Down on the farm

The next stop on our journey south was southern Indiana to visit Helen and Jim, who we met on the Winnebago rally to Springfield and Chicago back in June. They live on a farm and have lots of room. So for the first time in our RVing adventure, we are camping in someone’s driveway. We did this because we know that these fellow Winnebago owners know exactly what is required to fit the motorhome into any given space. In this case, it was a nice camping location.

We had a great time visiting with them and learning more about each other. Since I was raised in my early years on a farm, it was also a bit of a flash back to my youth. It was very interesting to discuss farm issues with Jim and I learned a lot about the crop business in Indiana.

This was a real adventure for the wonder dog-Halley. She has never been in a position to wander anywhere she wanted without being on a leash. With some trepidation, we let Halley wander around. She was clearly having a great time. She was tentative at first, but soon obviously enjoyed the freedom.

We also got to sight-see in the area and that will be a topic for the next entry. The pictures, I hope, reflect the tranquility of the setting. I think we could get used to this kind of living.

Fall Colors in Brown County, IN

We have plans to visit friends in southern IN, but they have had some motorhome problems as they were returning north from a caravan. So we decided to head to Nashville, IN to spend a few days enroute. Often called Little Nashville, the town has many historic buildings and is known for its music venues. It is also a real tourist trap. Nearly every building in town is designed to separate you from your money.

None the less-it has several things going for it. It is located in scenic Brown County famous for its fall colors and is also home to the For Bare Feet Company. Ever since our first visit here two years ago, we are hooked on these socks. So we have stocked up on these for the foreseeable future.

We are staying at the Westward” Ho” campground, just outside of town and also close to the Brown County State Park. It has its own small walking trail and view of the fall colors.

Even thought the colors are a bit past their peak-mostly due to a wind storm that occurred the day we drove here, we enjoyed a tour of the country side. It is not an exaggeration to say that some of these roads are among the less traveled. The scenery was very enjoyable.

Motorhome-a-rama

As we were pondering where we would go after Maumee Bay State Park, we received an e-mail from FMCA about a rally at Tom Raper’s RV in Richmond, IN. This was very timely, as Richmond was about half way to a hoped for stop to visit friends in southern Indiana on our way south.

We made a reservation and prepared to head to Richmond. This was not our first time at this RV dealer. We bought our first new class C motorhome here in 1988, and we did visit here again when we were looking for our current motorhome. This was to be a four day event with a chance to look at the latest models, along with food, entertainment and camaraderie. We advised friends Dan and Karen about the event in case they might like to attend. Indeed they did and they ended up in the spot next to us. We also ran across Glenn and Kay who were members of the Ohio Winnebago club, who also got the emailed invitation.

The staff at Tom Raper’s was very friendly and helpful. They had prepared a fun four day event, which we enjoyed very much. The highlights included a surprise entertainer who offered to perform, since he was there picking up a new style camper from a company called Earthbound. He was the lead singer for the group Paul Revere and the Raiders. The other well known guest was Bob Tiffin, founder of Tiffin RV, who gave a very enjoyable and fun presentation on “a day in the life of Bob Tiffin”. It was informative and amusing-I almost felt guilty about not owning one of his products.

The new models were nice to look at, but not so tempting that we would consider trading our Itasca. In fact, the new models get more complicated every year and the new pollution regulations that require the use of Urea in the diesels only add to the complications. The trend for all electric coaches with house style equipment and massive battery banks and huge inverters can only lead to major problems and repairs down the road. I am glad to continue on with the old technology of 2006.

Early Halloween

We arrived at Maumee Bay State Park without reservations on the assumption that in Oct there would be no problem. We quickly found out that this was not necessarily the case. We were informed that most of the park was booked solid for a Halloween weekend. Also because the park had changed the rules for the walk-in sites, many of these were already taken for the weekend which was still 9 days away. They simply pay for all the nights in-between. In the end luck was with us as there were still a few walk in sites available and once in it, we had control for up to at least two weeks.

Since this seemed to be a big event, we decided to extend our planned stay to enjoy the festivities. As the weekend approached, the park began to fill up with those who had made reservations as early as April. Decorations went up all over the place and we observed more kids than we have seen in a campground in a long time.

We picked up what we hoped would be an ample supply of candy and waited for the big day. There was a costume parade, followed by trick or treat. In the evening there was entertainment and a large bon fire and haunted trails.

We were glad that we stayed and enjoyed seeing all the fun.