Corn Maize

Although the temperatures are still in the 80s and the leaves haven’t begun to bring me happiness by changing colors, autumn is still in the air in central Illinois. Ken has made his annual trek to the great outdoors of Canada for some fishing, so I’ve been exploring all that the area has to offer solo. Well, not completely alone. My mom and dad were game for a trip to a corn maze and pumpkin patch.

Yesterday, we headed to Gilmore's Green Acres over the border in Indiana to get lost in the fields that mapped out the Corn Belt of America. It was opening day and not too swamped with loads of people, so we were almost completely alone in the maze. I’ve never been in a maze before and wasn’t sure what to expect. Mom, even though a bit directionally-challenged, was our professional guide, as she had brought her class to Gilmore’s before. We didn’t have any tactics or a specific game plan. Basically, we wandered and occasionally made our own path through the rows. Mom opted out when we stumbled across the smaller maze within a maze and Dad and I continued to roam the corn. We were trying to figure out which letters/states we were in while we were walking. After about 45 minutes total, we were out and ready to explore the rest of the farm.





First we visited some goats and sheep at the petting zoo area... And since there weren't a ton of people around, we could make all the goat and sheep noises we wanted with no shame. Okay, maybe a little shame.





Next stop was to have some good old-fashioned clean fun as we raced rubber ducks by pumping water. Mom and I tried not to gloat too much with our successive victories over Dad.



Although most of our pumpkins for home had already been purchased, we had to go buy at least one pumpkin from the patch. A nice man who was missing two fingers took us out personally on a hayrack ride (the fact that he was missing fingers has nothing to do with anything, but it's interesting). We grabbed a pumpkin that was calling our name and some gourds.



After a caramel apple and some cider and a mean and persistent bee, plus a little more goofing around, it was time to head home.



It was a grand old day on the farm. But seriously, I could really go for some fall weather.