June 8, 2017 - Elkhart County Fairgrounds - Bus Tour to South Bend, IN

June 8, 2017 - Elkhart County Fairgrounds - Bus Tour to South Bend, IN

We had heard about the trains here at the fairgrounds - and as most of you know we live quite near a train track at home.  However, our train is a short line and there are not that many trains --- in comparison to the one here.  Here they are loud, fast, they must have a 100+ cars and they run continuously all night long.  I'm not sure when I finally fell asleep - 11:30, 12:30 - but it was 4:30 when I woke up and finally got up at 5:00.  It's a good thing I slept so well the night before.

Maybe it was the dreams I was having about trying Nellie's muffin that helped keep me awake but it was almost the first thing I thought of once I had gathered my thoughts for the morning.  Two minutes in the microwave and I soon had a wonderful muffin with white chocolate chips, coconut and pecans to enjoy with my morning coffee.  Yummmm!  Yes, Nellie's muffins were worth the wait!

Our bus tour leaves at 8:00 this morning, and they will begin loading at 7:45.  It's a short walk from our site and as we were ready to board the large, nice, cushy bus when they advised us we would need to change buses and take the smaller, not so cushy bus for our trip.  The other trip going out today had more passengers than our group and they would not fit on the smaller, not so cushy bus ----- oh well!  The ride to South Bend wasn't bad, but the cushy seats might have been a little more comfortable on the way home!

Our tour director pointed out several interesting things within Goshen on our way to South Bend, IN.   Downtown Goshen has a number of beautiful sculptures by Seward Johnson (an American artist who began his career as a painter before turning to sculpture.  He is one of the most recognized sculptors of our time and has prominent displays in such places as Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Hong Kong, Paris and Rome).  The county courthouse is located here in Goshen.  It was originally built in 1868-1870, and renovated between 1905 and 1908 in the Renaissance Revival style.  It is quite stunning and a number of the sculptures are located within the block where the courthouse is located.  There is an app that I have downloaded to my phone that provides direction to many areas of sightseeing within the Goshen/Elkhart area.  We intend to drive this one afternoon or evening before we leave and we will share with our findings with you.

Our first stop on our tour today was at  the University of Notre Dame.  This was a guided walking tour given by Natalie, an incoming freshman.  She did a great job of providing wonderful information but her voice didn't carry quite as well as it needed to for our bunch, but I think she was able to answer all but one or two questions.  One of those was who does Notre Dame play at their first football game this year?  She laughed and said the schedule was out and she had looked at it but she could not tell us who they would play.  I have a feeling she looks that up later and knows if she is asked again.

Here are photos of our walking tour.

Eck Visitor's Center

The Basilica in the background.

"In Celebration of Family"

This was a  beautiful campus.  This is our tour guide Natalie.  She walked backwards as she gave a very informative talk on the Notre Dame campus.  

Grotto of our Lady of Lourdes.
Very beautiful!

To the right of the Grotto.  Everything was beautifully manicured.

Inside the Basilica. 

Pipe Organ.

The Basilica.

Main Building with statue of the Blessed Mother standing atop the Golden Dome.

Inside the Main Building.

Murals of Christopher Columbus.

Main Building with the Golden Dome in the background.

Hesburgh Library/"The Word of Life" Mosaic
Popularly called "Touchdown Jesus".

Notre Dame Stadium - "The house that Rockne built" is the legendary home of the Fighting Irish football team.
Due to construction we could not tour the stadium.

The next stop on our tour was visiting Copshaholm, the Oliver Mansion.

Our docent explaining the "Oliver Plow"  The following information was taken from the Internet:
June 30, 1857, James obtained his first patent from the U.S. government, entitled “Improvement in Chilling Plow Shares.” It covered a new way to process a plow point, or share, to an extremely hard surface. This was his first improvement in the plow. Many were to follow and the Oliver Plow became the most popular plow in the world.

The Carriage House for the Oliver Mansion

The Oliver Mansion

There were many beautiful, ornate fireplaces throughout the Mansion.

This was the music conservatory.  The inlay on the walls was amazing.

A secretary desk that was in a room at the hotel where Abraham Lincoln stayed prior to his death.

Interesting old trunks.

This is almost identical to the sink that was in Oswego's Community Building prior to constructing the new one.

Quite a stove!  I could have used this when all of the kids were at home.

This sink was made with a very soft material to reduce the chance of china being broken while washing it.

Next stop - Lunch at Tippecanoe Place Restaurant.

Tippecanoe Place Restaurant

Stairway inside Tippecanoe Restaurant

Lunch was wonderful.  We started with a nice lettuce salad and warm rolls, then was served our main course of chicken breasts, over mashed potatoes with a wonderful sauce, and sauted vegetables, followed up with a mousse'.

Our next and final stop was at the Studebaker National Museum.  By now my camera was giving out so I had to borrow Dean's to take the remainder of my pictures for the day.

These are just a few of the cars that were on display.  For some reason I did not get the plaque to tell about this car, but they are included on the remaining pictures if you want to know more about each one of them.

Play area for children.

As you can tell we had quite a day here in South Bend, Indiana.  We were glad we had the opportunity to visit!

June 6-7, 2017 - Boondocking at Walmart Supercenter in Kokomo, IN and Arriving at Goshen, IN for our First North American Heartland Owners Rally.

June 6-7, 2017 - Boondocking at Walmart Supercenter in Kokomo, IN and Arriving at Goshen, IN for our First North American Heartland Owners Rally.

We left Robertsville State Park Tuesday morning a little after 9:00 and made our way through Saint Louis, MO toward Illinois, then Indiana.  We took a different route than we did on our trip to Illinois a couple of years ago, choosing to head north on I-270 which was really not too bad except for the major road construction we ran into that held us up for a good 30-45 minutes.  Even so, while the traffic was five lanes it wasn't overly heavy and we seemed to make pretty good time.  We made it through Indianapolis, IN before the heavy 5:00 traffic and again while it was busier than we are used to, it could have been much worse.  We pulled into the Walmart Supercenter in Kokomo shortly before 6:00 pm.  We went to the Service Center to be sure we could overnight and after waiting for nearly 20 minutes (with a very loud siren going off within the service enter itself) we finally found someone to give us the okay.  We needed a few groceries so we quickly made it through the store to take care of that as well.

By now we were getting hungry.  When we were looking at this area on Google Maps before we left home, it looked like there were a variety of restaurants nearby - unfortunately they were not as close as they appeared. We thought we were going to need to walk quite a distance to find a place, but as we walked to the main street in front of W-mart, we noticed a Mexican restaurant, Don Poncho's, and it was just a short distance back to where we parked Bentley.  The food was delicious!

When we returned to Bentley, I finished my walking for the day in the parking lot - we were near the back of the building where was very few vehicles and 2 or 3 semi's parked.  It was pretty open and I managed to hit over 10,000 steps for the day.

We really had a great spot to park Bentley along a fenced and nicely treed area that provided us some shade and allowed us to put out our kitchen slide without it intruding on or near anyone.  We did run our generator from about 8-10, along with a few semi's that were parked down from us a bit so we didn't feel bad about the sound - especially since it was not near any customer parking, and ours was quiet in comparison to the semi's.  The parking lot was well lit and had all kinds of security cameras around it.  The night air was very cool and comfortable.  We finally headed to bed about 10:30 and I slept better than I have for the past two months.  While it wasn't much longer than I normally sleep, I did not wake up until my alarm went off this morning.  I am typically awake and shut the alarm off, sometimes long before it ever goes off.

Now that I was up I made coffee - by heating water on the gas stove and then pouring it over the coffee to brew the coffee.  The worse part is standing over it waiting for the water to drip through versus turning it on and going back to get the coffee when the entire pot is done.  Since the pot is not on, there is no heating element - so one cup at a time as you need it is all you can do.  Maybe someday we'll add an inverter and a few solar panels so we can just turn the coffeepot on instead. However, this worked and it was only one night.

All in all our first time overnighting in a Walmart parking lot went well.  Would we do it again?  If circumstances were right, yes, I think we would.  It's just we very seldom travel 8+ hours in one day and that was the only reason we chose to do it this time.  We only have 100 miles left to go today.  We left Kokomo around 9:00 a.m.  Next stop - Elkhart County Fairgrounds to attend our first Heartland National Rally in Goshen, Indiana.

A few pictures I took today between Missouri, Illinois and Indiana:

Crossing the Mighty Mississippi.

Traffic was backed up in front of us and we crept along for about 30-45 minutes due to road construction.

American Farm Heritage Museum

 This seemed to be an interesting stop along the highway.  There were many pieces of farm machinery here, along with a small train that runs around the property.  I would like to know more about it.

Largest Cross at 198' in Effingham, IL
There are monuments for each of the 10 commandments around the base of the cross.

My daughter Misti and her children just returned from a vacation in Arizona.  As they returned home via Groom, Texas they decided to stop to see the large cross they have on display.   Come to find out in my Google search of Effingham's cross, Groom has the second highest cross (196') along with 14 stations having to do with the death of Christ. Dean and I have passed Groom's cross several times without stopping, but we will definitely stop on our next trip.  We had no idea there was anything but a cross at the location.

It wasn't too much longer that we began to notice the nice clean and perfectly manicured countryside homes as we neared Nappanee and the Goshen area.  We made it to the Elkhart County Fairgrounds where we were met by one of the Rally Core Team Members, Kevin----who they have nicknamed Mayor.  After giving us our packet of all things we needed to know about the rally, he led us to the weighing station.  This is something we've wanted to have done for awhile.  When we were finished there he led us to our site - #428.  Once we unhooked Bentley, we drove back to the weighing station where they will next weigh the truck by itself.  They told us we can pick up the results of the weighing one morning later this week.  Our hope is that our weight within Bentley is pretty evenly distributed and if not, we can discuss what options we have with the weighing team.

Once we returned to our site, we went through the packet of information we received.  I signed up to attend a bus tour to South Bend, IN tomorrow (Thursday).  After Dean read the details he wished he would have signed up as well.  After a quick lunch, we decided to take a walk and we happened to run into one of the rally team members.  I asked him if he knew how we could find out if there were any extra tickets to the bus tour to South Bend tomorrow.  He directed us to Julie and where her rig was located, and off we went in search of her. In the meantime here came Mr. Mayor, Kevin.  We asked to make sure we knew where Julie's rig was and it happened to be parked next to his, however she was not there.  I then realized Kevin's wife was the famous Nelly of Nelly's muffins.  Last year when we attended the South Central Regional Rally in Branson we met Kevin and Nelly.  Nelly had planned to make muffins (you get to choose what you want in your own personal muffin) however it rained so hard we did not get out.  I mentioned this to her and before we knew it she was insisting we come in and she sent each of us home with our own bowl with the muffin mix and the fixings of our choice.  We insisted she did not need to do this but she won the battle!  In the meantime Julie had returned to her rig so we were able to stop in and get Dean a ticket to the tour as well.  A successful walk, at best!

After we returned to Bentley, we decided to drive over to Shipshewana.  Last fall when we stopped here over Labor Day there were a few places we wanted to visit that we discovered were closed due to the holiday weekend. We were able to visit one of those businesses today - Lambright Chairs. We've heard a lot of great comments about these recliners and we wanted to try them out ourselves. While we did not order any, we might be interested in doing so in the future.  We'll sure keep it in mind.

Our next stop was at the Yoder Meat & Cheese Store to get some cheese curds.  We really enjoyed the fresh ones that brother-in-law Dennis gave us last year when visiting them in Illinois and while we were not able to purchase the brand his company makes, the ones we had today were fresh and had that squeaky sound when eating them.  We found some cheese curds somewhere after we got home and they were not fresh and not very good at all. These today were pretty good - but we'd sure like some more of those Shullsburg Creamery ones!  Possibly another trip back that way??

Our Escapee friend Drena sent us a note on Facebook to tell us about the Rise & Shine Bakery in nearby Middlebury so on our way home we made a stop there to check out their special crack cinnamon caramel donuts.  They were sold out for the day but we plan to make a trip back on Friday or Saturday morning to try them out.  Drena also recommended we buy a box of frozen doughnuts to bring home with us, and we might just do that too!

Well, at 10:45 last night Dean asked me if I was ready to go to bed.  I told him it's only 9:45---as that's what my computer was showing!!!  Then he told me no, it's 10:45---the time had moved forward on us.  Since we have to get up early tomorrow for the bus trip, as much as I had hoped to post this, I knew I better go ahead and call it a night.

Next post will have lots of things to share from our tour!

May 15-21, 2017 - Branson, MO - Attending RV Rallies

May 15 to 19, 2017 - Treasure Lake RV Resort, Branson, MO

We belong to the Escapees Chapter 17 that includes the states of Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas.  From April to October each year we hold two rallies (April & September) and casual campouts the remaining months.

May's casual campout was originally scheduled at Pomme de Terre Lake at Hermitage, MO, however due to the excessive rains we've had in our region a good portion of the campground was still under water and a number of the reservations were cancelled by Recreation.gov.  Fellow members Vern and Joanne were the hosts for this campout and as soon as they learned the campout at Hermitage woud not work they stepped up and found us a new location at Treasure Lake RV Resort in Branson, MO.  A number of our SKP (Escapee) group own memberships at Treasure Lake so it ended up working out well for us to change the location -- even if it was at the last minute.

We had 9 rigs show up with 17 members.  A smaller group than normal but what a great time we had. Dean and I arrived shortly after noon on Monday, May 15.  After Dean backed Bentley in we checked out distances from electrical hookups, trees, etc. and everything looked great.  Before we unhooked Dean decided maybe he should straighten up a bit and move over slightly to give us more room to sit outside our door under the awning.  Pretty easy, and soon we had unhooked and ready to level up.  Hmmm....any idea what happened next?  Yes, that is when we realized by moving to give us more sitting room we were now too close to the electrical hookup - how did that happen?  Fortunately it didn't take but a few minutes to hook back up - thank goodness we had not leveled the entire rig yet.  We just had to move forward about a foot and then we were able to complete out setup for our stay here.

It didn't take long to finish leveling, put the slides out, and get things set up for our stay before we joined our SKP friends to catch up.  Gary and Connie were in a good spot for all of us to gather at their rig for the week to visit.  We appreciate them sharing their space with us for several days of good times with lots of laughs.

Our first night no one wants to cook, so Vern suggested we visit Godfather's Pizza.  He first introduced us to this place last fall.  Not only do they have an excellent pizza buffet, but they also have a very nice salad bar, American food bar with mashed potatoes/gravy, broasted chicken, vegetables, and mac and cheese, but also dessert pizzas, and breadsticks.  If they don't have the pizza you want, just ask them and they will make it for the buffet.  The price is excellent and if you watch for coupons you can get a buy one buffet and get the 2nd one for 1/2 off.   We tried a spinach/feta/chicken pizza that was delicious besides a number of other really good ones.  Everyone loved the chicken and the cinnamon bubble bread was a big hit as well.

We visited throughout the day - usually afternoons and evenings, giving everyone a chance to get out and do things around Branson if they chose.  Dean and Frank played golf one day so a few of us ladies did a little shopping at Tanger Mall and at the Grand Village shops.  Tuesday evening we had our potluck dinner.  Treasure Lake has a nice building we were able to use for our dinner.

So much great food, and we had enough left over we brought it back the next night to eat with hamburgers or hot dogs.  We never go hungry at campouts, that is for sure!

Wednesday night we planned to have a cookout in the large open shelter, however the wind came up so we were able to utilize the small building we had last night again.  Gary and Connie were kind enough to bring their grill up and everyone grilled their own meat dish.

Thursday all but three of our group packed up and went home due to the weather forecast.  That night the tornado sirens went off.  Two of our group went to the bathhouse near our rigs and the other couple went to the main building where they have a basement.  We did not have any bad weather at the resort, however Tanger Mall - not too far away had an EF-0 tornado that did a little damage to their signs and some roof damage.  They were still able to open on Friday for business.

Friday night the last 3 couples standing - Alvin, Linda, Keith, Drena and us gathered at Alvin and Linda's rig to grill our dinner.  Dean and I shared a ribeye steak.  It has been awhile since we've had a steak and it was delicious.  Afterwards we had a nice visit before returning to our rigs for the evening. It rained again all night but had cleared up by morning.

May 19, 2017
We were not in any rush this morning even though we are moving to a new location - it just happens to be about 7 miles south of Treasure Lake.

Bentley is a Heartland BigHorn.  The Missouri-Kansas Chapter of the Heartland Owners Club is holding their spring rally at Ozark Country Campground.  Once there we set up and enjoyed some lunch. There was a meet and greet at 3:00 at the clubhouse.  The National Heartland Rally starts in about 2 weeks at Goshen, IN.  Several HOC members attended this rally on their way to Goshen. There were folks from California, Utah, New Mexico, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma as well as from Kansas and Missouri.  The rally was great.  Larry and Gayle, KS/MO HOC leaders did a great job.

Our site B-4.

Lots of Heartland RV's lined up here!

It rained Friday night but no sirens - that is good!  Saturday we had to make a trip to Wal-Mart in order for me to make a couple of things for the pot luck we are having tonight.  I made cheesy hash brown potatoes and some triple chocolate brownies with pecans.  The potatoes were cleaned out and only 2 brownies left.  The food was all wonderful.  Afterwards we had a white elephant gift exchange.  These are always a lot of fun.  Being able to steal an opened gift from someone is what really makes it interesting.

Rain again Saturday night but a nice clear morning.  We had breakfast at the meeting room each morning on Sat and Sun.  Scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, juice, coffee.  Yum yum!  I tried not to eat too much but time will tell how well I really did!

After breakfast Sunday morning we finished hooking up and left the campground before 10 am.  The ride home was okay until we decided to take Highway 96 at Arvilla - only to find out that 96 is closed going into Carthage.  This resulted in us turning around and backtracking several miles to find out where we could turn around.  We finally arrived home at 1:45 pm.

June 5, 2017 - On the Way to Goshen, IN - Robertsville State Park, Robertsville, MO

June 5, 2017 - On the Way to Goshen, IN - Robertsville State Park, Robertsville, MO

We pulled out of our driveway at 9:32 am to begin the first day of our travels to Goshen, IN in order to attend the 2017 North American Heartland Owners Rally.  This is our first Heartland National Rally and we are excited to attend.  We belong to the Oklahoma Chapter, that is part of the South Central Owners Group, which includes Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana and Texas.  When we joined the Heartland Owners Club (HOC) in 2014 there was not a Kansas Chapter.  We chose Oklahoma since we lived closest to that state, however you can attend any rallies and many of the Heartland group follow a rally circuit - whether limited to their region or anywhere in the US.  We had such a good time at the Escapade rally this year and expect this one will be just as fun.

Our drive today was pretty uneventful.  We did stop several times along the way not only for bathroom breaks but also so Dean could check the lug nus on the tires several times along the way. We recently had the tires on Bentley aligned so this was an important step to do each time we stopped.  We had no problems at all.  I have started taking advantage of these stops to get some extra steps in and try to walk around Bentley at least 3-5 times when Dean goes in to use the facilities.  I try to really step it up on these little jaunts.

We enjoyed listening to Willie's Roadhouse on Sirrus XM where we heard some really great old country songs. Glad no one could hear our singing!

I could not help but take this picture as we passed through St. Clair, MO where they have HOT and COLD water towers!

We noticed the clouds were getting a little dark as we neared the campground.  I hope we are not going to have rain tonight.  After the last two days of heavy rains at home we are ready for a little sunshine, however it is very humid today.

We stayed at this campground last September on our way home from New York.  At that time it was raining when we arrived and still raining the next morning when we left, so we were quite happy when these clouds rolled on past us with no rain spilled from them.

We arrived at the park at 3:01pm.  Once we were set up we drove a few miles down the road to refuel the truck with diesel, and then we took a little drive to Pacific, MO.  My Aunt Lil lived here many years ago.  I took a few pictures and it will be interesting to see if any of these are familiar to her.

I think there are real eyes inside of this thing!  I didn't notice it when I took the picture.

Downtown Pacific, MO

I love their banners!

A sign says there are model trains on display in this building.

Upon returning, we took a drive through the campground.  Since it was raining the last time we stopped here we didn't really get to see anything.

This is the boat ramp that leads to the Meramac River.

Our wildlife sighting for the day!

The campground is very wooded.

Our Site - #15

This is one of the tent sites - notice the nice wood platform where they can place their tent.

This is a double camping site.

Nice campfire setting, with the bathhouse located behind it.

When we returned to our camping spot we walked the loop around the campground twice and I was able to get in over 10,000 steps again today.  I've really been working on increasing my walking as well as a few other exercises to try and shed a few pounds.  It has not been easy.  Yesterday was our annual Blackledge-Duncan Family Reunion - we have too many good cooks in our family and even though I had over 13,000 steps yesterday it didn't begin to offset the food I ate - it was all so good!

Dean and I set outside for awhile but the mosquitoes ran me off pretty quick.  We grilled a couple of hamburgers for dinner, adding a bit of cottage cheese and chips.  Good quick meal!

Tomorrow we are headed to Kokomo, IN where we are going to try overnighting at Wal-mart, a first for us.  We'll see how that goes.  It could be the start of something great (I doubt it) or the last time we ever try it.  We have a pretty long travel day ahead of us tomorrow (340 miles) - which is very unusual for us.