Recuperating in Elkhart

Elkhart Campground, Elkhart, Indiana – May 23 to 31, 2015

EJ and I are both still feeling wiped out. Neither one of us has any energy and we are perfectly content to just stick around the RV and lay low.

I forgot to mention in the last post, that we stopped by a “Doc in the Box” in Goshen last Thursday on our way to Bradd and Halls. This time we both saw the nurse and we both got drugs. EJ has a cough that won’t quit and Frank’s ear infection won’t go away.

But once again we pull it together and decide to go find some food. EJ uses her smart phone and finds a waterfront restaurant not far from the campground. It even has a fun name, “The Flipping Cow”. We had an outstanding burger and a couple of craft brews to wash it down.

After the food, we wander down the dock and admire all the pontoon boats. There’s even a pair of swans and their babies to greet us.

A day or so later we stumble upon a neighborhood brewery named “Iechyd Da”. Yeah, I had to ask too. It’s pronounced “yakki dah”. It’s a Welsh toast that translates into Good Health.

On the morning of Memorial Day it rained. We passed the time reading the stories of those who served our country and the comments of those that had friends and family that were or had been in the Armed Forces.

After the rain stopped, we drove around Elkhart to see some of the displays.

Our flag display after dark. And yes, there is a spotlight shining on that flag.

On Tuesday, we make a trip over to Shipshewana to see the Midwest's largest flea market. The weather was a little iffy so there weren’t quite as many people as usual. But they had space for close to 700 vendors, or so we heard. There weren’t all there the day we attended. But plenty of things were left to look at.

One day we went to every RV parts salvage business we could find. We were surprised, that out of the 5 places we went, we only found a few items to add to the spare parts bin. I found some side marker lenses to replace some that were cracked.

Everyone has heard of Knute Rockne and Notre Dame. We were staying only 45 minutes from there and we figured since we were that close we ought to go see it. Driving over we marveled at the concentration of colleges and universities along the way. We counted 15 institutions of higher learning in a city with a population of 100,000 people. You can’t hardly throw a rock and not hit a college.

Notre Dame is very proper and stately. It just oozes history. While we were visiting it was kind of nostalgic to see all the young folks running around, moving into dorms and getting ready for classes.

I couldn’t be this close to the Studebaker museum and not go. The Studebaker President holds a special memory for me as my granddad used to own one. He was a Methodist preacher and a pretty cool guy.

I always thought of Studebaker as just a car company, not realizing it was also a major equipment supplier in both WW1 and WW2. It also acquired Packard and for a while sold Mercedes. But a combination of factors, excessive pay to employees and a failure to adapt to the times spelled its demise. For it’s last year, Studebakers were produced in Ontario, Canada. Even though it had it’s fans the Avanti was technically inferior and the new design was not enough to save the company.

Old cars are great! They are so unique, not at like the generic cookie cutter cars of today.

We were still recuperating from the plague of illnesses that seemed to be stalking us, but we had been in one place so long it felt like roots were starting to grow. Sometimes you just have to overcome the inertia of sitting still and go. It doesn’t matter which direction you pick as long as you’re moving. You can figure out the rest along the way.

The Elkhart temperature was beginning to hover in the 80’s and that was just too warm for us fair weather folks. We decided the best thing to so was to hug the coast of Lake Michigan. since the water temperature was in the 50’s, we were hoping some of that would spill over into the nearby air temperature. Chicago had too many people so that left the west coast of Michigan as a potential destination. So that’s where we are headed.