Indiana...so close and yet sooooo far away!

Ok, so we are back from our short trip to Indiana Beach. We had a great time...although it was the hottest 4 day stretch of the year. Doug kept saying what didn't kill us made us stronger. It was really, really HOT & Sticky. Next time we try this pseudo camping stuff we are going in September!
Our cabin was great, no bugs, no mice, realy clean. Perfect for our first pseudo camping experience. Jellystone was awesome...they actually have camp director's there to schedule events for the kids every 1/2 hour! It was awesome..."hey kid's go up to the ranger station and hang for a couple of hours!" Now, I'm exagerating but really it was like they were at summer camp, they had water sponge fights, made bracelets, participated in an egg toss, watched movies...like having a built in baby sitter when we needed to clean or cook or put Wesley down for a nap.

So, while I was in Indiana, I noticed that life in Indiana is so different than life here at home. Here are a few of my observations:
#1 All the people there talk with a southern accent even though they only live two hours away from Chicago? Hey, Hoosers, you live up north!
#2 People in Indiana are really hung up on rules. While at Indiana beach I saw a sign in the restroom that read like this...

This bathroom is not a changing area
You may not change here
If you are caught you will be ejected from the park!

...if you want to change there, you should be allowed to change there.
We also had an stange experience on the tram back to the campground. A family was going to get on the tram and the operator yelled into the public address system, "Sir you must put your shirt on in order to ride this tram!" What!?!?! Aren't we at the beach?! Who cares if people have their shirts on...personally I'm in favor of all men wearing shirts to walk around, unless your the diet coke guy, but really do you have to have a rule for that?
Then there were the signs on every restaurant that said you must be 21 years old to enter the bar area, and the lady at the corn stand that said I wasn't allowed to peel the corn to see if it was good before I bought it??
It was just really strange in a twilight zone sort of way. I kept asking myself, how far away from home are we?
#3 When trying to engage the employees of Jellystone or Indiana Beach or Walmart or anywhere else we went, we were met with this open mouthed blank stare. I'd say something like, "Wow! I can't believe how hot it is...I think I'm gonna melt." open mouthed blank stare
or
"Isn't that cute, the kids think Yogi is a real bear!" open mouthed blank stare
I've seen this stare before on Doug's relatives from Indiana and just thought it was his family...but now I'm starting to think it might be the whole state! At one point I started talking real slow, maybe it was my accent that they couldn't understand me? no...just an open mouthed blank stare. Oh Well!
#4 The exact same radio station broadcasts at multiple places on the dial...but none of them come in clearly. I was searching the radio for something to listen to...on 89.1 heard I could sing of your love forever...on 90.8 heard the same song...on 92.4 same radio station...what is going on here? Now it's my turn for the open mouth blank stare.

We did find a country station that came in clearly and had been listening to it all week. At some point on the way home Emily asked, "Mom, are we in Illinois yet? Can we turn off Indiana and put on WBGL?"
All in all it was a nice time away with no phones, email and yes no blogs to distract me from life. We watched deer every night as we ate dinner and I was reminded that our God is good and creative and inspiring and His creation is so amazing and beautiful and inspiring and versitile...I mean look at the Hooser...To view photos of our trip please click the photo badge on the right.