Still in Elkhart, IN

We have been here a whole week and have accomplished quite a bit. If you are ever in Elkhart we recommend the Elkhart Campground, it is fairly reasonable about $28 per night FHU. I looked for lower rates and did find a couple but if you take into account the distance we would have to travel to our appointments etc. then this was the best fit for us.

Last Tuesday we took the camper into MOR/ryde and they did their thing and we were out Wednesday afternoon with a MOR/ryde IS suspension. The drive to the campground didn’t show me if the suspension is that great but we’ll see once we get on the road. We did have some pictures we left standing behind the couch and they did not fall over so that is a good sign.

The front of the offices at MOR/ryde

This is the area you stay in the night before your unit is worked on, 30 amp only.

This is where we parked the truck while the unit was in the shop. The building has back in bays backed up to each other, our camper was on the other side of the building.I tried to get a picture of our camper but the fence blocks it a little bit.Our camper is in the second bay.

The folks here were very nice, they have muffins and pastries in the morning, the individual coffee do higgies, water, soda and tea, plus chips etc. They give you a choice of three restaurants to choose lunch from and they go get it and pay for it. We stayed in the camper Tuesday night with 30 amp and cable TV. We were very impressed by the desire to take care of the customer.

Wednesday we headed for the Elkhart Campground and our home for the next two weeks. We have a grass site they are all grass sites except for a couple of permanent sites and those folks probably had the pad poured themselves, that is probably 35’ wide and 70+’ long. The sites are grass and we have full hookups with 50 amp electric. The electric is being stretched quite a bit with this hot weather, my monitor is right on the green if not a bit of red, but in the morning I am in the middle of the green. All in all we are fine with it. We are within 15 minutes of our appointments and that is what I was looking for.

Yesterday we went to Pinnacle RV Service at 1011 Herman St, 574-522-2636, Jason Miller is the service manager. I include all of this information because if you are ever in Elkhart and need work done on your unit call Jason. He went out of his way to help us with our inverter/charger problem. I had called Xantrex, the maker of our inverter, and I was told to call Pinnacle, they handle all of Monaco’s inverter installations of the Xantrex inverter. Jason worked us in yesterday even with two employees out west at the Monaco Rally, in fact he handle our problem himself. He took the inverter out, took it to Xantrex and picked it up and reinstalled it in the camper. We were there a total of three hours. Excellent service from these folks call them if you need service in the Elkhart area.

One of the items Pinnacle installs are new seats and Jason was telling me about a new sofa they are going to be manufacturing. It is a hidabed couch that has a bunk bed attached to it. My understanding is the bunk is stored under the couch and is pulled out and goes above the couch and locked into place so the couch sleeps two and the bunk one. Interesting concept, Forest River is testing the idea in some of their campers.

Today we went to the Carriage RV plant. Carriage was one of the units I was looking at during my research. I dismissed them because the units we looked at had the entry door blocking the basement door, I didn’t like that. It was a very enlightening visit/tour. There were some interesting things they do to their units, a storage compartment in the rear of the camper, the roof is not rubber or fiberglass but another material which looked to me to be a big improvement over the rubber roof. However, I didn’t find anything to tell me I bought from the wrong manufacturer. Sarah and I both came away believing we made the right decision for us.

They we went to the Shipshewana Flea Market, there are over a thousand vendors at this thing. It is open Tuesday and Wednesday only, a three dollar charge to get in but when we left about two no one was taking money so I guess go later and save. We had lunch at the Auction Barn restaurant and it was delicious. Sarah wanted to see if she could find some beads and I was looking for a good leather belt and wallet but nothing jumped out at me nor did Sarah find anything to entice her to buy. So we went to the grocery store and picked up a few things and back to the camper. It is ninety degrees outside with a heat index of 150 trillion degrees or so it seems, we are inside and not wanting to go out.

We did go see the movie Larry Crowne with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, it is not Oscar caliber but a good movie never the less. As always the popcorn and large soda cost more than the admission.

Thursday we are going to the Jayco plant and see what there process looks like. I am hoping to see their new fifth wheel and see if I like it or not. We’ll see what other plants we get to next week.

I have been working on detailing the truck, I have the wheels and bed to do yet. I also have the sides of the camper to work on and hope to get to them next week or after we get to Wisconsin. I am very impressed with the Dri Wash product.

Until later remember – Dreams Do Come True.