RVing With a Purpose

Friday, August 13, 2020

Today was another beautiful day in Elkhart. Those of you that follow us know we love factory tours. In Elkhart that means RV factories. Most of the factories are not doing tours due to COVID but we were able to arrange a tour of the Coachman Class B RV factory in Middlebury. One of the regional reps took us on our own private tour. They usually produce 5 class B’s per day at this factory but today the assembly line was not is full operation. Some of the ancillary folks were working but we learned that there is an extreme shortage of parts for all the manufacturers. Orders are at an all time high but all are waiting on parts (many from China). For their Class B’s the current shortage is running boards. They have all these motor homes ready to be shipped, minus the running boards. They were expecting a truck in today. Gary, our tour guide, took us through from start to final finish and then introduced us to the general manager and customer service manager. Everyone we met was very nice and they reminded us of the folks at the Tiffin plant.

After completing our tour we decided to go to the Middlebury Rise ‘n’ Roll Bakery. This is a large store/bakery where they actually bake the items for the other stores. We went here because yesterday in Elkhart we were told we needed to go to Middlebury for the ice cream stuffed doughnut. Soft serve ice cream and doughnuts – Donna, this one was for you. After that, it was time to to hit the trails. We found a really nice bike and hiking trail about 30 minutes south of Middlebury and walked it all off. It was another wonderful day.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Tuesday and Wednesday were more work days planning the 2021 annual meeting. Bev and Don, the chairs of the committee, are doing a great job and they are working with a great group of NOMADS from Indiana. Looking forward to next year’s annual meeting. Tuesday night we had a beautiful sunset. Monday night the sky was boiling with the storm and Tuesday the clouds provided a sunset that everyone was outside admiring.

After this morning’s devotion time we had to say goodbye to all our NOMADS friends as they were all on the road again. We are staying here in Elkhart until at least Monday and doing some of the tourist things. We won’t have time to play when everyone is here for the meeting next year so we are partaking for some of the fun now. First we went to the doughnut shop that everyone raves about. We tried 3 different flavors today and they were all great! More tomorrow. Then we visited the RV/MH Hall of Fame and Museum here in Elkhart. What a fun place! There are trailers and memorabilia going back to the 1920’s. Some amazing trailers from the 1930’s. Interesting was one from the 1930’s that had a type of slide out. Also interesting was that there were those with residential refrigerators back in the earliest days and then we “advanced” to the propane and now we are are moving back to residential. We never knew there were residential refrigerators in the trailers in the 1940s. We had a fun relaxing day.

Monday, August 10, 2020

Early this morning we had a rain storm at the Grissom Air Museum. We had to wait for the rain to end so we could walk about two blocks to the Dutch Cafe, a local restaurant with good ratings. We were definitely glad we waited. We shared the country scramble which was three eggs, bacon, hash browns, cheese and toast made from home made bread. Very, very good and almost more than the two of us could eat. Some of you will find this hard to believe but we didn’t even eat any of the cinnamon rolls. Of course we did share one for our dessert after lunch. Excellent! We saved one for tomorrow’s breakfast.

After a nice walk we left the museum en route to Elkhart, Indiana. We will be meeting here the next three days with the NOMADS committee in charge of the 2021 annual meeting. First meeting was at 3:00 this afternoon. It was good to see everyone and hard to not hug some dear friends but we wore our masks and everyone kept their distance. So tired of Covid! The meeting ended a little early because on an approaching severe storm. We all pulled in our slides and put all the chairs and outside stuff away and then returned to the more secure building to ride out what were predicted to be 70mph winds. It was an impressive storm but no damage in our immediate area. Not too far away there was some damage. Again we were blessed and it reminded the committee of the need to have emergency plans in place for the meeting. It was another good day.

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Yesterday morning we completed the packing up of Fred and were on the road again. This time our destination was Sparta, Kentucky. It was a beautiful drive through more of the Tennessee mountains and into Kentucky. We exited the interstate and drove through the country on US Hwy 127 to Sparta and the Steepleview Farm. It was an interesting drive. This was the weekend of the annual World’s Longest Yard Sale. It goes from Michigan to Gadsden, Alabama on HWY 127 or 690 miles. We live just about 30 miles from Gadsden but we have never partaken of the festivities of this event. We had to drive to Kentucky to have this experience. There were cars and vendors lining the highway for miles. Sometimes there was a gap of several miles and then there would be more vendors and cars on the side of the road. It made for a slow drive from the interstate to the farm. It wasn’t bad but a longer drive than we expected. Steepleview Farm was our first visit to a Harvest Host site. If you aren’t familiar with Harvest Hosts look them up. Our host Marc met us as soon as we arrived and helped us get parked. He was great. He introduced us to his wife and showed us around the organic farm. It was a beautiful country farm with sunflowers, zenias, all varieties of tomatoes, watermelon, peppers, corn, homemade items such as salsa and honey from their bees. Yesterday they had vendors for the yard sale set up in one of the pastures beside the road. We had a beautiful sunset, a quiet, restful night and wonderful sunrise this morning.

After visiting with Marc again this morning we were on the road again and this time to another Harvest Host site at the Grissom Air Museum in Peru, Indiana. It is a small museum but they have a large number of planes outside for viewing and then some cockpits, flight simulator, and other educational materials inside for viewing. The docent was very informative and the lady handling the Harvest Hosts duties was welcoming and helpful as well. Currently we are sitting outside in the parking lot enjoying the cool evening breeze after another really good day.