Hello from a Rainy Soggy Elkhart

This blog will be short as there isn't too much to report this week.  Weather wise, I think we've had some sort of rain almost every day since last weekend.  Some days MUCH heavier than others but only one day where it stormed pretty hard and they were predicting pretty strong winds.  Of course, that was the day that we got the new jacks installed and as we were paying that bill and getting ready to drive back to the campground, it all broke loose and rained really hard with LOTS of wind and dust for about 30 minutes and then it was over.  Fortunately, the guy still had to give us a lesson on how the new system operates so by the time that was done, the storm was pretty well over but it was pretty ugly there for awhile.

Murphy has been a bit under the weather this week (too much gopher hunting I guess) and so we made a vet visit where he confirmed a parasite issue so he's been on meds all week and we're hoping now that all is well again.  He even got Dick up a couple of nights during the night which he has NEVER done before so we knew he was sick.

We gave the 'ok' to Haulmark so things are being built…..we hope.  We have a new dinette area being built and a new desk/entertainment center on the opposite wall.  We decided to go with Haulmark as they use Walnut and that is what the rest of the motor home wood is so we wanted to remain consistent. As much as we like the work of the Amish craftsman, they don't use Walnut.  They could get it for us but the price was pretty high compared to Haulmark.

On Wednesday while the jacks were being installed, we took a road trip to The John Dillinger Museum in Hammond, IN at one of their Travel Centers along I-80/94.  Not a huge museum but very well done and worth a stop if passing by.  They have various artifacts from his life on the farm during his childhood, to his adult life of crime during the Depression Era.  They have an exact replica of the wooden gun he used in the 'great escape' from Lake County Jail, they have his 'death' trousers, his lucky rabbit's foot and the saxophone case he left behind during one of his bank robberies just to name a few.   On the way home we stopped in South Bend for 'linner'.  We picked a place called 'Pitts Barbecue' that was excellent.  A mom/pop type place, very simply furnished with only a few wobbly tables, but you could smell the barbecue from down the street where we had to park.  When we mentioned we hadn't been there before, the owner got us a sample of one of his St. Louis ribs……..YUM!!!!  He has a little gold mine there, across the street from where he went to high school, and makes fresh everything he serves.  Not a huge menu but Dick's pulled pork sandwich and my brisket were excellent.  Even bought a jar of his homemade barbecue sauce that he poured into the jar right from the pan where he was cooking a fresh batch.

The rest of the week was spent cleaning out some drawers, cabinets, etc. as we will have totally different kind of storage when all this new stuff is done.  We also had a visit from one of our other full timing friends whom we met here at this campground several years ago.  They are in the area for some rallies as they are vendors selling various RV wares.

This week we have quite a bit on the schedule so more to report next week.  Tomorrow we will get a small awning fixed (hopefully an easy fix to just rewind) and then taking the rig to Haulmark where they will remove the sofa and part of the dinette in preparation for the new sofa on Thursday.  Wednesday the new window shades will be installed so it'll be a busy week plus my sister-in-law and her girlfriend are coming over for a couple of days from IL so I hope I can get some girl time with them.

Picture taking is only allowed in the small entrance to the museum
so I only have a couple to show you

"Duck Under Glass" on display at the Travel Center.
Part of the 2003 Streetscape Project in Highland where
48 of these feathered friends were put on display by
local businesses.