Elkhart, IN
Don caught up with me in Ravenna, and I started to really move stuff out of my trailer into his. Kind of hard, the Airstream is my dream house. But I will eventually blend my self and my treasures with his. We left a bit early before my cousin got written up for running an illegal RV park. The Airstream just kind of sat demurely under the trees, but the fifth wheel is big and white and takes up a lot of space, both visual and otherwise.
Elkhart is where a large percentage of the RV’s in America are made and as we get closer, there are acres of them parked by their factories. Turn a corner and there are more and more. It occurs to me that the RV’s that were sent to LA and MS after the storms must have been only a small part of the output of this place. Most of the suppliers of parts and appliances have factories here too. We are here to see the RV Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame. And also it is a good place to stop on the way west.
The museum has a collection of early RV’s some of which we can go inside. There are tents on wheels, the early ancestor of the pop up, that are spare, just beds and an alcove to put a stove. I imagine codgers going fishing or hunting. There is an Autocar which looks like a miniature private railroad car, all dark wood and elegant fixtures with a Model T to pull it. There are “canned hams “ by Shasta and Mallard and an Airstream of course. The star of the show is a 41’ long Spartan, clad in aluminum with every part of the interior covered in honey colored birch veneer. Roomy and luxurious, it would be considered more of a park model, not designed to be on the move a lot. The Hall of Fame is a little opaque, although the father of Airstream, Wally Byam, is there, an early inductee, I don’t know any of the others which includes dealers and campground owners. They have broken ground and started construction on a new big building on the outskirts of town.
One of the best things about this town is there are RV surplus stores ! We visited one, and spend a happy hour lost in the maze of shelves and stuff piled everywhere. You could easily build several RV’s with the parts that are all over the place. We poked in boxes and explored. One of the problems with the fifth wheel as we bought it was a double recliner loveseat. When the slides were out, it sat at the end of the trailer and was pretty comfortable to sit in. However, it had to be moved 90 degrees to get the slide in and it was heavy. We hoped to replace it with two easy chairs that could stay in place. Looking on-line, the prices were $500 and up, but we found a pair at this surplus store for $125 each. I wish we had more extra cash, it would have been a great place to find a stainless kitchen sink, and maybe even one for the bathroom. I could have spent days poking around, and a whole fortune on great stuff.
We took the chairs back to the trailer and approached with some trepidation the removal of the lounger love set which is large and heavy. Fortunately, it came apart, and the owners of the campground said their cleaning lady would be delighted to have it. It was still a project to get event the halves of it out. The new chairs look terrific and can stay put when it is time to pull in the slides and move on.
I aim to organize an RV so that getting ready to go on the road requires an absolute minimum of putting away inside. In the Airstream, I had a lot of things velcroed to table tops or corralled in baskets that sat on non skid rubber mats. A trailer on the road doesn’t quite take the punishment that a boat on the seas does, but the bumps and vibrations will throw things down, so there is the same need for shelves with gates and strong latches on cabinets. We are still figuring out what we need to have right to hand on a regular basis, what can be put away deeper and (hardest of all) what we really don’t need to keep at all. Don weighed the trailer at a truck stop and it is 200-300 lbs. overweight, but that is with all tanks full. Still, the lighter we are the better the gas mileage.
Don is a wizard at finding cheap diesel, and so far we have done very well. I started to keep a record to see what my MPG actually is and find it running 13-14 even while towing, and up to 19 without the trailer, which is better than I expected. We weighed the Airstream too and it is a good 1000 lbs under its weight max which pleases me. I have done a lot of occasionally painful shedding of belongings, and that seems justified now.
We are traveling under 200 miles in a day, and are both relaxed at the end of each leg, ready to do a little exploring of the campsite and the surrounding park. In the morning we are under no pressure to get going in a hurry. Neither of us are interested in the usual touristy things, nor in shopping. We are content to see the land change as we drive and look at what we come across. A pair of comfortable shoes traveling together across the land.
Elkhart is where a large percentage of the RV’s in America are made and as we get closer, there are acres of them parked by their factories. Turn a corner and there are more and more. It occurs to me that the RV’s that were sent to LA and MS after the storms must have been only a small part of the output of this place. Most of the suppliers of parts and appliances have factories here too. We are here to see the RV Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame. And also it is a good place to stop on the way west.
The museum has a collection of early RV’s some of which we can go inside. There are tents on wheels, the early ancestor of the pop up, that are spare, just beds and an alcove to put a stove. I imagine codgers going fishing or hunting. There is an Autocar which looks like a miniature private railroad car, all dark wood and elegant fixtures with a Model T to pull it. There are “canned hams “ by Shasta and Mallard and an Airstream of course. The star of the show is a 41’ long Spartan, clad in aluminum with every part of the interior covered in honey colored birch veneer. Roomy and luxurious, it would be considered more of a park model, not designed to be on the move a lot. The Hall of Fame is a little opaque, although the father of Airstream, Wally Byam, is there, an early inductee, I don’t know any of the others which includes dealers and campground owners. They have broken ground and started construction on a new big building on the outskirts of town.
One of the best things about this town is there are RV surplus stores ! We visited one, and spend a happy hour lost in the maze of shelves and stuff piled everywhere. You could easily build several RV’s with the parts that are all over the place. We poked in boxes and explored. One of the problems with the fifth wheel as we bought it was a double recliner loveseat. When the slides were out, it sat at the end of the trailer and was pretty comfortable to sit in. However, it had to be moved 90 degrees to get the slide in and it was heavy. We hoped to replace it with two easy chairs that could stay in place. Looking on-line, the prices were $500 and up, but we found a pair at this surplus store for $125 each. I wish we had more extra cash, it would have been a great place to find a stainless kitchen sink, and maybe even one for the bathroom. I could have spent days poking around, and a whole fortune on great stuff.
We took the chairs back to the trailer and approached with some trepidation the removal of the lounger love set which is large and heavy. Fortunately, it came apart, and the owners of the campground said their cleaning lady would be delighted to have it. It was still a project to get event the halves of it out. The new chairs look terrific and can stay put when it is time to pull in the slides and move on.
I aim to organize an RV so that getting ready to go on the road requires an absolute minimum of putting away inside. In the Airstream, I had a lot of things velcroed to table tops or corralled in baskets that sat on non skid rubber mats. A trailer on the road doesn’t quite take the punishment that a boat on the seas does, but the bumps and vibrations will throw things down, so there is the same need for shelves with gates and strong latches on cabinets. We are still figuring out what we need to have right to hand on a regular basis, what can be put away deeper and (hardest of all) what we really don’t need to keep at all. Don weighed the trailer at a truck stop and it is 200-300 lbs. overweight, but that is with all tanks full. Still, the lighter we are the better the gas mileage.
Don is a wizard at finding cheap diesel, and so far we have done very well. I started to keep a record to see what my MPG actually is and find it running 13-14 even while towing, and up to 19 without the trailer, which is better than I expected. We weighed the Airstream too and it is a good 1000 lbs under its weight max which pleases me. I have done a lot of occasionally painful shedding of belongings, and that seems justified now.
We are traveling under 200 miles in a day, and are both relaxed at the end of each leg, ready to do a little exploring of the campsite and the surrounding park. In the morning we are under no pressure to get going in a hurry. Neither of us are interested in the usual touristy things, nor in shopping. We are content to see the land change as we drive and look at what we come across. A pair of comfortable shoes traveling together across the land.
posted by Thistledown24 at 1:05 PM
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