So Long, Celina!

And Nick, and Terry, and our friends we met at the rally.....but we'll see some of you again soon. A bunch of us headed from Celina to Elkhart, IN today after the rally. Al Hesselbart, the RV historian for the museum, is here, along with some other rally goers. We battled big winds to get here today, but Eldo remained unflappable while he drove.  We really enjoyed Nick's Easter Gypsy Journal Rally. Great classes, a LOT of fun, and great door prizes. Here's me before the drawing, putting my mojo on the kayak in the hopes that I win it. (We won't publish the "AFTER" photo, it's not a pretty sight, explains E.)

Needless to say, Sparky didn't win the kayak---W-A-A-A-A-N-N-N-H-H! (She's whining and throwing a hissy fit, folks!) OK, that's it, I'm done, I'm over it. I didn't win the Kindle, either. W-A-A-A-A-N-N-H!  OK, I'm over that one, too. (Eldo adds, we DID win a free lunch to the excellent Chinese buffet in town, so quit yer whinin', woman!) Yes, dear!

We leave you with a few recommendations:

1.Best Chinese buffet in the country--that's the consensus of opinion by most people who tried the China Wok Buffet in Celina, we agreed, we thought it was EXCELLENT!

2. Great restaurant with 50's cool decor--Lost in the Fifties in the nearby town of St. Mary's --we didn't try it but everybody liked it.

Not good, not good....and the chain broke on the first try to pull them out

3. Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina is a great place to stay for a VERY reasonable rate. They accepted Passport America for Friday and Saturday at 10.00 a night as we were early birds coming into the rally. No problems with electric and we had 50 amp service. That 10.00 was for electric only. There are some full hookup sites available, but the rate would probably change. If it rains a lot and you get stuck, they have a tractor to pull you out. (I GUESS that's a good thing! says E.) This rig was REALLY stuck, but within minutes, he was out despite the difficulties. There were several rigs that got stuck in the fields, but the fairgrounds were ready, willing and able to get any and everybody out who got stuck. We had a TON of rain this past week. Eldy was a little nervous about when the jacks were about to go down as to how much sinking was going to occur. Luckily, we were on slighter higher ground and we just SLO-O-O-WLY  rolled out of our site to pavement which was a lot closer to us than many people who had other field sites.

4. Celina has a nice bike trail that you pick up near Grand Lake. It runs for about 4.5 miles between Celina and the next town, Coldwater, Ohio....It's an average trail starting at the beautiful Grand Lake in Celina, and ending up within a block of an ice cream shop in Coldwater!

5. Rallies are fun and informative! If you haven't been to a rally, go! Lots to learn, new friends to be made, and great products to check out and try.


6. Check out Harvest Host program--another alternative to Wally World (Walmart). You can stay for one night FREE in participating wineries and farms that belong to Harvest Host. You get to stay in a beautiful country setting and explore the guest host's vineyards, farms, and orchards, buy fresh food products, or possibly help with events should you so choose and are invited to, and maybe even get to extend your stay more than one night by assisting the host. People who have participated in the program say the learning experiences are fabulous, and so are the settings. You don't have to buy wine, but a small purchase is greatly appreciated. We have yet to try it, but after hearing of the latest upgrades to the website in searching for guest hosts and all the great amenities, we can tell that this is definitely something we need to check out more often. Visit the Harvest Hosts website at www.harvesthosts.com for more information and membership details. If you decide to sign up, would you please mention us where you heard about it? Thank you!   (Jeannie Sparks, referring member)

Eldy bought his wash system for the RV. This will be really nice because so many campgrounds are now saying that individuals cannot wash their coaches or tow vehicles. Eldy's wash system that he purchased is called Wash Wax All. It's a product that sprays on and wipes dry. It meets Boeing Aircraft cleaning specs and it's water based, alcohol and petroleum free, which is GREEN for the environment! He bought a complete kit that has the coolest brush head/extension pole with dual micro fiber mop heads on it, one dry side and one wet side, cleaners, sprays and cloths. He can clean the whole coach except for the very roof top without climbing a ladder--yay!   I'll do the roof sweetie....

We drove about three hours today from Celina, OH to Elkhart, IN. We'll be here the entire month of October at the Elkhart Campground. Monthly rate is 450.00 for a HUGE corner lot on a cement pad--nice after soggy, muddy grass.  We have 30 amp service (we could have had 50 but don't need it), and full hookup. It's pretty here, with the trees changing colors. We hope to publish the blog every day, but if things get to be very mundane and ordinary, which they probably will, Sparky might cut back on the blog to every other day or so. Most of our visit is going to be spending time with family, getting appointments taken care of, trying to sell a few things out of the storage shed, and just hanging out and saving money for our travels this winter. If you don't see the blog every day, we're here, we just didn't have anything too interesting to say! We hope you'll hang in there with us, we'll be back! (Sparky always says that, she'll probably post every day until she takes her trip to see her daughter in Washington, D.C. in a couple of weeks, explains E) I'm looking forward to that, I'll be in D.C. for five days--never have been there!  Well, we'll see you later!  Bye for now......