RV's and Family

We are now on the downhill run! Seems like we have packed a lot of travel into five months. After leaving New York and Niagara, we headed over to Goshen, Indiana. We had quite a trip getting there as we had routed ourselves thru a lot of the small towns and back roads. Unfortunately, a lot of those roads have underpasses that are 12 feet or lower. Our trailer is 13 feet 2 inches, so we spent a lot of time having our GPS recaculate to get us over the railroad tracks instead of trying to go under them. I didn't know there were so many railroads around the upper Ohio area, but we saw some very beautiful sites along Lake Erie.

We made it over to Goshen and had scheduled several factory tours of RV manufacturers. We hit the Carriage, Newmar, Travel Supreme, Heartland, and Doubletree factories. All of these make some higher end fifthwheels which are suitable for full-time living. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed in most of the quality of the units. We thought being in the middle of Almish country and employing Almish workers would guarantee better quality, but we were wrong. The companies have done two things to stay competitive which is really hurting us consumers. First, they allow their workers to go home once they have built "x" amount of units every day. As most of the Almish are farmers, this works well for them, but tends to make quality become a thing of the past. Secondly, the RV manufacturers have eliminated a lot of their quality control workers and are now relying on the dealers to fix anything they find wrong when they take possession of the unit. Most of the dealers could care less! It's beginning to look more and more like we will have to have our next unit made to order. That will be a big burden on us to pick and choose everything, but I can guarantee, we'll be sitting on the factory site while they build it and will be out there everyday making sure they build it to our specs. We're planning on going by a couple of factories that build nothing but custom units after we leave our son's place.

While in Indiana, George and Shirley met up with us and we took a tour of the Newmar factory together and then decided to take a visit to the RV History and Museum. It was really interesting and we got to see many of the old, original units. It's hard to believe that what we saw there has evolved into the units we have today. Don't think I could have lived in one of the old ones.

A 1931 Model AA Ford Housecar - believed to have been built by an unknown custom maker and woodworking artist. Floor is yellow pine - cabinetry and interior is oak and yellow pine. The seats for the driver and passenger were added during restoration. The original seats were flat benches without backs.

We arrived at the Kankakee State Park in Illinois on Thursday, August 30th and were able to get a nice open site. We got set up and though we don't have any water or sewer hookups we do have electricity, so we should be okay for a few weeks. We went over to our son and daughter-in-laws to visit for a while and see the grandchildren. They have surely grown! Our grandaughter, Debra is now taller than her mother and growing into a very beautiful young lady. Our grandson, Drew, is much taller than the last time we had seen him and such a character! He's destined to be a salesman or a politician as he can talk anyone into anything!

We've spent a lot of time with the kids this visit and have enjoyed it immensely. Seems like we never get to see them often enough. We had the grandchildren out to the RV for a sleepover and had loads of fun. We cooked hamburgers outside, had a campfire and made "smores". I think they enjoyed seeing how "Ma and Pa Texas" lived and decided the RV lifestyle wasn't so bad after all. Of course, if it is up to Drew, I don't think he'll ever take a "campground shower" again. He wants his privacy and if he's going to take a shower, it is going to be in the confines of his own home, by himself!!! Anyway, we have enjoyed everything. George and Damon have golfed several times and I've enjoyed being connected to the internet, but most of all we've enjoyed just visiting with Damon, Kim, Debra and Drew (and of course, the dogs, Scout and Lucy and the cat, Dudley). Kim has been the most gracious hostess, providing us with really delicious meals and including us in all their plans.We will head out on Monday, September 17th and start making our way to Missouri and Kansas where we will stop to take a factory tour of the custom RV makers, Space Craft and New Horizon. After spending a little time in that area, we'll head on over to Huntsville and spend time with Mom and Dad and George's sister and brother-in-law. After a few weeks in Huntsville, we'll head over to New Braunfels to spend a few days with our best friend, Nancy and then off to the desert for the winter. Hope you all will periodically check in with our blog to see what we are up to. Though we won't be traveling for a while as much as we have the past five months, there will still be lots of fun things going on that we want to share with each of you. Until then, take care!