May in Kenticky

Left Sunshine Holiday Campground in Ormond Beach Florida on May 2 and headed off to Elizabethtown Crossroads Campground where we intended to stay until May 18.  Then we need to move to Middlebury IN, home of the Grand Design factory for our much-needed repairs.  Here is how the best laid plans are executed….

Blow-Out!

We were about 6 hours into the journey, in the heart of downtown Atlanta when BAM! Blew a rear tire on Wanda. Have any of you had a tire blowout when under an overpass? Let me tell you that it will scare the beejeebees out of you. The noise is deafening and I swear my heart stopped for a full second. Ty and I both looked at each other and wondered if it was us. It definitely was not the truck, and Wanda wasn’t swerving or pulling so we didn’t think it was us until a driver pulls up alongside of us and waves indicating that we have a flat tire. Really it wasn’t a flat tire, it was a blow-out tire.  Mangled mess.

WalMart leaves the light on for  us

We pulled off I75 and found ourselves on a nice wide service drive alongside the freeway.  Called AAA and after an hour we were informed they couldn’t find a service company who could fix a RV tire. However, if we did, then AAA will reimburse (will see how that goes after filling out the the mound of paperwork and then having to mail that mound. You would think AAA would have caught up to the world of the internet and be paperless). 3030 repair comes makes it to us 10-minutes after we make the call and Phil had us up and running within 30 minutes. All told, about a 2 ½ hour delay which meant that it is getting dark soon so WalMart it is.

Elizabethtown

Cherry Blossoms blanket picnic table trail at Mammoth Cave

…is a surprising large place with lots of big box stores and restaurants. I am sure there would have been lots of shopping and sightseeing to be had if anything was open so we opted for several wonderful hikes. We are in the region of bourbon distilleries and caves so naturally one of the hikes was on the Jim Beam property and the smell of mash was whiffing in the air. Another hike was on the property of the Abby of Gethsemani, which is a monastery. Most outstanding about this hike, called Statues, was all of the statues that were placed along the path.  Mary, Joseph, St. Francis of Assis, one of the disciples waiting for Jesus while he was praying at Gethsemani (also a statue).  There was also a prayer hut where many many people left notes of prayers for themselves or loved ones. This was a most moving hike. We also hiked at the Mammoth Cave, Green River Trail which told the story of steamships fording up the stream to bring tourist to the cave and how the CCC had built many of the facilities at the park including the now defunk water treatment housing.

Spring has sprung in KenTicky (so named for the place where Ty got bit by the dog tick last year) and the wildflowers are everywhere.  I came across a free app, SEEK by iNaturalist.  You point and shoot a pic and it tells you what kind of flower you are looking at.  One of the hikes was only 2.5 miles long, which took us about 3 hours to do because I kept stopping to take a pic.  Anyone ever hike with the Sauls when the wildflowers are out?  Ty said it was like hiking with them – which I enjoyed very much!

Water Water Everywhere but leaking from the fresh water tank is not a good thing

 

Water is not a good thing for RVs. I am doing my exercise outside and am lying down where I can see underneath the rig. And I see water dripping down the outside of a plastic pipe, huge puddle underneath.

Middlebury Indiana, Grand Design Factory

GrandDesignFactoryLot hotel room

We called the Grand Design Factory explaining we now have a water leak and they encouraged us to come in ASAP.  We packed up that day and made the 300-mile trip to Middlebury. Spent the night in the factory parking lot and that was a real treat.  At 4am the gate where we were parked next to went “Beep Beep Beep” every time they brought a vehicle in and out.  Didn’t realize that the factory gets started at 4am and it sure was noisy.

Gave the repair folks the laundry list of repairs and headed off to Elkhart to find a hotel room for a couple of days.  It is scary to be in a hotel room during this crisis and we pretty much stayed to ourselves only going and getting carry out (3 times to White Castle) and then back into the room as there is nothing to do in Elkhart especially since it rained every day but one.

Tower at Notre Dame Lake of Notre Dame Grotto

On the one day it didn’t rain we toured  Notre Dame campus  on our bikes. Of course the campus is deserted of college students who evacuated in a hurry but left all their bikes! Rows and rows of bikes all locked up and no riders to claim them.  Kinda sad really.

Notre Dame campus is beautiful with it multiple churches, schools of learning, stadium and with a lake in the middle of campus with an interesting story which is the basis of its founding.  Land was donated and when the priest came to view the land (in the winter) he commented on the beautiful frozen lake where a campus could be located and not too far from St Joseph MI.

 

South Bend

Since it is still a beautiful day and the bike tour of ND over we went to see what downtown South Bend Indiana looked like on a Wednesday afternoon.  Eerily quite – felt like we were intruding.

 

Mt Baldy Map

Then off to the Indiana Dunes, Mt. Baldy a whopping 600ft elevation gain.  Spent the rest of afternoon there.  Day was beautiful and we just relaxed on the beach as we were not prepared for any hiking. The Indiana Dunes are the southern most dip of Lake Michigan.

Social Distancing

Home to Colorado

We had spent a rainy week in the hotel room and news of repairs going slow. Perhaps another 2-3 weeks. Decided that now is the time to go back to Colorado to be with the kids; celebrate Ty’s birthday; Avery’s (Scotty’s son) birthday; see the grandkids and a few Anthem folks (6ft apart of course).

Jumped into the truck, kissed Wanda good-bye and drove 1400 miles home.