Friday – August 17 – See You Down the Road

This morning we gathered one last time as a caravan to enjoy a continental breakfast before the caravan disbanded.  After breakfast, three of the coaches headed out to Springfield, OH to help with preparations for the Monaco International Pre-rally next week.  Three couples will spend the weekend at our current location and drive to Springfield on Monday.  Our final couple will start working its way home, but stopping at every antique market between here and Mississippi.  We wish everyone safe travels.

This is the last entry in this blog.

Thursday – August 16 – Our Farewell Dinner

After returning from the Longaberger tour and a brief rest, we headed off to Marysville, OH for our caravan’s farewell dinner at Doc Henderson’s Restaurant. This is an old house converted into a lovely restaurant.  We enjoyed a nice, relaxed-pace dinner.  In between the main course and coffee, Bill and JeanAnn, our caravan leaders, were presented with a token of our appreciation for their efforts in organizing and leading the caravan.  We presented them with a framed copy of our group photo entering the Willis Tower in Chicago.

Thursday – August 16 – The Longaberger Basket Factory

We drove to Newark, OH for a quick photo stop at the basket shaped Longaberger headquarters.  Then, we were off to Frazeyburg, OH, for a plant tour and shopping.  We saw how artisans take leftover materials from a cabinet shop and turn them into very expensive baskets.  Each craftsperson is responsible for making a basket from start to finish and then performs a quality inspection of the finished product.  Most of the workers have been employed there between 20 and 30 years. 

After the tour, we went to the showroom/sales area where a wide variety of baskets, pottery, and linens were displayed and available.  Not many sales were made in our group.  First, the prices are high and second, baskets take up significant space in a motor coach.

Wednesday – August 15 – We Explore Columbus, OH

This morning our carpool drove into Columbus, OH to tour the statehouse.  Our guide explained the history of the Ohio state capitol and how it was located in three other cities until finally being centrally located in Columbus.  The statehouse is located on ten acres of land with construction starting in 1839.  The statehouse was not completed until 1861.  Prison labor from the Ohio Penitentiary was used to construct the foundation and ground floors of the building.  The statehouse underwent a major restoration in 1996 to bring the structure up to 20^th century building codes. 

After leaving the statehouse, we drove into the German section of Columbus to enjoy an excellent German buffet lunch at Schmidt’s Sausage Haus.  In addition to the usual bratwursts, we also enjoyed a sampling of Schmidt’s Bahama Mamas, a sausage with a little “kick” to it.  Several people purchased additional sausage from the fresh meat market on the first floor of the restaurant.

After the delicious lunch, it was off to the Ohio Stadium, the home of the Ohio State University Buckeyes.  With a seating capacity of 102,329, it is the fourth largest football stadium in the United States.  We were led on an excellent tour of the stadium to see some of the corporate suites, press boxes, and suites used by Ohio elected officials and Ohio State University executives.  Our tour led us down onto the playing field, which is covered with athletic turf and not grass.  We were fortunate that the stadium has several modern elevators to transport us between the various levels.  The stadium crew is in the final stages of installing a new 45’ x 157’ “jumbo tron” screen at the south end of the stadium. 

  

This season, Ohio State University will host eight home football games.  Please check the dates to know when to stay away from Columbus, OH.  In addition to football games, the stadium rooms are rented out to host receptions of all sorts.  A local tradition is to get married at the stadium flagpole.  That will cost you $2,500.  If you want to get married at the 50-yard line, it will cost you an additional $10,000.

Tuesday – August 14 – आप का खाना स्वादिष्ट हो (āp kā khānā svādiṣṭa ho) [Bon Appetit]

The dining team of Wilt, Barbara, John, Pam, Jim, and Nancy served an excellent Indian (Asian Indian) supper of a delicious menu consisting of:

Appetizer:

            Vegetable Samosa with mint and tamarind sauces

Entrees:

            Chicken Tikka Masala

            Lamb Curry

            Basmati Rice

            Garlic Naan

Accompaniments:

            Mango and Ginger Chutney

            Mixed Pickle

            Raita

            Sliced Bananas

Desert:

            Gulab Jammum

Tuesday – August 14 – A Driving Day

This morning we loaded up our motor coaches and headed southeast from Elkhart, IN to Delaware, OH.  We drove in two (2) waves—some took the direct route (more or less) by traveling on state routes, while the remainder traveled via Interstate highways.  The direct route was advertised as being more scenic, but we all saw our fair share of Indiana and Ohio farmland.  All of our travelers arrived safely.

Two of our nine couples left the caravan this morning in Elkhart.  Dick and Nancy left for Springfield, OH to work on preparations for the Monaco International Pre-rally next week.  Ed and Shirley headed back home.  Ed wasn’t feeling well and thought it best to get back to his local medical facility before the situation gets any worse.  We wish them safe travels and speedy recovery.

Monday – August 13 – Up, up, and away!

On the way back to the campground from the Navistar RV facility, we stopped by the Hall of Heroes Museum.  This is a small site built into a man’s garage to honor the super heroes from comic books.  The owner and curator is a comic book collector and owns a very large display of super hero comics books and action figures.  The owner has comic books that date back to the early 1940’s.  In this collection, he has issue number 5 of Captain America. 

Without knowing anything about the museum, we all thought this was going to be very “cheesy.”  However, the owner in addition to being a collector of comic books is also a teacher, so he provided an interesting half-hour talk about the collection and the history of some of the super hero characters.   Alright, it was a little "cheesy," but still interesting.

Tomorrow, is a travel day to Delaware, Ohio.

Monday – August 13 – Wakarusa, here we come

We drove to Wakarusa, IN to the Navistar RV plant for a tour of the motor coach manufacturing facility.  Our tour covered an extensive walk-through of the Roadmaster chassis facility led by the plant manager. A lot of welders were building the multiple chassis frames from raw pieces of steel, engines were mounted into the new chassis, and assembly personnel installed the hundreds of cables, suspension air bags, etc., required to complete only the chassis.

Once the chassis is completed, it is driven to another building where the motor coach “house” is built piece-by-piece.  This includes the floor, electrical wiring, plumbing, appliances, walls, cabinets, slide-outs, roof, front and rear end caps, painting and final checkout.  All of the wiring harnesses, plumbing, cables and cabinets are built in-house.  Monaco is currently turning out four (4) coaches per week.  They plan to increase their production volume in the near future.

Sunday - August 12 – Go Irish!

Sunday morning offered downtime to sleep in, go to church, do laundry, or go shopping.  All of us were ready for a chance to slow down, if only for a few hours.

In the afternoon, we drove to Notre Dame, IN (not South Bend as you usually hear) to take a walking tour of Notre Dame du Lac University (known to most of us as Notre Dame).  The campus is absolutely beautiful.  All of the building exteriors look as though they have been freshly cleaned.  Although the university was opened in the mid-1800’s, our guide pointed out that many building were completed in 2009.  As part of the tour, we passed by the Grotto, a replica of the Grotto of Lourdes, France where students can come to light a candle and spend some quiet time in reflection and prayer.  We also spent some time in the Basilica to admire the altar and stained glass windows.

Our guide also noted that most of the statues and murals on campus have been given football-oriented nicknames by the students, such as, “First down Moses”, and “Touchdown Jesus” (see below).

Saturday – August 11 – The Day Continues

We carpooled to the RV Museum and Hall of Fame after a brief rest from driving to Elkhart.  We saw examples of mobile campers that date back to the early 1900’s.  Model A Fords pulled some of the early trailers.  There were campers that had wood burning stoves.  It wasn’t until GMC and Winnebago came along in the 1970’s that motor coaches came to the market.  Although many people said words like, “Isn’t that quaint.”, no one was willing to trade in their Monaco coach on any of the RV’s in the museum.

After the museum, we were off to supper at Das Dutchman Essenhaus.  This is a unique Amish-style restaurant located in Middlebury, Indiana close to Shipshewana in the heart of Amish country.  The restaurant can seat 1,100 at one sitting, with several sittings during the day.  We had an hour to explore the shops that included quits, clothing, and bakery that are arranged like a small Amish village.  The dinner was fabulous!  We had fried chicken, roast beef, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy all served family style.  To complete the dinner, we each chose from over ten varieties fresh pies.  When desert was served, there was enough coveting other people’s pie to break several commandments.  Fortunately, we didn’t drool.

Saturday – August 11 – Back to the Mother Ship. Wagons Ho!

This morning the caravan was up and at ‘em to change campgrounds.  We drove our motor coaches from Joliet, IL to Elkhart, IN, the motherland of all RV’s.  Although our caravan’s second wave of motor coaches was delayed in Joliet, all arrived safely. 

Friday – August 10 – Let’s Go Cubbies

We started Friday with a very early drive into Chicago for a tour of Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs.  The excellent tour provided the history of the Cubs and Wrigley Field and a view of the field from the outfield bleachers, behind home plate and down on the field.

We stayed to watch the Cubs get beat up by the Cincinnati Reds 10-8.  The final score does not accurately portray how poorly the Cubs played.  Their 5 errors on the field and some poor base running left a lot to be desired.  Just look at the excitement.

Our final stop for the day was supper at Lou Mainati’s Pizzeria.  The pizza was good—the service, not so much.  The wait staff struggled serving a group of 18.