RV Adventures

It’s finally time to bring our Showhauler home!  We got word on Thursday that the motorhome would be ready for us to pick-up on Friday.  If you recall, we dropped it off at the Showhauler factory to get the bunk beds removed and a queen size bed put in.  More on that later.

So, how do we get back to Middlebury, Indiana?  We don’t have a towable vehicle…yet, so we decided to take the train (again for me!).  This was the smoothest Amtrak trip I’ve taken in the past 6 months.  We were only 20 minutes late instead of 2 hours late.

We got off at Elkhart, Indiana.  They have the nicest vintage train station…much nicer than Rochester’s.  Apparently the station has been here a while.  Bob Hope and his wife used to visit this area!  Who knew?

The salesman from Showhauler picked us up from the train station and took us to the factory.  It was time for the big reveal!  What’s our new bedroom look like?

Here’s the before….four bunk beds going along the length of the back bedroom.

Here’s the after!  One queen sized bed going along the width, new cabinets at the back, a bracket for a flat screen TV, and a nightstand (minus the top because the laminate didn’t come in on time).  It was a little hard to get a decent picture, but you get the idea.

As for the nightstand top, the factory general foreman quickly figured out how handy Jim is and figured Jim can install it himself.  He’s right!  The top will be shipped to us.

We still had a couple of items to take care of at the factory.  The electric awning wasn’t going in and out as it should.  Since it seems every RV in the USA is made in this area, they called in the awning expert.  He was out on the road on other calls, so we had some time to kill.

Our first task was lunch.  We borrowed the sales guy’s car (that’s how great these Showhauler people are) and went down to the road to McDonald’s.  This is what we saw there…an Amish buggy in the parking lot.

This part of Indiana is heavily Amish and Mennonite area.  Our coach cabinets were built by the Amish, and some of the Mennonites help build the Showhaulers.  Anyway, a mom and little girl (owner’s of the horse and buggy I presume) were inside the McDonalds enjoying a burger and a Happy Meal.  They are just like us!

After lunch it was back to the factory.  The awning guy still hadn’t arrived, so we got our bags and moved back into the coach.  We also unpacked all the bins we had left in the coach a few weeks ago.  Then we waited.  This is what our view was out the coach window.  Other Showhaulers under construction!  Needless to say, Jim was intrigued.

Finally the awning guy arrived and we go that fixed.  We pulled the coach out of the building and got the tanks filled with water.  Then we had a thorough walk-thru with the salesman, Lonnie.  There’s a lot to learn about this rig.  But no fear, if we have issues, we have Lonnie’s cell phone number.  He may regret that.

It was finally time to hit the road.  Of course, the Hula Girl Janelle got us for Christmas has to hang out on the dash.

Did you notice Jim’s “Turn OFF Turn Signal” sign taped to the dash?  The turn signals of semi-tractors (which is what the motorhome is built on) don’t turn off automatically.  Don’t ask me why.

We are now in a campground south of Fort Wayne, Indiana.  It’s been a quiet day.  I took some time this morning to try and figure out our TV antenna.  Jim got a kick out of the number of remotes in this RV.

We took a long walk into town just to see what was there.  They have a beautiful library!  Walking back, this is what we saw.  There’s Blue, waiting for us in this quiet campground.

It’s time to chill.  I’m writing the blog post and Jim is watching a DVD.  Yup, we can relax when we need to.

Tomorrow we are heading to Ohio.  Blue is going to get an oil change and we’ve found a state park that looks nice in the Akron area.  In a few days, we’ll bring Blue to New York!