Richmond, Indiana

Tonight we are in Richmond, IN. Why? Well, there is a story there. In the past, I have been asked, with regard to our living situation, "Larry, what do you want?" This is not an easy question for me to answer, because what I want is so easily influenced by what others want whose happiness is deeply related to my happiness. But I have often replied that it has long been a dream of mine to live in a college town and have access to an academic library. Recently, my attention was drawn to Richmond, IN, home of Earlham College. I happened to look at Richmond in the Zillow app on my iPhone and was surprised at how reasonable real estate is in Richmond. Take this place, for example:

A house in Richmond, IN

This place is being offered for $15,000.Three bedrooms, one bath, 1,085 sq ft. Maybe it's a total dump but it doesn't look like a dump in this photo. This is just one of many homes in Richmond under $50,000. So I thought, why not check it out? Richmond is pretty much right on the way to Bartlett from Swarthmore - we just came west on I-70 about 600 miles and here we are! We got here at about 8:30pm and are in a Red Roof Inn (also reasonable - $47!).  I don't know how realistic it would be to actually live in Richmond - e.g., it isn't near any family. But I would be very interested to see Earlham College, check out their Library, get a feel for the town. It doesn't hurt to look! In addition to Earlham there is also Bethany Theological Seminary - Church of the Brethren. So we'll have an interesting time here tomorrow and then head on up to the Chicago area and spend some time with Jerry and Maggie in Bartlett. They are gathering the clan for pizza Saturday night. We always enjoy that!