Catching up part 2

Pictures are from the RV and Motorhome Museum in Elkhart. The first picture is an 1913 travel trailer pulled by a Model T; reported to be the oldest travel trailer in the world. It was made for a Cal Tech professor.

The second picture is a 1935 Covered Wagon brand with genuine leaterette stretched over thin plywood.

Next is a 1955 Ranger crank up tent trailer.

Last is a 1931 Mae West Housecar used to carry her and friends between her dressing area and the set. It was also where she could rest between shootings.

9/6 Thursday It was another up and on the road early days. We were due to have some service work done at Equalizer Systems, so we should have been there a little after 8. Instead we were on the road at 8:05 on about a 30-minute drive. It turned out this was not a problem; they were just standing around waiting for something to do. We told them the problem and headed off for breakfast.

We had just finished breakfast when the phone rang and it was Cisco, the tech working on the coach advising us it was ready. We made a tour of Elkhart trying to find Mandalay and managed to get turned the opposite direction from where we needed to go. Finally we found our way in and they said to come in tonight and they would see what might be done to get us taken care of early.

We picked up the coach and headed to Mandalay with a stop at the local Wal-Mart. We settled into Mandalay where we will likely be for several days. Most of our punch list is stuff that should be easy for them, but we will wait and see - quite literally!

9/8 Saturday We had a lazy day with on and off rain, so we headed to a new farmers market we saw under construction when we were here in February. This is a really nice market unlike any we have ever seen before. The floors are thick, clear finished wood as is about everything else in this facility. It is a two-story building with 12” x 4” planks creating the open stairways. The building is about 6-stories high, but the real market is on the first and second floors. It is a large red barn like building that is almost as impressive outside as it is inside.

After getting some produce there, we headed to DeMartini to see if we had any mail. On the way there we passed gasoline at $2.89 vs. the $3.09 elsewhere. We topped off and thought we were doing well. We went up the same road about a mile and found it for $2.74. We could only laugh and drive on.

While in the same area, we found the plant or plants next to each other that build the UPS, Fed-Ex and Centis (sp ?) delivery trucks. The lot is full of units ready to be driven away to their new homes.

Some of the farms here have corn that is higher than my eye level when in the RV driver’s seat. This is by far the tallest corn we have seen and it is advertised as sweet corn like we have been seeing elsewhere, but that corn was considerably shorter; more in the 5’ range.

9/9 Sunday We found the Faith United Methodist Church was about the only one that we could attend. It seems most Baptist churches in the area begin their service at 10:15 and we were unable to dress and drive to any in time. Faith UMC began their service at 10:45. This appears to be a young (both in time in the area and age of the members), but very active in their work. Rev. Larry, Sr. Pastor gave a very strong sermon on the need of Christians to live their lives out in public where others can see Christianity practiced. Further, we need to stop our race to be politically correct and so afraid to offend others with our religious fervor. It appears we are hiding our God and our Savior for fear of offending some while at the same time providing the water and facilities for others to bow to their gods multiple times a day. It is a shame our politicians appear to be at the front leading us in this direction that is contrary to the results of polls where Americans say they are predominantly Christians and want to maintain our Christian heritage.

9/10 Monday We are now having to get out of our RV around 7AM so it can be worked on at the factory service center here in Elkhart, IN. It appears we will be following this early exiting routine for possibly the whole week; we have several things on our list to have done. Meantime we are seeing the sights of the area. We went to the RV & Motorhome Museum that moved from downtown to a new 80,000 sq. ft. facility just off I-80 a year ago. They have started an additional building program to enlarge the building by about another 30k sq. ft.
They have many old cars and RV equipment showing the evolution of the industry. They have many donated units from various RV builders that have been restored to their original beauty.

Catching up from early September

9/1 Saturday We are happily back on the road early and headed away from 1000 Trails and toward Elkhart, IN. Although the drive took longer than expected, it was a nice drive. We saw some countryside that you only see when you hit some of the less traveled roads. Our observation coupled with conversation with a few people, it appears there are large areas where the crops have failed due to a lack of rain. The corn is short and burned at the bottom with some crops burned all the way to the top. The soybean crop looks green from the road, but it is reported the beans are limited as compared to the number that should be there at this point. There were very few areas where the corn crop looked good as if there was spotty rain on one farm, but none on the next farm or field. Some of the farmers do carry insurance on the crop, but they can’t use any part of the crop or the insurance company will say it produced and not pay the claim. I would have thought the stalks could be used for animal feed, but that is apparently not allowed.

Arriving into South Bend at the Freightliner dealer, we had been told we could hook to the power at the building, but the gates were closed and locked for the weekend, so we headed for a campground in Elkhart, the closest facility that had space. The park was not quite as advertised with wide spaces, but they were about all pull-throughs, so that made things easy.

9/4 Monday Not sure what happened, but I got on a cleaning streak and cleaned the exterior of the coach. It was not really dirty, but it was spotted from the water at 1000 Trails where I did wash the unit. That done, I looked at the windows and suddenly they just had to be cleaned. To clean the windows you must remove the screens that are on the inside of the window. A look at those and that became the next part of the cleaning project. Well, by the end of the day we had a clean coach inside and out!

9/5 Tuesday Off to Hill Truck Sales, the Freightliner shop for RVers. Well, that is what the Freightliner book tells you, but it is really for trucks and they will handle RVers, but they are not their bread and butter. Unlike the Gaffney, SC location with Wi-Fi, large lounge, big screen TV and lots of other RVers, we were the only RVer, the TV was a little larger than the one in the back of our coach, the A/C in the lounge was either not working or improperly adjusted due to a window that faced east and caught the full morning sun, no Wi-Fi access although we could see Freightliner’s signal, and a tiny lounge with a sofa that was so low it was much like getting up from the floor. I think our positive evaluation form to Freightliner is going to have a less than stellar rating.

9/5 Wednesday We are enjoying the Elkhart Fairgrounds located in Goshen, Indiana. This facility is well designed and ready to host agriscience activities in large buildings for each breed of animal. Although it is not as large or fancy as a similar facility in Perry, Georgia, this one is very functional for its intended purpose and also allows for use by other groups with different, non-agriscience interests.

The facility also has a campground with some of the best power poles we have encountered wired for 20 through 50-amp service. They also have good water and water pressure (likely in excess of 50 pounds, but that is where my regulator caps the pressure), good sewers and good, level, flat gravel sites that are canted to the road meaning backing into a site is much easier and faster. It also means you are very unlikely to find your egress blocked by another RVer. They also appear to take good care of the grounds.

We arrived as the Escapees organization with headquarters in Livingston, Texas were setting up for a 10 day Escapade, one of there rallies for members. Last year they had about 600 rigs show up here and this year they are expecting over 900. It would seem that the membership likes Goshen and this facility. We were able to stay this evening, likely because we are Escapee members and they did not need the site we are in. We had to pay, but unlike all the other campers who were here who had to leave today, we were able to stay the extra night that worked correctly with our having some service work tomorrow and Friday.

Fort Ticonderoga, NY pix

Here are the pictures of Ft. Ticonderoga

1000 Trails - Oh my goodness!

8/29 - 31 Wednesday - Friday When you are retired, it is sometimes hard to keep track of the days. I was sitting around and looked at the atomic clock that shows the date and began to question why the 29th seemed important. It was important, as we were due to be on the road to Wilmington, Ohio and the 1000 Trails campground for three nights. About an hour later, we were on the road heading mostly south. A quick trip to Flying J for fuel and propane, when we suddenly decided to be lazy and just eat in their restaurant. About an hour later, seriously stuffed, we were back on the road.

Arriving at 1000 Trails about 6:30, we were extremely disappointed to find it is an old park that is about 8–10 years behind what are now normal amenities. They still have only 30-amp service at all sites; something we normally find only in the smaller, older family owned campgrounds. Although we elected to use a site with no sewer because the rain was picking up significantly and it was a site we could pull through vs. all the sites with sewer are back-ins requiring us to unhook the car in both driving rain and a major lightning storm. We were still surprised to find a major park chain with sites that lacked this basic service. We managed to get into our spot just after the skies open and the thunder really began to roll. We did not even bother to open the slides until after the storm had passed. The winds were severe enough that it fell a Bradford Pear tree with a trunk over 12 inches in another part of the park.

Thursday morning I took a drive around the park to see if our ‘first blush’ at the park was warranted or not; bottom line, it was worse. The roads are one-lane gravel and many were extremely rutted. It is possible the torrential rain contributed to the poor condition of some roads, but others looked like they were already rough to begin with. The tennis court had grass growing through the playing surface. The pavilion by our RV appears not to have had any attention in a long time. There area black cobwebs as well as general trash, dirt and leaves.

When we took the tour and were given the presentation by Greg. Finally, after 2:15 hours he got to the point of, “and all this will be yours for only $17,995” price tag, we knew this was not for us. I think this was just to be a member, and then you still had to pay $700 per year for life (it is a lifetime membership) for the 1000 Trails part (most of their parks are on the west coast where they began in Oregon plus many in the central portion of the east coast, but quite sparse in the other 40+ states). They wanted you to also pay an additional $149 per year for some extra park locations they only partner with. For this latter money, I think you get some phone numbers and two or three books. These parks offer things like one night guaranteed for $8 (no presumption of the services you would have; it might be dry-camping) or ½ off the regular rate; but definitely not free. In any case, it would take a very long time, at three nights here and another three there, to be of value to even someone who is on the road 365 days a year. So, to make the day better, we located a Mexican restaurant run by Mexicans who knew how to prepare food; the first good Mexican food we have found in almost 7 months!

Okay, so here we are on Friday and at 5PM, there is a knock on the door. It is Ruth, the sales manager, telling us we were supposed to leave today. This means that our reservation was messed up yet again by Donna who was to have corrected the 14-day mess-up made by Chris. We began packing and lacked only running the rooms in and starting the engine when she returned to say they had counted the spaces and they just had enough spaces so we could remain for the night on our site vs. dry camping on the parking lot; the original offer. Oh, how quickly can we get away from this place? !!!! We promise not to come back! Someone in our camping group said of another campground, “this is our first and will be last visit to this location”.