RV Adventures

Did you know that the area where Michigan and Indiana meet is called Michiana?  Well you do now.  We spent an extra couple of days in the area while waiting for our new slide-out topper to come in at the Showhauler factory.  So, we decided let’s play tourist…and look for places with BIG parking lots since we still aren’t set up to tow a car.

We left the Rally site Sunday morning.  The day started out sunny and windy.  I shot this picture of this flag through the window of our motorhome.  Yes, some people erect flag poles on their coaches.

Flag flying over the fairgrounds.

We then headed for the RV Hall of Fame!  I was trading messages with Janelle (over in Finland) telling her where we were headed.  We have driven by the place many times since it’s on the highway between New York and Chicago/Wisconsin.  But Janelle still said “Such a place exists?”  It sure does!

RV Hall of Fame

We spent a fun couple of hours looking at what RVs used to be.  I’ll just say I’m glad we are RVing in this century and not the last one.  Our rig is much more comfortable.  But I did have some nostalgia when seeing the 1970’s versions of the various trailers and motorhomes.  I was disappointed to not see a HiLo, the travel trailer my family had when we were kids.  I found this picture of what our HiLo looked like (although not ours).  Yup, we’ve moved up in the world.

This HiLo looks pretty identical to the 18 foot unit my parents bought when I was 10.

Putting nostalgia aside, here’s a gallery of antique RVs if you are interested.  Dave P., they had one on a Model A!

I wonder what we could do with this little trailer behind our RV?  I know, we could use it to haul all of our electronics!

Welcome to Corinne’s Computer Container.

Next we were off to Shipshewana.  We picked a campground close to town so we could easily explore it without a car.  Shipshewana is best described as an Amish community with Flea Market.  Yes, this little town has a HUGE Amish community, plus a HUGE flea market every Tuesday and Wednesday.  The campground was almost vacant on Sunday.  But come Monday (the day before the Flea Market) the campground filled up!  We skipped the flea market, maybe we’ll visit another time.

Jim and I wanted into town to see what we could see.

We hoofed it over to Yoder’s Department Store.  I checked out the quilting fabrics (the Moda salesperson must love having this account!), Jim checked out the hardware.  Of course, we picked up a few more must have items for the RV.

Inside Yoder’s Department Store

We spent the rest of the day back at the RV trying to get things organized again.  Jim met up with some fellow Freightliner owners at the campground and enjoyed a couple of hours of Freightliner talk.  I stayed inside with the air conditioning and after seeing all that fabric, felt inspired to get out my quilting supplies and wack up some fabric.

Viola, the kitchen turns into a fabric cutting station!

This morning we got the phone call that the slide out topper was in, so we did the quick 15 minute drive back to the factory and it was installed within 30 minutes (no more floods inside!).  Then it was time to hit the road again.

As I type this, we are just east of Cleveland.  We are going to spend the night at the same truck stop we stayed at on the way out.  We’ll be up early tomorrow and finish the trip home.  We have our list of things that need attention before our next RV excursion in July (to Michigan and Pennsylvania with my parents).  I’m hoping I’ll have a new microwave/convection oven by then so I can broaden my RV cooking skills beyond skillet dinners and the crock pot!  If you are looking for us tomorrow, we’ll be outside mowing our foot high grass!