Back and forth we go!

When we arrive back in Austin, TX, in August we always feel as though we have LOTS of time until we leave mid-November -- so how come this visit always flies by so fast?  Guess that must mean we are having fun?

Before we left we managed to enjoy "swamp-hosting" 10 Gator football games and spearheading our Gator Club's fall scholarship fundraiser, knocking off bi-annual dentist and annual doctor visits, chasing around a white ball while pretending to play golf weekly, and catching up wth as many friends who would put up with us.

The Gator "bye" week in October is our chance to skip town for a short trip and this year we flew to the NW for a quick visit with my parents in Burlington, WA, before jumping aboard a 1-week cruise down the CA-CA (Canada and California) coastline.  We carried shorts with us but didn't actually use them much as the weather was cooler than we anticipated (duh... it was the NW).  The ports were lovely -- 2 ports in Canada (Vancouver and Nanimo) and 4 in the US (Astoria, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles).  Cousin Sally Cole even met us at the Seattle port and drove us out to see the impressive nearby Snoqualmie Falls which were really overflowing from recent rains.

Us at Snoqualmie Falls

We always save the last few weeks in Austin to do maintenance work on "Max" the motorhome -- the biggest items being a full body wash and wax.  This is no small feat, believe me, but we get better and faster at it every time we do it.  The only "ick factor" is having to be on his 13-foot tall roof for part of the washing, but using our new Little Giant ladder made the waxing process easier this time around.  We also tackled a little underbody rust-proofing and unfortunately discovered a collection of Brown Widow spider egg sacks and momma herself in our generator compartment (related to Black Widow).  Needless to say they didn't survive the vacuum.  So glad they never found their way into the "house" area.

Clean Max 

By mid-November we drive clean and shiny Max to Florida to spend the winter months.  After a brief stop in Pensacola to watch the Gators whoop up on LSU with the local Gator Club and Jeffrey's brother John and wife Susan, we carried on to spend Thanksgiving in Gainesville with Jeffrey's dad and brother Richard and wife Cathie.

We braved the post-holiday traffic to get Max to Lazydays in Seffner (near Tampa) for an appointment to fix a few items. Our extended warranty picked up most of them and "paid for itself" as of this trip :-)  We aren't huge fans of extended warranties, but I don't think we'd ever buy another motorhome without one.  Too many things can go wrong when you drive your house through an earthquake many days a year.  It was all pretty mundane stuff really -- toilet seal, side mirrors, slide seals, and chassis battery isolator replaced. We also got two of our ACs serviced -- just like you need to do in a house.  We only spend 2 nights sleeping in Max in the service bay and the rest in the attached campground (a novelty as they deliver a newspaper to us every morning). Jeffrey also got to feed his fetish and roam around through the motorhomes that were for sale.  He loves to look even though I insist I am totally happy with the one we have.

As I write this blog post, Max is in a storage place in Tampa as we flew out to Phoenix to spend 10 days exploring the area with my parents (who were thrilled to escape the very cold and snowy NW). While figuring out their highway system, we checked out Tortilla Flat, Butterfly Wonderland, nearby Wildlife World, the Capitol Museum, and even took a day trip to Sedona.  Jeffrey and I even connected with Wendy and Ken Zitterich, full-time RV friends who are wintering in Parker, AR - and my mom, Sheila, is connecting with a college friend she hasn't seen in many years!

The 3 Nelsons and 1 Martin at the viewpoint atop the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona

The best Sedona view in town -- from the local airport!

That said, I hope you are all "connecting" with family and friends as 2016 rushes to a close. Happy Holidays!

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Miles and Smiles :-)

The last few months have been packed with activities and "driving days" -- typical for us this time of year. Avoiding the big cities on the east, we dodged across Virginia to get on i81 and connect to i84 in Pennsylvania on our way to Newburgh, NY for an RV event. 

Forty rigs containing 80 "Escapees" (the name of the RV club that organized the event) met at the local KOA for 3 days of sightseeing in New York City and the Hudson Valley area. We left the rigs in the campground and boarded tour buses to visit NYC's Liberty Island, Times Square, the Empire State Building, the 911 Memorial and Museum, and catch a Jersey Boys performance on Broadway. Even spread over 2 days, it was tough to squeeze all of this in.

Us with Lady Liberty

We spent a separate day visiting FDR's home, one of the Vanderbilt mansions, and West Point. The latter was especially interesting as both of us have relatives who graduated from this amazing institution -- and I even have a grandfather and great-grandfather (plus their devoted wives) buried in it's cemetery. Luckily the tour included a fascinating walk through the cemetery to see some of its many famous residents, giving Jeffrey and I a chance sneak away and locate the graves of my relatives so we could pay our respects.

After waving a temporary goodbye to new RV friends, we drove north to the Adirondaks to connect with friends and former Austin neighbors, Chris and Sheila Blaicher. It was wonderful to see their beautiful property and their adorable log cabin home. They spoiled us with their fabulous cooking and shared the wonders of the area they live in -- Lake Placid, Whiteface Mountain, Fort Ticonderoga, and on and on.  Lots to see in this area so we'll just have to come back!

Us with our friends Chris and Sheila Blaicher

The fabulous view from Mount Defiance looking at Fort Ticonderoga

Our next destination was in Essex Junction, Vermont, so Max braved his first ferry ride to cross Lake Champlain.  We then spent a week at our first "Escapade", the annual RV Rally for us "Escapees". Our weather was lovely and we really enjoyed the days of educational seminars, entertainment, happy hours, and visiting with other like-minded full- and part-time RVers. Though we have lived this lifestyle for over 4 years now, we continue to learn new things.  We also both enjoyed sightseeing in the area -- especially the Ben & Jerry's factory tour :-)

Max's first ferry ride

With summer travel time growing short, we opted to adjust our "return to Texas" plan and swing south through Gainesville, FL on the way. This gave us a chance to get another visit with Jeffrey's dad as well as pig out on the Olympic coverage (and Sonny's BBQ).  We also got to tag along on a tour of the University of Florida's new state-of-the art academic facility for its athletes. VERY impressive indeed.  If I were a parent sending my athlete kid off to college, I would certainly cast my vote for UF as they certainly are working hard to help these kids get an education and graduate.

The time finally came to bolt back across the gulf states to Texas and we had to swing a bit more north than usual because of all the Louisiana flooding. With food and fuel shortages as well as power outages and closed roads, we figured the last thing they needed was transient RVers poking our way through it all. This did give us a chance to see a few new towns, including Monroe, LA, where we greatly enjoyed the Chennault Aviation and Military museum, mostly dedicated to their town hero, General Claire Chennault.  His contribution to history is really interesting: www.chennaultmuseum.org

We made it back to Texas late August and were surprised the temperatures were staying under 100 degrees. Having gotten the Gator Club activities launched and other "while in Austin" projects kicked off, I'm finally finding time to post to this blog! For those of you who know about my Dad's recent health scare, I am happy to report he is finally out of the hospital and getting back to his very happy home life with his bride of over 40 years Sheila. The doctors are still telling him to take it easy and heal for awhile, but his recovery is really a miracle to them and us too.

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Everything is going according to plan...

You are no doubt wondering why I haven't posted an update in awhile. In our family we have a saying: "Everything is going according to plan. Plans are made to be changed. Everything has changed. Therefore everything is going according to plan".

That saying pretty much sums up our last 4+ months. You may already know that Jeffrey's dear mom, Evelyn, passed away in February. We were thankfully still in Florida and changed our plans to get to Gainesville for her final days and wonderful memorial service. Our annual regular March Gainesville visit was definitely missing her sweet presence.

While at our next stop in Jacksonville, we flew to VA and Arlington National Cemetery for the internment of my uncle, Charlie Lavery, who passed away last October. His country honored his service as a 1st Lieutenant in the US Army with a beautiful and moving military ceremony. Though it was a very emotional day, it was special to share it with his beloved wife (my aunt Helen) and with my other aunts and uncles.

With heavy hearts we left Florida and began our trek north. Our path to Raleigh wove us through Gaffney, SC, for Max's annual engine/generator service and a new set of tires ($ ouch). We also did a car-only side trip to Cashiers, NC, to see the beautiful mountain home of Susie and Johnny Wean, cousins of my mom. Once in Raleigh we reconnected with our family and friends in the area and even ventured into western NC in the car for a long weekend in a cabin near Asheville with college friend Mary and her husband (and Jeffrey's brother) David.

For those of you who have been there, it is no surprise that we spent an entire day at the Biltmore estate. We also managed to enjoy a few wineries, the release of a new beer at the Highland Brewing Company, and attending the special event "Fiber Day" at the local Folk Art Center. Nope, it wasn't about eating the right cereals! It is about using fiber materials in the making of clothing and art. Ever see a sheep sheared? We did! Oddly enough we were standing in a small crowd of onlookers that included (Academy, Tony, and Daytime Emmy Award winning) actress Frances McDermand. 

We were within a week of leaving Raleigh when we got an unexpected call from my 2nd-mom, Sheila. Dad was in the hospital and about to have emergency surgery for an ischemic intestine with only a 30% chance of survival. We were lucky to get flights out to Wash. St. early the next morning and were relieved to find him alive but unfortunately very very ill in ICU. Our original plan had been to be spending most of June with them on a cruise seeing the coast of Norway, so plans were changed to instead spend it with them in the fantastic Bellingham hospital that saved his life. 

As I write this post, he is still endearing himself to every nurse, doctor, and therapist that is caring for him, but he is a good healer and getting stronger every day so we hope he gets to go home soon. As a special bonus, Sheila was able to get her own surgery for Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus moved up in the schedule to happen while we were there.  She is already feeling stronger and better able to take care of herself and Dad.

We returned to Max in Raleigh a few days ago and miss seeing Dad and Sheila every day, but are very glad we were able to be with them and help however we could -- even if some days it was just keeping them company and sharing laughs over the newspaper comics.  Below is a picture that family friends, Bill and Laura, took of us in Bellingham.

Waterfront in Bellingham, WA -- Mount Baker in the background

I realize I haven't offered many pictures in this post, so I'll leave you with this... 

The only surprise that we found in Max after leaving him alone for 5 weeks was the critter pictured below hiding outside in the cover to our water softener. Hey, at least it wasn't INSIDE!

"Brown" Widow Spider (hanging upside down)

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Swimming into 2016

Our first 6 weeks in our "winter" state of Florida have flown by. After returning from our sailboat trip, we spent 10 days at an RV park in the Seminole Tribe lands south of Clewiston. This is the most remote park we've ever been at -- the grocery store was a 40-minute drive away! However, the other RVers at this park were wonderful and friendly, having almost daily 4pm "social hours". Basically, you just grab your chair and a drink and go hunting for whatever site it is at that day. 20-25 folks all show up within 10 minutes, gab for an hour, and go to their respective homes promptly at 5pm before the mosquitoes start swarming around. We also saw lots of alligators and water birds of all types. While we were away on our trip the park also had wild bear and panther sightings (sorry we missed those!).

We then began our annual "tour of Florida state parks" at one of our favorites, Jonathan Dickinson. It is well positioned to family and friends we have both north and south of its Hobe Sound location, plus we got to reconnect with two RV couples we had met previously and formed fast friendships -- keeping track of each other as we all move around during the year. It is fun catching up on "where have you been, where are you going, what have you seen, what have you fixed etc. etc"!

The Martins and the Marlins at the Kennel Club

From there we moved across the state to Myakka River State Park near Sarasota.  It was our first time here and is a cool park full of lots of trails, wildlife, and fun activities to do. This location was also near several close Gator friends, family in St. Petersburg, and the annual Tampa RV Supershow. We managed to fit it all in as well as washing our window awnings, replacing some RV roof antennae, and reorganizing our "basement" storage areas to fit a new ladder that we bought at the show. To Jeffrey's dismay, I want to do some annual RV roof edge maintenance myself instead of continuing to pay others. We didn't have a ladder that would safely get me 13 feet "up" -- but we do now! Not many girls can say their Valentine's Day present is a "Little Giant" ladder :-)  We'll get our first chance to use it next month when we try to replace our new slide topper awnings ourselves.

Speaking of the RV show, this one is one of the biggest in the country with over 1000 RVs on display and several hundred vendors selling all types of supplies and services.  It is a great place to have our Blue Ox hitch serviced (what we tow the car with), purchase any RV supplies we need, and peek at the new RV models. We are happy to report that we haven't seen anything yet that tempts us away from Max.  We still find him a great fit for our traveling and living needs.

Two happy campers!

Like most of the country, we've had some unexpected nasty weather both on the west and east coast of this state, most notably tornadoes that thankfully missed us -- sweeping just north or south of us while we were in the Myakka park. As typical, these things happen in the middle of the night, forcing us to get up and dressed at 3am and prepped to run to the concrete-block bath house nearby.  Did you know that, even when in airplane mode, your cell phone will receive the severe weather alerts? Why was I in airplane mode?  Because the cell service was so bad in this park that my battery would burn down quickly overnight trying desperately to hold onto a too-distant cell tower :-/  Anyhow, we lived through the rainiest January on record in Florida! Hopefully February will be dryer!

Maren & Jeffrey

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Goodbye 2015!

What we thought would be a relaxing 3-month fall visit to our home base area near Austin, Texas, was made a little more exciting when I (Maren) had to have my gallbladder removed. Lucky for me it wasn't an emergency -- just started having odd mid-chest pressure after some meals while we were visiting my parents in the Seattle area late August.  Boy, I can see why people say gallstone issues can feel like a heart attack! Thankfully, I had plenty of time to have surgery and recover before we left town. Didn't even miss hosting one of our local Gator Club football game watching parties! (though I had a lot of help for a few weeks).

Surgery aside, we had some nice "positives" from our Texas visit too -- successful annual phyicals, dental checkups, and eye exams along with a wonderful first-time visit to Corpus Cristi to visit my college roommate and her husband (thanks Lisa and Zack!).  We also enjoyed catching up with local friends, watching Gator football with our club, and chasing a golf ball around a small 9-hole course we used to play weekly when we lived in Austin. Unfortunately our golf game hasn't improved much since then, but the fellas we play with are fun so the social part of the game is top notch :-)

Maren and roommate Lisa

We wrapped up our final few weeks with my great idea to wax the motorhome ourselves instead of hiring professionals. As I write this post a month later, I think Jeffrey's wrist is still sore from the experience :-(  But Max looks wonderful and it gave us a chance to check him out in great detail.  Too bad we discovered a few small hairline fiberglass cracks near his front cap running lights (that are 11 feet up in the air). We suspect the angle of the hot Texas sun just overheated the dark brown paint up there. Sigh. We put some repair tape over the cracks to reduce any chance of water getting in and need to think about where to get the repair done. Since it will involve laying down some new paint, we are thinking that we could give Max a lighter-colored "eyebrow" of some sort so it won't happen again (no joke!).

We left Texas mid-November and raced across the gulf states (something we are now very familiar with), getting to Florida in time to visit Jeffrey's brother John and wife Susan in Pensacola, my aunt Helen in Palm City, and Jeffrey's parents in Gainesville leading up to Thanksgiving. The race ended when we got Max settled in the Clewiston area south of Lake Okeechobee in time to get on a flight to St. Thomas where we met my parents for a 10-day chartered cruise.

Frangines, our boat

We scheduled this trip 18 months ago and were pinching ourselves that it was FINALLY here. We had picked a 55ft catamaran with a captain and a chef -- so all we had to do was relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the US and British Virgin Islands. The weather was lovely most of the time, the breezes were perfect (kept the mosquitos away), the daily sailing was fantastic, and we even had numerous chances to snorkel on the island reefs. Jeffrey and I even tried our skills at stand-up paddleboarding. Don't let anyone fool you... it is a real "core" workout and tough to learn even in calm waters. After the requisite number of struggle-up-wobble-wobble-fall-off attempts, we were both successful in paddling around a bit before crawling exhausted back on the boat. Not too bad for 50-something year olds! No resulting pulled muscles or stitches!

Jeffrey using the paddleboard (sorry, not gonna post one of Maren trying it!)

One of the beautiful sunsets we enjoyed

Sunset off the back of Frangines' stern and hammock

A rainbow behind someone else's boat

We sure hope your holidays are "wobble-free" and 2016 greets you with open arms (and hopefully no stitches or hangover).

Maren & Jeffrey

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Wrapping up our 3rd traveling season

It's hard to believe we have lived in Max over 3 years now and are finishing up our third season of traveling. We consider our annual return to Texas for a few months every fall to be our "recharge" time in a way.  But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Our last post had us arriving in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the wedding of one of Jeffrey's brother's grandsons. In addition to connecting with family who live there and those who traveled in for the event we also got to explore downtown a little, even knocking off another Presidential site -- 23rd President Benjamin Harrison. He was the only President from Indiana to date and his family home is downtown. Interestingly enough, he is the grandson of William Henry Harrison our 9th President and great grandson of a singer of the Declaration of Independence. More about grandpa below.

We also visited the Indiana Medical History Museum, which was an 1890s - 1950s pathology facility as part of a large insane asylum-- making it a perfect place to study scientific psychiatry in an attempt to understand the diseases that caused mental decline.  Other than the age of the contents, frozen in time, it looks like the staff just walked away leaving everything intact.

Indiana Medical History Museum

Thankfully the wedding was lovely and went off "with a hitch" as planned and we continued our journey on to Vincennes, Indiana so we could visit Grouseland, President William Henry Harrison's mansion and museum. Unfortunately, his Presidency was very short as he made the mistake of giving a 2-hour inaugural speech on a very cold winter's day, caught pneumoia from it, and only lived 1 month afterwards. We also checked out the new Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy. It was small but entertaining and definitely worth a stop.

Since we didn't get into western Tennessee when we toured it earlier in the year, we planned a stop in Memphis on the way home.  We stayed at the Tom Sawyer RV park -- notable because it sits right on the west bank of the Mississippi. There are times when it floods and isn't usable, but we were lucky and got to enjoy the amazing view of barge after barge being pushed up and down the mighty river.  At this point the temperatures outside were also starting to climb in a big way. Ah, the joys of summer!

Barge on the Mississippi

Memphis has a lot to see, but the big things we picked were Graceland, the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel (where Martin Luther King was assassinated), the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, BB King's club, and the Bass Pro Shop. Everything was really amazing, especially the efficiency with which they can get the huge quantity of visitors through the first two places. They actually give you a personal iPad for Graceland so you don't have to try to keep up with and a human tour guide. It talks you through the entire home and other buildings and gives you lots of links to extra content along the way. Though it looks original on the outside, the Lorraine Hotel has been transformed inside to the fascinating museum it is today. It is only when you get to the location of the 2 rooms where King and his friends were staying that you remember you are inside the hotel.

Graceland

Odd that we put a Bass Pro Shop on the itinerary, isn't it? Well, this one is special. It is housed in a huge pyramid that had the shop, a restaurant, a bowling alley, gun range, boat dealeship, hotel rooms -- and lots and lots of water features filled with fish, floating boat displays, ducks and more. If you were willing to pay $10, you could even ride up the free-standing elevator to the very top and get a great view of the city!

Our final big stop before Texas was in Hot Springs, Arkansas. As its name implies, the city has a collection of natural hot springs that continually pump up 143-degree water from great depths. There are still a collection of bath houses where you can go and experience the "healing waters" that have attracted folks from around the world for almost 2 centuries. Hot Springs also attracted an interesting collection of gangsters as well as corrupt politicians and law enforcement who protected them. The local Gangster Museum does a pretty good job of sharing this local "history".

Bath House "row" in Hot Springs

The hot/healing springs were identified as a significant national resource before there were anything called  national parks, so it was designated a national reservation to protect it early on -- and is now the Hot Springs National park. There are still active bath houses, both modern and more "original". As much as I wanted to, I just couldn't work up the desire to have a "spa day" when it was over 100 degrees outside. That said, the park visitor's center is inside the Fordythe Bath House which is now preserved as a museum so you can see how it all worked. Another bath house has been converted to a brewery and they make their beer with the naturally pure spring water. I could work up the desire to sample the local beers.

Now for the "living in a motorhome" segment of this blog post :-) We actually ended up extending our stay in Hot Springs 4 extra days because Max had a nice shady parking spot and we were caught in the middle of a "dangerous heat index" weather pattern.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize until too late that we were parked under a Hackberry tree infested with woolly aphids.  Yup, that's what I said. Furry little white pests that excrete a sticky substance which proceeded to coat Max and the car (named Moby). Boy, what a mess!  It was no fun washing them after we left!

Hot hot day in Hot Springs!

And for those of you who have been following this blog for awhile, you may recall that the last 2 years we drove into Texas we had a engine-coolant overheat because our big radiator fan stopped and didn't re-engage in the 100+ Texas heat.  Well, we are happy to report it didn't happen this year! Guess the replacement of the fan clutch last fall did the trick -- yay!

So that's it for traveling season #3! Thanks for following along -- we'll reach out again later this fall!

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So many sights, so MUCH rain!

As we continued to travel north, rain met us at the border of Pennsylvania and drizzled persistently along with us for our first week in the state -- and apparently we'd already missed the worst of it!  We started our PA tour near Somerset and were happy to find our campground wasn't under water. Since the things we wanted to see in the area were almost exclusively outdoors and it was raining, we spent our first day checking out the live entertainment at a local winery. Funny, the music got better the more wine I drank!

The next day was just heavy "mist", so we broke out umbrellas and ponchos and found our way to the United 93 National Memorial Site. It was a very somber experience but heartwarming to see the many other folks who ventured out on a crummy day to pay their respects to the passengers and crew who perished trying to keep the terrorists on that plane from carrying out their part of the 9/11 plan. From there we visited Fort Ligoniere, a re-construction of the mid-1700's fort used during the French and Indian War when Great Britain and France fought over ownership of the inner basin of North America. A young George Washington was a British officer back then -- an allegiance he clearly changed later during the American Revolutionary War. Apparently I (Maren) am an indirect descendant of George, so it is especially interesting to learn more about his life.

Fort Ligoniere's exterior walls

The weather improved even more and gave us a sunny day for our visit to Falling Waters, a private home designed for the Kaufmann family by Frank Lloyd Wright in the late 1930s. It is now a National Historic Landmark and open to public tours. Part of it actually hangs over a waterfall and is a fascinating architectural feat.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to get a good picture because it is so surrounded and integrated with nature. The first picture below is the real house from the best vantage point we could get and the second is actually a picture of a model displayed at the Carnegie Science Center (which at least gives you a view of the entire structure).

Real Falling Waters

Model of Falling Waters

Our next stop was Tarentum, PA -- just NE of Pittsburgh. We spent a week here and boy was it a busy one.  In addition to the Carnegie Science Center (which also has the USS Requin SS-481 WWII-era deisel-electric submarine), we visited the Heintz History Center, Fort Pitt Museum, attended a Pirates Baseball game (our first "pro" game), and went downtown to watch the famous Pittsburgh fireworks show on July 4th. Our campground was on a hilltop over a closed mine and we got a great firefly show over the valley every night, too! We were really lucky to have relatives nearby as they shared the amazing history of their city as well as their wonderful hospitality with us.  Thank you, Wean family!

Us at the Baseball Park

July 4th Fireworks

Us on Mount Washington overlooking downtown Pittsburgh

View from our campsite on top of the mine

Our next big destination was Indiana, but we spotted a chance to catch two more Presidential museums in Ohio on the way over.  Canton, OH is the home of William McKinley's National Memorial plus a museum next door which includes a small display about his life. We also made a quick stop at the nearby NFL Football Hall of Fame (WOW, talk about a gift shop!).  We had one full day to spare and decided to make the drive in the car up to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This ended up being a full-day activity and they almost had to sweep us out at closing time. So much to enjoy and so much good music to listen to!

Our final stop in Ohio was Sandusky.  It is on Lake Erie and not too far from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, OH. The site, called Spiegel Grove, includes his actual home as well as a large museum about his life.

We finally rolled into Indiana with the first target city being Elkhart. Our two goals here were to see some of the many "RV" related attractions in this area -- where apparently over 80% of RVs are manufactured -- and have some sealant on the roof inspected/repaired (always something to watch on an RV). We also had one of our roof air conditioners making some odd noises and figured we better get that addressed before we head back to Texas and its heat.  Unfortunately, the A/C decided to work perfectly as soon as we pulled into the service center. It is like finally going to a doctor when you are sick only to feel better as soon as the doctor examines you. Just to be safe, we had them check it out anyhow and blow out a little dust debris, so hopefully that takes care of it. For our RV friends, this place was called Duncan RV and they get great reviews if you need a little work (or even  BIG work) done in the area. Apparently they are known for their extensive RV wreck repairs.

Within a short drive of Elkhart were the Thor and Newmar factories which both offered public tours of their RV assembly floors.  I personally love to see how things are built, so these stops were real treats (and maybe a little scary too). We also checked out the Shipshewana Flea Market/Auction -- advertised as the biggest flea market in the "west".  Other than a breakfast sandwich, we managed to escape with only buying a few gifts as we really can't accumulate a bunch of extra stuff for ourselves in this lifestyle! We also stopped by a few "RV Surplus" stores (no purchases there either) and the RV Hall of Fame. Amazing to us how long RVs have been around.

1931 Ford Model AA Housecar (one of the first motorhomes)

 We also drove a little west in the car to South Bend, Indiana to see the History Center.  This place was a tri-fecta of sights -- the Studabaker museum, a History Museum, and the Copshaholm (Oliver Mansion).  We figured the Studabakers would be a fast walk-by and instead they took up most of our time.  We also took a fantastic tour of the Copshaholm, the home of the Oliver family who made their riches in town building a better plow.  Sounds like a small thing, but at their height they were selling 800,000 of them worldwide annually!

Jeffrey in a classic Studabaker

Just to top off the RV manufacturing tour circuit, we stopped by the Allied Recreation Group plant in Decatur, IN on our way south to Indianapolis.  For our RV friends, this is where Fleetwood, Monaco, Holiday Rambler, Trek, and American Coach RVs are manufactured.  They invited us to stay overnight in their service lot and we looked a little odd parking our Winnebago amongst the natives, but the other RV owners were very nice (and curious as to why we were there).  We even had dinner with several other couples that night.  The tour the next morning was one of the best we'd seen and we even got to go into the paint shop (something no other manufacturer has allowed).

Now we head south to Indianapolis for the final leg of travel before we get back to Texas. More soon!

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