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8/29/09, Valentine, IN - A really nice day of driving. The team and I pulled out of Jorge’s bar about 8 am. It looked like it was going to start raining again, but eventually the skies started clearing. The temperature never quite made it to 60 degrees so the horses enjoyed the day as well.
In this part of Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana they grow a lot of hybrid seed corn. 4 rows are planted with the female variety and one row is planted with the male type. Initially, the female plants are all detassled so the pollen only comes from the male variety of the species. After all the ears on the female plants are germinated, the male plants are removed so that the seeds from the male plants don’t mix at harvest with the hybrids ears on the female plants. When you see what they get for a bag of hybrid seed corn you can see how growing seed can be a good cash crop.
We crossed into Indiana about 10:15 AM (sorry there wasn’t any sign at the state line). Lunch was in a grassy buffer zone around a crop of seed corn, just northeast of Howe, IN.
I stopped the team at the grocery store in Lagrange and tied them to the hitching rail. Before shopping, I had a nice conversation with an Amish family before they drove off.
Tonight, we’re camped at the home of Eli Raber and family. Eli is a retired Amish guy with eleven kids (only two are still unmarried and living at home). We’re camped out back along a stream with a very tranquil setting. I have to watch my electrical consumption when camped with the Amish so I don’t run the batteries out. The Rabers came up to visit after supper and we had a nice conversation.
Tomorrow morning we’ll be heading out nice and early as the Rabers leave for church around 7:30 am.
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