Our North American Safari: Ohio and Indiana

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Ohio and Indiana Experiences:

June 8-13, 2013 saw us heading west and hoping to leave the wet weather behind. We drove part of the day through Ohio (one of the states we hadn’t visited yet) – beautiful countryside, some more vineyards and a lot of cornfields. We skirted Cleveland and spent the night in Norwalk, Ohio. Pleasant little community with a hospitable Elks Lodge where we camped for the night. This was day # 79 of our adventure, boy time is flying, and yes we are still having a lot of FUN!

Farm land, corn and more corn

We have been taking advantage of New York, Ohio and Indiana’s “speedways” – We enjoyed the New York Through-Way, the Ohio Turn Pike and the Indiana Expressway. Cost a bit, but saves us miles, and improves fuel economy. The roads are generally better quality and makes Mike’s job of driving a bit easier. Coming into Elkhart Indiana we saw several horse and buggies, driving along the roadside, this area has a large Amish population. We both really enjoyed the beautiful countryside and the many things to see and do. We started our visit by going to the Recreation Vehicle (RV) and Motor Home (MH) Hall of Fame. There was an interesting display of RVs from 1909 to present. Always amazing to us how innovative people can be with their vehicles/trailers/recreation vehicles. One of our favorites was a 1954 – 42 foot Spartan Travel Trailer. Mike remembers his family living in one just like the one on display, he recounted falling out of the upper bunk when trying to peak into the living room to see if Santa had been there the night before J. Later that day we went on a factory tour of Thor Industries, the 3^rd largest manufacturer of trailers, and motor homes. It was very informative and interesting to see how a motorhome is built from the chassis up. Always very tempting to see these beautiful rigs with all of their new bells and whistles and think how nice it might be to have one. Just dreaming, we love our Safari and aren’t seriously thinking about replacing her.

Amish area

Spartan Trailer 1954

Our next point of interest was a drive to South Bend – about 25 miles west of Elkhart. We enjoyed exploring the town, some beautiful older homes and buildings with diverse architectures. Notre Dame University is one of those beautiful mid-west campuses: big old mature trees, sophisticated looking buildings of stone and brick, and an incredible looking sports complex. From there we drove to Goshen where we visited the Old Bag Factory an artisans’ complex witn an incredible quilt shop, Amish furniture store, pottery barn, antiques and much more. Also there, was one of the quilt gardens that are planted around the heritage trail area. There was a lot more to be seen in this area, wish we had a chance to visit the Conn-Selmer factory (company that built Mike’s French Horn some 50 years ago) and to visit some of the Amish inspired restaurants, and shops. Maybe we will get back this way again.

Notre Dame

Old Lady at Old Bag Factory

Floral Quilt

Moving along on our itinerary saw us driving south to Indianapolis. The weather was hot and sticky – Ahhhh yes that is the mid-west, huh? We spent the night under a severe weather alert – there were tornado watches just north of us. We had thunder and lightening, wind and rain, but nothing too serious. Mike was a bit disappointed he was ready to “storm chase”. We visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (the Brickyard). Neither Mike nor I are serious race followers, but we always enjoy taking tours of such institutions. We had a good afternoon going through their Hall of Fame/Museum. There was an interesting display of 30 formula 1 cars. We saw the wining car from the 1^st race in 1911, it averaged 79.3 mile per hour lap; the winner this year was 172+ M.P.H. – technology has certainly changed the race activity. We then took a narrated bus tour of the track and associated facilities. We got to ride the 2-½ mile track only 200 M.P.H. slower than the current race drives can take it. Mike got to kiss the brick yard start/finish line; we toured the master control tower pagoda, stood on the winners’ podium and got a good over-all view of the entire complex. Pretty amazing, we’ll never look at the race quite the same way again after our visit.