Welcome to Indiana!

2: The number of states Kaitlyn and I were in on Monday.

Kaitlyn and I spent Monday out in Preble county visiting seven potential Ohio Benefit Bank sites. And oh, what adventures we had.

The first place we went, the Higher Heights Church of God, was a huge success. We were able to meet with a few people who seemed extremely interested in incorporating the Benefit Bank in their church. It was actually quite refreshing. They didn't hit us with illogical concerns and excuses--they saw that it was a good program with huge potential for their services. We'll probably get back with them in the next day or so to get them started on becoming a site.

After that, though, things kind of went downhill.

Two of the places we visited were residential homes. I don't know if we had the wrong address or we had somehow gotten the supervisor's home address or what, but we didn't bother going in. We left information at three other agencies. The GPS and Google Maps couldn't locate the address of another. And for the last one, we ended up in Indiana.

That wasn't our fault, though. The agency used an Ohio address for all of their mail, so that's where we sent our notice letter and where the GPS took us. We pulled into the driveway of a quaint little ranch, which was located on acres upon acres of gorgeous scenery--horses, a lake, even a barn. There was a man working on a tractor in the front yard, so we asked him if we were at the right place.

He explained that the agency was actually like a day camp for kids, and that the actually office buildings were located a mile or so up the road. We tried to leave after that, but he was kind of a chatterbox. He asked us if we had a minute to talk and, thinking he wanted to discuss the letter about the OBB we had sent, we said of course.

"We've got about seven horses, see, you can see them up there."

"Oh yeah, that's great."

"The lake is right over there, it takes up about 70 acres."

"Wow. It really is beautiful up here."

"Now you see this statue over here?" *Gestures to statue of a horse*

"Yes."

"He's painted to look exactly like that horse over there, that brown and white one. He was born about 11 months ago."

"Mm." *Back away to the car*

"Now the colors are a little different, see it's a little darker now."

It went on like that for a pretty long time. Eventually, we thanked him, got in the car, and drove about a mile up a steep, dirt drive. When we finally found the building though, we decided not to even stop in. We can't recruit sites that are in Indiana.

But at least we proved that Kaitlyn and I are dedicated VISTAs -- we're willing to go out-of-state to locate new OBB sites!

Home sweet home