Weekending- Hoosier hospitality(?), basketball and a boot

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday

The weekend was a good one... The biggest thing about it was that I could WALK. On my two feet. I will back up to Wednesday...

On Wednesday, I had an appointment to see the surgeon who operated on my Achilles tendon on Easter morning. The day prior to the surgery, when I was in a state of shock that I needed surgery in the first place and then in a state of further shock/ horror when I heard about how long the recovery would be afterward, the surgeon explained what the surgery entailed and told me that he would see me three weeks after the surgery at which time he planned to take the cast off and put me in a boot. I thought he told me that at time, I would be able to walk in the boot (really what’s the point of a boot anyway if not to walk?). 

I was not able to get an appointment at exactly three weeks from the surgery- my appointment ended up being 3 1/2 weeks after the surgery. During the 3 1/2 weeks, I couldn’t put any weight on my right leg so I pretty much stayed put unless I had to get up. That gave me (too much) time to consult Dr. Google. One website of a surgeon’s practice mentioned that sometimes patients were not cleared to walk at the three week post surgery mark. That had me panicking and questioning what I thought I’d heard my surgeon say which was that I would be able to walk in the boot.

Thank goodness, at the appointment, the surgeon took the cast off, put on a boot and said that I could WALK. Prior to taking off my cast, he noted that he could tell that I had not walked with my cast on at all. He said that he could tell because the bottom of the cast was in pristine condition- if I had walked on it, it would have shown signs of having made contact with the ground. I guess I didn’t think that walking on it was an option? I was told in no uncertain terms in the hospital pre and post op that I couldn’t bear weight on it. So I didn’t? I didn’t consider walking on it because it was prohibited and I didn’t want to do anything that would hinder the healing process.

Anyway, so there I was on Wednesday with simultaneously the most beautiful and ugly thing I have ever seen- that big ol' boot. Initial first steps were iffy as well as painful but I was thrilled to be able to walk. 

The next day, on Thursday, my brother John came for a short visit from Illinois. He and I had been tentatively planning on traveling to northern Indiana for the weekend if I got the go ahead to walk in the boot on Wednesday. We had family coming into town to Indiana and it would have been a great time to go there. Of course I couldn't drive so John was going to drive us there (Alyssa had to work so Donnie would have stayed home with her). However, walking was causing me a decent bit of pain and neither John nor I wanted to drive the 3+ hours to get to northern IN (and then John was facing a long drive back to western IL after driving us to and from IN). So, we decided to stay put and not go to northern IN. 

That did not mean that we didn’t go to Indiana- we did go to IN but to a much closer destination. At some point over winter, our local newspaper's website had an article about a business in Indiana that I knew I wanted to patronize. It was for a bakery whose specialty was a cherry dessert called a cherry thing- a- ling and according to local yore, this dessert, a pastry, is popular and super tasty. Growing up in northern Indiana on a parcel of land with a few fruit trees on it including a cherry tree whose cherries we tried to pick before those  🤯 birds got to them, my mom made my favorite dessert with the cherries- a cherry pie. The allure of traveling to Indiana for a famous cherry dessert that was not my mom’s (and therefore my mom’s pie can still retain its place in my heart for the best cherry pie ever) was too great to pass up. Especially when looking at the small town that this bakery was in, Batesville, was only an hour to the west of us.

To Batesville, John and I headed on Friday. Batesville is a town of 7000 people making it the largest town in a two county region. According to its website, Batesville is a “thriving city committed to faith, family, education and a strong economy. See why we are proud of our hometown.” Aww! It was like at first read on the website. Let’s see how it played out.

We found the bakery that sells the pastry that I wanted to try. It’s called Schimdt Bakery and it’s been in business since the 1940’s. The building looked small, but, hey, it’s a small town. No need for a huge bakery, right?

The window featured the famous cherry thing- a- lings. I couldn’t wait to try one!

We walked in and were greeted by a smiling, comely young employee. She asked if she could help us. I replied that we were there for their famous cherry pastry (saying “thing a ling” out loud seemed silly for some reason.)

“Oh,” the young lady responded to us, “we only sell those in February.”

Wait... What? If I had read that detail in the article, it had gone, to use a phrase from my late cherry pie baking mom, in one ear and out the other. 

Wellll. Ok. So no cherry thing- a- ling. That was disappointing. BUT, display cases showed many scrumptious treats, the looks of the likes of which would serve as a balm to our non consumption of cherry thing- a- lings. 

We ended up buying variety of cookies and sweets. It was near lunch time by the time we checked out. I asked the employee if she could recommend a good place to eat lunch. She named a few of the restaurants in town and then said that if we drove a few miles to the town of Oldenburg, there was a German themed restaurant there called Oldenburg Brauhaus that was popular. We decided to try that.

On our way out of Batesville, I saw this independent shoe store. I live in the middle of suburban chain stores. If I had two good feet, I would have been tempted to stop in and shop 🤭

Here is some info on thing a lings that I got from the internet.

Nottta thing a ling but a most delicious thing :).

Oh, not only are the thing-a-lings sold only in February, they are only sold for FIVE days in February. I am trying to wrap my head around a business’s piece d’resistance being sold five days out of the year! But Schmidt has been in business for 80 years and I have never so much as had a business so Schmidt 1, me none in the business department...

We drove to Oldenburg- population 674(!) and found the restaurant... but we didn’t end up eating there. There was no parking right out front. John said we could circle around to the parking lot that we’d passed. However on our way around the block, we came upon a restaurant that had a parking spot right in front of it. John asked if it was OK if we ate there since there was a spot right in front. The German place sounded better to me but I wasn’t feeling up for insisting on my preference, especially in light of my suggestion of driving an hour to a bakery that hadn’t sold what we’d come out to buy since mid February :).

Some info on the net about Oldenburg…

Look at the spires in the winter! So pretty and so many for a very small town...

Checking out the spires... while driving on a cobblestone street. Charming!

The restaurant where we ate was called Wagner’s Village Inn.

It is known for its pan fried chicken.

The inside was small and the employees were, frankly, not super friendly. I did not want to take pictures before my food was prepared. I got this picture from a review of the place that I found online. 

Each table had a laminated paper that gave information on the restaurant’s history.

Lard is not a pejorative at this restaurant though “hog fat” was more commonly used to describe it!  

Our server was extraordinarily not friendly...there was no attempt on her part to hide the fact that she didn’t want to be waiting tables. (You take for granted the extent to which most wait staff at least acts like they are happy to wait on you until you encounter a server like the one we had.) After our server very unenthusiastically took our order, John and I just widened our eyes at each other across the table. The restaurant was a small one- I wasn’t about to verbalize anything negative when for all we knew our server was bad-mouthing us out of towners to the cook. 

The pretzel bites were good...

When in Rome... I decided to try the chicken. Though the pieces were small, there were five of them and the price was very reasonable. I think this plate was $9.95. The chicken was good. I didn’t think it was fantastic. We have a farmer’s market across the street from our subdivsion that sells fried chicken that I think is much better than this one. 

Before our server seized the menu out of my hand after we ordered, I thought I caught a statement on the menu about the restaurant receiving a James Beard Award. As we exited the restaurant, there was information about the fact that the restaurant had, in fact, won a James Beard Award. 

Had to kind of chuckle that the owner thought the award was a prank at first!

Looks vaguely redolent of Germany... I saw this on our way out of town. Charming!

Once home, I did an internet search of the restaurant and the award. 

Next February, during the five days that cherry thing- a- lings are sold at Schmidt, I would love to buy some to try and then go to Oldenburg and eat at the German restaurant. Maybe those church spires will have snow on them ;).

In the evening, we watched the Indiana Pacers play in their play off game. John is a big Pacers fan. Donnie and I don’t follow the NBA at all but I can get into a game with the best of them. The Pacers won in overtime so it ended well.