Amishland: Buggies, cornfields, quilts, and cows

For my sister's birthday my Mom and I surprised her with a trip to a quilt and flower show in Indiana's Amish country. Those are two of her favorite things, so we thought it was perfect. Neither Kelly nor I have been to this area of Indiana so we were both looking forward to it and Mom was determined to find the black barns she saw when her group made a trips there some 15 years ago.

We headed north on Thursday after Kelly and Mom got off work, drove half way to our destination, stayed in Carmel for the night then got up Friday morning to hit it hard for a long day of wandering Indiana. The quilt show was small. Very small. Kelly is used to going to the national quilt shows, so this little bitty old thing in Middlebury, IN was like going to the county fair. There were a few great quilts, but it was rather disappointing because we expected to see more "Amish" quilts.

Luckily all the little towns are within a 10-20 minute drive of each other, so we hopped over to Shipshewana for some shopping at the famous Yoder's Fabric Store before they closed at 5 pm. Aside from the obvious, living in Amish country is a totally different way of life. Businesses closes around 5 or 6 pm and nothing is open on Sundays. Wow! That's unheard of now days!

Speaking of totally different ways of life, and the OBVIOUS, I'm totally curious about the Amish and Mennonite "rules" and traditions. Their houses and barns are very modern on the outside, but they use horse drawn buggies. Their houses are not connected to electrical power lines, but they use electrical appliances powered large propane tanks in their yards. They wear traditional Amish attire with Crocs and Nike flip-flops. Have the Amish conformed and what we see in Amishland is really like Williamsburg, VA? Is it really just an elaborate living museum setting and they are playing a part but behind closed doors the cell phones come out and the TVs are flipped on? I'm so confused!