With our bodies and minds still on Eastern Daylight Savings Time, we awoke early, and departed the campground about 6 AM, traveling south on I-57 through southern Illinois.  The further south we drove, the less populated the area was, and quite scenic with rolling hills, and cropland interspersed with forested areas.  We opted to follow the route the Garmin GPS picked out for us, and after leaving the controlled access highway, the road became more hilly and more curvy, particularly through Mark Twain National Forest.  Time was obviously not on our side, but what the heck, we were able to drive some roads and see some country neither of us had experienced before.  Arriving home at 12:30 PM, things were just like we left them some 16 days, two rallies, four campgrounds, and 3 states ago.  The water heaters were turned on for long showers, the AC turned down, the washer filled with dirty clothes, all followed by unpacking the motorhome.  My hair was long enough for a decent pony tail, but it is so fine that even the slightest wind blew the few hairs on top all over the place.  An appointment at 3:30 PM quickly solved that problem with a semi-military haircut—oh, it feels so good to have short hair again.  It’s great to be home again, but we’re already planning travel a couple of years out.  Where will we go next…
PS:  Though this is posted as being written on Wednesday evening, a post script has been added for finality to the trip.  After a good night’s rest, we washed the motorhome, finished cleaning the inside, and backed her into her parking spot for a few days.  Now, everything is as we left it.

In order to make the 6:30 AM appointment with Jayco in Middlebury, IN, we arose early this morning, skipped coffee, and drove north about 15 minutes, passing several Amish buggies.  We were early, but after only a few minutes’ wait, the service center opened promptly on time, had coffee ready, and knew exactly who we were.  We left for a fruit plate at their version of Pancake House, returned, watched a bit of morning news, and the service manager advised us that nothing was wrong with the motorhome.  They did perform a thorough check, including pressure testing the water system, and did not charge us anything—another plus for Jayco.
We thanked him, connected the Saturn, and proceeded south towards home, arriving at Rend Lake about 4 PM where we had made advance reservations several days ago.  Rend Lake is a US Army Corps of Engineers impoundment in southern IL, and as typical of Corps campgrounds, was clean and neat.  We lucked out and had a site right on the water, with a cool breeze blowing to boot.  Life is good.

KAY’S TAKE:  We quickly set up camp by the lakeside and headed out to the nearest town.  I wanted some Bloody Marys.  We used to have either one of those or a screwdriver after travelling all day in our RV.  We gave them up after this severe dieting – alcohol calories are empty calories!  We made an exception, this time.  We also decided to eat at an Applebee’s.  They had a menu section called 550 calories or less.  There were some great selections, and we both chose the same thing – the peppercorn steak plate with fresh veggies.  It was wonderful – one of the best steaks I’ve had in a long time and just like I like it – medium rare.  The serving size looked like what ‘normal’ used to look like twenty years ago – not gargantuan like most servings are today.  What a treat!  Then we came back to the rig to chill out and sip our ‘marys’.  Life is good.  Just waiting for the water to heat up to cozy up to the shower.  Talked to several friends while traveling on the road today.  Good to hear from them.  

At 11 AM today, RVFEST 2010 was officially over.  Breakfast was comprised of decaf coffee (there was no regular coffee left), leftovers, yogurt, cereal from Jean’s personal supply, and juice, and it wasn’t too bad!  The morning was filled with hugs and best wishes, and many echoes of “See you next year” as RVers headed their separate direction—many to other campgrounds, and a few, like us, home.  Richard and Virginia accompanied us to tour the Jayco motorhome plant at 12 noon, and it was amazing.  It was much bigger than Newmar’s plant, by several orders of magnitude, yet the quality looked similar.  About 70 percent of their workers are Amish.  In addition to this small motorhome facility, they have 24 other buildings where they make towables, i.e. pull trailers and fifth wheels, and components for all their RVs.

After the tour, we ate a light lunch at Essenhaus, and returned to the campground to look at Les and Jean’s “new to them” Tiffin Allegro Bay FRED (front engine diesel).  It has 4 slides, lots of bells and whistles, and lots of room, plus the high quality is apparent.  Tiffins are made in Red Bay, AL.  After the “look see” we began final preparations for our trip home.  It’s really not a lot of work, as we have regular places for most everything, and take advantage of the Saturn trunk. 
For dinner, the remaining campers—some 17 strong—ate at a local Mexican restaurant keeping a tradition established by Les many years ago.
We unhooked everything but the electricity, including the water, and tried the pump so the Jayco repair facility could begin work on it immediately, and wouldn’t you know it, it worked great.  I did everything I knew to foul it up, to no avail.  After a short discussion, we decided to keep our 6:30 AM appointment anyway just to verify that everything was in working order, then it was off to bed.
P.S.  This postscript is just a short note about the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds.  The fairgrounds are larger than the Arkansas State Fair fairgrounds in Little Rock and the Midsouth Fair fairgrounds in Memphis by a significant amount.  The grounds are well manicured with many gardens, two clock towers, a race track, a huge grandstand and stage, a community building, and several hundred full-hookup campsites.  The Elkhart County 4H Fair is among the largest attended in the country.  While we were there, there was a trotter race (trotting horses pulling a buggy), and a couple of American Quarter Horse Association horse shows.  The trotters were fun to watch and a number of Amish were participating as all of them have trotters pulling their family buggies.  Northern Indiana still has a rural culture and is very much family oriented.

KAY’S TAKE:  We really enjoyed touring the Jayco plant, but were very disappointed that they didn’t have any completed motorhome to tour.  We’re interested in their Seneca new design also.  When we got back to the rig, we read and rested for a short while before going out to dinner with the others.  We both had salads for lunch and supper but we oogle-eyed all the wonderful bakery items, cakes, pies, donuts, cookies, and such at the Dutchman Essenhaus.  We did try the Amish peanut butter on the table.  It was in a squeeze tube container (like a mustard container) and we squeezed some on our teaspoons.  Wow!  Was it ever good!  They mix peanut butter, karo syrup & mashmellow cream together to make it.  Yum-yum!  120 calories for one tablespoon. 

We were pleased to be able to participate in Sunday services following a deluxe continental breakfast.  Actually, breakfast included leftover biscuits and rolls and ham, cereal, and fresh donuts.
The interdenominational service included several keyboard pieces by Kathleen, another of our fellow Alaska and the Yukon 2009 travelers.  Kay sang “Trust His Heart”, I sang “Peace In The Valley”, another lady played the dulcimer and sang, and still another played a flute medley.  A rally member gave the message, Christ as Life’s GPS, quite appropriate for a bunch of RVers.  He was a former environmental engineer, changed career fields, and became a fulltime Baptist preacher late in life, and did a great job with the message.
After lunch, another violent thunderstorm struck and dumped lots of rain.  It seems to follow us around!  We ate Chinese food tonight for the first time in several months, and played Bingo to wrap up the evening.  Kay won $3!
So, today we covered the full gamut:  church to bingo.  We’re getting this senior citizen business down pat!  It’s not a bad life.
KAY’S TAKE:  Donald failed to mention that I took a 2 1/2 hour nap this afternoon also!  Senior citizens, move over!!  I can’t remember the last time I had played Bingo.  I was expecting a ‘boring’ game – up/down & across bingos.  Oh, no, we played postage stamp bingo, kite with a tail bingo, C bingo, picture frame bingo and more.  So I had to concentrate with 5 cards.  Donald helped me also.  We’re heading to Jayco for a tour of their motorhome plant tomorrow and then the RV crew that is left will eat Mexican food tonight at La Hacienda before everyone heads out Tuesday.  We’ve got a repair scheduled at Jayco Tues. morning – our water pump – and then we’ll be heading south. 

RVFEST 2010 is almost over.  Today marks the last day for many of the RVers; consequently, our farewell dinner is planned for this evening.  More about that later.

After breakfast, we opted to visit some shops in Shipshewana that we had not been to before.  The shops were busy with both locals and tourists as Saturday is shopping day for the Amish and Mennonites.  Horses and buggies were everywhere, and most shops have hitching rails, and some, including Walmart, have covered areas in which they can “park”.

Amish strongly dislike having their photos taken, particularly their faces, as they believe it violates the 10th Commandment.  We tried to honor this and were careful to keep our distance when taking photos.  There are many bakeries, general merchandise, and meat and cheese shops.  One of our favorites was E&S Bulk Foods; they had everything imaginable in bulk, and the store was crowded.  The photo above was taken outside in their parking lot.  Interestingly enough and quite surprisingly, the most popular shoe worn by the Amish is Crocs, followed by Flip Flops.  Most of the cooked food available in shops is heavy German or Swiss.  On a humorous note, we passed by a fried pie and ice cream stand run by an Amish family.  A young girl, probably about 10, was eating a fried pie—looked like strawberry and rhubarb—and it was all over her face.  She was thoroughly enjoying it, and providing good advertising.

Our farewell dinner this evening included ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, and dinner rolls, and it was quite tasty.

Following dinner, we were “entertained” by the Country Cloggers, who were more like a tap dance group than a clogging group.    They were just OK, and about 30 minutes was plenty, though they performed for an hour.  After the cloggers, ice cream and cake were served, and looked good, but we didn’t partake.


KAY’S TAKE:  I had made a fresh blackberry cobbler for desert and they saved it for the ice cream social.  Our local berries in Mt. Home were coming in before we left, and we got 8 gallons of blueberries and two gallons of blackberries that we put up in our freezer.  We stopped at a bakery on the way back that had lots of samples.  One of the best was a bread loaf that had sausage, bacon, cheese & egg in it also.  They said you sliced it and toasted it or cooked it like french toast.  I think the Amish have been into organic for a long time; their products seem to have much less ‘processing’ than ours do.  They also seem to make many more things from scratch.

Except for breakfast, the morning and midday times were unscheduled for us, and we opted to take advantage of RV factory tours available in the area.  Newmar is considered an upper end RV, and their plant is at Nappanee, IN, just a short drive from Goshen.  Our tour began at 1 PM, but Kay wore open-toed sandals—a no no for manufacturing plants—and had to remain in the waiting room.  I was quite surprised to see that the structural components, walls, ceilings, floors, cabinets, slides, etc., are essentially the same whether it’s one of their starter motorhomes or one of their million dollar models; the differences seem to be in the size of TVs, Corian versus laminate, and grade of furniture.  Also, the plant was clean, and the workers were self-motivated.  Another interesting factoid is that all motorhomes are pre-sold before they begin production, either being bought by a dealer or a customer.
Much to our disappointment, we missed a roundtable discussion of “Favorites” led by Les, the rally master.  We were anxious to hear about other RVer’s favorite trips, campgrounds, rallies, etc.
A pot luck provided our dinner fare tonight, and it was quite good.  Kay made jalapeño chicken, and once again, we had to watch our intake of food; the basic rule is “if it tastes good, don’t eat it.”  We did eat some meat portions and vegetables, but limited our carbs, fat, and sugar.  Following dinner Sentimental Journeys, a local dance band, played hits from the 1920s through the 1960s.  They were so so, but we enjoyed them nevertheless.
KAY’S TAKE:  We signed up to help prepare the coffee, hot water, and decaf coffee for the large group and tonight was our turn to get things ready for the next morning.  We had a 100 cup pot of defcaf to make and set on a timer; two 55 cup pots of regular coffee and one 35 cup pot of regular coffee (only one on a timer), and a 35 cup pot of hot water on a timer.  It takes a lot of volunteers to help pull off a rally of this size.
I have enjoyed the early morning stretch class that John and Margaret have been leading all week.  It feels really good to get the ‘kinks’ out and stretch really good before I start the day.  We’ve been enjoying walking in the evenings when it’s not raining also.  It has gotten warm during the day but there’s usually been a breeze and in the evenings it’s cooled off considerably.  It’s still somewhat light tonight and it’s 9:30 in the evening.  

Today marks the middle of the rally, and it’s an “action” packed day.  We always start with coffee in the RV, then join the others in the community room for coffee and a deluxe continental breakfast.  Breakfast can consist of any combination of pastries, cereal, boiled eggs, biscuits and gravy, fruit, and juice.  It’s not a large breakfast by any means, but more than sufficient to get one to lunch.  At 11 AM, a Chinese auction was held to benefit KOA’s Camp for Kids with Cancer, and over $350 was raised.  Kay made a donation but didn’t accept the tickets as we have enough STUFF already.
PICASA AND BLOGGING SEMINAR  Beginning at 1 PM, yours truly gave two seminars:  the first was an introduction to Picasa, and the second was an introduction to blogging.  Attendance was relatively small (25), but those who attended seemed to learn a lot and the level of enthusiasm was quite high.

 
Following a nap (gee, these things are getting contagious), we were almost late for hot dogs, baked beans, chips, and desert.  Of course we have to severely limit our intake of calories, and it’s soooo hard!  A good blue grass/gospel band, Conley-Schmidt, played and sang as the evening’s entertainment.  Schmidt, leader of the group, is the son of an Amish minister, and had crafted his own guitar and violin.  He also played dobro.  They were an enjoyable group with an acerbic sense of humor.

KAY’S TAKE:  This couple above have been married 30 yrs.  They have 4 older children and then these two younger children came along.  It’s like two separate families.  They are also the grandparents of 8 grandkids.  She is much younger looking in person, I thought.  The banjo player on the back left was a very good musician and could sing really well also.  He was quite funny and I believe he’s Amish.  Hmmmm – I’m tired and sleepy tonight; my nap was cut too short!  hehehe.

Morning began with coffee, breakfast, and a morning stretch, led by fellow Alaska and the Yukon caravaner, John.  The morning stretch has proved to be quite popular and is very similar to physical therapy which some attendees have undergone.

SHIPSHEWANA FLEA MARKET  Kay and I drove to Shipshewana to attend their weekly Flea Market.  We thought the Don Wes Flea Market in Alamo, TX, was big, but is no comparison to this one.  The parking lot covered perhaps 75 acres and the Shipshewana Flea Market had row upon row of venders selling everything—if they didn’t have it, you didn’t need it!

After working about one third the way through, ominous skies and a light downpour convinced us to return to the car.  Just a few minutes later the bottom fell out with heavy rainfall.

While we didn’t have a full day of activities planned, there was enough to keep us busy.  After coffee in the motorhome, Kay joined many others for a morning stretch session led by fellow Alaska and the Yukon caravaner, John; the number of participants was surprising, and all seemed to benefit with relief from aches and pains.  For the rest of us, it was coffee and conversation.  At 9 AM, a heavy continental breakfast was served and consisted of sweetened fruit, biscuits, and sausage gravy; in attempting to lose weight, we couldn’t eat this great looking food.  Following breakfast, we received a welcome by the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds, and a tourism pitch from Elkhart County.  There are some pretty neat things to do up here in northern Indiana, the RV capital of the world, and home of the 2nd largest Amish population in the US.  Quilts and quilt gardens are a big thing, and we look forward to doing the quilt garden tour in the next day or two.
We adjourned back to the motorhome for egg substitute, ham, and tomatoes—not too bad if you’re hungry.
Three seminars were held in the afternoon.  The first was a demonstration of Bread In A Bag.  A local lady makes, packages, and distributes various bread mixes, and she did a demonstration of mixing the dough and served several samples.  Though we didn’t try any, those who did said they were very good.  She was followed by a talk on traveling to Alaska by RV given by Richard and Virginia, our tailgunners on the Alaska and the Yukon caravan.  Richard and Virginia have been to Alaska 5 times, and are definitely authorities on traveling there in an RV.  I was supposed to show pictures they had taken, and tried the projector/computer combination at home and it worked perfectly—not to be here.  After fiddling with it for several minutes, it finally began working, BUT their pictures were individual files and I could not project them in a slide show so ended up using mine, and felt really bad about it because Virginia had taken many great photos.  Surprisingly, there were not too many questions and answers.  We concluded that traveling to Alaska is too adventuress for most.  If the good Lord is willing though, we intend to do it again in a couple of years.  The last seminar for the day was a show and tell by Les (our wagonmaster on the Alaska and the Yukon caravan) of the Tournament of Roses Parade.  He showed many photos of the parade, pre-parade preparations, and post-parade displays, and discussed costs and logistics.  He was with a caravan and expressed disappointment in as much as money seemed to be the driving force, with cost cutting measures implemented across the board.
Following an early dinner of grilled beef and vegetables on our own (good, but the beef was tough), we drove to Middlebury to tour Dutchman Essenhaus, a mixture of Amish style restaurant, bakery, shops, convention center, and well manicured grounds featuring one of the quilt gardens on the Elkhart County tour, and a covered bridge.  We managed to visit the bakery and ALL the shops, walked the grounds, and took many photos.

The remainder of the evening was spent catching up on this journal, and making reservations for camping on our trip home. 
 

Breakfast, at last.  We had a great omelet (egg substitute, of course) this morning before church and it tasted so good.  While driving to church, we saw another church celebrating Father’s Day with several large (on wheels) grills, outside tents, and an outdoor stage with live music.  People were parking and walking a half mile to visit the church!  We attended the Goshen First Baptist Church after finally finding its location on the internet; they had power outages and the air conditioner was not working, so the service we attended was abbreviated.  It was a good service though, and the message on thanking and appreciating fathers was quite good.  After the service we drove around the area looking for the Jayco plant, and found it in Middlebury, IN, less than 15 miles from our campground.  Our motorhome will be visiting there next week to repair the water pump.

Other rally attendees began rolling in to the campground after lunch.  Richard and Virginia, our tail gunners on the Alaska and Yukon caravan last year, were the first, followed by Les and Jean, our wagon master from the same caravan.  Les and Jean had just purchased a Tiffin Allegro Bay FRED that is very nice.  Ted and Karen from last year’s caravan also drove in this afternoon, as did other attendees we did not know.  This is going to be a good rally.

Kay prepared a great dinner of fish, salad, and grilled squash and zucchini.  After dinner, we sat outside under the awning, visiting with walkers passing by.

Kay’s Take:  When our leaders arrived, we moved our coach from the outside parking area to the green area for large rallies.  This area had just been vacated by a national deaf rally.  We quickly set up again and Donald put out our awning.  We sat in our chairs outside and enjoyed the cool afternoon breezes.  We visited with Wes, Jean’s brother, who is a big hunter and fisherman.  He’s a funny guy and we enjoyed visiting with him.  Donald’s new grill, the O-grill got it’s first workout and it performed beautifully!  The countryside here is dotted with large, clean, & neat farms.  Everyone has flower gardens and they are beautiful.  There’s a large contingent of Amish and their buggies are very evident in town, on the highways, and even at McDonald’s!