July 25-27, 2013 Shipshewana, Indiana

On Thursday, after our hugs and see you later with Bill and Shelly, we headed on our way south.  Our first stop was St. Joseph to drop off Andy’s amateur radios that were not working.  From there we made our way to the local Wal-Mart to drop off our cans and bottles. (Michigan has a $0.10 deposit on each can and bottle so we were able to get most of our deposit money back.)

We continued heading south into

and to the small village of Shipshewana.  We are staying at the Shipshewana Trading RV Park which is right next to their big flea market that takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

After setting up and having supper, we took a little drive around the area.  This area is mostly Amish so everywhere we look we see buggies, farms, horses - .  Beautiful!

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 274 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Michigan: Sand Lake Road; Seaman’s Road; Brooks Road; 10 1/2 Mile Road; Merrillville Road; 10 Mile Road; SR-31; US-10; US-131; I-296; I-196; I-196/US-31; I-94; (Short side trip in St. Joseph to Wal-Mart to turn in recycles then to Nash Street to drop off Andy’s radios to be fixed) then M-139; US-31

Indiana: US-31; US-20; SR-5

Friday:

Elkhart and the surrounding area is known as the RV Capital of the US.  Not only are there many manufacturers and suppliers to the RV industry but there are RV surplus stores and other stores that do aftermarket work.  We have been thinking about doing some updating to the inside of our MH and we wanted to get some ideas of what to do and what kind of costs would be involved.

So off we went with our list from the internet.  About half of the places were shops that do the work (once you decide what you want), two were not there any longer, and the others we perused.  One shop especially, Factory RV Surplus, was wonderful.  They were friendly, helpful, and we were able to go thru their store and large warehouse full of “stuff”.  We did get some ideas and even found a couch we liked (although it would not fit through our MH door - - oh well).  We did pick up a few items we needed then headed back home.

We have been looking for a door part and have not been able to find it so we gave Fleetwood a call and they were able to help us.  So on Sunday, we are heading to Fleetwood in Decatur, Indiana.  We will stay at their campground and on Monday, take the tour through the factory and pick up our part.  Who knows, maybe I will hit the lottery by then and order a new home -  !

For supper we went to the Amish restaurant in town but the wait was very long.  They also give buggy rides:

We then headed to LaGrange to the local Moose Lodge. We had a wonderful time! On the way back, we went to Middlebury for an ice cream at their Dairy Queen -YUM!.

On Saturday, we just did a few chores and hung out - I think we are just touristed out!  A big store came through with a lot of rain and wind and the temperature has dropped.  .

Tomorrow we head to Fleetwood so stay tuned and enjoy today.

Lots of smileys today.