Anita's Amish Tale....

Okay, so we were on our way to Freeport, Illinois, somewhere between Kansas City and Des Moines, Iowa. I saw a billboard for something "Amish." If you know me at all in real life you know that I really like reading about the Amish culture and reading silly little Amish fiction novels (yes, there is a whole genre!). I knew we didn't have time to explore this place where there were, evidently some Amish people, but I whipped out my camera and took a pic of the exit sign so that I could look up the area when I got home (possibly for a future adventure). That was that. Except...

On our way home yesterday, Eric and I got into a really good conversation. We were talking and talking. I eventually looked at the car instruments to see that I was on empty! The "empty" light was on and I had no idea how long it had been on! We started looking for the next possible exit. Samren even said a little prayer! LOL! We saw a sign for Iowa Visitor Center coming up in a few minutes, but knew a visitor's center wasn't going to have gas. Keep looking... Oh, but this exit actually did have gas! Okay, exit 4 it is.

We took the exit and what do my eyes behold, but a big sign for "Amish Country Store." Ah! This was so exciting to me (silly, I know)! But it was Sunday, so we didn't expect the store to be open. We would get gas anyway. We turned off onto the road and what is in front of me but an Amish horse and buggy!!!! I even embarrassed myself I was so excited! I was just like the silly tourists Amish make fun of. A horse and buggy with 3 Amish men inside shouldn't be THAT exciting, but the coincidence of the whole thing was too much for me! You should have seen me whipping out my camera, screeching to a halt at the gas station, and snapping the pic before the buggy was too far out of range!

Snapped a pic of the Lamoni, IA sign too...And the Amish Country Store sign, which also happened to be the Iowa Welcome Center!
Cute cows outside, one missing its nostrils.That was that, I thought. Pretty cool. But wait! The store was opened, even on Sunday! Yee-haw! Eric rolled his eyes at me, knowing that we would have to go into this very un-Eric place. LOL! I told him that God himself must have planned this whole thing just to bless little 'ol me because what were the chances of ALL the exits between Tulsa and Freeport that we would almost run out of gas nearest this exit? He couldn't argue with that!I loved the sign inside that said "You can never have too many baskets." That pretty much describes my basket philosophy. I came home with a "lazy susan" basket that will sit in the middle of our dining table, holding fruit, and a "writing basket." Obviously, the Amish still depend on writing letters for long distance communication since electricity isn't generally allowed. This basket has a lid that once opened, reveals an area for writing utensils and an area for your pretty stationary. In my dreams, I will one day have a pretty little writing desk in a nook of my home, complete with this basket sitting out.
They had a gen-u-ine Amish buggy inside the store. I pushed back my urge to have the children sit inside of it for a photo. I didn't want to embarrass the fam TOO badly. We walked out with some Amish-made goodies including this yummy onion herb bread, some caramel popcorn, and homeade candy bars.

And that, my friends, is Anita's Amish tale. Just a little detour during our mini-vacation. Something just for the mommy!