Monday, October 7
We were up early to make the calls and for most of the morning, it was a wait for a call back, make another call, etc. etc. When the dust finally settled, it turns out that our part which was suppose to ship last Tuesday, did not ship. The plans are for it to ship tomorrow. Somewhere along the line, the ball was dropped and we were not notified. So we are being told that we will be able to get a tracking number on Wednesday to follow its path and delivery date. We shall see.
So what to do, what to do for another week. We decided to stay here one more night then head up to Goshen. There are a couple things we want to do in that area, plus quite a few things to see.
Some days when I get frustrated, I turn around and see these little ones - an ahhhhhh moment - 
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Tuesday, October 8
We made our way this morning northeast to Elkhart. Scenes along the way:
Fall is definitely here - hopefully we will be south before the cold or snow -
Check out this Airstream advertising a campground - Cute:
We first made our way to Elkhart to ESC (Elkhart Service and Collision) RV Repair and Service Center)
Their web page is: http://www.elkhartserviceandcollision.com/
We met JD Adams (their operations manager) at the Bounder Rally and talked to him about upgrading the inside of our Bounder. Since we were going to be close by, we told him that we would like an estimate on some upgrades and also some ideas. We had hoped to do that after our repairs but we were able to rearrange the appointment for today.
Our main upgrades with him would be flooring - new rugs and new floor covering instead of rugs in the living area. Other items would be re-upholstery of our captain’s chairs. His group does all the labor and he works with other suppliers in the area for the materials. So he gave us the names of places to pick out the flooring and what types would be best. As far as the upholstery, we would meet with his supplier when we are ready to do it. We can cut some of the costs by removing some of the flooring ourselves (which is what we might do).
He also gave us some ideas of what we could do in the living room / kitchen area and gave us the names of vendors in the area to check out. Thank you JD.
From there we made our way back to Goshen to the Elkhart County Fairgrounds. We were here in 2010 for an Escapee Rally and it was very crowded (over 3000 people). Not many here this week - we had a nice space near the poultry and rabbit buildings - LOL!
Since it was such a beautiful day, we sat out, enjoyed the sunshine, and figured out what we wanted to do over the next few days.
Stats for today:
Miles Traveled: 114 miles
Routes Traveled:
Indiana: Patterson Street; US-27; I-469; I-69; US-30; US-33; CR-20; SR-19; Markle Avenue - First Stop; Then: SR-19; CR-26; US-33; Monroe Street (with lots of detours because bridge is out).
Wednesday, October 9
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Andy -
We have been thru this area a few times and never went to the Shipshewana Flea Market. So that was our adventure today. We arrived early and decided to walk all the rows - figured it was good exercise for us.
Since it was late in the season over half the vendors were not there - 
. There was the usual flea market fare plus a number of Amish vendors selling home made items. There were also a number of produce vendors - we picked up some fresh fruits and vegetables - YUM.
On the way back, we stopped at Lambright's Comfort Chairs showroom and their gift/furniture shop about 2 miles away. We did like some of their chairs and it was good to get more ideas.
Our last stop was Double D Salvage in Goshen. It is two barns full of RV “stuff”, not very well organized but it was fun to go thru. Our dinette seat covers need to be replaced and my thoughts are if I can find ones that are reasonable, it might be cheaper than making them myself. Well, I found one that would look nice but they did not have the both sets. Oh well, I will keep looking.
During this time, we got a call from Neil at Fleetwood. Our part has been shipped and should be there by Thursday afternoon. Our new appointment is 6 AM on Friday morning. Okay, then, I guess we will head back to Decatur tomorrow.
We got home and I realized I left the window open after shaking out the rugs. My heart sank - where are the cats? They did not greet us like they normally do so I started calling them. Dusty came out of hiding and I couldn’t find Bella - then I heard her cries. She was up under the motorhome and when I got her, she was all dirty and greasy. Thank God she stayed around. Dusty is the one that usually goes outside and Bella does not so I don’t know if she got on the edge to look out and fell or just jumped out. I checked her all out and tried to wash some of the grease from her. She seems okay - very frightened. (As of Friday, 10/11, she is doing good.)
We finished our evening with a nice dinner at the local Moose lodge (after I calmed down, of course).
Thursday, October 10
Our first trip this morning was to the RV Surplus store in Elkhart. We picked up a few needed items and then went thru their warehouse - always fun to look at “stuff”. We did try out the “Euro” chairs and we may go that way. RV Surplus has some great prices on the chairs but they are all leather - or leather like. We need to have material because of the cats - it is much more forgiving to claw marks than the leather/vinyl. So we will continue to look.
On our way back home, I stopped in the Fairgrounds office. I had paid for four nights and we will only be staying two. I explained our situation to them and they refunded two of the four nights - how great is that - .
Back home, we packed up, went to the dump, and went on our way southeast to Decatur.
Holy Moly, what happened to the gas prices. When we left here on Tuesday, gas was $3.14 and now it is $3.39 - Sheesh!!!
So now we wait again....
Stats for today:
Miles Traveled: 90 Miles
Routes Traveled:
Indiana: Monroe Street (with lots of detours because the bridge is out); US-33; I-69; I-469; US-27
Friday, October 11
At about 6:10 AM, we got a knock on our door and away we went to the garage. Fleetwood allows the customer to come into the garage while they are working so you can guess where my Andy was. The garage holds 22 RV’s at a time - Building 1. Building 2 is their paint building - I have no idea how many that holds. Amazing.
I stayed in the lounge and worked on this blog - an hour later, Andy came in and tells me they are finished - YEA!!!!
And an hour after that, we are on our way west.
(I will continue in the next blog.)
Stay tuned and enjoy today.
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