Sat, Aug 25th - Rainy AM / Sunny PM

With it raining this morning, we didn't plan to do too much. We went out for breakfast at a local hangout that Lois and Jim go to often--Maria's House of Pancakes in N. Webster. Lois's sister, Janet, and her husband came over for a short while and then it was time to head out for lunch. When we got back, the sun was shining, so Jim took us out for a boat ride around the lake. We had seen the road side view of all of the houses around the lake and this gave us a lake-side view of them. That evening we went to Cheddars in Fort Wayne for dinner. They are known for their $2.50 18-oz Margaritas! Oh, so good! We had smoked baby back ribs that melted in your mouth. They are also known for their great spinach dip and Spasagna dish (spaghetti-lasagna). See www.cheddarsinc.com/ for a tour and www.recipelink.com/mf/14/11636 for the Spasagna recipe.

Fri, Aug 24th - Goshen, Elkhart & Topeka, IN

Today the Campbells took us to the RV/MH Museum, Hall of Fame & Library in Elkhart, IN. This facility just opened at the beginning of Aug. It was fun walking thru the museum and looking at all of the "old" RVs and MHs. See http://www.rvmhhalloffame.org/rvhall.cfm for some pictures of what we saw. In the near future, this facility will house David Woodworth's historic collection of antique RVs. We had lunch at Flytraps in Elkhart and then visited the "Old Bag" Factory in Goshen. This factory was built in 1896 and was orginally the Cosmo Buttermilk Soap Company and then renovated in 1910 to become the Chase Bag Factory. They produced such things as mesh bags for onions and potatoes, as well as the tiny strips of sheer paper found in Hershey Kisses! This building now houses many artisans, such as furniture makers, and a very exclusive Quilt Designs store http://www.quiltdesigns.com/. These quilts can cost you several thousand dollars, but are really works of art! The day ended with dinner at the Amish restaurant named Tiffany's in Topeka, IN. The rhubarb custard pie was delicious!

Thu, Aug 23rd - Rt 33 West to Warren, IN

Rt 33 west thru Ohio was a very pleasant drive with little traffic. Lots of flat farm land with corn and beans everywhere. We met our friends, Jim & Lois Campbell in Warren, IN (called a "Small Town with a Big Heart" www.warrenindiana.com/) and got to see their new house there. See www.ummh.org/; they are in the Dogwood section with a pond and golf course view out the back of their house. Jim grew up on a farm here! We followed them up to N. Webster, IN and are "camped" at their lakehouse. We have a front window view looking out over the lake.

Wed, Aug 22nd - Leaving the Driveway

The D sat in the driveway long enough! On Wed, Aug 22nd, the "D" left the driveway about 7:00 a.m. and headed to the Wal-Mart in Marysville, OH for the first night of our 56-day "Westward Ho" trip. It was an overcast day with some fog in the mountains of MD and WV, especially on Savage Mountain. Just about time for lunch, traffic came to a full stop and the truckers headng east informed us that there was an accident ahead and traffic would be stopped for a short while. So I took advantage of sitting still and made us sandwiches for lunch. Soon after we ate, we were moving again. We drove into a brand new Wal Mart in Marysville, OH just off Rt 33 about 5:00 p.m. It was 93 degs, so we took advantage of the air conditioned store and did some browsing, hoping it would cool off after the sun went down. Unfortunately, it didn't cool off much for sleeping!