I went to Shipshewana today with my friend Nancy. I'll get to that in a minute. What I want to share first is that as I was driving home on 131, I realized I just drove the entire length of it. Last Friday with Skylar we went as far north as we could and today I took it the rest of the way south. While it can be driven easily in one day, it took me four days to complete. It's 266 miles long. You can read more about it here. This kind of information fascinates me. I like maps, roads and road trips. Bill always says we should buy an RV and head out to explore. I am on board with that 100%.
Back to Shipshewana. I had never been there before. Nancy hadn't either. We drove into town, parked in the first lot we came to which was relatively empty (one row of cars out of six or seven rows had cars in it), and we walked down to the Visitor's Center.
It turns out that the Flea Market is today and tomorrow. The line of cars headed into its parking lot was astounding. The woman at the Visitor's Center told us about the downtown area and the 120 shops that fill that area.
One hundred and twenty shops fill the area around one square block.
We filled our day walking in and out of shops. We were surprised at how cheap everything is. We ate lunch on the rooftop of a large shopping center (that helped to explain several of the 120 shops) and split a piece of dutch apple pie.
As we took things we purchased back to the car, the parking lot got fuller and fuller.
We never stepped foot in the Flea Market.
We decided next time we need to check out the museum to learn more about the Amish and Mennonite culture and we will avoid Flea Market day. We will also be sure to check out some of the furniture stores (we didn't go in a single one today).
I'm thankful for simplicity and honesty.
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