Grand Forks, North Dakota — July 18-21, 2013

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Previous journeys have put us on east-west routes across lower sections of North Dakota.  Since we were up near the top of the Union anyway, we decided to try the northernmost path, Rte 2.  We took it out of Duluth and stopped first in Grand Forks, ND.  Actually we didn’t!  We stopped just short at East Grand Forks, Minnesota, just across the Red River.  There, the Red River State Recreation Area provided full hookup pull-thru sites spread widely through the park.  Not cheap, and with a daily use fee on top of it.  But spacious, comfortable and efficient.

We spent most of our time in Grand Forks ND itself, but we took in a fascinating experience in East: the Northern Lights Railroad Museum.  Originally started as a model railroading club in the 1980’s, it has grown to interpret the history of railroading in the Northern Great Plains.  It’s housed in a replica train depot built by volunteers after the 1997 flood (much more on that later) and has been expanded since.  Clearly a work in progress, it houses two model railroads, one in HO gauge depicting the Great Plains and the other in N gauge, depicting the Mid-West logging industry. Some of the tiny HO details are outstanding, such as a boy scout troop and a prison work gang, both shown below.

The Red River, a.k.a. the Red River of the North, forms almost the entire border between Minnesota and North Dakota.  Its source is at Wahpeton, ND, approximately 50 miles SSE of Fargo, and it passes Fargo and Grand Forks on its way a little over 300 miles to Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, just north of its capitol.  Yes, it’s the river made famous by the song, Red River Valley, which probably originated in Manitoba around 1870 and has many different titles and sets of lyrics!

The “RRN” is best known for flooding.  You have listened more than once to The Weather Channel’s intimate tracking of its flood stages, which began in the paleo era but have caused devastation more recently in 1997, 2009 and 2011.  Of those three, the first was the worst in this area, in large part because the major metropolises along its route were better prepared to fight the onslaught after the 1997 devastation.

In 1997, water spread up to 3 miles on either side of its course, causing 100% of E. Grand Forks and 75% of Grand Forks to be evacuated for weeks.  After the wipe-out, Grand Forks built a series of retractable flood walls.  All of the homes on Riverside Drive and most of those on picturesque Lewis Boulevard were demolished or relocated to make room for the protective system.  Careful attention to detail allowed the Riverside Historic District to be placed on the National Register in 2007.  Numerous architectures, including Queen Anne, Bungalow, Mechanic’s Cottage, Tudor, Dutch Colonial and American Craftsman are represented in Riverside.  Numerous turn of the century commercial, consumer and government structures form another impressive tour.

The Grand Forks project worked.  2009 and 2011 produced the third and fourth highest floods in the city’s history, with no significant damage in the area.  Both of those wreaked more havoc north, in Fargo and in Manitoba.

The Grand Forks County Historical Society was established in 1970.  Today, it operates a campus-style museum that highlights much of the good that North Dakota represents.  It began through the auspices of the Campbell family.  Thomas senior and his wife homesteaded near the River in 1875.  They built a log cabin and sired a son, Thomas junior, in 1882.  The cabin was incorporated into their Dutch Colonial home.   Junior became “America’s Wheat King” (story below).  The family donated the house, 3 acres of land and a restoration fund to the Historic Society, and in 1971, the opening was dedicated to Junior’s mother, Almira Campbell, representing all pioneer women.

Joining the Myra Museum and the Campbell House, four additional buildings and a bandstand are located on the property:  Log Cabin Post Office, One Room Schoolhouse, Carriage House and Lustron Home.

The foundation of John E. Myra (1857-1939), a successful entrepreneur who was one of the largest landowners in the area at the time of his death, funded the construction of the Myra Museum, designed after the Campbell home.  With no natural heirs, he earmarked the bulk of his estate for charitable purposes, including making over 4,000 acres of land available to local farmers.

Numerous stories of interest are found within the museum.  GF Museum (11)Grand Forks was the home of Cream of Wheat.  The chief miller of a flour mill teetering on bankruptcy after the 1893 crash, devised a way to convert the leavings into the creamy product we know today.  It took less than two years for the product to turn the tables, and today it’s manufactured in Minneapolis.

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Campbell House

The aforementioned Thomas Campbell, Jr. (1882-1966), an avid student and athlete, received the first engineering degree granted by U-ND in 1904.  He created the largest privately owned wheat farm in Hardin, MT in 1918, over 95,000 acres.  He seeded 100 square miles of wheat annually.  Campbell showed his patriotism by volunteering in both WW I and II, rising to the rank of Brigadier General and establishing a close friendship with Dwight David Eisenhower.

Coincident with the efforts of Tom Campbell were the pioneering efforts of Gust Hagert (1873-1962).  Hagert emigrated from Sweden at age 16.  In 1906, he married Bertha Sand (1880-1973), a schoolteacher whose family emigrated from Norway.  The Hagerts had seven children.  Thanks to Gust and Bertha and generations of their offspring, the homestead that he began and built into a major enterprise survives today as the Hagert Seed Company.

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The Quiet Room

Bertha’s wedding dress had been turned into clothes for the children.  As a gift to their parents on their 50th wedding anniversary, Dorothy and Blanche, their eldest children, had a replica made.  Later, after the deaths of Gust and Bertha, the family created a memorial Quiet Room in the Myra Museum to honor them.  Mannequins of their parents were custom-made in France duplicating their wedding picture pose.  They now entice museum-goers to enjoy a few moments of tranquility in the Quiet Room.

Fred P. Nash journeyed from Vermont to the Dakota Territory to homestead.   Eschewing the farm, he opened a confectionery store and invited his brothers, Willis and Edgar, to join him.  The business went through the usual setbacks until 1889, when a boxcar of peaches was routed by mistake to Grand Forks.  Seizing the day, the brothers mortgaged everything to buy the load and wholesale it throughout the area.  Joined by 14 year old Harry Finch that same year, they eventually parlayed their skills to expand the business, and by the end of WW II, they also owned their own supermarkets.  Nash Finch stock did an IPO in 1983 and today is a multinational corporation on the Fortune 500.   Hey, there’s gold in them there peaches!

Perhaps the most unique of all was the Lustron Home.  In 1947, the Lustron Corp. received a major grant from the federal government to produce a prefabricated home made out of enameled steel.  It was virtually maintenance free, and it could be erected quickly to satisfy the needs of returning GI’s.  Expecting to build 40,000 homes in the first two years, only 3,000 were built, and the company closed its doors in 1950.  The house on the Historical Society property was one of about 20 in the area.  It was flood-ravaged in 1997 but carefully restored and re-erected here.  Between the house, the advertising and the artifacts displayed within, it is truly a déjà vu for those of us in our 7th or 8th decades.  See examples below.

This trip through the County Historical Society’s comprehensive exhibit ended our visit, with total satisfaction.

 

Duluth — July 11-17, 2013

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Train tour

Waterfront

It was our hope, this time as well as the last UP visit, to travel northwest into the rich copper country. But we decided, instead, to maintain our course, and the next stop was Duluth.

But that was a mistake — we spent a week in Duluth and never really connected with the city.  Why we longed to go there, we can’t really recall!  We visited the waterfront, the sight of another freighter-museum.  And we took a tour along the waterfront on a local railroad spur turned into a tourist attraction. The train ride was to and fro for about ten picturesque miles. We rode one way in an open (chilly) car, and we went upstairs into the dome of one of the closed cars for a birds-eye view on the way back.

And we toured Glensheen, a standout attraction.
Chester Arthur Congdon (1853-1916) was a Rochester, NY born lawyer and financier. He graduated from Syracuse U. in 1875 and married a classmate, Clara, six years later. By 1892, he and Clara were in Duluth, where Chester amassed a fortune, primarily in copper and iron mining. He was a sensitive man of quiet philanthropy, but he also splurged over $850K on an estate overlooking the city. It was built between 1905 and 1908, and it has been identified as a “melding of late Victorian, Arts and Crafts and Art Noveau.” The 39 room mansion sits on 7.6 acres of Lakefront property.
One of our very favorite mansion visits is Copshaholm, the South Bend mansion of the Joseph Oliver family. Built in 1896, it remained in family hands until it became a museum with original family content. Glensheen shares the same honor; it served the family for its entire life until donated to the University of Minnesota in 1968. It even includes Chester’s top hat and some of Clara’s handwritten letters among its artifacts. Clara outlived her husband by 34 years; she was still a resident when she died in 1950 at 94.
Elisabeth Congdon, sixth of Charles and Clara’s seven progeny and last surviving member of her generation, retained residency in the home until 1977, when she and her nurse were murdered by Roger Caldwell, the second husband of her adopted daughter, Marjorie. Roger’s double-life sentence was overturned, but he confessed soon thereafter and committed suicide. Marjorie was found innocent of co-conspiracy, but she went on to a life of crime.

First contact with the estate is the Gardener’s Cottage (below left), occupied by the same family for 83 years. It’s the only building on the estate that was ever modified. It housed George Wyness, hired in 1921 to be the family gardener, and the cottage was later enlarged for his growing family. His son, Bob, took over the clippers for his dad and was the last person to live on the property, departing in 2004 with his wife Elsie for a retirement home.

Next, the Carriage House, which now serves as tour-central. One first passes through the stables, then moves on to the vehicle room with numerous carriages and a motor car, perched on an elevator that took it to its upper-floor storage. The yellow-topped is a Studebaker Mountain Wagon, purchased in 1907, a South Bend product that preceded their auto manufacture.

Our trip through the mansion allowed very limited photo opportunities. On the other hand, it treated our eyes to the exquisite trappings that money can bring. Clara had a strong hand in the selection of interior treatments and both Congdons had a fondness for landscaping. It was truly worth the stop.

Fulfilling our UP Promise: July 6-10, 2013

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We visited Marquette in 2010, near the western end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which is like a “roof” over the state. We loved the city and conveyed many stories of its beauty and history in our e-book, The Journey.  And we heard so much about the UP that we vowed to visit more of it, especially the eastern end.

This was our chance.  Heading north again on Rte. 75 across the Mackinac Bridge dropped us in St. Ignace, and another 50 miles put us in Sault Ste. Marie – as far as you can go without crossing the Canadian border.  (Incidentally, the other end of Rte. 75 is just north of Miami!)

Sault Ste. Marie translates to “Rapids of St. Mary.”  They bridge the gap between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  The “Soo” Locks first tamed the rapids in 1855.  Today, there are four locks available for ships of all sizes maintained by the U.S. Amy Corp of Engineers:   Poe (1896; rebuilt 1968), Davis (1914), Sabin (1919) and MacArthur (1943). Davis and Sabin are supposed to be replaced by a super lock; while ground has been broken, the funding is still not appropriated.  There is also a small lock on the Canadian side, opened in 1998, that is used primarily by pleasure craft.  Fun facts:  the locks handle  over 90 million tons of cargo on 11,000 ship passages annually.  A single 1000 foot “Laker” carries the cargo of 60 – 100  train cars or 2,300 large trucks.  The neighboring hydroelectric plant produces over 150 million kwh of electricity each year.

We had lunch at the appropriately named Lockview Restaurant, and we watched a huge Coast Guard buoy tender maneuver itself into the nearest lock.  As we sat there finishing up our sandwiches, it began to disappear.  We chomped quickly and ran across the street to view the sinking as the water flowed out and lowered it to the outbound level.  Regrettably, I had neither camera nor cell phone!

Tower of History (6)

MV Valley Camp Museum

Sault Ste. Marie also provided an opportunity to explore one of the mighty ore ships stem to stern.  The MV Valley Camp (1917) is berthed on the waterfront as a museum representing the fleet that plies the waters of the lakes to this day.  Inside its vast cargo hold and around its decks are numerous exhibits revealing the challenge to take these behemoths to sea.  One can wander from stem to stern.  If you visit the wheelhouse and look aft, the fantail seems to be in the next county.  An informative exhibit is a series of simple charts that show each lake, its position in the chain and the commercial shipping value it brings.  Please enjoy the gallery below that  pictures many features of this self-guided tour.

 

On one level of the poop deck is a memorial dedicated to the Edmund Fitzgerald, whose loss with all hands in 1972 is retained for posterity by Gordon Lightfoot’s  mournful ballad.  The complete lyrics are part of the exhibit.  More poignant, however, is the battered lifeboat that may have given brief hope to some of the crew.  As a lifelong sailor, I am reminded, with tears in my eyes, of the Navy Hymn:  Eternal Father, strong to save / Whose arm hath bound the restless wave / Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep / Its own appointed limits keep / Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee / For those in peril on the sea.

Tower of History

Tower of History

A sister exhibit to the MV Valley Camp is the Tower of History.  A 210 foot structure, it was originally built by the Catholic Church to herald the early missionaries in the area.  Today, it provides historical extracts of the region’s religious and secular history.  I found it even more fascinating as the source of a bird’s eye view of the entire downtown and harbor area.  The results are below.  It took me a long time to find out what the long building along the waterfront is:  The Cloverland Cooperative Hydroelectric Plant!

After Sault Ste. Marie, we trekked westward across the UP.  We did stop in Marquette again, to refresh our minds of the  beautiful Lake Superior. In fact we found one new – and one renewed – attraction to visit.

"Nugget" in Presque Isle Park

“Nugget” in Presque Isle Park

Our friend Worsley in Grand Rapids declared that the largest copper nugget in the world was not to be missed.  We drove back to Presque Isle Park, a venue with which we were very familiar, and found it — a slab of “glacial float” copper, discovered in the Keweenaw Peninsula in 1998 and moved to the park two months after our earlier visit.  It measures 15 x 13 feet and weighs 28 tons.  Float copper or drift copper is literally transported by glacial movements.

We were in town in 2010 on the very last days of the existing Marquette Regional History Center.  Our return allowed us a trip through the new facility.  Night vs. day — it was a major wow factor.

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The entrance sign.

How we missed Lakenenland last time around, we can’t figure.  It has been open since at least 2007, about 15 miles outside of Marquette.  Tom Lakenen is an ironworker-turned-artist who has created a drive-through park of immense proportions.  He built the 37 acre park and its 80 sculptures to “have something to do during layoffs after I stopped drinking.”   Harassed by the local jurisdiction, a town called Chocolay, he continues to try to provide something for everyone.  In addition to his art, he’s built perch-filled ponds for young anglers, a rest stop on a snow machine trail though his property, and a bandstand for anyone to use and enjoy.  The path through his art  is not a route one can take casually; it’s important to walk it or drive it twice with many stops of contemplation on the second pass.  Like the Hudson car pictures in Shipsewana, I will limit my pictures below – with difficulty.  My artistic readers, I hope, will demand more!

We consider ourselves even more Yoopers than ever.

Mackinac Island — and a Reunion: June 27-July 5, 2013

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You say tomato and I say tomahto.  You say potato and I say potahto.

You say Mackinac and I say Mackinaw . . .

The real skinny:  The French spelled it with “ac” on the end but pronounced it “aw.”  The British heard it pronounced “aw” so they spelled it that way. Whichever way it is spelled, it is always pronounced “aw.”

We were already due south of it at the Heartland Rally, and our home club, the Friendly Maryland Travelers, were heading there for a Rally. Longtime members, we hadn’t joined them for eons because of our cross-country adventures, so it was nice to hook up again. We all stayed in the Mackinaw City Park in sight of Mackinac Island and not far from the Mackinac Bridge across the straits between Lakes Huron and Michigan. It’s a large, naturally-designed, well-maintained park with many sites on the Huron shore.  We did group meals, side trips down town, a day-long July 4th party and, of course, a trip over to Mackinac Island itself. We took a jet boat over.  There are no cars allowed on the Island except an ambulance.  Some of our folks were drawn to a three hour long horse-drawn tourist cart adventure, while others brought their bikes.  As we went past the Grand Hotel, biggest and fanciest on the island, we learned they charged gawkers $10 to enter the grounds and look around!

Back on the mainland, we toured the Icebreaker Mackinaw Marine Museum.  The ship was commissioned in 1944 primarily to keep shipping lanes open for the transport of raw materials during WW II.  She is 290 feet long with three propellers – two aft and one forward – driven by six monster diesel engines.  She served until 2006, when she berthed for good in her namesake port and gave way to a new Mackinaw, the slightly smaller WLBB-30.  The docent in the engine room when we took our tour was very well versed, and she handled my curiosity thoroughly.

Another highlight was a spin along the waterfront.  Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse is adjacent to Fort Michilimackinac, where a statue tells the story of one of the earliest English inhabitants.  After the British gained control of Canada and the Great Lakes in 1760, 22 year old Alexander Henry (1739-1834) made his way down from Montreal to explore the fur trading opportunities.  Others followed and continued to use the Fort, abandoned by the French, as a trading post.  A year later, the Ojibwe entered the fort, killed all the British and held it for a year.  Alexander, however was spared by Chief Wawatam, who adopted him as a son.  A year later, when the Ojibwe were repulsed, Alexander was granted a monopoly on fur trading on Lake Superior.  After 11 active years, he returned to Montreal and became a merchant.  Among his plaudits is the fact that he introduced John Jacob Astor to the Canadian fur trade.

Mackinac Bridge

Mackinac Bridge

And then we trekked the long span to the Upper Peninsula.

Grand Rapids: June 26 – 28, 2013

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Ford Museum3

Mr. President

Ford Museum5

The All-Star

We still had four or five days to kill until our due date at the next Rally in Mackinaw.  Grand Rapids was a comfortable midpoint, and we enjoyed the opportunity to visit yet another Presidential museum.  Our 38th President’s heritage is divided.  Grand Rapids, his home town,  is the location of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, while his Library is on the campus of his undergraduate alma mater, UMichigan, in Ann Arbor.  They are jointly administered.  The museum  is housed in a grand architectural concept near downtown, its front lawn guarded by an abstract Ford in football regalia. Captain of his high school football team, outstanding college player elected to the national all-star team, and recipient of contract offers from two NFL teams,  he opted, instead, for boxing and football coaching positions at Yale, hoping to get into their law program.  Completing his LLB in the top quarter of his class in 1941, he returned to Grand Rapids and briefly worked as a lawyer.  But a year later he became an ensign in the Navy Reserve.  He served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Monterrey and almost lost his life — not in battle but when the ship was caught in a typhoon in the Philippine Sea, caught fire and was severely damaged.  After his discharge in 1946, he returned to Grand Rapids to practice law but was soon inspired by his adoptive father, the state Republican chairman, to run for Congress.  He was elected to 14 terms, each with over 60% of the vote.  While he longed to be Speaker of the House, the best he accomplished was Minority Leader, a post he held for 8 years before being tapped by President Nixon to replace Spiro Agnew as his right-hand man.  The rest, as they say, is history.

The museum does, indeed, chronicle his life with many exhibits.  His three short years as president do not provide much sensationalism, but it was a much-needed national calmness after Watergate.  Thinking back, the strongest memory I have – other than the pardon — was his “WIN” slogan, encouraging us to Whip Inflation Now.  Pundits  would turn it upside down and recast it as No Immediate Miracles!

While in Grand Rapids, we took a day to drive out and see Lake Michigan at Muskegon.  It’s a fascinating town, and since we now seek out history and aesthetics wherever we go, we find that we often allot too little time to cover a destination.  We could have spent three days exploring Muskegon! The area is blessed with Muskegon Lake, fed by the Muskegon River and emptying into its huge sister through a narrow channel.  It’s 4150 acres and has almost 15 miles of coastline.  As such, it was a haven for the logging industry, where timber came down the river and was milled on the banks of the lake before being freighted out to the world.

HackleyHume

Hackley and Hume Homes

The names Hackley and Hume pepper the landscape; Charles Hackley and partner Thomas Hume were the prime lumber barons.  Here’s a picture of their adjacent homes.

We spent the most time in the Lakeshore Museum. The museum itself explores the lifecycle of the area over the past half-billion years or so – it’s been under water for much of its life and it once meandered south of the equator.   Several lovely dioramas were created by the Works Project Administration, which apparently put many artists, as well as artisans, to work in the 1930’s  Fauna from the woolly mammoth to the barn owl were displayed.

Hackley Park is less than a block away.  It was created to memorialize the War between the States.  It opened in 1892, the day of the dedication of its centerpiece, a 76 foot soldiers and sailors monument. In its center, a 14-foot bronze “goddess of victory” atop a granite pylon, holding a flag and sword (pictured).  She is surrounded by a sailor, infantryman, cavalryman and artillery man.  At the corners of the city-block sized park are four additional bronze statues:  Pres. Lincoln, Adm. Farragut, Gen. Grant and Gen. Sherman. The Museum has several annexes.

scolnik house

The Scolnick House

Time expired before we could explore the campus of  Hackley/Hume homes.  But we did visit two others. The Scolnik House, named for the real owners of the house, represents the Depression Era, when the market declined 75% and 25% of the nation was unemployed.  The storyline in which the home lives today is that it was owned by a Polish Catholic family who converted it into a two family to make ends meet, leasing the upstairs to a family of Polish Jews escaping the Holocaust.  Our guide put us clearly in the situation as she took us through the humble Queen Anne structure.

Next door is the C.H. Hackley Hose Co. No. 2 , a.k.a. the Fire House Museum.   It is a reconstruction, built as part of the bicentennial celebration.  Its artifacts, however, are authentic.  Upstairs is the bunk room, complete with the requisite fire pole.  On the main floor were two horse stalls which, when opened, put their “engines” within a few feet of their tack, hung and prepared for instant harnessing.  A “modern” motor driven engine stood ready, and a jumping net was displayed over it.  Above the stables was a pompier ladder, a device that allowed the fighters to break a window on the floor above, hook to the sill, and climb to rescue the damsel in distress.

This, and a scenic drive to the harbor and channel where the waters of Muskegon flow into Lake Michigan, was the most we could get to do in one day.  Pity!

As a bonus, I got to visit with one of my former database clients, John Worsley.  John was Director of Marketing at Performance Bicycle in North Carolina, and I loved to go down to Raleigh and visit my favorite good ol’ boy.  John moved out of the Tarheel State almost a decade ago, and I found him in Grand Rapids, thanks to LinkedIn. We hadn’t seen each other for over fifteen years, and we did a lot of catching up – and clue-ing Dot in – over a long lunch downtown.  He’s now  a confirmed Michigander and, as usual, a font of local –and industry — knowledge!  (I was really only interested in the former!)

Grand Rapids and environs was a new and very interesting venue for us.  But now it was time to join our Maryland club at our annual long-distance adventure.  This was the first time in four years that we’d been able to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Heartland Rally and Aftermath — June 16-23, 2013

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Numerous nice things happened at the Rally.

When the damage on my trip home from North Carolina first occurred, I contacted the director of dealer services at Heartland to enlist his aid in finding a suitable repairer.  Jim and I have developed a “working knowledge” of each other over the years.  I then contacted the director of the Heartland Owners Club, sponsor of the Rally.  As a result, the word got around, and everyone I ran into when I got there bent over backwards to accommodate and help me.

One of the perks of the Rally was the opportunity to have Heartland perform a couple of factory service needs on each rig.  Techs showed up from neighboring Elkhart in droves on the first Rally day and stayed for several days to complete reasonable requests.  We got everything done that we’d requested!

One more repair was required by the tire explosions — replacement of a small body panel.  Heartland uses an authorized agent for most of its repair and dealer prep work, and Jim made arrangements for me to get that job done before we left – at a very reasonable price.

Despite the fact that we’d spent a week in Goshen in 2012, we still found two new area attractions.  One was Menno-Hof, the perfect place to hone your knowledge of the many area people with straw hats or bonnets, beards or long dresses, boxy black buggies, and houses with no electricity.  Collectively they’re Anabaptists, a movement founded in Zurich, Switzerland in 1525 in the early years of the Reformation.  The movement spread north and east, to Tyrol, the Low Countries and into South Germany and Russia.  Convinced that the church had become corrupted, Anabaptists called for the strict separation of church and state.  They also sought the purity of the simple life.  They were violently persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants — members were declared heretics and treated as such.  They escaped by migrating into the U.S., beginning in 1644 and increasing throughout the 18th century.  William Penn welcomed them to Pennsylvania.  Between 1815-60, others flooded into Ohio and Indiana.  Many of the Pennsylvania Mennonites migrated to Ontario, and direct immigration into Canada followed.

Menno Hoff Center

Menno Hoff Center

Menno-Hof, in the neighboring town of Shipshewana,  is a multimedia presentation of the heritage, beliefs and lifestyle of the movement.  One of the most important things it does is define the groups within the movement, primarily Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites.  The original movement was the Hutterite, but the largest is the Mennonite.  Today, Anabaptists can be found in 66 countries, on every continent except Antarctica!

Your experience begins with a 13 minute introductory video, and then you pass through two dozen exhibits that document nearly phase of Anabaptist life.  It’s a wonderful opportunity to understand – and respect – their culture.  Speaking of respect, the Goshen Walmart isolates a section of its parking lot with hitching posts!

Adjacent to Menno-Hof is the  Hostetler Hudson Museum.  Eldon Hostetler grew up on his family’s 280 acre Amish farm, where automobiles were, of course, verboten.  A neighbor’s son, however, went south and west to follow the wheat harvest, and when he returned, he was driving a 1936 Hudson Terraplane.   In 1940, at age 18, Eldon began his own lifetime bond to Hudsons,  purchasing a 1938 model with a secret loan from his grandfather.

Eldon had a profitable life.  He left the family farm and started a poultry business.  He revolutionized the industry when he invented an automatic feeding system for laying hens and started Ziggity Systems in 1977 to take it to market.  This was followed by dozens of other patents aimed at streamlining farm processes.

Eldon bought a new Hudson every year until manufacturing ceased in 1954.  After that, his wealth made it possible for him to amass and restore a collection reputed to be the largest in the world.  In 1997, Eldon donated the collection, a maintenance fund and 18 acres of land to the town of Shipshewana, which, in turn built the complex to hold it.  Most are now housed in the museum; a few are loaned to other   I took a picture of every one but will spare you by selecting a sampling!

During the Rally, I took advantage of a service called Smart Weigh.  The advisors weigh each wheel of the RV and tow vehicle independently.  I frequently checked the overall weight to be sure I wasn’t exceeding road limits.  But this program revealed a significant fact:  the left rear trailer tire – the culprit in my May travail — was overloaded.  So just before we left town, we installed a new set of heavier-duty Goodyears.

Now we were broke!

 

 

Land O’ Goshen

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Meanwhile . . . back at the RV travails.

We were scheduled to be at the  Goshen, Indiana fairgrounds for a huge rally beginning on June 16, sponsored by Heartland, the  manufacturers of our Bighorn trailer.  Goshen and neighboring Elkhart are the center of the RV manufacturing universe.  Goshen is also the home of Lippert Components, the company that manufactures the complete chassis for Heartland and many other RV trailer companies.

The shop I visited in Maryland reported serious damage, including a bent frame.  They couldn’t do the frame work, but they has a neighboring company quote on it, at $1900.  At that point, I would still have to have significant damage to the suspension and running gear repaired.  I contracted for the work, but at the eleventh hour, I smelled a rat.

I called Lippert to see if they could repair (actually replace) our running gear prior to the rally, and I got an appointment.  On Monday, June 9, alone and with two extra tires aboard, I aimed for another 600 mile run, this time to Goshen.  I passed nothing on the road, travelling between 40 and 50 mph as though I was driving on eggs.  I stopped in Streetsboro, Ohio, after 385 incident free miles, and I ate the biggest steak I could find!  The additional 240 miles on Tuesday got me in early enough to arrange to occupy space in the fairgrounds during the Rally’s advanced days.

On Thursday, Lippert fixed the “frame damage” for $100 and replaced the entire undercarriage with a new, heavier duty package.  Total cost: $1400  — $500 less than the quoted frame straightening alone in Maryland.  I was so relieved that I splurged on the addition of air ride.  In the end, I spent about the same for all new stuff that I would have just to have repairs made in Maryland.

As soon as the Rally was underway and the unit was in its reserved space, I drove back to Maryland – a 1,300 mile, 24 hour round trip – to bring Dot and the family aboard.

Gracie and Melody

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On Sunday, May 26, the other shoe fell.  After receiving a clean bill of health from her vet just three days earlier, our beloved Gracie suddenly crossed the Rainbow Bridge.  She was lethargic, slept most of the day, and began bleeding in the late afternoon.  Dot rushed her to an emergency vet, but she died on the way.   It was doubly unexpected — Gracie, our retired champion who had  just turned 15, came from a strong lifeline.

We’ve decided that Gracie was the victim of an undetectable colon or intestinal cancer.  Such a condition is not unknown.  Recognizing a cause, however, did very little to salve the uncontrollable grief that Dot felt – and I shared.  Gracie was the closest to the center of Dot’s heart.  Willie also died quite unexpectedly in 2010; the pair joined our family within a couple of months of each other in 2007, and they constituted Dot’s team, while Ted and Allie were my team.

Dot was dangerously depressed.  Without letting her know, I sent an urgent plea to six of my closest Schipperke “resources” – rescuers and breeders alike.  Within 48 hours, I was blessed with an offer of another champion in search of a retirement home.  Melody – CH Sheradin’s Summer Rhapsody – was a month short of seven.  She was infertile, and Diane Harris, her breeder,  felt she would be much happier in a smaller Schip environment.

There were more surprises:

Tanner was a very successful champion from Tom and Carol Luke’s kennel in Illinois. Tanner was Gracie’s father —  and Melody’s great- grandfather!

Diane’s beloved Thumper was a renowned champion until his death at 18 in 2010. Thumper was Gracie’s step-brother – and Melody’s grandfather!

So you can see why we had extra hope that Melody could significantly ease Dot’s pain.  On June 9, she drove to Tennessee to bring Melody to her new home.  They bonded quickly and have continued to do so.

We continue to openly adore Gracie and all the others who’ve gone before us.  She is aboard on our bedroom dresser — along with Barnacle, Teddy, Serena and Willie —  in their tiny boxes, each topped with a Schip angel.

Getting Ready to Depart . . . Again

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It was our goal to leave again on June 9th to begin summer travel.  We had three rallies scheduled, in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan from June 19th through July 7th.  Then we were off on another western swing.

I spent a week or more simply trying to find someone who would fix the RV.  Starting with our selling dealer, I went through a list of known names and referrals, but everyone was booked weeks ahead.  After all, it was the start of the normal season.  I finally found a shop north of us that promised to look at it on May 29.

I had a date on May 18 to meet with Anna to discuss this website.  I learned in advance, however, that Dot had a second 75th birthday surprise party scheduled that day.  So I dutifully spent two hours with Anna and drove home with feigned surprise.   Actually, there were wonderful surprises, in the form of friends and family who traveled from as far away as California to attend.  Bummed as I was, I still found enjoyment Dot’s special handiwork.

Bummer Trip Home

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Dot left Murphy, NC in the car with the dogs on the day before my class began, so I batched it for a week.  On Saturday, May 11, I left before 7 am with the plan to make as much of the 600 mile trip on Saturday and finish it up on Sunday.  Approximately five hours into the drive, the left rear trailer tire exploded.  I waited for Road Service to replace it with the spare.  An hour later, the replacement exploded with equal vengeance.  After paying a significant price this time for Road Service to bring out a tire and mount it, I limped the rest of the way home, driving the Washington DC Beltway in the dark in the pouring rain at 40 miles an hour.  Needless to say, I arrived home, exhausted, near midnight.