beginning of Week 2

many more adventures since Cleveland. lots to write, bear with me...

I started last Thursday with a cab ride out of Cleveland to a big gas
station complex in the attempt of finding a ride southwest.

Stuck for a while. it was hot, no one wanted to talk to me. or if
they did, they were nice enough, but no one would give me a ride.
What an unpleasant experience. 3 hours or so it took to get a ride.
Seb, the producer, had this gleeful look in his eye at my
frustration. He's hitched a lot, so he felt for me. But he knew it
would not be all roses, and the show would not just be about the high
points. All the waiting and pleading certainly made the ride i
finally got a real high point.

A 21 year old marine just back from Iraq was the only one who stopped
for me. "People around here suck" is what he said. that is why he
picked me up. we wandered south on 71, stopped at a Bob Evans for a
bite to meet up with the crew and look for where to head. The
waitress said, "You could head down to Kidron.. there is the Amish
auction today." Bingo.

Down to Kidron, a tiny town at heart of Amish country. in the
center there is a supermarket, a livestock auction house, a big feed
mill, and an historic hardware store. Amish horse carts clip-
clopping around. chin beards. full on. We couldn't shoot around
the auction (amish are not open with camera crews, especially ones
they don't know). I decided to do a painting of the old feed mill
right in town, and see who i meet just setting up and painting. I
did a nice little study, and had many a chat. finally around 6 or
7pm a nice mennonite farmer came up, curious about what i was doing.
he offered me a bed for the night, and i agreed to do a little
painting for him.

Turns out he has a large farm right in town. Harmony Farms. 140
years in his family. his name is Clarence Neuenschwander, and he
still spoke swiss german. His son Phillip was great and generous.
we had an amazing time with the family, they showed us all around the
Dairy farm. They grew corn and soybeans and had over one hundred
dairy cattle. We drank the raw milk and it was the best i've ever
had. they had their own eggs, veggies, maple syrup they cooked down,
beef from the farm, homemade bread, cookies, mint tea from their
mint, etc. great generosity.

I did a small oil sketch of the farm, and hope it will stay in the
family for generations in the future.

after attempting to sell the feed mill painting to the owner of the
feed mill (great guy), we visited the antique hardware store. a
tourist attraction, it has things i've never seen for sale- old style
tools, but new. Fridges that run on propane, strange non electric
tools, etc. we caught a ride from there with Jean Rockerfeu, who is
from amish country. we stopped by her house and some amish neighbors
came by and we had a good chat. she then dropped us in Millersburg,
a little town. We barged into the main hotel and i traded a little
drawing for the night's lodging. In the bar that night we met two
young guys who agreed to give the lift down to columbus... jason and
matt.. two cool young guys from the stix.. raised amish or mennonite,
they both had interesting tales of growing up rural in OH.