On to the Birthplace of “Our Hale”. . . THOR

We had to take an unexpected detour in our travel plans and head North to Elkhart Indiana, the RV capital of the U.S. We had to change some pretty important plans for Sallie… she missed the first KU home football game and a chance to sit with the band again!  But, we had bigger fish to fry than to be in Lawrence, Kansas for the weekend.  Our kitchen slide out failed in Albuquerque New Mexico, 4 weeks earlier and the service department at Thor was able to get us in.  So we jumped at the chance to get our hale back to normal.  Steve, Walter and Mike were outstanding repairmen and knew our coach inside and out. They fixed everything on our list, plus other things that they saw that we did not.  We went on a tour of the Thor Manufacturing Plant and saw bare Freightliner chassis’s, stand alone walls and slide outs, woodwork for the interiors, tiles, all being assembled.  There are over 1400 employees in three 200,000 sq ft warehouses and are expanding another 400,000 sq ft. Sounds like the RV business is coming back!  We also visited the RV Hall of Fame Museum… RV’s dating back to the 40’s to present day.  They have come a long way baby!

On our way to Elkhart, we got to Springfield Illinois in late afternoon and found a spot at the Illinois State Fair Grounds. The host was very nice, it was a parking lot with an electrical hook-up only, enough for the night.  We barely had time to see the Lincoln Museum before it closed which was a very cool overview of Lincoln’s life and the Civil War.

During our stay in Elkhart, we took a day trip to Chicago and walked for what seemed like 10 miles. We went to the top of the John Hancock Building and Willis (Sears) Tower.  We went out on the clear plexiglass sky ledge at Sears Tower.  It was pretty exciting hanging over the edge of the building. We also got to go on a river Architecture tour.  It was very informative learning about the different types of buildings in Chicago.

While in Chicago, we got to see Rich, Scott and Lucy from Spark Ventures (from our volunteer trip to Zambia Africa earlier in the year) and learned about the prospectives for the future of Hope School.

We also visited a small Amish community in Shipshewana Indiana.

And while in Indiana, we checked out Notre Dame University in South Bend. It was a beautiful campus.

On our last full day, we decided to enjoy some beach time at Lake Michigan in New Buffalo Michigan.

While we were in Elkhart we stayed at the Staybridge Suites in a one bedroom suite where the cats adjusted to the room easily, finding hiding places in the beds and sunning themselves on the window sills.

The staff at the Staybridge was friendly and so hospitable. Thanks Elkhart for an unexpected good time. It took 3 trips from the hotel to the coach to get everything back in before we took off for Louisville and Nashville.

2 Comments

Leave a Comment