We become the "Guests from Hell"

It was back to Decatur and “From Trees to These” to get our cabinetry installed. We arrived in Decatur in a huge thunderstorm (we were both checking the skies for tornadoes) so we decided to stop at the factory parking lot for the night. The following two days Greg and his guys installed our new cabinet. We took care of other coach related stuff (getting grout cleaner, a touch up kit from the factory) and, at last, a chance to see the American Coach factory.

After a stop in Fort Wayne for some maintenance work at Cummins, we headed to “Charvat Country Club” and spent a few days with Gerry and Sandy. We got to see the progress on their new home and also got to see the “Pickle factory” in St Joe. It was actually quite interesting to see how they process pickles and relish.

We turned out to be the “guests from hell”. Our arrival was marked by a bit of an overshot on the driveway and we knocked out part of their stone wall. John put the stones back in and it looked good as new. With all the recent rain, Sandy was encouraging us to park on the driveway, but Gerry wanted us to have a good view of the creek so he backed us up on the grass. Several nights of torrential rains later, we decided to get everything ready to go while Gerry and Sandy were in church on Sunday morning. Unbeknownst to us, the grassy area we were parked on had been a garden (translation- not every well packed down ground) and as we tried to pull Maby Dick forward, it just sank in the mud. Our hearts sank as Maby sank further and further in the mud. Gerry and Sandy got home to find us on the phone trying to find a towing service. Gerry got ahold of a friend who had pulled his motorhome out before and while we waited for him to arrive, John and Gerry tried their own method. Using 2 x 10’s and the jacks, they slowly inched Maby Dick out of the muck. It was literally inches at a time- jacking up the motorhome, carefully placing boards under the wheels, dropping the jacks and moving it ahead a board length at a time. Just as the tow truck pulled into the driveway, they got it on the driveway- very muddy, but on solid ground again. The guys and the lawn didn’t look very good, however. We said our goodbyes and headed just a few miles away to Elkhart.

After the exciting exit from Gerry’s, we parked for awhile in Elkhart to just relax and play catch-up. The campground was run by a wonderful Indian family (who pointed us to a few Indian restaurants) and it was nice to just “sit” for a bit. We took the time to see the RV Hall of Fame in Elkhart. The museum was small, but filled with some of the original “motorhomes” and trailers. Then, we planned our daily motorhome tour. Within 15 miles of our campgrounds, there were most of the major motorhome manufacturers. We started with Thor- and the Mandalay. We had a cute little marketing manager to take us on our private tour of the plant. We were quite impressed with the plant and with the unit. Then, it was on to Georgie Boy and Damon. The Damon plant (a company still privately owned) was quite impressive- but there really weren’t any models that would suit us. Their new quad slide looked like it was built for a NASCAR driver and team- a huge couch and bizarre layout. Mid-week, we went to the Gulf-Stream plant, home to the Atrium, and a private tour at Tsunami. The real highlight of the factory tours was the Monaco Royale- a Prevost converter. At over $1M, their coaches were stunning- all custom made wood interiors- like the finest corporate boardrooms. To top off our week, we did a tour of Amish country- stopping in Shipshewana to see MennoHof. The tour included an explanation of the Anabaptist movement- the Amish, Mennonite and Hutterites.