Shipshewana!

After visiting Mom for a few days, we left on Sunday morning and drove to Shipshewana and camped in the flea market campground. It is a no frills campground but has full hookups with good power. We park in the row next to the flea market and the market is just about 25 feet away. So it is an easy walk to the venue. There was a guy flying an ultralight over the area every day. He may have been taking pictures.

We normally come in on Sunday because the flea market doesn't start till Tuesday. So we move in and relax on Sunday afternoon. On Monday, we normally walk around the town and visit the shops we like and spend as much time looking as we like. We also made a trip out of town a few miles to visit Leon at National RV Refrigeration and set up an appointment to have an ARC installed in our Norcold Refrigerator. It is an Absorption Refrigerator Controller and works by monitoring the temperature of the fluid in the boiler. When it reaches a certain degree, it shuts off the boiler, restarting it when it cools down. This may happen in the course of driving it over hilly terrain or sitting in an unlevel condition. At any rate, it is the best device for maintaining the integrity of the system and one which will prevent fires. We made our appointment for Thursday morning.

The week was really hot, reaching the 90's every day, so we really monitored our time outdoors. Monday was okay as we were shopping in town and the shops are all air-conditioned. The motorhome stayed cool and we took breaks and returned to the rig for lunch and naps. LOL

Tuesday and Wednesday were flea market days and it was awfully hot. We got started early and the day did take awhile to heat up. We went back home at noon and had lunch. When we got back out it had turned really hot, so we only lasted an hour and came back in, leaving about three rows to do on Wednesday. That was a good thing, because Wednesday started out very hot and when we quit at 11:30; it was close to unbearable for us anyway. Attendance was really down as you can see from the pictures. Made it easy to get through the aisles, but it was miserable. We just hung out, walked the dogs, and visited with some of the neighbors. One of the people we met had a new fifth wheel. They pulled it with a Kenworth tractor and put a Smart Car up behind the cab in front of the trailer. I stopped and talked with him and commented that a friend of ours had had a similar setup when they were fulltiming, but had since left that life and sold their rig. Turns out, the tractor and Smart car were our friends and this guy had bought them from them. Wow. What a small world. Very nice couple.

Thursday we got around and left about 9:30 and headed up to Leon's to get the ARC installed. Took less than 30 minutes, but then he explained to us how it worked and what to watch for. Very nice young man who really knows gas absorption refrigerators. He replaced the coils in ours four years ago when our boiler ruptured. At four years now, it has lasted longer than any of the Norcold fixes we ever had done. So glad we went with his system. You gotta' remember that the Amish have been working with gas absorption refrigeration and freezing longer than Norcold or Dometic. Our fridge continues to work as it should.

After having that done, we headed over to the house and are here today relaxing from the heat of the past week. Normally we would be up north in cooler climes at this point, but with the family situation, we are trying to stay closer to Mom. We are leaving here tomorrow and heading back down to Warsaw to spend a few more days with her, then we head to Indianapolis for the appointment with my neurosurgeon to see what's going on with my back. This appointment was rescheduled by the doctor last month, so hopefully we can get it done this time.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Wow!

It's been awhile. . . what can I say.

We arrived back in northern Indiana to cooler temperatures for just about a week, then it turned hot, hot, hot. But we did manage to get a stint in at Shipshewana. Amish country is my favorite place to be. Everyone is so laid back, a much slower pace is found and the countryside is quiet. We arrived on a Sunday and left on Wednesday. I like to visit the shops in town and I found some beautiful quilts. I took pictures for my friends who are in to quilting.

Back at Elkhart Campground, there was a rally going on. There were so many rigs for the rally that we waited an extra week to get a spot. We could have gotten in earlier, but I wanted a 50 Amp spot since the weather was turning hot again. Can't seem to escape it.

We have been working on various projects, mainly getting stuff loaded back into the motorhome from the many repairs we were plagued with this summer. We also took our captain's chairs out and took them over to Shipshewana to have them recovered. That was about half the cost of buying new and we were assured the frames were still good, just bad foam. We got them back yesterday and are very pleased with them. I did go with a bit darker color that will look nicer a lot longer, I think.

We have been working at selling another duplex and we closed on it September 14. Whew. Four of the five have been sold. The only thing left is the condo and we are starting to work on it next year. Getting stuff cleared out of it, repainted inside, some new windows. . . and then who knows? We know we don't want to live in it. Terry absolutely cannot tolerate cold weather and since he has done so well healthwise in the last ten years, we know it's because he isn't exposed to cold temperatures. So we plan to keep it that way. With having sold all but one, we hope to be able to travel more in the summers.

Yesterday we had to go to Shipshewana and on the way back decided to find the "elusive" Eldridge Cemetery where many of my ancestors are buried. We had tried to find it when Jocelyn was here, but had to give up. We had been by it once years ago. It is on a county road, but one that dead ends and then actually starts up again. So you have to get on the right portion of that road which is only maybe a mile long. It is a quaint little cemetery that seems to be well kept. . .by whom I don't know. It doesn't appear to be used anymore. I took some pictures for the genealogy buffs in the family. The Schrock grave is my paternal great grandparents. I actually remember Carrie whom we called "Big Gramma." The one is not a relative, to my knowledge, but is the grave of a veteran of the Civil War.

Progress continues for our launch date of September 24. We start heading south and plan to visit each of the kids before finally landing in Texas.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Shipshewana!

We left Tab and Deanna on Saturday and drove over to Warsaw, Indiana, where we set up camp at the fairgrounds. They have a few 50 amp sites so we snagged one of those. The girls were able to chase a few black squirrels. They didn't catch any as there were trees in close proximity, but those squirrels sure did give them a tongue lashing. LOL

We made our way over to Mad Anthony's later in the evening in time for the surprise birthday party for my sister, Nita. She turned 60 last month, so I'm sure having a party a month later was a pretty good surprise. We had an enjoyable dinner and touched base with family again. Afterwards, I drove out to their house to visit a bit more while Terry stayed back at camp with the girls. It was starting to storm and the girls were a bit anxious.

Sunday we drove up to Shipshewana and parked in the flea market campground. We got a nice back-in site, although we pulled into it so we face the flea market. Monday we spent shopping in the town shops and the various food markets. I found quite a few gluten free products, especially noodles, which is what I was looking for. There was rain off and on, but we were able to stay out of it by dodging in and out of the shops. Didn't buy much except for the food part. We did some visiting with others in the campground which is always interesting. We also drove out around Shipshewana Lake. I don't think we ever knew there was a lake there! We saw a crop dusting plane and got a good look at them restocking the pesticide. Then he pulled away and started back down the grass runway!

Today we plan to walk at least part of the flea market. The weather is not cooperating and it is supposed to rain off and on all day. We will still do part of it as there are places to get in out of the rain. Tomorrow we will wrap it up and it is supposed to be a good day.

We have been looking for a toad to pull behind MinnieMee and Terry thinks he has found it. In fact, he has found a whole new rig. It means going down a bit in horsepower, but a new coach and toad. . . what a deal!

Till next time. . .

Dale