Shipshewana--Part 3--Driving home

It had been fairly warm all week but the night before I left the temperature took a dive!  I loaded up  everything I could on Saturday night  but it was too cold for the sewing machines so they had to wait until Sunday morning.  Also due to the cold I decided to drive all the way home on Sunday and that I would go through Des Moines, Iowa instead of Saint Louis.  It's a bit closer and I could get dinner at one of my favorite places in Des Moines.    It had been a busy week, with lots of chatting and I was a bit tired but I had breakfast with a table full of ladies I didn't know and left a bit after 8am.  Lots of Amish out on the roads --off to services I expect.  Anyway, I got sleepy.  A latte helped but I needed to get out and walk--lo and behold there was a SIGN for Indiana Dunes National Park!  It took a bit of  driving around before I found the visitors center where they recommended the West Beach.  A bit more driving about and then a walk among the dunes and a short visit with Lake Michigan!  Dang it, it was cold and windy!

If you look VERY closely in the far distance you can see Chicago.

Soon I was refreshed and back on the road.  Left Indiana, then skirted the south edge of Chicago ( If I ever go back I'm going to chart a trip around that place!) Drove for what seemed like FOREVER in Illinois until I crossed the Mississippi and into Iowa.

It seemed like Des Moines arrived just after dark and after following GPS I was a bit lost;.  (Funny thing about GPS you have to put in the correct information before you get good results!)  Looked up Machine Shed Restaurant and quickly found my way there.  After a lovely dinner I headed on the last leg towards home.  It was full dark (winter) and I don't really need the GPS to guide me home but I like seeing the number of miles left going down!  That was great until I realized that in order to keep me on Interstate highways as long as possible I would be going considerably out of the way so I turned it off, got on to the highway that was a straight shot home.  With the exception of a stag deer standing on the side of the road and scaring me (thankfully, he decided to stand still!)  It was uneventful and I pulled into my driveway about 10pm.  Unloaded everything into the living room and got ready for bed.  I have trouble settling down after driving alone for so far so sleep came only after a nice whiskey and Midnight. 

Then I slept almost ALL day the next day.  

My last chore was to go pick up the dog!  Quinn loves it at my daughter's place but is always happy to come home.

So ends my Shipshewana adventure. 

What will I do next?

Shipshewana: Stitching, Shopping, and Eating!

The doors to our sewing room-there are three- didn't open until 10am on Tuesday so the four of us went "Window Shopping."  Chris said we couldn't buy anything so of course a couple of fabrics just REALLY wanted to come home with me!  I didn't buy anything that day.  Once we got in and the machines etc set up we headed out for dinner at the 5 & 20.  It's at the intersection of highways 5 and 20-I think its a clever name.  The food was good and the pie was really good.

Wednesday after breakfast we went shopping for real-we could buy things and I did!

Well, I bought the four pieces on the left that day-the precuts were once a jelly roll I just didn't get a picture of it all rolled up and I bought it on Friday.

After shopping we went back to stitching.  I was working on this

A little bargello Christmas tree.  It's not finished yet as I have add some beads for sparkle and that requires a trip to Joann's (oh darn !)  This was more labor intensive than I expected and created a lot of waste.

Wasted time, wasted effort, wasted fabric!

I'm going to try to figure out a way to use that wasted fabric!

I wanted to work on turtles and had brought my gummed up iron but I couldn't plug it into the surge protector as they caused the power to go out and hadn't brought a cover  for the ironing board so -o-o I worked on this cross stitch piece.

Until, I found I had at least one mistake and my eyes were too tired to go on.

Then I made hexies.

Friday, Chris and I went shopping but not for fabric.  She was buying gifts and some things for the new sunroom addition.  I bought a little chicken teapot!

We also met up with Hanne from the Chookshed Stitchers and Norway !

How cool is that?!

So what are the odds that quilters from Norway, Canada and the US will be together in one place at the same time!

We also met up with Gretchen whose work I've admired for quite a while now.

I had a blast!  I was a bit unsure about it -this was only my 2nd quilt retreat! It was great fun though.

The only thing is---I brought WAY to much stuff to work on!  I packed several small projects and a couple of bigger ones thinking I'd have most of 5 days for stitching.  I didn't think about the fact that there would be SHOPPING!

Shipshewana Retreat Part One--The drive up

 I started off Sunday morning, November 4, to meet up with Chris and two others for a Quilt retreat in Shipshewana, Indiana.  I stopped off at my youngest son's for lunch and to reimburse him for my new phone.  Then I headed even further east passing through the dreaded St Louis with it's confusing highways-I did not lose my way this time!  On the phone directions do help!  I spent that night in Collinsville, Illinois.  It seems even choosing my hotels by brand-Hilton, Marriot, and Holiday Inn-isn't perfect and I continue to be lousy at finding a good hotel even within the Marriot brand, sigh.  Being awakened at 5am by staff beginning prep for breakfast was only part of it.  After getting my debit card squared away, long story which I won't tell you. I went over to Cahokia State Park to see the mounds.  The park protects 2200 acres and 77 of the known 80 mounds.  I was only there for an hour or so but wished for more time (and that the Visitors Center wasn't undergoing renovation!)

The mounds once covered 7700 acres and had a large population in the area. No one knows why it was deserted or when.  If you are interested here are a couple of YouTube sites that cover 
Cahokia.  (Cahokia:Mississippian Mounds--this one is very good- and Cahokianmounds documentary or just search YouTube there were several others listed.)

Monks mound above

                                

 

The stairs to the top of Monks Mound.  It's a long way up!  

I did climb up to the top and the view was magnificent! That's St Louis in the distance.  Both the Arch (left of downtown)
 and the Stan Musial Bridge (right of downtown)  are visible

Woodhenge is a re-creation of a solar calendar much like Stonehenge in England.

It looks pretty unimpressive but interesting still.

After Woodhenge, being cold and nearly blown away, I headed east for the Second Day.

It's about 600 miles from my home to Shipshewana, north nearly to Michigan as well as east.  I fought with the GPS most of the day--It REALLY wanted me to go via Chicago, I REALLY did not want to do that!  Instead, I drove the outer edge of Indianapolis.  The drive was uneventful and I arrived in Shipshewana about 7pm for a tad of drama.  I had NO IDEA what hotel we were staying and my misguided thought that it was a small place (well, I was right about that) with only one hotel meant I had no idea where to go!  Finally, I found a place to park, dug out the paper work for the retreat (lucky that I printed it out.) and found the name so that I could check in to find Chris and company waiting for me!