Elkhart

Elkhart was a fun town with a good vibe.  We found a garden center that also had an 'enchanted' garden set up and rides for kids - Linton - just outside of the city.   We had a great time wandering around that.  

Elkhart and several surrounding cities also have garden quilts which were fun to look at.  They looked like big garden squares but they were meant to be quilt squares -  :).   Also the many statues in all the towns as well as painted elk.   There are no elk here but the man who founded the town thought the island that is where the rivers come together looked like an elk's heart...  

There is also a garden with giant mushrooms that were built for the 1933 World Fair.  I don't know - apparently it was a big hit in 1933.  There was a small garden area around that as well.  

It was great fun to see all the Amish horse and buggy - so many of them in fact we forgot to even take notice unless they were 'running' down the road at a fast pace.  It was fun to see the horses 'parked' outside restaurants in parking lots.  I wonder what happens when the pavement is really hot though?  Do they stand outside for hours while the men go work at the RV factories in town?  A lot of Amish women driving and a lot of things I wouldn't expect to see - like women wearing flip flops and men in cool sun glasses, women with their legs up on the bench (not sitting properly) and kids with barefeet.   

The highlight here, of course, was the Grand Design RV museum.   Really fun to see how RV life got started.   This is where IRMA was 'born"!!   From the first overnight rig - yes the John Deere covered wagon was first they claim - to a recent one.  See pictures #2 and #3 where you can see the rig which - believe it or not - up those stairs has a hot tub AND helicopter landing pad on top.  It was fun to see how things have evolved.  There was a model of the stations an RV goes through from starting with the trailer to putting up the walls and adding the appliances.  Memory lane as my parents had a little popup like the green one that we traveled in for a few years.  How things changed - look at the hard steel seats in the black and white one compared to one a few years later with plush arm chairs!   RV you-tubers will recognize Gary and The Bird from KYD.  

We also drove into Shipshewana where they had a fall festival going on.   Fun to walk the streets and see all the fall decorations start to come out.  

Next it is on to Montellico and the Indiana Dunes National Park.   Then spending the wekend with my oldest!   Yea - so excited to see her. 

RV Museum

Shipshewana

September 2022