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Hello Family and Friends

Well, as you might have guessed, we are officially on the road again.  We’ve been home since around mid-April so the feet they were getting itchy to hitch up the rig and go a wandering.  While we were at home, we made good use of our time getting the garden in order and spending lots of time with family, especially the grandkids.  Lots of baseball games and T-ball games and lots of overnights with Bubbie and Zaydie.  No doubt about it, grandkids are awesome!

The first few days of our travel were quite focused.  Our goal was to get to the lovely town of Shipshewana in Indiana by the 22^nd of June.  The reason for the specific arrival date?  My brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Susie, are joining us there and we will be travel buddies from that date until oh around the end of August.

But of course, I can’t allow 4 days and 3 nights to go by unmentioned, that would just not be fair so here we go.

Our first days travel took us from home to North Platte, NE.  The next day was to Omaha, NE and then it was on to Davenport, IA with the last days drive getting us to Shipshewana, IN.  How was the drive you ask?  What exciting things did you see?  Tell us about our great country.  Ok, if you insist.  We drove through about a thousand miles (no hyperbole here) of corn fields.  Yep, that’s about it.  Corn.  Corn on the left and Corn on the right.  Oh sure, there was the occasional wind farm, or small town but the primary visual, Corn!  Things did tighten up a bit once we got south of Chicago, the roads got bumpier, more construction, bigger towns and cities, and still there was Corn!

For you stat geeks, here are the numbers.

Home to North Platte:  263 miles.  8.6 mpg towing.  A tad over 6 hours driving (includes move from mountain to central time)

North Platte to Omaha:  259 miles.  9.7 mpg towing.  Almost 6 and a half hours driving.

Omaha to Davenport:  288 miles.  8.8 mpg towing.  Almost 6 hours driving.

Davenport to Shipshewana:  282 miles.  10 mpg towing.  6 and a half hours driving (includes move from central to eastern time zone).

So far we have driving over a thousand miles, used 102 gallons of fuel at an average cost of $2.94 per gallon while getting an overall 8.92 mpg.

Numbers Geeks – ya satisfied?  I know I am.

Some of you may remember that we actually were here, in Shipshewana, last year around the same time.  In fact, we stayed in the same RV park we are in this year.  All I can say is, what a difference a year makes.  Last year, COVID was raging and many of the places we wanted to see were closed.  The roads seemed to have more horse drawn carriages on them than cars.  Want to go out for dinner, if you could find a place open, there was no wait.  Fast forward to today, or yesterday to be exact.  Everything is open.  The crowds are back.  Our wait for dinner at the Essenhaus was almost 90 minutes.  Trying to get across the street without a traffic light?  You could be waiting quite a bit.  Now there are not many traffic lights in this little town but the back up at them can be extensive.

Also, last year you may remember we had a significant issue with our RV.  Specifically, one of the slides was, well to use the British term, wonky.  We had to have welding done and then that failed and it had to be redone, lets just say that trip was one reason we have a new RV.  So how does that match up with this year?  Glad you asked!

I have an hydraulic leak.  I found out about it on our trip to Tucson (brand new RV so what should you expect) but getting it fixed has been a problem.  Thus far the leaking fluid has like totally (sorry for that) messed up the underbelly, soaking all the insulation and causing the once nice, flat, belly to be wavy and bumpy and just a mess.  Sort of like how my stomach has gone from my younger days to now.  But, we are in Shipshewana which is the town next to Elkhart which is where most of the travel trailers and 5^th wheels you see on the road are made.  In fact, there is one facility here in town that makes the brand, Open Range, so if you are going to need a knowledgeable RV tech this is the place (unless welding is required). 

We made contact with a mobile RV tech the day before we got in and he agreed to come out and take a look.  Oh, and on our travels the RV’s right taillight stopped working so he said he would look at that as well.

Yesterday he showed up and proved to be quite knowledgeable.  Like most mobile RV techs in this area, he learned his trade working at the factories so there is nothing he can’t accomplish, well except for welding, he said he does not do welding.  On the taillight, it was a lose wire.  Fixed in 30 seconds.  As for the hydraulic leak, he is coming back out Thursday and will tackle that.  If he can’t finish on Thursday, he will finish on Saturday.  I feel quite better about this.  The thought of driving with an hydraulic leak until we got to the Service Center at the end of August was not something I was looking forward to.  I’ve contacted Vanleigh, the makers of my RV, which by the way is the only one not made in this area, and they will reimburse me what ever the cost is.  I must say, VL’s customer service has been outstanding.

Photos.  I know how important they are but I am going to be quite honest with you, I don’t have very many of the journey so far.  Like I said, our goal was to get from point A to point B and once you’ve seen one corn field, well, you understand.

But I do have a few that Sarah and I took.  Hey, wait, I forgot to tell you something quite new that happened on this trip.  Now, over the past years, Sarah has driven the truck pulling the RV from time to time.  Always on very open highways with little traffic.  Lets face it, hauling a rig can be and is very intimidating.  But on this trip, she determined that would change.  She drove the first half of the first leg of the trip, getting the RV out of the Famcamp at Buckley FSB, though the town and then onto the highway and beyond.  She repeated this again a few times over the next few days.  She is determined to get more comfortable, and she is doing TANFASTIC!  Its not an easy thing to do but she is making it happen.  This of course makes me feel great knowing that if I can’t make the drive, my bride, my girlfriend and best friend is right there to take over.

Back to the pictures, there are a couple of the RV, one at Buckley FSB (yes, it is FSB not AFB), the other at one of the stops along the way, and then a shot of our RV and my brother’s RV here in Shipshewana.  In that picture you can see Sarah resting under the tree, Susie is behind the tree, and Steve and Susie’s 2 dogs are, well, they are dogs and they are doing what dogs do.  Sarah also got some pictures of the most common animal in this Amish area, horses.  They are everywhere which I guess can be expected since there are a ton of horse driven carriages here.

We are going to be here until Sunday when we head up towards Mackinaw City, MI with an overnight at, and this is in fact the name of the town, Frankenmuth, MI where we will be spending the night at our first Jelly Stone Park.  While we are here, Sarah and Susie will be going to a Quilting Festival, we will all be walking around, and through, one of the biggest Flea Markets that I have ever seen, and just enjoying life in this quiet, yet amazingly crowed town.

I hope this catches everyone up.  I can’t promise, well I can but we all know it will be broken, to post this much every day, or even post every day, but the Evergreen Travler (again, yes the spelling error is on purpose, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it) is traveling again and I am so glad that you are along for the ride.  Please feel free to invite your friends to follow this web page.  The more the marrier. 

TTFN