Visit to the University of Notre Dame

Elkhart, IN      (Click on Pics to Enlarge)

I'll be playing catch up with our recent activities in the next few blogs.

With our trouble described in the last blog behind us, we made it without further incident to Play-Mor Campground just east of Bremen, IN on April 30th.  We stayed here until May 7th and visited a few local attractions from here. Play-Mor was easy to maneuver and made for a very restful stop for the week.  At this time of the year, transient rigs were still few and far between.

This past Friday (May 2nd) we took a tour of the Newmar motorhome factory in Nappanee, IN.  It's just 5 miles east of the campground. Newmar is currently producing 7 rigs (of all models) per day. It was a very different experience from the Tiffin factory (which we have toured several times) as the inside of the factory was pretty quiet and there seemed to be few workers around for such a large building.  We found out that Newmar works on a "numbers" system.  When a designated number of units have been completed for the day, the workers go home. We did, indeed, see paychecks being handed out to many guys at 2:15 in the afternoon.  Not sure whether this is a good system or not, but I guess it works for them.  NOTE:  No pictures of anything to do with the inside of the Newmar factory because photos are not allowed.

On Monday (May 5th) we attended another minor league baseball game.  This one pitted the local South Bend Silverhawks against the Bowling Green Hot Rods.  The teams play Class A ball in the Midwest League.  The Silverhawks are the Class A team for the Arizona Diamondbacks of MLB.

The game was pretty close until Bowling Green pulled away in the 8th inning.  The final score was Bowling Green defeating South Bend 9-4.

One of the highlights of the area attractions so far involved our visit to the University of Notre Dame on Tuesday (May 6th).  Using the internet, we found out that public tours were conducted twice a day via students acting as guides.  Because the campus is large I used a few internet tools to determine the location of Eck Centre, the starting point for the tours.  Eck Centre houses not only the visitor's center, but also acts as the Alumni Center.

The adventure began in a not-so-smooth fashion as I first encountered the manned gate nearest the Eck Centre. I had already determined that parking for the Eck Centre was available at the Bookstore.  I also knew that the tours generally lasted between 75-90 minutes.  Unfortunately, the security person at the gate advised that parking in the Bookstore lot was limited to 1 hour.  I asked how strictly this was enforced.  He advised that they "mark" tires and make a lot of money from parking tickets.  Uh Oh!!  In the end, he gave us a one day student parking pass which allowed us to park near the stadium.  All was good.

Speaking of the stadium,  you can't think about Notre Dame without thinking about football.  We were taken to the outside of the stadium's main entrance, but the stadium itself is a separate tour.

You can't think about Notre Dame football without thinking about Knute Rockne.  Unfortunately, Coach Rockne only coached in the stadium for 1 season after being so instrumental in its' building.  Coach Rockne died in a plane crash in 1931.

Another icon at the University is the "Golden Dome". This building today houses administration offices and some class rooms, but in earlier days served as a true campus crossroads for the University.  The dome is gilded with real gold, but only about a "fistful" to cover the entire dome.

One of the prettiest buildings has to be the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  It took over 20 years to complete and houses the largest collection of French stained glass in the world. The louvered arches house 24 bells, 23 of which comprise the oldest carillon in the United States.

The interior was beautiful.  I would have loved to have heard the massive pipe organ play.  The amount of gold gilding, combined with the sunlight entering through the beautiful stained glass windows was breathtaking.

Just behind the Basilica of the Sacred Heart is the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. This is a 1/7 sized replica of the famous cave near Lourdes, France.

One of the more modern looking buildings is the Hesburgh Library.  When it opened in 1963, it was the largest college library in the world.  The guide indicated that it has since been surpassed by several other colleges, but it's still impressive nonetheless.  The tiled mural on the front of the building is entitled "Word of Life" and towers 132 feet tall and 65 feet wide.  Again, because a lot of Notre Dame life is tied to football, the students call the mural "Touchdown Jesus" as the mural can be seen from the north goal post of the football stadium.

It was a beautiful spring day when we took the tour.  The students are in the middle of taking final exams as  commencement at the University of Notre Dame is May 16-18.  If you ever get a chance to tour the University while in the South Bend, IN area, it is a very worthwhile experience.

Hopefully, the next blog will bring me up to date and tell a bit more about why we're in this part of the country at this time.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Nice Walmart for an Overnight and a Bit of Trouble

Bremen, IN     (Click on Pics to Enlarge)

This will be a short blog for today as it just speaks to a bit of travel.

We left Dumfries, VA Tuesday and began our journey toward Goshen, IN and the Escapees' Escapade.  We ran into rain almost the entire journey.   I don't mind driving in the rain, but it sure gets the coach dirty.

We usually stay in campgrounds as we travel, but for just an overnight stay I just hate to pay for a site when all we're going to do is catch a late dinner and sleep before proceeding early the next morning.

The route we chose dictated that we head thru West Virginia and western Maryland.  A bit of a hilly ride for the east coast.  We decided to stop for the night just east of Wheeling, WV (near Triadelphia).  We had stayed at the Cabela's lot on a prior trip, but after talking to our friend Bill Osborne (Seeing the USA blog) we decided to try the Walmart in the same general area.  Thanks for the suggestion Bill.

This Walmart was unlike others we had stopped, because the one here had a dedicated RV parking area. 

The area was divided from the rest of the customer parking and the sites were VERY long and easy to get into and out of.  There are about 12 spots here, but only 3 RVers for the night.

Did I mention that it rained almost the entire trip on us?  Earlier in the afternoon we stopped at a rest area in West Virginia for lunch.  While eating, our Tire Traker pressure monitor signaled.  It showed that we were losing air pressure on the left rear tire of the Honda Fit.  I threw on the raincoat and with tire pressure gauge in hand ventured outside threw the rain and heavy winds for confirmation.  Sure enough, the tire was now down to 19 PSI and I could see "something" protruding from the tread area of the tire.  This is one time when I wished that we weren't carrying two bicycles inside the Fit and two on the back.  Of course, that little temporary tire is stored under the bikes inside which necessitated removal of most everything.

Got the tire changed and was able to drive to the above mentioned Walmart.  Karen had called ahead and found out that they could repair the tire, so that was our first order of business upon arrival.

The tire was repaired for $10 and made it successfully the next day on our trip to Indiana. Let me strongly urge to anyone who does not have some brand of Tire Pressure Monitoring System that you should certainly give it some consideration.  I will guarantee you that it would have been impossible for me to feel that low tire on the rear of the Honda Fit.  I'm sure that it would have been completely shredded before I would have "felt" anything.

Oh yes, the item that was in the tread.  I would not have believed it had the Walmart guy showed me when he dismounted the tire from the rim.  I think it's part of the scissors section from a Swiss Army-style knife, but not certain.  I must have run over it at just the right, make that wrong, angle. Only about 1/4 inch of the part to the left was observable sticking from the tread.  The rest was inside the tire.

Oh well, just part of the "fun" of being a fulltimer.  We made it to our current destination in IN and we're safe, if not dry. (It's raining here again this afternoon.)

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!