When You're Bored in Indiana

The accepted advice is to get in the car and drive down backroads until you find something to do.

On the way, it's important to compare everyone's cornfields with the expertise that comes from never having been a farmer of corn, yourself, admire everyone's falling-down old barn, and verbally acknowledge every farm animal, with added enthusiasm if it's something on the weirder end like a miniature pony or a llama or a mule--Indiana is very horse- and cow-forward!

The other day, the three of us in the family who aren't nocturnal (tangent, but when the roommate selection form tells you to be honest in your responses, do they REALLY want you to admit to them that your bedtime is 6:00 am? Asking for... well, you know who I'm asking for, sigh...) were bored, so we took off down the back roads. Everyone's corn is looking pretty good, but those infinite fields of monocultures are a crying shame. Did you know that prior to pioneer incursion, forests covered over 85% of the state? It's VERY important to start bitching about monocultures after you pass your tenth cornfield or so. We saw some excellent barns, mostly threshing but some random-looking vernacular ones, too, and a shocking number of goats. 

We ended up at Wild Geese Bookshop in Franklin, Indiana, where we browsed--

--I tried to suss out the titles of the Blind Date with a Book books using only their vague descriptions (when one of the clues is "Indiana author" it's always going to be John Green, not Gene Stratton-Porter), and the big kid got herself a brand-new, non-blind date book.

We later wandered into Madison Street Salvage--

--where the vintage Fiestaware--and honestly the vintage postcards and photos, too--were out of my personal budget--

--and I refused entirely to even look inside the glass case of dolls after I saw the sign on the front reading "Not Haunted" (nice try, Annabelle!), but I did buy myself a first edition of Ethel Hollister's First Summer as a Campfire Girl. It's in pretty poor condition so even at $3 I paid what it's worth, but I collect all the girl versions of the Tom Brown's School Days-type book, and I particularly like the Campfire Girl and Girl Scout books for their hilariously heavy pro-Scout propaganda. Here's my favorite quote so far from my new book:

[This Camp Fire Girl is going to be such an improvement over the ordinary girl. She's going to revolutionize young women and make of them useful members of society--not frivolous butterflies--and it will be carried into the poorer classes and teach girls who have never had a chance, so that they may become good cooks and housekeepers and love beautiful things. And their costume is so pretty and sensible.]

 Okay, then! At least they're not trying to come on too strong!

I did not buy the marquee letters or massive wooden mantelpiece that I wanted, but I might come back another time with the hardware for one of our house's original doors that I'm trying to refinish, because they've got a whole set of different skeleton keys that you can try out.

It does turn out, though, that one's wallet opens a little easier after one has had a nice, long free wine-tasting, ahem...

I believe I set a personal record for the amount of money spent on a single bottle of wine, but in my own defense, it is DELICIOUS.

Also, this kid cheats at checkers:

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to random little towns, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!