Highlights of recent Motorcoach Trip

Hello,
It's been awhile since my last blog. Yes it's me..........I'm finally home from my travels. I had a great bus trip to Shipshewana, Indiana. We left on Monday, June 8th and returned Thursday night around 8 PM.We ran into a lot of traffic around Chicago that delayed our arrival by an hour. The weather was in the high 70's the first night we arrived and then cooled down to the high 60's Tuesday and Wednesday. It actually was perfect weather for walking around a flea market. We'd get to the market at 8 AM and stay until 2 PM both days. Lots of walking. Found lots of interesting things to buy - naturally I bought some sterling silver bracelets and slides. You know me, I can't resist jewelry.

At the hotel we were staying at in Shipshewana, they had one of the 16 quilt blocks that make up their Quilt Garden Tour.The garden tour is the only one of its kind in the country. It's a 90 mile loop through 7 communities. There are 16 gardens, 16 hand painted murals depicting unique quilt designs. Volunteers treat freshly tilled soil like an empty quilt frame. The Visitors and Convention Bureau furnishes the plants and publicity and area businesses, civic and service groups provide the garden sites. 80% of the gardens' plants must be annuals so the quilt patterns and color combinations can be changed every year. There are about 80,000 annuals in the quilt gardens or about 1600 flats provided by a local grower. The average size of the quilt garden is 800 square feet. The largest garden is 2500 square feet. It takes 2,000 hours to plant all of the gardens and 100 volunteers to plant and tend the gardens from Memorial Day to the first frost. You can pick up a free audio driving tour CD, map and Amish Country Travel Guide to enhance the tour. The CD talks about the area's history with narratives, personal stories and fun facts. I think quilts are such a visual part of our heritage. What a neat idea.
Check out their website to see photos of the quilt gardens....www.QuiltGardensTour.com

Have a great weekend and don't forget to check back next week for more news.