Indiana

Arrived home from a long weekend trip to the Midwest today. We went to Indiana for multiple reasons. Rita to visit her sister and Mom. I went to visit my sister and teach her how use an iPad.

It was typical Midwestern weather: hot, humid, sticky, thundershowers, and did I say hot?

My sister lives on the fourth corner of the Indianapolis Speedway and it was the weekend for the Indy 500.

The people watching was fantastic! Who wanted to go to a race where they get to stand in line to get in, walk miles to find a piece of grass to sit on, get cooked by the sun to see only a few seconds of each lap. And when it is over, you get to fight your way out in crowds of sunburn, sweaty, hot, short tempered, slightly, or not so slightly, intoxicated people. It was more fun to sit on the porch and people watch go by.

Rita's Mom has a 380 acre farm about 40 miles from the speedway. I spent one evening and day there. No air condition in that house. Just a fan blowing humidity over your sweaty naked body lying on sticky sheets. Ah, to be back home in Indiana.

The next day the girls just had to take a trip to the back woods. Of course the tractor needed work before it can run. So we did some of this and a little of that to get the tractor running. Then three of us figured out how to ride a tractor along the fields to the back woods. One person drives sitting in the seat. The other two? Well, we get to ride on the metal stuff that is behind all tractors that you can never figure out what it is for. One foot on the three point hitch, the other on the axle, hold on to the wheel covers, and be careful that you duck going under the tree branches and you don't let the rear wheel rub your knuckles or the three point hitch sways your foot into the moving rear wheels.

Somehow, we all made it to the back woods without falling off or under the tractor.


The woods are wonderful. Big old majestic trees, the smell of the oxygenated air, the buzz of insects around your heads, and the sun shining through a green canopy.

Is it hot in Indiana?

Absolutely!

Is it humid there?

You betcha!

Are there bugs?

Yep! Lot's of 'em.

Why go there?

The farms are wonderful. Farmers work hard there, feeding the world.

The people are real, some of the most friendly in the world. They are down to earth, enjoy simple pleasures and don't play head games.

If you are so lucky to find yourself in a patch of woods, you will see they are like none other.

The experience ... well it is Priceless!