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.
