With our RV almost ready for collection we made our way, once again back to Elkhart, Indiana where we stayed at the Candlewood Suites. Unfortunately, unlike the other Staybridges, there was no breakfast provided but luckily we had a full kitchen so I was able to cook food.
When we were previously in Elkhart, we noticed several brightly painted Elk statues. 38 Elk statues were created in 2011 and painted by local artists as part of the Elk Art on Parade. The purpose was to auction the Elks off to benefit Child and Parent Services, which offers parenting classes and other programs aimed at preventing child abuse. I had taken a couple of photos and was on the look out for more Elk to finish my collection.
The following morning we took Jax for a walk on the Heritage Trail which runs alongside the St Joseph river. It was a lovely warm morning for a walk as we crossed several bridges along the way. There were many people fishing in the river. Later after we dropped Jax at the RV we made our way to the RV/MH museum. In the mid 1930s, 3 three Hoosiers (name for people who come from Indiana) fell in love with trailers and started building them in their own backyards. Indiana was an ideal spot for manufacturing because of its climate, proximity to transport, low taxes and limited regulations. Fast forward to 2023 where 344,000 RVs are produced annually.
This was a very interesting museum showing Tent and Trailer evolution from 1930 till now. The woodwork on some of the the older models (especially the air streams) was really beautiful. Of course shape, size and interior fittings have improved significantly today with the most luxurious motorhomes being sold at a staggering US$5m.
The following day we had arranged to meet up with Paul Fehrenbacher and his wife Janelle and their young daughter, Frankie, at the Notre Dame University where Paul was an alumni. As they were only meeting us at around 3pm we drove to the Grand Design service centre to collect our RV first, so we could move it to a guest site across from their factory. On arriving we found that while a lot of stuff had been addressed there were still a few panels that needed to be reattached, so we left the RV with them overnight and left to meet Paul.
The Notre Dame campus is located in South Bend, Indiana, and spans 1,250 acres comprising around 170 buildings. The Collegiate Gothic styled buildings are absolutely beautiful. The university is known for its Golden Dome which is on top of their main Admin. building with a larger than life statue of Mary, the Basilica church with its stained glass windows, the quads and the greenery, the Grotto which is laid out like the Grotto in Lourdes, France, the large mural of Jesus raising his arms – which they affectionately call “Touchdown Jesus”, and its statues and museums. The campus has many restaurants and even a hotel on site. We were lucky as there was a campus tour in progress and they did not mind us tagging along, so we were able to learn a lot about the history.,
Besides being a high ranking university, it is best known for its “Fighting Irish” football team. With many championships under their belt the university has produced several NFL players. They practice and hold their home team games on campus in the Notre Dame Stadium which holds over 75,000 seats.
After walking around the campus we made our way to a very nice restaurant which is part of the hotel on site for dinner. A lovely way to finish the day.
The following day we were up early to collect our items from storage, pick up the RV and move it to the Grand Design guest site. There we repacked the items we had been storing and then at 1.30 pm went to one of their main buildings for a factory tour. The tour took about 1.5 hours and covered everything from how they prepare the frames to the final build. Very informative and very impressive. The guide was very knowledgeable and positive about the company. We did find out during the tour that Grand Design have some extra models that they loan to staff and customers who bring their RVs into the shop. I was very mad as this was not offered to us and we had spent a significant amount of money over the month on accommodation. However, Grand Design did do a good job in fixing everything we had on the list and more, and also replaced our fridge (again)
After the tour, we immediately left Elkhart to make our way down to Perrysburg, Ohio which luckily was only a couple of hours away. We have 3 days to get down to Washington, DC so we couldn’t afford to stay in Elkhart any longer.
