While We Wait Some More....

Camp Tompkins site

It's hard for Sparky to stay away from writing! However, not much news to report. Camp Tompkins remains our favorite "campground" site...With family right across the driveway, how can you not like where you are?! You can tell we definitely have made ourselves at home.

The guys are exploring BBQ grills and options. Eldy is thinking about purchasing a grill so he can cook a little more when Sparky has her subbing days this fall. As usual, he does his research for WEEKS before deciding to make a purchase. Pellet grill? The Green Egg? Kamado Junior? Pit Boss? Traeger? The choices along with the pros and cons of each are ENDLESS! Plus our patio for our upcoming apartment is VERY small and you have to wheel your grill 10 feet away from the apartment each time you want to use it because of the fire hazard so weight and mobility is going to be a factor, too. Sparky would settle for a very small Weber, but Eldy is more inclined towards the bigger, the better, haha.

Because we have to furnish a little 2 bedroom apartment from scratch, (coming from an RV), we are scouring garage sales and have picked up some more bargains. How about a vintage maple dresser for 74.00? Here's the before:

And here's the after: Sparky is a little disappointed in her glazin/antiquing skills, but hey, this was the first try. With more practice, maybe it will more closely resemble the Pottery Barn style, which she really likes. She just has to remember, it's just paint, and she can redo it down the road. She's learning, after all. Eldo is very kind, he does not critique her efforts at all! Sparky is going to chalk this up to a Pinterest fail, haha. But--there are two "matching" nightstands in the works as well, 15.00 each...Hey, there's not a lot of great cost in these pieces, so that's a good thing. (YEP! says a very patient Eldy.)

The " before" end table

Sparky is really into refinishing furniture now, even if she doesn't know what she is doing just yet...as some of the bargains are really scuffed up, but they can be saved! The problem is, the humidity has been quite high so painting days are limited right now. Here is another purchase for the living room. We bought this end table for 10.00 and didn't like the orangey/yellow finish. The "before" is nice, if you like that color finish (pine or oak?) but Sparky chose to do this for the after.

The Pumpkinvine continues to be beautiful during the hot summer. Although the spring wildflowers are gone, the jungle of green that awaits you along the Goshen to Shipshewanna portion of the trail in the shady forest is enticing. And so is Moody's Ice Cream Shop along the trail, the farm behind the shop has lots for people to look at....The Amish love it, too. This is one of Sparky's all time favorite photos with her iPhone.

Orange milkweed is in bloom along with coreopsis....

A few black eyed Susans in a field....

Now in July, it's purple coneflowers, tall bellflowers, grey headed coneflowers and lavender bee balm. 

This beautiful horse was eating the fence post!

Always the laundry is out most days on the farms...This is a LOT of laundry! But being just two people, everybody else's laundry is a lot compared to ours....Big house, big family, big laundry load.

The quilt gardens are coming along and soon will be at the height of their bloom. This garden below is on the Das Essenhaus grounds, a great hotel/restaurant in Middlebury, and the pattern is called the "Solar Wheel". These gardens are a part of a tour you can take called the Heritage Trail, spoken of before in the blog, and the tour is from Memorial Day to mid September. Eighteen quilt gardens and 21 hand painted quilt murals make up the tour. It's a fun way to see the area by car. This one is one of Sparky's favorites. It has white begonias, orange marigolds, yellow zinnias, dwarf red salvia, and denim shock wave petunias.

Sparky had a wonderful two day visit with her sister and brother-in-law in Michigan. She took the Amtrak, which had a brand new rail car for passengers on the way there--the ride was terrific, very smooth, and inexpensive. (Thirty-four dollars one way from Niles, MI to Royal Oak, MI, and about a four hour ride). On the way back, an older rail car and the usual, noisy, lurching hang-onto-the nearest-seat walk to the restroom ride.

Sparky fell in love with her sister's golden doodle, who was a VERY well behaved and intelligent bundle of curly fur. Eldo started researching doodles, but they are expensive! And besides, we are not wanting the additional responsibilities and costs of taking care of one right now, too much going on with everything! But boy, he sure was adorable and lovable.

We toured Belle Isle State Park, a beautiful 982 acre state park near downtown Detroit. It's an island! You can see the barges come down the Detroit River and Canada to the south just across the river. 

There is a conservatory, a golf course, a working lighthouse (not open to the public), a Great Lakes Museum and an aquarium there as well. It's a beautiful park and picnicking area for families. 

the lighthouse is way off in the distance!

After we toured the park by car, we stopped for Sparky's birthday dinner at a terrific Mexican restaurant, Los Galanes.

We drove around downtown Detroit for a bit, marveling at the restoration efforts of some of the older mansions mixed in with new apartments. The area called Brush Park had some amazing homes.

All too soon, it was time to return home to Camp Tompkins...Apartment moving date has been postponed by the apartments for another week. More time to go furniture hunting and possible refinishing projects!  (Sigh.....says E.) Or not...

                                      Bye for now......

While We Wait.....And Some Big News

We are keeping ourselves busy while we wait for our August 14th date to bring in our damaged RV for repairs.  We had a family graduation, Eldy got hired as assistant golf coach for the Concord High School girls' golf team and will be coaching during a short golf season under the direction of the head coach, his granddaughter (!). So we decided to get an apartment for the remainder of this year and into next summer. We will rent an apartment for a year, recover some of the financial costs of repairs, deductibles and other things and have decided we want to downsize our RV to a class C or small class A if we can sell the big fifth wheel. Campgrounds are getting much more expensive and even with our Thousand trails camping membership, we were starting to have to follow the same travel patterns repeatedly in order to afford to travel full time. We'd really like to branch out and see more of the country with less restrictions on where we can stay. We can do that if we come off the road for awhile, save some money get a smaller rig, and not travel full time. We don't know how long repairs will take and that could be months, so that's another reason we decided to stay put for awhile.

So with some sadness at coming off the road for awhile, but with much gladness at the benefits of having lots of Eldy's family close by and a chance for Sparky and Eldo to both work for a bit, we look forward to the next chapter in our lives of being stationary for awhile. Sparky will still post on the blog, but we certainly understand if readers stop following us since we are not going to be full timing for awhile, or possibly changing over to part timing as snowbirds when we downsize our RV. It seems to be the natural progression of aging with full time RVers to come to the point of traveling less and less due to lots of different reasons. 

So here we are, in Elkhart, IN, our home for the next year...We have an apartment lined up, and we are back to shopping for furniture! Trying to be frugal about furnishing an apartment as we don't have any furniture of our own, we have been visiting thrift shops and garage sales and here is what we have so far.....an almost new couch for 85.00....

An old HEAVY entertainment center for 6.00.....Sparky landed that one at a thrift shop on a 50% off day!

Sparky has removed the really heavy slide out trays and heavy fan motor and is going to outfit the interior with shelves for craft supplies. (Of course! says Eldo,) She might lighten up the finish a bit, too.

A floor lamp for 10.00....

A small roll top desk for 60.00...It has a hole in the roller part, but we think we can fix that enough so it won't be too visible....Why somebody would make holes at the top of the roller part of the cover is anybody's guess!

A craftsman style (?) end table. Sparky is going to refinish the top and paint the lower half of it a deep charcoal gray to go with the gray of the couch. Ten dollars....

And how could you not buy lemonade from the cutest kids and the cutest lemonade stand at this garage sale? (Sparky is a sucker for kids' lemonade stands. She bought lemonade the very next day from Amish kids selling it on Father's Day weekend! explains E.)

Sparky is on the Pumpkinvine Bike Trail at least two to three times a week...trying to keep her sugar and weight down. The spring wildflowers have died down but there are a few colorful summer ones now...The beautiful bluish purple spiderwort....

Sweet William perennials on the lane to Moody's Ice Cream Shop off the trail...

Sweet pea blossoming outside of the Winnebago plant near Middlebury...

The scenery is ever changing on the trail....

The Amish are plowing their fields....

A buggy peeking through the trail's vines and trees...

A bit of whimsy on the trail just outside of Abshire Park...

Seen the day after Father's Day on the trail...

You can see two of the Heritage Trail quilt gardens as you ride from Goshen to Middlebury. Kryder Gardens is a beautiful rest stop in Middlebury with picnic areas, gazebos, a little waterfall and even a windmill. There is a quilt garden there.

"Tree of Life" quilt garden at Kryder Gardens

Another quilt garden is right at Abshire Park in Goshen, at the beginning of the Pumpkinvine Trail. It's called the "Crosshatch" pattern. In another month, the flowers will have filled in and the pattern even more beautiful.

Every Tuesday and Wednesday is the Shipshewanna Flea Market. We have been going to it for years and years. It's really changed. There used to be a TON of individuals who crafted beautiful things...lots of handpainted woodwork, doll clothes, etc, but now, most of it is from China or other places. Lots of yard art and home decor can be found. It seems though, that handmade has gone by the wayside, except for a couple of booths. But you can find lots of home decor, faux leather goods, clothing....and bargains if you look hard.

There are multiple auctions going on in a building next to the flea market. That has changed as well. There doesn't seem to be as many furniture finds and vintage stuff as there used to be, at least that was our impression when we visited last week. But it's fun to watch the action and the bidding. Who knows what you might be looking for, it's possible it's here! 

Sparky liked this shot of people watching the bidding and the statue pose.

Some might say the flea market is for the birds, haha, but we don't think so!

Sparky liked this metal sign....

Lots of pet lover merch....

dog breed wooden spoons

We finally visited Biebs & Ash in downtown Goshen, IN for some terrific smash burgers and fries...WOW! Highly recommend...

beautiful fabrics at Lolly's

You know what else is in Shipshewanna? Besides lots of cool little vintage furniture, ice cream, and home decor shops? Handmade pretzels at Jojo's in the Mercantile building, and Lolly's fabric store, filled with LOTS of quilt ideas and the most extensive quality cotton fabric selection you could hope for a small town shop. Sparky hopes to make some home decor small quilts this year. (Uh-oh, worries E, there goes the budget!) Naw...Sparky plans to exercise restraint and not go there very often this summer....(HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's Eldo rolling on the floor laughing his butt off.) Hey, they do have rockers for you guys to wait on your woman shopping at Lolly's but you might be there awhile.....

With that we will say bye for now.....You may not hear from us for awhile, but if we do something special in the area, we will let you know! It's been a great ride, a total of SIX YEARS full timing, but it's not our last foray out into the great USA...Don't be surprised if we say, HEY, we are going out on the road again, we do love to travel! We will keep you posted as our plans evolve and our lifestyle keeps changing. Thank you for following along and hope you still will.

                                        Sparky and Eldo

Riding the Vine

 The Pumpkinvine Bike Trail, that is.....In the meantime, while staying in Elkhart to await the rig repairs come August 14th, we are taking advantage of the beautiful early summer weather to do different things in the area...Eldy has been learning more about lacrosse, as his grandson is heading for the state lacrosse finals. He has really enjoyed the games, and Trevor's team is doing so well! Trevor is the tall one in the middle. The rest of Eldy's son's family is with him as well. A fine looking family!

Sparky has been riding the Pumpkinvine from Abshire Park in Goshen, all the way to Shipshewanna sometimes, but mostly to Middlebury and back, a distance of about 13 miles total. That section of the trail is about 50% wooded and it has been a real treat watching the emerging wildflowers changing as the weeks go by. 

Not only is it nicely wooded in parts, but there are a couple of challenging hills to climb and then zoom down. 

AND---there's an ice cream shop called Moody's which is about 2/3 of the way to Middlebury and it's right off the trail. They have good cheeseburgers and lots of flavors of ice cream, both soft serve and hard. It's a favorite of the Amish. Once Sparky gets her ice cream fix, she feels like turning around and heading back. Mainly because at the ice cream junction, you have to go out on the county roads for about a mile to get back to trail to pick it up again, heading on into Middlebury. Those county roads are ok, as there are probably more horse and buggies on the county road than trucks, but occasional speedsters and heavy duty construction trucks occasionally, make that portion a little more nerve wracking when they pass by. The spur to get you off the county roads and to stay on the trail is supposed to be completed by the end of this summer.

Dames Rocket

When Sparky first started riding in April, there were few wildflowers. The first to come were the spring trilliums, then the wild geraniums, the purple phlox, then the Dames Rocket flowers. Dames Rocket is confused with phlox sometimes, but phlox has five petals, and Dames Rocket has four. 

Dames Rocket is also considered a noxious weed in some states and is definitely an invasive plant. But it is really pretty!

More Dames Rocket

No wonder it is blooming prolifically for several miles along the trail!

Sparky loves the Pumpkinvine Trail because it's such a good workout, and the different habitats along the trail make it an interesting ride. You pass Amish farms and wide open spaces on the trail for a bit....

pass through shady forests....

and bike through a little bit of small town offerings along the way (Middlebury's Mooey's Ice Cream, for one), where you can stop and grab a bite to eat or get an ice cream cone.Sometimes you even see chickens who are tired of being cooped up, haha, and need to get out of the house for the day, haha....

They definitely like to cross the road, haha...

Sparky likes to inspect the different flowers up close and personal. This wildflower is called Great Waterleaf, also called woolen breeches, and it had a bee zeroing in on it.

As you come back to Abshire Park (Goshen) from your starting point, you will see one of the flower quilt gardens at the park. They have just planted another series of flower gardens this year all over in the towns of Elkhart, Bristol, Middlebury, Wakarusa, Nappanee, and Goshen, that by midsummer will fill in and make beautiful quilt patterns. It's part of a tour you can take--the Elkhart Quilt Gardens (along the Heritage Trail) and we will probably go visit most of them next month or early July when they will be at their prime. The Heritage Trail is an audio driving tour to see the area's attractions and the Amish lifestyle. You learn a LOT about this beautiful area on the tour. We did it years ago but will revisit it again in the near future to see what's new.

quilt garden at Abshire Park

No other news about the rig, other than the earliest we can get it in to be fixed is Aug. 14th, as we have said, so the wait continues.....Thank you for following along and keeping us company!