July 4, 2024
Doing anything we like to do
Day Six: Rest Day
Today, we rested. In fact, I’m guessing that just about everyone in South Bend took the holiday off. Of the several dozen restaurants in the downtown, only one was open at breakfast: the hotel restaurant. So after taking a walk around the deserted downtown, we ate at the hotel breakfast buffet.
Two of the city’s claims to fame were “open” for visits. We spent a few hours at the National Studebaker Museum, learning about the company that got its start making wagons before transitioning to automobiles.
The museum’s collection of cars traces the company’s growth from a struggling family business in the 1850s to a publicly traded company that (just barely) survived the Great Depression and prospered until its business died in the mid-60s.
The wagons and cars were the stars. The brothers who started the company. to collect some of their first and pivotal wagons as a sort of company museum. Once that habit was started, the company seemingly did that right up to the end. Their collection included wagons used by President’s, even those they didn’t make themselves, such as the carriage that took Abraham Lincoln to the Ford theater. The cars. They saved included prototypes for various models as well as the last Studebaker to ever roll off an assembly line.
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The memorial quality of the museum seemed fitting on a day in which the downtown seems deserted right up through the afternoon. We really didn’t see many people until we cycled up to the campus of the university of Notre Dame and 5 PM.
While there are monuments on campus, it is a lively place even on a summer holiday. High school students attending pre-college programs roamed the paths, as did university students and a few administrators. Also, there seemed to be many sightseers like us, some on organized tours.
We spent some time at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. It was a peaceful spot with people praying and in contemplation. We watched as a brother and a deacon, accompanied by his dog, tended to the hundreds of votives in the grotto.
The businesses on the edge of campus knew the university would be busy even on a holiday. It was the one place we found open restaurants. We sat outside on the patio of a local bar and grill, enjoying late-day sunshine and the vibrancy of the area.
Tomorrow, we are back on the road. Hopefully, this day of rest will give us the energy to enjoy the ride into Michigan and then to the Indiana Dunes.
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Listen: Groovin, The Young Rascals
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