Chicago and Zion Illinois

We traveled to the Chicago area May 28th to visit our son Ward. We selected a new campground this trip, Illinois Beach State Park in Zion, Illinois. It is way north of Chicago, almost to the Wisconsin border. However one of the METRA commuter train lines passes only a short drive from the campground. One of the stops on this line is in Ward’s neighborhood. So we could ride the train and either stop to go to Ward’s apartment, or he could hop on the train to join us to go downtown to one of the museums. The train rides were long, about 1½ hours each way, but it sure beat driving.

Unfortunately Illinois Beach SP campground leaves a lot to be desired. We had a relatively narrow spot on an asphalt parking lot with only electric hook ups. So we had to operate on our fresh water tanks and storage tanks. This necessitated close water conservation to reduce the number of times we had to bring in the slides, store things away, raise the levelers, and unhook the power in order to drive around to the dump station to empty our tanks and refill with fresh water.

The beach on Lake Michigan is much different than South Carolina’s. It is more “rocky” than sandy. Still it can be quite beautiful on a sunny day,. We enjoyed walking on the paved bike trails just behind the beach.

We made four trips into the city. We toured the Chicago Institute of Art, Field Museum, and the Museum of Science and Industry. All are outstanding. The Art Institute has many well know paintings. They have an especially good collection of Impressionist paintings, especially by Claude Monet. Ward explained that the Institute started collecting these while the artists were still alive and actively painting. I can’t imagine how many millions all of these are worth.

You could spend days at all the museums we visited. The Field has a wide variety of exhibits. One of my favorites is the skeleton of a large Tyrannosaurus Rex, “Sue”. It is the most complete ever found. My only problem is that I kept remembering the comedy movie “Night at the Museum”, In this movie all the exhibits come alive after dark. There is a dinosaur like Sue that starts out looking very fierce, but ends up being more like a pet dog chasing a toy around the museum. I kept seeing Sue in this light instead of the awesome “meat eater” she was in real life.

We also enjoyed a special exhibit on George Washington Carver. He was a pioneer in crop rotation and other steps to restore the soil and improve agriculture, especially in the deep south. He was known as “father of the peanut“. Monique said he was her hero since our son probably would not be alive without his work. Ward seemed to live on peanut butter sandwiches growing up - and still does.

On one of our trips to town, we had the opportunity to meet Gerald Bloodsaw for lunch. Gerald handled the negotiations when we purchased the Dutch Star from his Dad. We had enjoyed dealing with both Gerald and his Dad, Herman. It was a treat to meet Gerald. We went to a Caribbean Restaurant near his office. I tried "Jerk" chicken for the first time. It was great. Gerald is a financial planner and we enjoyed learning more about him and his family.

Our last Saturday in Zion, we rode the train into town to tour the Museum of Science and Industry. I assumed we would practically have the train to ourselves - wrong! It was packed. Lots of families got on board. Plus one of our stops was at the Navy’s Great Lakes training Center. We thought half the US Navy got on board. There is just so much to do in Chicago with the museums, baseball games, festivals in the parks and just general sight seeing. Plus you can ride the train all weekend for just $5.00.

The Science and Industry Museum was awesome. We primarily toured two exhibits. One was a permanent exhibit of a German U-Boat captured in 1944. The capture was kept secret during the war since the capture included German codes and a copy of the German Enigma coding machine. The allies were already reading the German codes and did not want them to change anything which they would have done had they known about the sub’s capture.

The other main exhibit we toured was a temporary one on glass. There were many beautiful works of glass art and the highlight was a glass blowing demonstration. The primary glass blowers are from the Corning Glass Museum out of Corning, New York. We got a special treat to see the work of a famous Chicago glass artist working with the Corning team. It was fascinating to watch the process and made us really appreciate the art and understand why hand blown glass art can be expensive.

We definitely want to go back. We did not even reach the top floor and only walked through a portion of the other exhibits.

Heading back home we again ran into very crowded trains. We were amazed at the huge crowd waiting at the station near Ward’s apartment. Everyone had coolers, blankets, folding chairs, etc. We finally discovered these people were waiting on special express trains going to an outdoor concert by James Taylor. Two express trains stopped before our regular train arrived (30 minutes late). It is pretty neat that Chicago has these outdoor concerts throughout the summer with these special trains carrying the patrons there and back. That would be a nice way to spend a Saturday evening.

Another activity in Zion was the purchase of new bikes for the two of us. I have always enjoyed biking and had a touring bike that Ward took over in college. I have wanted to replace it with a more comfortable bike for some time. One of our favorite RV writers, Nick Russell, wrote about he and his wife’s search for bikes and reported the type they selected - Trek Navigators. So Monique and I went to a local bike shop in Zion to try them out.

We really liked them. You sit straight up rather than bent over on the touring bike. Plus the front wheel and the seat post have shock absorbers. We also added soft “gel” padded seats. So hopefully we can ride in comfort. We look forward to riding them when we leave Chicago and have more time. Many of the campgrounds where we have stayed would have been great spots for riding. We hope others we visit will be the same. I for one could certainly use the exercise.

On Wednesday June 11th, we left Zion heading towards Southern Illinois to attend a Newmar Rally. We are looking forward to meeting there with our friends John and Dede Fisher from Chapin, SC who also just purchased a Newmar motorhome.

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.