48 States, 50 Days

ItineraryMap
Hi! My name is Greg Lockwood, and this summer I am driving through all 48 contiguous United States. In an effort to share this journey with the world, I'll be posting daily videos of my travels, and probably some other randoms stuff as well. I hope you'll follow me in this trip to discover America, and maybe even see me on the road.
Jul 1 '10
Today I had one mission: To find the Amish. That may sound childish, if so, guilty as charged. I didn’t know when the next time I would be in Indiana (see: probably never), I was passing close by Amish Country anyway, and anyone that chooses to live an alternative lifestyle like that genuinely interests me. At first I figured it would be like trying to find a palm tree in Florida; it is called Amish Country after all. But in the end it was more like searching for the end of the rainbow. I had a general idea of which cities they were concentrated in, and I took Indiana 15 off of US 20 towards Goshen. Almost immediately I was pretty sure that this was not their ideal habitat. Goshen was just another city, with Hobby Lobbys, chain restaurants, and 18 wheelers flying down the road. After I crossed through the entirety of Goshen, I decided to go back to 20 and try another road. This time I tried Indiana 19 into Elkhart, since I had seen a sign for a Mennonite church. After 10 miles, it was apparent that this was another dead end. Since I was headed towards Indianapolis, I decided to take 19 south and make progress on my day’s travels while still looking. All I wanted to see was one horse-drawn buggy, I figured that wasn’t too much to ask in Northeast Indiana. After backtracking the original 10 miles and going another 10 miles south, I started to get discouraged. If the Amish didn’t want to be found, they likely wouldn’t be, and I started to focus my attention on how to get back on track to Indianapolis. Just as I had shifted gears, I passed by a horse-drawn open carriage with 4 young Amish girls. Success! They do exist, and I had seen them with my own eyes. I knew no matter how the rest of the day went, it would not be a loss. Edit: OK, so after an hour or so of mulling it over, I felt bad enough about taking a picture, as I know they’re not completely down with that. The most official rules I could find said that technically it’s just “recognizable pictures” of them that aren’t allowed, and in the picture they’re wearing sunglasses, but even so, I am taking this trip to celebrate America and its variety of peoples, not to offend them, so I have replaced it with a picture of the back of the buggy.

Today I had one mission: To find the Amish. That may sound childish, if so, guilty as charged. I didn’t know when the next time I would be in Indiana (see: probably never), I was passing close by Amish Country anyway, and anyone that chooses to live an alternative lifestyle like that genuinely interests me.

At first I figured it would be like trying to find a palm tree in Florida; it is called Amish Country after all. But in the end it was more like searching for the end of the rainbow. I had a general idea of which cities they were concentrated in, and I took Indiana 15 off of US 20 towards Goshen. Almost immediately I was pretty sure that this was not their ideal habitat. Goshen was just another city, with Hobby Lobbys, chain restaurants, and 18 wheelers flying down the road. After I crossed through the entirety of Goshen, I decided to go back to 20 and try another road. This time I tried Indiana 19 into Elkhart, since I had seen a sign for a Mennonite church. After 10 miles, it was apparent that this was another dead end. Since I was headed towards Indianapolis, I decided to take 19 south and make progress on my day’s travels while still looking. All I wanted to see was one horse-drawn buggy, I figured that wasn’t too much to ask in Northeast Indiana.

After backtracking the original 10 miles and going another 10 miles south, I started to get discouraged. If the Amish didn’t want to be found, they likely wouldn’t be, and I started to focus my attention on how to get back on track to Indianapolis. Just as I had shifted gears, I passed by a horse-drawn open carriage with 4 young Amish girls. Success! They do exist, and I had seen them with my own eyes. I knew no matter how the rest of the day went, it would not be a loss.

Edit: OK, so after an hour or so of mulling it over, I felt bad enough about taking a picture, as I know they’re not completely down with that. The most official rules I could find said that technically it’s just “recognizable pictures” of them that aren’t allowed, and in the picture they’re wearing sunglasses, but even so, I am taking this trip to celebrate America and its variety of peoples, not to offend them, so I have replaced it with a picture of the back of the buggy.