Made in Indiana

.I've seen TV specials lately about how so little of the things found in an American home are made in America.  It would be interesting for them to take a look at a typical RV ... not only would they find most of the components made in America .. they're made in Indiana.  Elkhart county is known as the RV capital of the world.

We're here for the Heartland Owners Rally next week.  Heartland is a make of RV that is - you guessed it - made in Elkhart, Indiana.  And, as long as we're here - we're taking advantage of being in the RV heartland.  We stopped by Gulf Stream RV in Nappanee - where our motorhome was made. It's hard to see in this picture, but those are new chassis in the background waiting to have motorhomes constructed on them.  There is no factory tour here like at some other manufacturers, and there is no service center either.  We were disappointed at that, but we learned the reasons. 

 To withstand economic downturns, the company only makes motorhomes to order - so there isn't any inventory on hand to look at.  And, their service center was literally blown away a couple of years ago in a tornado that passed thru town.  We were hoping they had some kind of standard maintenance service procedure we could have done - they said 'good idea, but not here.'  Rather than rebuild their service center, they've identified other places around the country to recommend.  They did recommend a place called RV1 in Elkhart, just a short distance away.  So we called and made an appointment there.

Indiana is also the home of many Amish people.  Such an interesting sight to see horse and buggies in a  modern day parking lot.

The Amish are also known as fine craftspeople and we know many RVers who have had custom furniture made here.  Specifically, our friends Nick and Terry Russell of the Gypsy Journal RV nespaper, have discussed at length the wonderful work of a guy named Carlyle who is in Nappanee and has a business called Focal Wood Products.  Here's Nick's blog post and picture of the furniture Carlyle made for him.  And, here's another picture from the CoolRVers who had some furniture made by Carlyle.  (btw - if you want to read about traveling to Alaska, click the link to CoolRVers - they're doing that trip right now.)

Picture of custom table and computer desks in the CoolRVers motorhome.

So - we have ordered a dining room table and computer workstation as well as a computer workstation for Jim in the living room area.  It should be ready by the end of the month.  Oh Boy!

Right now we're parked in the Elkhart County Fairgrounds in Goshen, Indiana.  We were delighted to find that there are other people we know here as well.  Walter and Amy Cannon of RVSafety.com and Howard and Linda Payne of RV-Dreams.  This should be a great month of work, *and* fun.

Walter knows who's really in charge in this motorhome!

We had a fun evening with Howard and Linda who came over to the Geek Mansion :-) to play Wii

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Gabbing with the Geeks #12

We do these little videos for our business site.  Just in case you don't subscribe to our Newsletter, or follow or Facebook page, we figured we'd post it here too. Visit with the Geeks in their new Motorhome, and hear about how we are now offering seminars anytime, anywhere, using Skype.




You can see all of the Gabbing with the Geeks on our website.

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Walk the Trails

We usually pay little or no attention to what day of the week it is, but, as fulltime RVers, it’s important to be parked for the big holiday weekends.  It’s the one time when we actually make reservations.  For the Memorial Day weekend, we’re at a Thousand Trails park just east of Cincinnati in Wilmington.  If I remember correctly, I think we were at a Thousand Trails park last Memorial Day as well.

Jim and I really like to go for a long morning walks.  We are a bit particular on the conditions however.  Not too hot, not too cold, not too wet, not too many bugs, a walking path that doesn’t cross roads, not too rocky, not too muddy, not too much concrete.  We like a path that curves around so we don’t have to retrace our steps, but it can’t be too small a circle – we don’t like to go around and around to get our mile or two done.  If you’re getting this picture – you know we don’t go for good walks too often!  But, we can usually count on our stays at Thousand Trails parks to satisfy our criteria, and walk we did!

Nice Trails for walking.

I really like seeing families at the parks on these big holiday weekends.  It’s just so nice to see parents and kids fishing, biking, playing volleyball.

We’re just having a relaxing time enjoying our wonderful new home!  And walking 1.5 – 2 miles every morning!  We know the exact distance because of Jim’s Droid App called RunKeeper.  We’re still trying to figure out why it’s named that?!

We also took advantage of BBQ chicken dinner at the clubhouse on Saturday night with live music afterward.  Oh, and they have a very nice hot tub/spa here too!

And there’s still been enough time to do some writing and video editing.

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Cincinnati

We're in Cincinnati, the home of FMCA headquarters.  We've had a change of plans for our summer - we're not going to Oregon for The Rally after all.  The numbers just don't add up.  So, we accepted an invitation to speak at the Heartland Rally in Goshen, Indiana.  And, it looks like we'll also be going to the NorthEast Area Rally (NEAR) for FMCA in Vermont.
We've been giving our computer seminars at the big FMCA RV Conventions since we started our journey in 2004 so, whenever we get the chance we like to stop in Cincinnati and check in with the wonderful folks here.  FMCA maintains a nice little RV park just for members.

We had a nice meeting at the headquarters yesterday with Chris Lusk who handles all the arrangements for seminars at the big conventions.  We went over our seminar plans for Madison this August.  We'll be teaching 8 different seminars, plus we've added a new hands-on class: Picasa Photo Editing Workshop.  That'll be fun.

For the first few years that we worked with FMCA, the seminar coordinator was Mary Ann Crowley.  She retired a couple years ago, but we have kept in touch.  It was a treat to get to see her yesterday and learn what she is up to.  She's busier than ever with volunteer work in her community.  Right now she's involved in a project called 'Bicycles in Bloom."  What fun!  We went around with her to see the different bicycles that have been placed.

Mary Ann taking a picture of one of the 'Bicycles in Bloom'

Jim helped Mary Ann make deliveries to other volunteers on the project.  What pretty homes we saw!

A Bicycle in Bloom in Milford, Ohio

Ohio isn't at all the northern, industrial landscape that I envision as a Floridian!  It is rolling hills, with rivers for kayaking, and trails for hiking, and beautiful little towns like Milford with story-book homes.

Thanks for the tour Mary Ann!

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Power Tools, Quiche and Cicadas

We were planning to leave the Marston’s driveway on Saturday, but I wanted to record some video for one of our ‘Gabbing with the Geeks’ and was enlisting Roxie’s help to run the camera.  That took us to about 11am.  We also needed to stop by a truck tire place on our way out of town to install some air fill extensions and get the tires properly filled.  Oooops, we called the place and they close at noon – no way we could get there and get it done in time.  And, they’re closed on Sunday.

So.we stay in the driveway for another couple days.  What a treat!  It was like I was just handed two days on a platter – two unexpected days.  Those things that we say “I just wish we had a little more time, then I’d ….”  Well, we now had that little more time!  I had wanted to get my closet organized but we hadn’t gotten around to it.  Now’s the time! Using a cool website for ClosetMaid, we feed in our closet’s dimensions and then drag and drop different combinations of shelving, hanging space and storage products to build your dream closet.  When you’re done, you can print out a shopping list.  It will show exactly what parts you need, including the various brackets, and cut lengths of shelving.

I think Jim was just happy to have a reason to use some of his power tools!  I’m thrilled to have shelves rather than piling boxes and clothes on top of each other.  A place for everything, and everything in its place!

Since we were here on Sunday and Roxie and Charles like to ‘do brunch’ on Sundays, I decided to make quiche.  Years ago, I was in a habit of hosting Sunday brunches all the time and my signature dish was quiche.  I surprised myself that I still remembered how!

We’re in Tennessee and it happens to be that special time every 13 years when the Cicadas come out, and boy do they make a racket!