92 County Tour: The Wayne County Chocolate Trail

Want to hear about one of our adventures while we were gone?? I am starting with this one because it was so unique!

If you're new here at the blog, you may not know that Ryan and I are in the middle of a multi-year project to visit every county in the state of Indiana. And I told you yesterday that we knocked out a county tour while we were gone, and this time, it was Wayne County, which is in the southeastern part of Indiana. Wayne County was named for General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, who was an officer during the Revolutionary War. Ironically, there was also a fort named for General Wayne - which inspired the name of a city built around it: Fort Wayne. And the street where we stayed was called Fort Wayne Avenue, so everything just went full circle the entire time. Richmond also has a HUGE history with the Quaker (Friends) church, which is the denomination both Ryan and I grew up in, so that was another full circle moment for us on this trip. 

I have to give MAJOR credit to Wayne County for doing such a great job of making things available to do in their county - even in in the winter, and even in a pandemic. I believe this is county #33 for us in our visits, and while some counties have taken me FOREVER to plan, this one did most of the work for me. The chocolate trail was one of the things I found in my research, and it sounded fantastic to me!! And you want to know a secret? It was even better in real life than it seemed online. Take a look!

We stopped by the Visitor's Center in Richmond (which was VERY nice, by the way) and picked up a Chocolate Trail Passport. There's no charge for the passport, but you do have to have one to receive the free samples on the trail. We each received a passport, and then we each received samples everywhere we went! We loved it, because it took us into stores and restaurants we may not have otherwise visited, and we were able to help support local businesses while we were there. 

Here are the fun things we saw and tried!

Our first stop was Today's Harvest, which is actually just over the line into Ohio - but it's just outside of Richmond. It was a sweet store. They sold gifts, produce, donuts, ice cream, and even had a florist shop in the back! We purchased some Christmas gifts while we were there and had fun looking around. The people who worked inside were so friendly and talked to us about where we were from and our visit to Richmond. 

At this stop we had a choice between an ice cream containing chocolate or a donut with chocolate in it. We had JUST had ice cream for lunch, so we went with the donuts and ate them later for snacks. (I give two thumbs up to their donuts!) These have peanut butter icing, by the way. MMMMMM.

The next stop on the passport (though we did not do all the stops in order - or on the same day) was the Tin Cup Tea & Gift Shop. This was a really cute little shop with all kinds of tea and coffee related gift items - and actual tea for sale. It was right downtown in one of the old storefront type shops. 

The sample at this stop was a tea that included chocolate, and we chose peppermint chocolate tea. The lady in the shop was SO kind and we had the best time talking to her while we waited for her to made our tea. She poured a little sample into a cup for us to drink right then and then poured the remainder into to-go cups for us. As you know, we're coffee junkies, but we're not usually tea drinkers, so this was an extra good stop for us. It gave us the chance to try something different. We were able to get a Christmas gift while we were there, and the whole stop was a great experience.

One of the stops I was most excited about was this next one - and it wasn't as much fun as I'd hoped, which made me sad. It was Ullery's Homemade Ice Cream, which I had read multiple reviews for as I planned our trip. Everyone raved about their experience there! Bonus: this was half a block from where we were staying, so we were able to walk down there! I had basically been holding out for this ice cream experience, because you KNOW how I love, love, love my ice cream. I made the mistake of not checking their actual website before we went (only their Facebook page) so I didn't realize you could ONLY go to the walk-up window. 

The night we walked down there was super cold and not conducive to standing outside to figure out what I wanted beyond the sample. (I had fully intended to get the complete Ullery's experience, but instead I just went with the sample so I could get back in the warmth!)

Our free sample was a scoop of chocolate ice cream, which was both plentiful and delicious, and we did enjoy it up in our Airbnb after scurrying back. Maybe someday, in a nonpandemic year, I can go back and try the full, sit-down, waffle-cone-included experience! 

Right before we came home, we checked out Bismarck Donuts, which was a surprise stop for me. I had planned out our vacation itinerary using the list of businesses I found online, and this one wasn't on there. Must be a recent addition? 

This was a cute little family owned and operated donut/coffee shop with really friendly workers. They were so kind to us! (They were also really kind to the poor lady ahead of us who spilled her entire coffee in her car when she left and kept running in for more paper towels to clean up.) 

We took the liberty of getting a couple of iced sugar cookies for the road, and those were YUMMY, as were our freebies of two chocolate round donuts. We ate those for dessert at lunch, and sadly this is the only picture of that I got. Ha! Sorry, Ryan! (My donut had sprinkles, but there's no evidence of it now. All gone.) 

(Our very last stop on our trip, though not the last one on the passport, was a bust for us. It was an Amish market where we were supposed to get a sample of homemade chocolate ice cream. They also sold sandwiches there, and we arrived at lunch time so we could get our lunch there to support them. When we went through the line for that, we asked the girl at the deli about the ice cream and she told us to ask at checkout because she didn't know. When we asked in checkout, that lady told us to get in line at the deli. Womp womp. I was super sad about it. So I have no report about that stop.)

But check out this one! We went to Warm Glow Candles, which is actually a place I've wanted to visit for a couple of years now. It's this HUGE candle store with an actual huge candle outside!

They had shelves and shelves of primitive candles inside, but they also had tons of gifts, and even a little cafe! (We didn't eat there.) They also had a whole section of vendor booths for gift items, and we were able to get some gifts and our Christmas ornament there.

Yes, this is a CANDLE I'm holding. Not a massive angel food cake loaf. 

Our gift at this location was a chocolate scented votive candle, which came in a glass jar, with a book of matches, all wrapped up in a bag! We were impressed! We probably could have spent a few more hours in this store, taking it all in, but we had a schedule to keep! (PS: staff was SUPER friendly. I really appreciated overhearing one of the guys who worked there honoring a price mistake for a customer ahead of us.)

Another fun stop was King's Cafe, in Cambridge City, which is just outside of Richmond. Talk about being loaded with character! This place was so Hallmarky. I LOVED it. Tons of character and charm. 

I wanted to take so many more pictures, but there were people at tables and I didn't want to appear creepy. I did NOT care, however, if this dinner-plate-sized cinnamon roll found me creepy. I REALLY wanted to buy this, but we didn't. 

(That muffin above it is jumbo, by the way.)

At this stop we were able to choose anything in the case that was chocolate themed, and the only thing in the case at that time that had chocolate was a chocolate chip muffin, so that was our winner! We actually used them for our anniversary cupcakes. (They basically were cupcakes minus the icing.) And the packaging was adorable. And the ladies working inside were so patient and kind. 

Just next door was a REALLY cool store that went on for several storefronts. Every time we thought we had reached the last section, it went a little farther! It's Building 125, and it's an antique shop! (Oh! And it has an upstairs and basement too, but we didn't have time to properly explore those.) We really loved their merchandise and had a great time looking around.

They did NOT give us antique chocolate - WHEW! But we found their sample really intriguing. It was a little bag of chocolate covered cherries...but the cherries were dried. So it was almost like a large chocolate covered raisin or other dried fruit. We thought they were really good - and unique!

Next stop? Abbott's Candies, which is a well-known chocolate shop in the little burg of Hagerstown. (I have family from Hagerstown, so it was not my first time to go there, but it WAS my first time to go to the candy shop.) The shop is in a building that used to be a church, and it has tons of charm and character. 

The lady we talked to in there was SO good at customer service and took great care of us. We actually got a free caramel (one of their specialties) for being a first time visitor and then a free milk chocolate cream for being on the chocolate trail. We also picked up a couple of gifts while we were there. My only sadness in this stop was that we weren't able to take a tour. They actually do tours, and I planned our whole trip around the time we would need to be there for it, but when Ryan called to make a reservation, they said they aren't doing them during the holidays. And then the lady in the shop told us you have to have at least ten people in your party for a tour. So that was sad, but the chocolate was still really delicious!

Last two mentions on the tour...there is a winery on the tour (A.R. Winery in Arcanum, Ohio, if you want to know) but we don't drink, so we skipped that stop. 

Because I had made my list off the internet list, we stopped in at this SUPER cute little store called The Village Forager. When we handed our passport to the owner to sign, she said, "What? I'm not on here!" Apparently they made a new version of the passport and forgot to include her! She was so glad I'd made my list from the web and she said she would call the Visitor's Center to see if they could fix it! 

We really loved looking around her cute store, which had all kinds of items. We bought a little treat for Abby the RV (we'll show you later) and had a great time talking with the owner! 

And our treat was SO CUTE! It's a turtle! (An actual chocolate turtle...in the shape of a turtle!)

So that was our experience on the chocolate trail. We loved everything about it. We loved all the friendly shop owners we met and talked to. We loved the treats that were beyond what we expected to receive. (We imagined true, tiny samples.) We loved being able to support small businesses, especially this year, when we know so many of them are hurting financially. 

Well done, Wayne County. This trail was a great way to promote your small businesses and saved me SO much time in planning our trip to your county!