A Day in Amish Country

The most interesting part of the Escapade for me was our extra HOP event through Amish Country. We got up early and bundled up as it was only in the 30's(burrr) and headed over to the two buses waiting for us. We were each given a bag and told to put our names on it. Hmm, wonder what that is about. So we climbed aboard.
The Amish are very devout in their faith. They believe in the literal interpretation and application of Scripture as the Word of God. They take seriously the Biblical commands to separate themselves from the things of the world. They believe worldliness can keep them from being close to God, and can introduce influences that could be destructive to their communities and to their way of life.

I think when most think of the Amish, they picture them driving their horse and buggies along the streets.

Our guide described how the most important thing in their lives is God and second is family. They are a very close knit society and everyone helps everyone else in the community. Not long after she said this we passed an example of this as people gathered to fix a roof.

We stopped at a buggy shop where the owner not only repairs but builts buggies for the community.

We also stopped at an one room school house. One thing I was surprised about was that the Amish only attend school until 8th grade. In fact, even the people who are chosen to be teachers only have an eighth grade education as well. They don;t forbid children to go on to higher education but they strongly discourage it. Again, they are about keeping it simple and not becoming worldly. Once the teenagers finish their schooling, they are encouraged to explore and act like normal teenagers for a few years when they need to decide whether to join the church or not. If they decide to leave the community at that time, they are not shunned but they can't change their minds and decide to come back later.

We also stopped at a camel farm. They sell the milk in companies in the US where it is often used for medicinal purposes. They also make soap which is suppose to be good for your skin. I bought a bar of mint soap to try.

We stopped at a store that sold products, such as jams, pastas, bread made by the Amish people. We found out what the bags were for. We had bought a loaf of bread and some ham spread. When we went to get back on the bus, we were each given a loaf of bread. Later, we got bags of pasta, jars of jelly, carmel donut holes, and popcorn. 

We made another stop to a house that was built in 1860 which has been lovely restored by the current owners. It was just beautiful down to the smallest details.

They had miniature donkeys which were very cute.

 We had also made a stop in the town of Shipshewana for lunch. Another stop was to see the RV Hall of Fame.in Elkhart. It is an 100,000 square foot museum and library that features a variety of historical recreational vehicles. Near the entrance they had many pictures of these, including a volkswagen bus, which was our first traveling vehicle back when our boys were just babies. We walked through the large rooms exploring rv's that went back to the earliest days of automobiles.

1913 Earl Travel Trailer with Model T Ford

1958 Airstream

1935 Covered Wagon Travel Trailer

Tear Drop Trailer

1966 Mustang Trailer

We finished up the day with an Amish supper. We all sat at large tables where the food was passed along in large bowls of pot roast, chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing. Then pies for desert. Everything was delicious and we had a really great day.

54th Escapade at Goshen, IN

We checked into the Fairgrounds on Sunday, a day early. This is actually a nice setting with lots of green grass everywhere.

Escapades are filled with 5 days of events geared to educate and entertain. You don't need to be a member of the secapees club in order to attend. In fact, our neighbors here were a young couple with 5 children and one on the way just interested in the rv experience of full timing. There are lots of seminars and presentations with a wide range of rv related topics, including boondocking, preparing for full timing, technology for travelers, how to find work camping jobs on the road, classes on picasa and blogging, etc, etc. We have gone to one other escapade before. This time we went to several of Geeks on Tours seminars on cloud computing and google maps and a couple of travel seminars on Alaska and the Canadian Maritimes. We started with a few days of warm humid weather but boy did that change. Most of the week was cold and rainy. Luckily most things were indoors but we still had a walk through wet grass to get to the seminars. Better than wet mud however. In one of the big rooms, there were vendors selling rv products. Also a thing called the row open for several hours each day. This is where different chapters of Escapees have tables set up to present information on their chapters. We helped man a table for Jojoba Hills to encourage people to come to our beautiful park for a visit. It was fun talking to people, some who knew of Jojoba and some who didn't and thought it would be a good place to stay for a a visit in So Cal. Monday late afternoon there was an open ceremony and door prices and announcements. Other afternoons also had door prices and announcements followed by entertainment. 
There was even a chili cookoff. We had thought about entering but didn't. There were a lot of different chilis and you would donate money to the ones you liked best and the ones who received the most money were the winners. The money went to CARE, the big Escapee charity in Livingston, Texas. The three winners got money as prizes but all turned around and gave it to the charity as well. 

When we signed up for the rally, we also signed up for an one day HOP on Saturday to visit Amish Country.
That will be in my next post and there will be lots of pictures. Stay tuned.

Another day in Indiana

This morning we went to a class on digital cameras put on by an English gentleman by the name of Phil May. He had a great sense of humor. Got some tips I wasn't aware of. We went to several more Geeks on Tours classes, one on picassa, beyond the basics and one on internet connections on the road. The seminars have been most helpful and made this detour to attend the rally worthwhile. We signed up for the Geeks on Tours website that gives us access to all their videos online and were also given a dvd that has them as well.

Our last class was another on Alaska and was a panel discussion with 3 people who have traveled to Alaska a number of times.

We went out to dinner at Applebees where we used our $10 coupon. The food was okay. At 700 we went to the last gathering where they gave out more door prices and Nick told a number of funny stories.

Friday we got up and after having one last donut and coffee packed up and headed out for Mosquito Lake State Park, our next stop for the Labor Day weekend. We had made reservations ahead of time as a lot of the parks we looked at were full for the 3 day Holiday. This state park is in

Cortland, Ohio about an hour from Akron and Cleveland. We have a nice spot. It isn't on the water but is surrounded by trees and is very pretty.                                                                                         

More seminars and McKinney Washtub Two

We went to four seminars today. We feel like we are back in school. We went to three more of Geeks on Tours seminars, one on beginning blogging, one beyond the basics of blogging and GPS Navigation and Trip Planning.
Jim and Chris make the classes fun and easy to follow. In the GPS seminar, they gave out a trial cd for Streets and Trips. It is a great navigation tool. You can use it with your GPS or even download to your smart phone that  has GPS installed such as the Droid. I think that is our next purchase as we have Verizon now and had been thinking of getting the Droid anyway.
The last seminar of the day was on Preparing to drive in Alaska put on by Dennis Hill, who owns RV Driving School, which is the driving school we went to back in El Cajon at the start of this adventure. He is very funny and really got us excited about going to Alaska one of these days. There were a number of people there that had been there 2 or 3 times. They just love it.
The evening entertainment was a concert by McKinney Washtub Two. They are a husband and wife team. Whitt and Judy McKinney make music on everything from guitar and mandolin, to washboards, spoons, a flute, and even a kazoo!

Gypsy Journal Seminars

Tuesday morning we went and had coffee and donuts and then started our day of seminars. They had quite a lot to choose from on subjects such as fire safety and other issues related to rvs, computer related such as blogging, using picasa and google earth, , crafts, beginning kayaking and bicycling and many others. Our first class was on fire safety. Of course they start off by scaring you showing a film on how fast a motorhome can burn up. But it is a very important subject and we ended up buying some fire extinguishers to keep in different parts of the motorhome including one that goes behind the refrigerator which is one of the main places fires start. Who knew? They gave a lot of other could tips of this subject. After this we went through the vendor tents and then after having some lunch went to a few more seminars. One is managing digital photos with picasa and the other email issues on the road. They were put on by Geeks on Tour. The "geeks" are Chris and Jim Guld, who have been computer support professionals since the 80's. They decided to full time rv in 2003 and put on seminars and write tutorials and have videos on various computer subjects that are of interest to those of us on the road as will as anyone interested in learning about picasa, blogging and other internet related subjects. We found the seminars to be very helpful.
In the evening Nick had some interesting entertainment. The Hoosier Honey Beauty contest. Pretty funny.

The winner with Nick Russell

The winner was Jim Guld from Geeks on Tour that we didn't realize until the next day when we went to another of their seminars. 

Eastern Gypsy Journal Rally

Monday afternoon we arrived at Elkhart Campground. We checked in and got set up and then went and signed in for the rally. They will be having seminars, vendors with rv related product and some entertainment at night. They also gave out door prices. We got one the first night, which was a $10 off coupon for Applebee's restaurant. They gave a lot of restaurant coupons out the first night so people had time to use them in the area while they were here. Nick is a very funny man. He definitely could be a stand up comedian. In addition to the journal, he writes a separate blog called Nick's Blog about their travels. He also writes a blog called Bad Nick. He is not PC and has his own opinions on a variety of subjects, whether political or everyday life. You can't label him as conservative or liberal as he just speaks his mind. I don't always agree with him but just love reading his blog and the comments he gets from others.