Heading South. . .

Last Thursday we left Elkhart Campground. We still have not had any satisfaction on having spent a bundle of money on getting our fuel leak fixed only to have TWO leaks now that must be fixed. Once we decided to head to Gaffney, South Carolina, where our Freightliner custom chassis was born, we had a new problem arise that might prevent that. We were getting a low coolant error, but the coolant is not low. We changed the sensor, but nothing has changed and the module causing the problem is sending the coach into limp mode. So we visited MacAllister CAT in Fort Wayne. Those guys seem to know what they are doing. They downloaded the info off the engine computer and in ten years, the coolant error is the only thing showing. Since the sensor is new and the coolant is full, they believe the module is the problem and reprogrammed the computer to remove that module from the mix. So we no longer are getting the red lights or beeps or warnings about the engine. Whew. It won't prevent other failures to display if something happens, but the errant module won't be causing a problem.

After leaving Fort Wayne, we drove south and stopped for a few nights in Amishville, USA, outside of Berne. We always enjoy this area. T

he Amish here are different than in our part of the country. We visited some of the Amish stores and particularly one shop where I learned the lady's family has some celiacs and she makes gluten free products. She remembered me from the last time we were here and she gave me a sample of her egg noodles, gluten free, of course. When I was here last time, she had not tried any and she has now perfected them so I am anxious to try them. We visited some of the brat shops and bought some things for the freezer.

Saturday evening we went to dinner at the Back40 Junction in Decatur. We had been there years ago, but we both were disappointed with the food this time. There was not much of a selection of vegetables and the prime rib was tough and chewy. Probably won't go back. And to top it off, we had 90 degree heat with more humidity and the A/C in the restaurant was on the blink. Ugh. It made it uncomfortable.

We arrived today in New Castle. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow and Butterscotch has a doctor appointment tomorrow afternoon. Then Tuesday Terry will be in Indianapolis getting a pulmonary test since he is on the drug amiodorone. Over time, it can affect the lungs, so they want to check that and it may result in a change in his dose. We got in around 2 and after setting up went to Hagerstown to eat at Willie and Red's. This is the restaurant formerly known as Welliver's. It was good, but the food wasn't as outstanding as I remembered it. And now if you want shrimp or crab legs, you must pay extra for it. I understand that and they actually have cut the price of the buffet. The food was better than we had last night and we enjoy the nicely cooled restaurant!

Why are we eating out so much? Well, today was my birthday! I wanted to celebrate and. . . not cook! So that's what we did. Now we are not planning on eating for the next week. LOL

Till next time. . .

Dale

Checking in with friends. . .

Wednesday we drove from Goshen over to St. Paris, Ohio, to see our friends, Tab and Deanna. They are the friends who went to Alaska with us. It was great to see them and catch up with what everyone had been doing in the past year.

They have a house in St. Paris and they have been doing some remodeling. They put in an entirely new kitchen which is really gorgeous. Tab did a lot of the work himself and he did a great job. Deanna has all new cabinets and new appliances. I'm sure they will enjoy it.

We parked over at Tab's shop and got all set up. After Tab got off work, we all went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was really good. We haven't eaten at one for awhile and they had a lot of new menu items. I had rainbow trout and Terry had a salad. Yum yum.

Last night we ate in and then went out for dessert. That's Tab and Deanna's favorite meal, I think. We went to the restaurant down the road. They all had apple dumplings a la mode and I had a root beer float. It was all very good.

We said our goodbyes this morning and we traveled toward Indiana. It started raining at one point and was actually raining pretty hard. But by the time we got to Berne, the rain had mostly stopped. We are camped at Amishville and had to switch campsites because the first one he gave us would not allow us to level. It was a short narrow site that ran downhill and to the one side. I don't know what these people are thinking when they put a 40-er in that kind of space. So we went back to the office and fortunately, they had plenty of other sites we would fit in and that were quite level. We got set up and had lunch before heading out.

We have been through Berne numerous times when we lived in central Indiana but never spent any time here. There are a lot of Amish here and one big difference in these Amish and the northern Indiana Amish are in their buggies. Here they are not allowed to ride in enclosed buggies, so their transportation is all buckboard type wagons. I would be moving if the parson told me that. But they are a hardy group and we saw a lot of Amish out and in the various markets we went to. We were looking for gluten free noodles. I have only seen them in Amish stores and I hit the jackpot at Troyers. I got several packages. They were cheaper than I have found before and I stocked up so I have some in reserve.

We visited several Amish stores, dry goods and grocery, and enjoyed our time visiting with the people.

Till next time. . .

Dale