signs they wanted visitors to view... all about the civic pride, I s'pose.  The roads weren't too busy, and the houses were cute, standard types of homes, but all in all, it seemed like a nice town.

About 1:45pm, we popped into a local Meijer store to collect a few items needing replacement.  They're open 24 hours, huge and well-stocked, but can't seem to quite punctuate their tag line correctly.  Is this supposed to be a question or an exclamation statement?  I asked the boy, but he had the phone jammed in his ear (probably some girl... he's pretending to be popular of a sudden... I think he's just imagining it, though).

About an hour later, we passed through Rome City, a teeny little place, but not without a decent sign and a whole lot of charm.  We did the usual road shot just to show that they pave the streets in small Indiana towns, but what surprised us and passed us with a stop to park was the town's lake (reservoir) that was surrounded by walking trails, picnic areas, and the like (and I'm sure a parking place or two, but we didn't see it).  Just charming.

A few minutes before the next town (maybe 2:55pm), we pass our first horse-and-buggy, although a bit blurry.  It was only later that we encountered the cautionary sign telling us of those whom we share the road.

A bit after 3pm, we hit LaGrange (or is it Lagrange?), checking out the water tower, cemetery, really cool painting on the wall, and of course, the old style brick city offices.  We were also fortunate enough to find this is an excellent market for buying your wicker furniture, and at reasonable discounts, it seems.

We arrived in Michigan, and within a minute, had arrived in Sturgis (it helps that it sits just inside the Indiana-Michigan state line).  After hitting the motel, we wandered over to the Elkhart-Mishawaka-South Bend area to see what we could find for food and entertainment.  Or so I thought.  I spent the bulk of three hours locked in the car, and then got to wander a bit around the campus of Notre Dame, although by being dark and all, I didn't any pictures, but I hope to return on Sunday to complete that task.  (There's apparently a game there tomorrow, which would make both the parking and logistics of pictures damn near impossible.)

Still upset about the part about being left in the car, but we'll address the issue should it be repeated, as noted at the onset of today's update.