October 7 - 11, 2013 Decatur - Goshen - Decatur - Westward Ho

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 - .

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.

September 11-16, 2010 The Escapade Rally

This morning we made our way to the Elkhart County Fairgrounds in Goshen, Indiana for the Escapee Rally.  Escapees is one of the RV groups that we belong to and this is our first rally.  And all I can say is WOW!

We were a little overwhelmed – so much to do and so hard to chose what to do.  I will try to condense the days into one blog and give you an overview of what we have been up to.

First, coming in to the fairgrounds, it was just amazing to see how quickly they parked everyone.  There was almost 800 RV’s and nearly 1500 people here.

There are RV’s all over:

 

 

Our spot in the Infield:

  

Every day we all gathered at the COMM building from the opening ceremonies on Sunday, to daily Happy Hours on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and the closing ceremonies on Thursday.  We were treated to speakers, announcements, entertainment, and prizes (nope, we didn’t win anything).

One of the Happy Hours:

Joe and Kay Peterson started the club many years ago. On the first day, Kay spoke on how she met Joe and as I listened to her, I thought how much that meeting changed the lives of so many people.  I know that Andy and I have met some great friends thru this club and have had some great times and learned many things.   So thanks, Kay and Joe!

Here they are on stage:

 

Some of our entertainment – lots of laughs – :-))):

     

So what did we do all week?  Well, here goes,

Courses:

We took a number of courses – mostly on the RV: Electrical, Driving, Tires, Weight Safety, Computer and More.  My belief is that if you pick up one or more new items, the course was good.  So all but one course was VERY GOOD..  The only course we did not like (actually walked out) was the RV Renovations.  I thought it would have given us some ideas of things we could do ourselves but it was a sales pitch.  We stayed for 25 minutes, thinking it would change but when it didn’t we left.  (Actually quite a few people left – they were all hoping for tips they could do themselves, not paying someone to do renovations!).

We took a CPR course and are now certified – although Andy and I have decided we would probably hurt one another if we had to do CPR on each other.  Anyway it was a good course for us and at least we know more than we did.  Years ago we were both certified and it is amazing to see some of the changes.

Friends/Chapters/Social:

We have met some great people here and hope to see them on our travels.  Judy and Luke were parked near us and we got to spend some time together – watching Penn St. lose (:-((); having dinner; and sitting with the Boomers.  Thanks Judy and Luke for taking us under your wings.

We went to a Boomer Happy Hour and Boomer Breakfast and met a number of folks that we will see again either at the Balloon Fest in a few weeks or at Q in January.

We also joined our local chapter - #20 – and went to their meeting and social.   We have even been “adopted” by Phil and Cindy from the chapter.  Chapter 20 includes PA and they have 3 meetings/rallies a year in the warmer months.  So we are hoping to get together with them next summer.

I went to a Red Hat meeting/luncheon – what a great time.  (And can you believe I even have pictures  :-))

 

Tom and Karen came in to the Escapade the one day and we met for lunch.  Then that night we met at the Essenhaus for Dinner – family style Amish dinner.

Some of the attendees:

 

Great meal!  It was also good seeing them again and hopefully we will see them in Alabama as we make our way to Florida in the new year.  (Did I say I love this club!! – we meet so many great people/friends.)

I did visit the craft building – can you believe I did not do any of them including beading – shocking, isn’t it!!!!   Anyway, I was able to see what everyone was making and even caught up with a few of the beaders from North Ranch and Bead Week – good to see them….      

We met a few people from Casa Grande (where we put in for a lot) and hopefully we will see them again sometime this winter.

Did I say – too much to do and too much to see!!!

Vendors/Hospitality:

We usually made our way every morning to hospitality to get a cup of coffee, read the bulletin boards and start our day.

We checked out the vendors and did purchase UV shades for the front window of the MH.  I am going to try to find that material and see if I can make more for some of the other windows.

We also had our RV weighed…..the good news is we are asymmetric and we are under our total maximum load.  The bad news is that we are overweight in the back and underweight in the front.  So over the next few months, we may be doing some rearranging….

Overall we had a great time and may do another in the future.  Tomorrow we head towards the southwest so stay tuned.

 

Details for Travel Day on September 11:

Miles Traveled: 96 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Ohio: US-127; US-30

Indiana: US-30; I-469; I-69; US-30; US-33; US-6; US-33; CR-34