Last Ride at Western Reserve Bike Trail-Terrible Weather!

It rained four out of the five days we were at Kenisee Lake in Ohio. It was COLD, it was DREARY, and it wasn't very pleasant. BUT--Sparky loves fall, even the miserable, cold, wet and rainy parts of it. She still went bike riding, and Eldo, bless his heart, still ferried her with her bike back and forth to the trailhead, even if it's only 7 minutes away one way from the campground. It doesn't look too bad here, (photo at right) but it was steadily misting rain, and about 47 degrees.

Sparky rode 20-26 miles at least four times this week. She has an ulterior motive for pushing herself to keep riding and exercising. Blood pressure readings are up in a high zone (not high enough to get to a doctor right away, but the trend is not good), so headed to the doctor in a couple of weeks. The rise is despite losing 25 pounds and steadily walking and riding since we hit the road in July.

The fall colors were absolutely stunning, but the peak color is definitely waning, as we head into November.

At Kenisee Lake, there were late seeding wildflowers and interesting seed pods. The deer were starting to show in the woods since most of the campers have gone home for the season. 

The asters are gone now, but some flowers are so hardy! This was a lone daisy bloom, but there were other buds nearby, not ready to give up their turn.

We decided to leave a day early due to the miserable weather and cold AND our awnings are in! Yay! If everything goes well, which is a 50-50 chance when you are dealing with RV dealers and repairs, we are hoping to have new awnings by Wednesday of this coming week.

Off we drove on an uneventful drive to Elkhart, IN, 298 miles on interstate all the way. And here we are, at the Elkhart Campground, which is a terrific campground with updated sites and amenities. It's like home for us, we've stayed here many times when full timing and moving through the midwest. Wonderful owners, great level sites and newly paved roads and newly opened long spacious sites. The weather is marginally better for about two days, then it will be very nice. For bike riding on the Pumpkinvine Trail. (Of course! confirms Eldo.) We will see you later!

Driving Through Kentucky.....

We left at 7:30 AM this morning, after a surprisingly good sleep in a busy truck stop. With the AC running and a little black fan that we always run at night for white noise, Sparky never heard a thing and slept like a rock...Eldy, almost as well...

Kentucky is a beautiful state...Sparky loves seeing the old barns in the fields once again, the hilly pastures, the little calves running around as we drive past the fields and farms.....The rig windows need washing, or Sparky would have tried to get some photos as we were driving today...So many different varieties of trees as green as green can be....Makes one glad we are not in a drought area like Texas, or in a wildfire prone area that has been hit. It's as green and lush with all colors of green as far as you can possibly see.......

We crossed over the bridge over the Ohio River and entered IN...Jeffersonville, IN is where Sparky had her second teaching job, in a little three room schoolhouse, that was specifically for the local population of special education students. They kept them separate from the rest of the school population at that time. Sparky remembers many of them were from low income families, and they didn't have much. Sparky remembers that the head teacher of our little group of teachers used to paddle the kids when they didn't behave, and she had to be a witness several times to paddlings. That was quite the experience for a second year teacher. It was very uncomfortable for Sparky to go through that.

We had about 400+ miles to do today...Piece of cake for Eldy after that 752 mile drive the day before...Except for driving through some BAD storms as we approached IN. The temperature dropped from the high eighties to the sixties in a matter of minutes....A VERY refreshing change to us!

And here we are at the Elkhart Campground---YAY!

It's a beautiful campground....Twenty-five acres, wooded, pull through level sites, full hookups, plenty of 50 amp sites, many  have cable, however, the back row of the campground where we are (#743) does not, showers, dump station, mini golf, tennis court, basketball court, meeting hall, and a small pool and playground. Some sites are out in the open with no shade, others are surrounded by wonderful shady trees. Great location, just off the Indiana toll road, easy access to all the RV factories and suppliers, with plenty of shopping nearby. Sparky can't wait to visit all her favorites--Jojo's Pretzels, Lolly's Fabrics, Shipshewanna, Amish country, the Heritage Trail and Quilt Gardens and the flea market, and much, much more.....But first, it's off the the doctor this afternoon to try and get some answers.....

See you later.....

Welcome to Elkhart, IN!

Elkhart, IN    High:  57   Low:  42    Freezing rain, hail the size of peas...

There is ElK ART all over Elkhart!

Elkhart welcomed us home with the above weather conditions..Nothing like hooking up the electric and water in pouring down rain....

Luckily, we got a site with a concrete pad, there aren't many here at the Elkhart Campground on County Road 4 in Elkhart, IN....Site 90, 30 amp, which is just fine considering the weather we're gonna be having for the next few days.....

View outside our living room window at the Elkhart Campground

The campground managers have done a lot of work to add more 50 amp sites and make some improvements. Free wi-fi, they have a small store, a laundry, an activity hall, and a small pool. It's a great campground centrally located to all kinds of major restaurants, RV repair places, and activities. Elkhart is supposed to be the RV capital of the country, so you can find just about any type of supplies for the rig, parts, and custom made furniture that you might want for your RV. Shipshewanna, home of the Amish, Jojo's Pretzels,Yoder's Department Store, and the famous flea market is within a 30-45 minute drive. A 20 minute drive takes you to South Bend if you need a major shopping fix at the University Park Mall, which has been completely renovated.

our corner lot site, nice!

It was the kind of cold, chilly day where you think comfort food...like PIZZA! And you thought we might say, "beef stew"...or "meat loaf and mashed potatoes". Nope! Maybe in the next day or so...Eldy's favorite comfort food on a chilly day is Columbo's Pizza on Main Street in Elkhart...and it's gotta be thick crust...Let it be known, that Sparky does not care for thick crust pizza at all, but Eldo is so nice about always letting her have her way on thin crust pizza and usually the toppings, too,  that it was time to let Eldy have his favorite...We're talking Chicago style, thick, thick, chewy, oozing with cheese pizza.....You can get thick, regular, or thin crust...Eldy chose his favorite--THICK....Heart attack on a plate...We know...

Eldo was in seventh heaven......

Columbo's is a restaurant that has been in business for over 30 years or more...It's one of Eldy's favorite things to do/places to eat when he is in Elkhart. One down, lots left to go....restaurants, that is! We'll see......Sparky will try to be good....But there's Heinnie's Back Barn, there's Chubby Trout, there's.....(an empty wallet, sighs E......)   :-)

Five Hundred Miles, Five Hundred Miles?????

Remember I said we were going to travel through Minnesota and Wisconsin yesterday? We WERE going to stay overnight at a casino  in Joliet, Illinois, but Eldy decided he wanted to keep going, keep going, and he kept going, just like the Energizer bunny....We didn't do quite five hundred miles today, (You mean I didn't quite do five hundred miles, but I did do 430! says E.) That's quite an accomplishment, in my opinion! I don't know how the man does it, but he LOVES to drive! And no, nobody can borrow my Eldy to do their driving for them!

There wasn't much to see out on the road today....but lots and LOTS of corn, a familiar sight to us Hoosiers. (We've both spent much of our lives living in Indiana so we still consider ourselves "Hoosiers" even though we now both are officially South Dakota residents. Our hearts will always be in Indiana where our families grew up.....

I WAS going to offer to drive today, but when I realized that we were going NEAR Chicago, on interstate 80 on our way through Illinois, I decided to retract my offer...(Uh, you actually didn't even mention it! laughs E.) Nope, honey, didn't want to disturb your terrific momentum you had going. The man is like a machine!...Four hundred thirty miles later, we are in Elkhart, IN in a VERY nice campground--the Elkhart Campground in the city of Elkhart, IN. It's a Good Sam's park, but the rate, even with that, is about 30.00 a night. We are on a big corner lot, cement pad, full hookups, although 30 amp, our choice, with one of the few fire pits in the campground. This is the campground we will  be staying at after the Celina, OH Gypsy Journal Rally next week. We'll be coming back to stay in Elkhart the entire month of October. The monthly rate is 425.00 at this campground which is a great rate and well within our budget. We're close to Amish country, many excellent restaurants, (Uh-oh! There goes the budget moans E.) and most importantly, friends and family...We'll be here for two nights so we're just going to take it easy tomorrow and rest and relax....Unless Sparky finds something that captures our interest! (She probably will, folks!)