Once more to the lake
… that is, once more for Karin, who spent much of her childhood there. For me, it was the first time.
The lake is in the most Amish part of Middlebury, on the eastern edge of Elkhart County. This is some of the prettiest countryside in all of Northern Indiana. Its hills are very steep; its pastures, very green; its cows, horses, and sheep, healthy and frisky.
On the road, we met more buggies and pedestrians than motorcars.
Then we turned down a long, narrow lane with a sign that said “Private Driveway.”
It took us to the gated community of Foxwood Hills, where young and old were driving golf carts and motorized scooters. The streets had names like “4th of July” and “Iraq” and “Common Sense.” Everywhere were U.S. flags, pictures of eagles, and the like.
We encountered Karin’s sister, Lily, who was riding a bicycle. She escorted us to our parking space. All along the streets were trailers and prefabricated houses. This was one of the nicer ones:
Another nice house had a cage out on the front lawn with four young raccoons in it.
Karin’s dad’s generation is the third to own the family’s four lots. But the family’s trailer hasn’t been habitable for many years. Karin’s dad and his relations keep waiting for “Aunt Kimberly” to clean out the trailer; meanwhile, they visit the campsite during holidays and weekends, sleeping in tents and using the toilets in the bathhouse at the top of the hill. They sit in camping chairs around their fire pit; and when they tire of that, they take their chairs down to the lake and sit there for a while; and then they go sit around their fire pit again; and so on. There isn’t much to do at Foxwood Hills.
For the children, there are playgrounds, and one can always bathe. The lake itself isn’t too shabby:
It’s possible, also, to stroll along one of the four trailer-lined canals:
But the adults don’t do a lot of strolling or bathing. Mostly they just sit in their camping chairs. It helps that they also have coolers of picnic food and beer and vodka.
Anyway, it was good that Karin & I went there on Sunday and not on Memorial Day, when t-storms and tornadoes swept through the region.
The lake is in the most Amish part of Middlebury, on the eastern edge of Elkhart County. This is some of the prettiest countryside in all of Northern Indiana. Its hills are very steep; its pastures, very green; its cows, horses, and sheep, healthy and frisky.
On the road, we met more buggies and pedestrians than motorcars.
Then we turned down a long, narrow lane with a sign that said “Private Driveway.”
It took us to the gated community of Foxwood Hills, where young and old were driving golf carts and motorized scooters. The streets had names like “4th of July” and “Iraq” and “Common Sense.” Everywhere were U.S. flags, pictures of eagles, and the like.
We encountered Karin’s sister, Lily, who was riding a bicycle. She escorted us to our parking space. All along the streets were trailers and prefabricated houses. This was one of the nicer ones:
Another nice house had a cage out on the front lawn with four young raccoons in it.
Karin’s dad’s generation is the third to own the family’s four lots. But the family’s trailer hasn’t been habitable for many years. Karin’s dad and his relations keep waiting for “Aunt Kimberly” to clean out the trailer; meanwhile, they visit the campsite during holidays and weekends, sleeping in tents and using the toilets in the bathhouse at the top of the hill. They sit in camping chairs around their fire pit; and when they tire of that, they take their chairs down to the lake and sit there for a while; and then they go sit around their fire pit again; and so on. There isn’t much to do at Foxwood Hills.
For the children, there are playgrounds, and one can always bathe. The lake itself isn’t too shabby:
It’s possible, also, to stroll along one of the four trailer-lined canals:
But the adults don’t do a lot of strolling or bathing. Mostly they just sit in their camping chairs. It helps that they also have coolers of picnic food and beer and vodka.
Anyway, it was good that Karin & I went there on Sunday and not on Memorial Day, when t-storms and tornadoes swept through the region.