Nappannee and Elkhart Indiana

From Bowling Green, we moved on to Nappanee, Indiana. James wanted to have a desk built in. Someone at Newmar Corp. gave him Irv Kaufman’s name. By the time we arrived at the Kaufman’s, Irv had the desk built. The first thing he did was put the desk in the coach. Then he and James removed both of the TVs.

Irv put doors on the former bedroom TV cabinet space. This gave us more storage space. He and James put in a flat screen TV in the living room area. Irv reconfigured that cabinet to fit the new TV. He also took six inches off the end table between the passenger seat and recliner. We can now swivel the passenger seat around to face the center of the room more than we could before. Irv also put in a sturdier shelf for our washer/dryer.

When we arrived at Irv’s, he told us he would let us “sleep in” since he would not start until 8:00. At 7:20, he knocked on the door-ready to go. The next two mornings, we tried to be up earlier. Several days after we left Irv’s, James looked at his phone-it was around 9:00. James was puzzled because the other clocks had around 8:00. He thought there was a problem with his phone until he realized we had changed time zones(from central to eastern). OK, we’re idiots, we admit it. We later had the opportunity to explain our error to Irv.

From the Kaufman’s place, we went to the Elkhart RV Park

We had been in the Elkhart area for an Escapes Escapade back in September. There were many vendors there including Lambright Aluminum. This is an Amish owned business. They make comfortable light weight recliners {45 and 65lbs.) that are great for RVs. We went to visit their show room and bought two of their chairs. They took out the original sofa and recliner and replaced them with their recliners. With just a chair where the sofa had been, we now have more room for Clay’s big doggie pillow-and for Clay! We’re not having to climb over him as much.

James told Vernon Lambright that we were looking for dining room chairs(one of ours wobbled). Vernon told us about his cousin Calvin, also Amish, who makes furniture. We went to see Calvin and now have two oak dining room chairs.

We really enjoy the Elkhart area. There are many Amish farms in the area and we enjoyed seeing them working their farms and riding to town in their horse drawn buggies. Another favorite place to visit is the Farmer’s Market built by Amish craftsmen to resemble a very large barn. It is full of various craft, food, vegetable and other vendor booths. We are including a few pictures we took of the Farmer’s Market and other sites in the area back in September.

While we were in Elkhart, we had a call from our friends John and Dede Fischer to tell us that they were close to buying a Newmar coach. They said they wanted to meet up with us to go to the Newmar rally in Du Quoin, Ill. mid-June.

James and I made a second trip to Newmar Corp. to buy parts and to register for the rally. While registering for the rally, we spoke to Irv’s wife Vickie who is office manager for the Newmar Kountry Klub. (Newmar coach owners group). We are looking forward to seeing the Kaufman’s, Jeannie from the Newmar parts department who was so helpful to us, and the Fischers when we go to the rally. John and Dede are currently frantically getting ready to leave SC. They will be the first people we have seen from SC since we left in January.

Bowling Green KY

Since James was running behind on writing about our travels, he asked me to write about our time in Bowling Green, Kentucky and Elkhart, Indiana.

After we left Salt Lick, we headed to Bowling Green. Two years ago we went to a Life on Wheels conference. This is held at Western Kentucky University every year around the middle of May. They offer seminars to help people learn about the RV lifestyle, RV options, RV systems(LP gas, electrical, plumbing, etc.) This conference is attended by people who own RVs and want to know about their rigs, those who want to learn about the full time lifestyle, and people who are considering purchasing an RV.

When James and I attended two years ago, we were more focused on the lifestyle classes. This year, we were more focused on RV systems.

We arrived a week before classes started, because I had a driving lesson scheduled. I had taken driving lessons in the Pace Arrow, but since that was two years ago and I had driven the coach only a few times, I wanted to have a driving lesson in the Dutch Star. Dennis Hill from the RV School was in Bowling Green for L.O.W. and to do driving lessons both before and after the conference.

Dennis came to our RV the morning of the lesson. James drove to a parking lot at Western Kentucky. Dennis set up cones for me to drive around. James took photographs while I was in the backing up phase of the lesson. The pictures came out great, because this was actually the easiest part of the lesson! I had to fight the urge not to stick my head out of the window to look back. Those mirrors are wonderful! I learned how to reposition them for backing up.

After the parking lot phase of the lesson was over, I drove the RV back to the campground-with Dennis telling me to move left the whole way back. I really want to hug the right side of the road when I drive something that big. Dennis however insisted it was not proper for me to remove mailboxes or signs or to destroy the tires.

At some point on the way back, it finally clicked with me how to use that left mirror to position the coach on the road. Yea! I had struggled with this before the lesson.

Peggy Waterman who is the L.O.W. conference coordinator made us feel very welcomed while we were at the park. She came by and chatted with us several times and invited us to join the group that had “happy hour” by the side of her coach in the evening. This was an enjoyable and fun time of fellowship for us.

One of the highpoints of our time in Bowling Green was seeing Dale and Cindy Sumner again. We had met them the first time we came for L.O.W. L.O.W. offers a “newbies” pre-conference. Dale was the RV tech who came by our coach to talk to us about our coach. His wife Cindy did not have an official job at L.O.W., but she came to our coach and gave me helpful hints on organizing and showed me how to use my micro-convection oven. We saw them at the conference and during the two days we stayed after the conference. They were a real encouragement to us.

They are no longer connected to Life on Wheels, but just happened to be in Bowling Green the same time we were. We enjoyed going out to eat with them and being with them once again.

Dale came to our coach and gave us all sorts of helpful hints again! He is a certified master RV tech. He and Cindy winter in Florida where Dale works as a mobile RV tech. The rest of the year they travel to RV rallies. Dale installs an electrical protection system in coaches and has put one in both the coach we just sold and the one we own now.

The way this system works is--you plug your electrical cord into the supply post at your camp site. If there is any problem with the electricity at the post, it does not allow the power to flow to your coach. It also supplies you with the information you need to know if there is a problem or not. If a problem exists you can request a different campsite. This system will shut your power off if the voltage at your site drops or rises too much. We have met enough people who had damage done to their RV electronics so we think this system is well worth the price. It is also supposed to protect your electronics from lightning strikes. We hope not to ever report on this based personal experience!

Cindy had their coach redecorated since the last time we saw them. I love the way it looks so Cindy gave me the business card from the people who had redone it. The decor in our coach is very nice, but we have started to make a few changes I will tell you about in the Elkhart , Indiana section.

Salt Lick COE Tennessee

From 5-08 Salt Lick, TN

From Huntsville we headed to our favorite campground, “Salt Lick”, a COE campground on Cordell Hull Lake. It is about 30 miles from I-40 near Carthage, Tennessee which is another 30 miles or so east of Nashville. Someone wrote about staying at a COE campground saying it is like living on a golf course. That is good description of our campsite. The view out our dining room window was to a large mowed grassy area. Every evening a group of 5 or 6 deer would come out to graze. One evening a wild turkey walked across.

From 5-08 Salt Lick, TN

The campground probably has 150 campsites, most with very large spacing between sites. I imagine no more than 20-25 other campers were there during our stay with about 5 near our site.

From 5-08 Salt Lick, TN

The only drawback is the campfires that many had going each evening. I used to enjoy campfires out in the woods as a Boy Scout, but we don’t care to have our home on wheels filled with smoke. However that is just something we have to accept, especially at many of the COE and State Park campgrounds. So we keep all windows and doors closed when the fires start burning.

We stayed 10 days at Salt Lick. Most of the time there we worked on projects around the RV, For one, I cleaned and waxed the exterior for the first time. Monique worked on various other interior projects. Unfortunately she was plagued by a nagging cough that whole time.

Once again we had to take Clay to a local Vet. We are meeting new Vets all along our travels. Partially this is because we have boarded Clay several times when we are away from the RV too long to leave him alone. This time it was because he jumped after a raccoon he spotted on a walk with Monique. He injured his leg and really gave Monique’s arm a hard jerk when he reached the end of the leash. The Vet checked him, and he only seemed to have pulled a muscle. Fortunately Clay responded well to the pain and inflammation medicine. He is a bit heavy at 85 lbs to be helping in and out of the RV.

We hope to make it back to Salt Lick before it closes for the season in October. It is definitely the measuring stick we use to compare other campsites.

From 5-08 Salt Lick, TN