"Central America" - Mid-West and Great Lakes States
	Day 9:  Sunday, October 13, 2002

There was no alarm this morning.  Rather, someone apparently dragging something metal across the concrete outside the motel room served as the summons to greet another day.  Stupid metal.  This was perhaps at 7:30am, and although its later than we'd normally get up, again, hub-spoke travel method, although I don't know how much I'm liking it, owing to the fact I'm getting left behind more often than not it seems.  Someone appears to be overlooking that these are FrankTours, which seems to be a minor detail of late, but didn't occur today at all.  (I'm pleased about it not detracting from the success of my tour, but the boy seems distressed on a matter very similar.)

The times today are from motel departure to arrival back; obviously, we weren't in the car and in motion for all 14 of those hours. 

We left the motel for a wander around a number of different areas, beginning with Sturgis, which has been home base for nearly two days.  The town is much like most other small towns we've encountered.  It seems nice enough, but there's nothing overly noteworthy about it that separates it from so many others.  The traffic signals were all hung from the light poles with care, and a one-liter bottle of Pepsi Blue was a remarkably good price (only 39¢).  That aside, the houses were a nice variety of both brick and non-brick styles.

Next in the journey was a wander through the small hamlets between Sturgis and Elkhart and beyond.  The next we passed was Howe, which is significant in that it has two gas stations, with the same prices, across the street from one another and they still seem to survive (seen here, in the background left and right).  (Although as we found at 10pm Indiana time, 11pm Eastern, the BP station closes, and makes those of us already parked at the pump and ready to begin fueling out of luck, and crossing the street to complete the transaction.)  Howe also houses the Howe Military School, which has been here for quite a while... we saw, but weren't fast enough to photograph, two cadets walking across the campus in the distance.  Alas.

We next hit Shipshewana, with its cute name and detailed sign coming into town.  There really wasn't too much to look at, but it struck me as coincidental that the 1997 Miss Teen winner's name is the same as the town's insurance agent's name; I feel sure they know each other.  The main street was typically quaint and small, of course.  And we were off to find more stuff.

We encountered Bristol next, complete with the usual water tower, and a gun shop with a slightly quirky name, at least, for a gun shop.  If you are in the area, you'll find that RV business is a good bit of activity here (more noticeable in Elkhart), but the fingers of prosperity do reach out into the outlaying communities as well.

All that talk of RVs made me ready to see it first-hand, so we didn't stop until we reached Elkhart (which sounds dramatic, but it's only 8-10 minutes down the road).  There are numerous retail shops selling RVs, like Hart City and International RV Center, just to name two (that are across the street from one another).  After a few minutes, photographing the number of stores in the RV business was like shooting fish in a barrel, and it wore thin.

Of course, there's more to this town than just RVs.  Like really cool looking apartments (the Stratford Commons), which also have a cool name... and you could probably play a regulation game of most any sport on that front lawn.  Twice.  And there's at least one cemetery we located, the old train depot, and who could pass up the RV and Motor Home Heritage Foundation (a museum and library)?  Well, I certainly couldn't, but if you're, say, traveling through town in your RV or motor home on the weekend, you won't get to see it, either... they're closed after 4pm and on weekends.

To the south of Elkhart is Jamestown, but seems to also be known in parts as Jimtown, including one of the signs.  There is still a pizza place up and running, but the grocery store hasn't shared the same prosperity (it closed ages ago, apparently).  The schools are quite modern-looking, even if they happen to all be on the same plot of land (the elementary, junior high and high school, I mean).  Heck, check out that moving message signboard!

Another example of the RV business' influence on the place and such.  Even if I have no idea what sort of job they're hiring for...

I fail to understand the point of lowering your Honda and the widening the wheel base.  But there ya go.

We next stopped in South Bend.  I'm sure the city is rich in history and culture, but honestly, we only hit the Notre Dame campus.  On our tour from Liz on Friday, we were introduced to the "touchdown Jesus", but in the daylight, it's much easier to photograph.  Not that I mentioned Liz until, or properly introduced her.  Well, she's now the proud owner of a handful of FrankPens, and it seemed a fair exchange for the tour of the place the other night.  I paused at the war memorial on campus, in tribute to the 500 or so Notre Dame alumni that died in World Wars I and II, the Korean War and Viet Nam.  Of course, no wander would be complete without passing by the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  And it's neighboring whatchamacallit building.

And we were off again.  This time bound for Michigan.  Our first stop was in Three Oaks.  A quaint little "village," as they call it, and as a view of the streets demonstrate, nothing overly extraordinary about the place.  So we moved on.

The boy told me to take this one of the lighthouse license plate.  So... I guess if you like lighthouses, sailboats, or things like that... enjoy.

We stopped into Michiana Shores and found a decent place to catch a few pictures of Lake Michigan (by few, I mean one, two), and even test that yes, the water here is just as flippin' cold as Lake Superior.  Although the crashing waves made it trickier to get to the water without getting splashed.  But we made it out alive and reasonably dry.

By virtue of having a funny name, we headed up to Kalamazoo next.  But the name suggested it is a silly place, and we want nothing to do with silliness, particular today, but in general, most days.  Thus, we didn't stop.  

This brings us up to 6pm, and a gap in the narrative.  For reasons to numerous to mention, and to dull to all but a select few, I've been directed to not utter a word about the events of the balance of the evening.  Rest assured, it did not involve anything illegal, immoral, improper, or otherwise scandalous.  (Honestly, it didn't involve anything by me and the boy.)  What I can divulge without breaking my promise, though, is the boy racked up a total of five calls out (only one answered), and received no incoming calls.  The end result was boy being quite annoyed with himself, for reasons unclear to a seemingly small-minded chap like myself.  Given I neither contributed to nor can resolve the angst, I'm going to bed.