Heading North to the RV Capital of the World...

When we left Indianapolis we drove north. Last year, when we came to Indiana to pick up our new fifth wheel, we stopped in to meet a friend I'd met on an RV forum and spent the night in their driveway. We've stayed in touch through the year and wanted to visit again so we drove ninety miles up US 31 to the tiny hamlet of Twelve Mile, Indiana, pop. just under 1100. We set up our fifth wheel in their driveway only, unlike last year, this year everything worked! We really enjoyed our visit with Butch and Fonda. We went back to the same little Italian place for dinner as last year and probably ordered the same thing! Seemed there was so much to talk about. Butch is converting an MCI bus into an RV bus and trying to sell his Crossley parts business so he and Fonda can go full time. He was in negotiations with a buyer at the time and just recently let me know they closed the deal! So happy for them. We won't be able to stay in their driveway next time, so we'll just have to meet up on the road somewhere...and maybe next time I'll get around to taking a photo of the four of us!

Our site...

Next day we headed further north to the Elkhart, Goshen, Shipshewana area and settled in for a week. Well it was supposed to be a week, but we were enjoying it so much we ended up staying ten days. We stayed in Shipshewana South Campground in the heart of Amish country and about a thirty minute drive to Goshen and Elkhart. We loved it...good sized, level sites with lots of grass and a few trees; not many other amenities, but we don't use them anyway. Our site was right near the laundry and the community room. The first few days of our stay there was a group of people who perform blue grass music camped nearby...and they practiced in the community room every evening! I couldn't hear much with my hearing loss but Jack was entertained daily. We did have some cool neighbors and Jack spent some time getting to know them better.

One of our neighbors!

A few of the neighbors!

One of the things we did during our stay was to visit the Keystone factory in Goshen. We got a tour of the plant and were able to see a Montana built...start to finish. It was a very interesting tour and we liked much of what we saw. Still love our Montana and glad we chose it!

We also visited the RV Museum and Hall of Fame in Elkhart and spent some time seeing Shipshewana and exploring the Amish Country, but I'll save those for another post.