FULLTIMER'S RALLY
June 1, 2000, Thursday- we got to see the coach today, and they are making progress…mostly finished on the inside, and a way to go on the outside. Good to see the professionals do their thing.
June 2, 2000, Friday- Happy Birthday to Debi, Robert and Stephen. 28 years today. Boy does time fly! Today Stephen and Becky fly to London for a long weekend. Debi goes to Vail for the weekend.
Our coach was finished today, and it looks marvelous.
I called the plant manager at Silberline, at Ernie and Roberta's suggestion, and got an abbreviated tour. At this facility they employ about 100 people, and run 24 hours a day, seven days per week. The primary product is the metallic silver that is used in automotive paints. Aluminum balls are milled down to a few thousands of an inch. These are the basic elements for the metallic paint, and the emulsion is packed into 55 gallon drums. It was an abbreviated tour, due to being last minute, and some sensitivity with their having been the subject of industrial espionage, and no photos permitted.
June 3, 2000, Saturday- we played 9 holes of golf today- the first time since mid-March, prior to my leg injury. I wasn't trying to kill the ball, or even use the big clubs, but it did feel good to get into the swing of things. Our friends Bill and Becky arrived today, and we got to see their new 45' long Heritage. Beautiful coach. About 50 of our neighbors did a pot luck dinner tonight…lots of laughs and good times out in the gravel lot. By the time the evening ended, my foot felt the exercise.
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June 4, 2000, Sunday- with my foot still feeling the newly discovered discomfort from the golf, we cancelled today's tee time. At least a half dozen friends were in the parking lot- so we basically schmoozed until late afternoon when we had to relocate to a local mall parking lot to dry camp. Since our service was completed, others had dibs on the service center spaces for the upcoming week's service.
June 5, 2000, Monday- great folks at Fleetwood. A few little things had to be "polished" after last week's service, and they got us in first thing in the AM. Then I went for new rear tires, part of the recall to put bigger tires on the rigs, free of charge. My style! We had noticed some wear holes in the slide awning, and again Fleetwood came through. Even with a zillion other coaches waiting for service, they found the time and got us in and out with a new awning. It was a cold and rainy day in the 50's, and our ride up to Shipshewana, IN was through some heavy rains. In fact, our stay in the service lot was like having to ford the Nile River. The next few days are with the Happy Wanders Chapter of the American Coach Association. The rally is for all of us full timers. Looking forward to 45 coaches of folks with similar interests.
This evening was a tough one for me….my urticaria came back to both feet. A headache continued to be a sore point. My stomach was going to town, and I spent too much time in the little boys room. My foot soreness from the injury continued. In short I couldn't wait for the day to end.
June 6, 2000, Tuesday- what a difference a night makes. All of last night's aliments have passed, sans the foot injury pains. Those will take several more weeks to pass.
Today is Deb and Rob's one-year anniversary. It's hard to believe that one year has flown by. We chatted with them this evening and Steve and Lois overnighted them some live lobsters…and they were cooking up a feast. Yum!
The London weekend for Steve and Becky ended, and they landed this afternoon. It sounded like they burned the candle at both ends, and enjoyed many of the tourist things.
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Today was a flea market day at the Shipshewana market, so off we went for a few hours. Hobbes was, again, the center of attention. As flea markets go, this was a big, big operation, well organized, and clean. But, other then some previously educated golf balls, we kept our money in our pockets.
June 7, 2000, Wednesday- the golf tournament. The format was that you couldn't be in the same foursome as your spouse, and it would be best ball per foursome. Each player had to account for at least 3 tee shots. The Lagrange Country Club course was a good local course without any brown spots, and having water on 12 holes. My foursome came in first with a 76, Susan's came in second with a 77. A good time had by all.
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June 8, 2000, Thursday- this afternoon we went to the Menno-Hof Visitors Center where the Anabaptist movement is described in detail. The three primary groups are the Amish, Mennonites and the Hutterites. The last sect is a communal living and property group, and they are the only communal society to achieve permanence and stability. They date back to 1528. The Mennonites, which date back to 1536, drive cars, work in a wide variety of occupations and professions, and choose to live and dress like the neighbors around them. The Amish, a splinter group from the Mennonites, broke off in 1693 because they wanted more spiritual discipline, felt that the Mennonites were becoming too much like the world around them. The Amish have resisted many modern conveniences, declining to own cars, radios or television and rejecting the use of phones and electricity inside their homes. Worldwide there are 750,000 Mennonites and 100,000 Amish.
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The center was very well done with film, slide, and narrative displays. Of interest to me were some of the statistics that these peach loving groups, (conscientious objectors during the wars), had gathered.
Twenty million people die from hunger every year. One half a billion people go to bed hungry each night. In five years more people die from hunger then in the last 150 years of war. Twenty percent of the world's children die before the age of 5. In the recent wars, 4 of every 5 casualties are civilians. All of these things point to the many injustices of our society.
The Shipshewana town of 500 people expands during the summer to handle 50,000 visitors at the flea market.
June 9, 2000, Friday- today we went into "town" about 3 blocks by 2 blocks. In addition to all of the "craft?" items that you find in a tourist town, there were several hand crafted wood furniture pieces, each meticulously detailed. All were great examples of hand carving, cutting and finishing.
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In the evening, our group of about 70 people went to the "Country View Banquet", for a dinner in an Amish family's home. They set up their lower level into a catering hall, with full kitchen, and everything was prepared from scratch. A multi-course meal served family style with long tables for seating. Entertainment was provided by all members of the family, from jokes to songs, to musical pieces. Afterwards they invited us into the living portions of their home. A more meticulously clean facility couldn't be found, but what was of interest in this more liberal sect of the Amish, was their use of power. The entire property was plumbed for propane, or maybe natural gas, with lanterns everywhere, just like the old Colman camping light. Some sects permit electricity if it's generated on site via a diesel or wind generator. This theoretically prevents influences from the outside world coming onto the property via the power lines. So, for the comfort of the guest, several electric fans provided for air circulation.
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