Monday May 3, 2010-Red Roof Inn, Elkhart IN

We woke this morning and ate some of our leftover muffins for breakfast. Soon after we ate, and while preparing to go out for the day, we got a call from CJ, who asked us about eating breakfast with them. Since we had already eaten, we had to decline but said we would get together with them for supper this afternoon.

We went to Martin Marketing, the supplier of the Heartland branded clothing and accessories, to check on an order that we had placed some time ago. We learned that one of the shirts had been back ordered and was no longer offered, so since it was Stella's choice of shirts, she sat down with the catalog and ordered a new shirt. We picked up a few other items and made plans for the fall rally in October. I met the owner of the company, Brad Martin, who told me that he was willing to work with me on supplying items for the rally. I am looking forward to dealing with him in the future.

We drove over to Napannee by way of Wakarusa. As I told you yesterday, I did some research on these town names in Indiana and learned that in 1836, rural Olive Township was established and as the population grew, a post office called Mt. Olive opened. As the population grew, it was renamed Salem, but there was already a town in Indiana named Salem, so the name was changed to Wakarusa. The name Wakarusa comes from a word in the Potawatomi language meaning "knee deep in mud". The only information I could find on Nappannee is that this is the only city in the United States that uses each letter in it's name twice. The word Nappannee probably means "flour".

We had driven through Nappannee yesterday and had seen a couple of dually trucks at the Chevrolet dealer in town. I had left them a message about my interest in these trucks, but didn't hear from anyone, so we decided to drive over to check them out. Both trucks were very nice but we have decided not to buy a truck right now until we get the trailer squared away and right again.

We came back over to Elkhart. Incidentally, Elkhart's name source is disputed. One source argues that the city's Island Park is shaped like an elk's heart and the other source states that the name comes from the Shawnee Indian Chief Elkhart, cousin of the famous Chief Tecumseh, and father of Princess Mishawaka, the namesake of the neighboring Mishawaka IN.

We had supper with our friends JD & CJ at the Oriental restaurant in front of the motel. When I got back to our room, I found that I had an email from our friends Howard and Linda, who were in town to have some Mor Ride equipment installed on their fifth wheel trailer. Howard and Linda are well known for their website RV-Dreams.com. We met them a few years ago at a Texas Boomer rally and ran into them again in Branson MO where they had a rally and we were attending a Heartland National rally. It was good to hear from them and we will meet them tomorrow.

So long.