IT IS the kind of scenario that would, on the crowded roads of the UK, engender an attack of road rage.
For more than 15mins I was stuck behind a slow-moving horse and carriage on a single lane road in northern Indiana. Only a few miles away, the rest of Indiana seemed to be getting where it wanted at a steady 65-70 miles per hour on the east-west Interstate 90 road.
But I felt relaxed in the late-spring sunshine and nothing was further from my mind than attempting to overtake the carriage, which continued at a steady trot. Just a few miles from I-90, I had stepped back a century in time.
The horse and carriage were in northern Indiana’s Amish community and my introduction to some living history.
Within 100 miles of downtown Chicago, the Amish and Mennonite religious communities of Indiana rub shoulders in harmony with the modern world. Pennsylvania has, until now, hijacked the British perception that it has the main claim to the Amish after its Lancaster County was featured in the film Witness.
Amish settlements are dotted across the US and large communities also exist in other parts of Indiana, as well as Ohio and Texas.
The Indiana Amish experience is centred on a triangle of rural towns – Elkhart, Nappanee and Shipshewana – where the traffic consists of a mix of pick-up trucks, tractors and horse-drawn carriages. The mechanised transport is that of modern-day Indiana while horse power remains the realm of the Amish.
Members of the conservative religious community, who still dress in 19th century-style clothes, keep gawking visitors at bay with a friendly reserve.
It is possible to experience their lifestyle at places such as Amish Acres, a hotel and heritage park at Nappanee. Amish homes, barns and other authentic buildings have been moved there and painstakingly rebuilt and renovated.
Even the on-site restaurant serves traditional, plain yet tasty food, such as home-baked bread, corn-fed fried chicken, mash and excellent, locally-grown vegetables.
Those staying at the Amish Acres hotel get all the modern conveniences, even if true Amish people shun cars and electricity.
The Amish are also highly photogenic with their historic dress and transport but are not willing photographic subjects. Snaps have to be snatched from a distance to avoid offence.
Driving the back roads among rolling patchwork farmlands and neat Amish settlements provides a great sense of relaxation and well being away from the big bustling cities.
This part of Indiana could see an upsurge in interest from the UK as a result of a new strategy by the Great Lakes of America consortium of states, of which Indiana is a member.
Recommended Great Lakes self-drive itineraries have, in the past, tended to be marathon efforts, taking in as much of a huge travel region as possible in two or three weeks.
The consortium is considering the promotion of smaller north and south options, with the gateway of Chicago as the common denominator.
I was driving what would be a southern section that could be comfortably covered in seven to 10 days and taking in parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
Northern itineraries range from tours east of Lake Michigan to include Detroit and Niagara Falls.
West of Lake Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota are the main points, but among highlights are the twin cities of Minneapolis-St Paul, Lake Superior’s shores, Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s picturesque Door County.