May 10, 2013 - Our stay at Dayton KOA

Well.. we got sprung a bit after noon today...everything shipshape and back together. Decided to try a different scene since we're on a mission this trip... so we are spending the night in a KOA in Granger, IN and tomorrow we're taking a day off!!!! This is one of the weekends at KOA where where you get one night free so this is my Mother's Day present from my 3 furkids... plus a beautiful plant ... Italian heather! I'd never seen anything like it before. Looks for all the world like a miniature spruce tree except it's covered with buds and...

Aug 20, 2012 - Back to East Coast time

It was 65 degrees by 10:00 this morning as we headed back on the road. Wisconsin is now on the sticker map and will probably be the last state we add on this trip. As we make our way east, we'll be repeating states we have already visited. In fact, tonight we will stay in a KOA that we stayed in on our way west. The further east we went in Wisconsin the more it felt like New Hampshire, gone are the prairies, the foothills, the plains and the mountain ranges. Now the landscape is looking more familiar. Even the kids begin to notice there are...

Jul 13, 2012 - Gaining vacation time....

After two days of camper living, Shelby was ready to be on the road again. We left our Indiana KOA at 9:45, our earliest departure yet, we must be getting good at this camping stuff. We headed west along I-80 and crossed over into Illinois at about 11:00. At which time we gained an hour. We are now on central time. We traveled 250 miles today, and are staying in Rock Island, Illinois at yet another KOA. Perhaps it's time to become KOA members. The further we drove the darker the skies. We arrived at our campsite at 3:00/2:00, which ever...

Jul 11, 2012 - Visiting George's aunt

This is a great campsite, but it is right near a train track. Trains go by every two hours, all night long, blasting their whistles. It reminds us that we are in apart of the country that still depends on rail system to transport their produce. George made a great breakfast on the grill this morning. Then we headed off to the Keystone RV factory in Goshen IN. We had an amazing tour, just the two of us. We discovered how RVs are made and saw each step on the assembly line. It was very informative and the folks were able to answer all of our...

Jul 10, 2012 - Indiana, here we come!

It's 10:45 and we're on the road heading west on I 90. It's a cool morning with temperatures in the low 80's. Our plan is to travel 6 hours today across the state of Ohio into Indiana. We have changed our criteria for adding states to our sticker map. We've come to realize that our map will look very odd, if it only reflects states that we've camped in. There will be big holes, so now the criteria is if we spend at least 2 hours driving through the state, we can add it to our map. We seem to have left the mountains of Pennsylvania and are...

Sep 16, 2011 - Notre Dame!

We went to Notre Dame! It was hard to pass up as it was only a few miles off of the major highway. We saw the football stadium and then went to a block party for the home game on Saturday. It was a BLAST! There was a band playing there called P.S. Dump Your Boyfriend and guess what they played? Livin on a Prayer-Bon Jovi!! SO we brought some Jersey with us, which was nice. We also stopped at the Notre Dame bookstore and bought some postcards to send to you guys! Be on the lookout for those throughout the trip :D After that we stopped at a...

Sep 5, 2011 - Day 36 South Bend, In

We spent Labor Day at my son Paul's house we had a pizza party. My son Matt was there but his wife Lori had to work. Matt and Gwen did some creative face painting, I had a heart on my cheek. Later that day Joe went back to the hotel to get some rest and I went to visit my Aunt Joan and Uncle Joe.

Sep 4, 2011 - Day 35 South Bend, In.

We arrived in South Bend about 3:30 and went directly to Med Point. Joe had to wait 3 hrs. to see the Dr. A chest x ray was taken but since it was a holiday weekend we would have to wait till Tues. to get results. We had planed to stay with my Aunt & Uncle, Joan & Joe but we felt under the circumstance it would be best to stay at a hotel. Matt & Lori came to visit.

Sep 12, 2010 - West to So Bend IN

We've decided to not stay for the Fall Foliage and head towoards So Cal early. So we're going to the Chicago area to visit some cousins first. It was a rainy morning as we traveled along the turnpike system that starts in Pennsylvania as the PA TurnPike then changes names at the states borders to OH turnpike and IN turnpike with a total of $53.35 in tolls for the day. We stopped at the South Bend Indiana Elks which was closed when we arrived but we found the 15amp plug that was available along the fence around their swimming pool. There was...

Aug 14, 2010 - Day with sisters and a 50th Anniversary Party

Had a fun day with my sisters Kathy (FL), Maggie (northern MI) and Carolyn (SE MI). Kathy treated us to manicures and pedicures. Maggie and Carolyn had never enjoyed either, so it was fun to see their enjoyment. We then stopped at a beauty salon and Carolyn got her hair cut. Back to the campground where we indulged with truffles I bought on the wine tour. Wonderful chocolate. Tonight we went to Notre Dame Mahogany room to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bob & Ida Lee. What a great time. There were over 150 people at the party. I was able...

Sep 24, 2009 - South Bend, IN

Wednesday morning we made the trip to Shipshewana. This is a heavily Amish area and they have flea markets here on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of each week during the summer. It was huge - about 1,100 vendors selling most anything you could think of. We didn't look through but a few and then went to an Amish furniture store. They had some really nice all wood furniture, some of it completely unique; all of it completely high priced! We then tried to do what they call the "Quilt Tour." This is made up of several small flower gardens all over...

Sep 22, 2009 - Notre Dame

This morning we didn't do much but relax. It has been a pretty hectic week with the daily trips, many requiring an early start. This afternoon we went to Notre Dame and toured a few of the landmarks. We did receive a call from the shop repairing the Mothership and they told us they would be finished tomorrow but wanted us to wait until Thursday to pick her up so that everything would get a day to set up before being driven. That means we will be able to leave Friday as we wanted. Tomorrow we will be going to tour the Amish area which...