Wednesday September 21, 2011-Heartland Resort

Our first full day here in Greenfield IN was a nice one with a cool morning and sunny skies. Mack and Mattigene took us to the Indianapolis 500 Speedway and the museum there.

Here is our new yard sign that we bought at the Hershey show. It has our names, a fifth wheel trailer, our Heartland Owners club sign and even a pink flamingo from the Texas Boomers.


This is the Indy 500 museum building. There is a very impressive collection of Indy cars as well as other interesting vehicles and photos of all the Indy 500 race winners.

A little explanation of the speedway.

A display of one of the old pit areas, complete with tools, a racing suit and an old car as it would have been found back in the day.

A huge sterling silver trophy from the initial 1909 race. The trophy stands eight feet tall and weighs 500 pounds. At today's price of silver, the trophy would be worth $140,000!

They even have a replica of a race car for people to get into. It's a tight fit but I made it. I don't think I would be willing to drive 500 miles in this thing but am proud that I could get in and better yet, get out of it.

A large collection of motorcycles including Harley Davidson, Indian and a three wheel cycle named Bollee that was built in France and set a world speed record in 1896 by traveling 62.137 miles in one hour and fifty eight minutes.

One row of the Indy winners. I believe these from the 1970's-1980's

Another row of Indy winners from the 1950's-1960's. Note the drastic difference in body style.

It was a nice day at the museum. We rode into downtown Indianapolis after the museum tour and Mack pointed out some of the interesting buildings including the state capitol, Lucas Oil stadium and others.

Stay tuned for more adventures in Indianapolis.

So long.

Tuesday September 20, 2011-Moving day-Wolfie's Campground to Heartland Resort

We moved today from Zanesville Ohio to Greenfield Indiana to the Heartland Resort. This place is a resort in someones mind. It does have full hookups and gravel sites, but the grass is unmowed and the place has a stale look about it. I am told that it is one of the best in the area which tells me something about this area. Don't get me wrong, its not a bad park, just not a resort in my opinion.


We left Zanesville in a light rain that continued much of the morning. It is much better than yesterday's trip in much heavier rain. We got away around 9:30 and made a couple of stops and arrived here about 1:30. Mack and his wife Mattigean, some of our winter Texan friends from Rayford are here in the site next door. We back up to one of the lakes and if the grass were mowed, it would be very pretty.


After we got all set up, we sat outside chatting with Mack, exchanging stories about our summers. Mack has spent his summer remodeling his house, while we have been traveling. When Matti got back from a shopping trip, we decided to eat at the El Nopal mexican restaurant that is near the park. The food was very good and it was like being back in Texas.

We came on back to the park and I was able to watch most of NCIS. This is the first show of the new season. Its not a big deal because I'm sure it will be released as a rerun next summer, so I'll eventually get to see it all.

We are making plans visit some interesting places while we are here. Stay tuned for the fun.

So long.

Monday September 19, 2011-Moving day-Hershey Conewago campground to Wolfie's Campground

We woke this morning at around 7 o'clock and made our coffee and a small breakfast for me. Stella decided not to eat now but picked up something on the road. We started getting things ready to go about 8, and were ready to pull out a few minutes after 10. Pretty good.

We had been on the road for about an hour when it began to rain on us. It rained harder as we got closer to the border between Pennsylvania and West Virginia but it soon dropped off to just a steady rain that stayed with us all the way into Ohio. We made several comfort stops during the day today and pulled into our new overnight stay in Zanesville Ohio about 5:30. We have learned that it is much better to stop when the urge strikes than to push on and try to make better time. We are more relaxed and an all day drive is much easier to do.

I had to laugh at one of the other campers in the park. He and his wife had a major fight on Friday night when they got in, over his lack of backing abilities. The wet ground didn't help anything, but they put on quite a show. They continued today as they prepared to leave. He yelled, he screamed and she yelled and screamed back at him. Stella and I just shook our heads at them. It takes antics like this to make our day!

So long.

Saturday and Sunday, September 17 and 18, 2011-Hershey Conewago campground

These two days were just more of the same, get up, go to the RV show to hang with our friends and come back to the park. Saturday night we had a very nice potluck dinner with our friends here at the park and some other Heartland owners that had come over for the show and stayed for supper. After supper we had a nice campfire that felt goooood! It was another chilly night and we all enjoyed the fire.

Sunday we went to Chocolate World to see how the Hershey chocolate is made. We rode a small tram through a miniature version of the plant. It was designed for kids, but it was kind of interesting to see how the cocoa beans are processed into chocolate.

I know, I know, this photo should have been included in one of the first group of pictures of Hershey PA, but I just didn't stop to take the shot until today. Welcome to Hershey!

The entrance to Chocolate World.

When we came back home on Sunday afternoon, I started taking things down in preparation for leaving tomorrow. Jim B. was doing the same thing as they are leaving tomorrow too. We went out to dinner with Ken and Kathy and some friends of theirs Bill and Kathy from Retama Village in Mission TX. We went to T.J. Rockwell's American Grill and Tavern. The food was very good and we enjoyed our last night in Hershey (Elizabethtown) PA. It was a great way to end the week.

So long.

Tuesday September 13 thru Friday September 16, 2011-Hershey Conewago campground

The show actually began on Tuesday but it was only to the trades today. The public will be here tomorrow. We went over with Jim to help get things set up in our table, which didn't take very long. We walked around and looked at some of the trailers and spent a short time with Ken and Kathy in the vendors area. Jim invited us to go eat lunch with him and we went to the Red Robin nearby. After lunch we came back home and hung out for the rest of the afternoon. We went to eat tonight at Duke's Bar and Grille with about 20 of our friends. Cheryl and her husband Jim had made us reservations here and the entire group, even Doug and Judy, who were staying at another park, came to eat with us.


Wednesday we were on the schedule to "work" the show from 9-1 with our friends John and Debbie. We had worked with John at the rally in Goshen and it was good to see them again. We talked to a few people today and mostly visited with our friends as well as other Heartland owners that dropped by. The day went well and we enjoyed ourselves again. We even hung around after our relief got here. It wasn't much like any work I ever did!


We sat outside John and Debbie's place at their fire but it began to rain and we were chased back home. It stormed all night long with heavy rain and thunder and lightning. It sure made good sleeping!


Thursday it continued to rain but we went in anyway. The rain was slacking by the time we got to the tables but we had a few people that came by. We talked for a long time to Bob and Kathy and another couple that we had met at the RV-Dreams rally. We had another nice day at "work" and Jim again rewarded all of us with a pizza lunch. We went home and hung out until time for another campfire at John and Debbie's place. At least the weather made it worthwhile to have the fires. It's getting to be the fall around here with leaves falling and temps in the upper 40's in the mornings and mid 70's during the day.

We were off again today but went up to the show to look at some of the other brand trailers and to buy some more LED light bulbs. Oh and I almost forgot that we picked up a new yard sign that we had made here. The signs are plastic so they should last a long time and the lady that is selling them hand paints everything, sometimes while you wait. We had chosen to have ours done and picked it up the next day and today was the day! I'll take a picture of it and show you how it worked out.

Tonight we went to a nearby town to a place called the Shady Maple Smorgasbord. They have the largest buffet lines that I've ever seen. Most of the food is fresh from the area and delicious. I think there were 23 of us tonight. I wish I'd had my camera with me to take some photos but trust me, this is the biggest and best buffet we've found.

Here are a few pictures from the week

Our trailer with one of our banners suspended from the awning.


Part of the group at Duke's Bar and Grille.

The booth at the show. I think people enjoy talking to other owners of a brand and not salesmen. Of course we can't talk prices with folks, but we can turn them over to a salesman for that.

It was a nice week with friends and we had fun.

So long.

Monday September 12, 2011-Hershey Conewago campground

We went to breakfast with our friends Doug and Judy this morning. They came by and picked us up and we went to Martin's Country Cafe where we had eaten supper on Saturday night and the breakfast was better than the evening meal. I tried scrapple this morning, which is a specialty here. It is a pork-based meat that is fried and was actually pretty tasty.

After breakfast, we drove over to the Amish country in the area, Bird-in Hand and Intercourse PA. We saw many Amish in their customary buggies and wagons and working in the fields, much like what we have seen in Indiana. We went to a shopping village with many hand made items. We all enjoyed an ice cream sold by a lovely young Amish girl. We enjoyed listening to some local singers that entertained everyone in the square area. They were pretty good and we stayed there about an hour.

The interesting names of the towns was worth some research. Bird-in-Hand was founded in 1734 and got it's curious name from a legend of two road surveyors who were working in the area discussed whether they should stay in their present location or go into the hotel in Lancaster. One remarked that "a bird in the hand is better than one in the bush", meaning that it is preferable to having a small but certain advantage than the mere potential of a greater one, and so they stayed. The sign in front of the inn supposedly portrayed a man with one bird in his hand and two birds perched in a bush and was known as the Bird in Hand Inn. Variations of this sign are seen in the town today.

Intercourse PA was founded in 1754 and originally named Cross Keys. The theory of he name Intercourse is that it was named for the crossing of two famous roads, the Old Kings Highway from Philadelphia to Pittsburg that ran east and west through the center of town. The road from Wilmington to Erie intersected in the middle. The joining of these two roads is claimed by some to be the basis of the town name of Cross Keys and eventually Intercourse. A final idea is the language used during the early days of the village. The word intercourse was commonly used to describe the 'fellowship' or 'social interaction or support' shared in the community of faith, which was much a part of rural villages such as this. Now, because of the unusual name, the town signs are the frequent target of thieves.

It was nice to spend time with our friends and we had a good time with them.

So long.

Sunday September 11, 2011-Hershey Conewago campground

We woke to our first morning here in Hershey PA to warmer temperatures but still not bad. At least its not raining and most of the flooding is gone now. We ate a little breakfast and watched the very moving 911 memorials on television.

Around noon, we went to the RV-Dreams rally that is being held at the Thousand Trails Hershey Preserve campground. We have been invited to the rally as Heartland Ambassadors.

We met Howard and Linda about five years ago at one of our Texas Boomer rallies at Rayford. They were just getting started in their full-time lifestyle and we have kept up with them since then through their blog and by running into them a few times at different locations. The latest time to see them was when they weighed rigs at the last Heartland National rally in Goshen.

Here is Stella sitting at our display table. We had brochures from 15 different Heartland brands and everyone that came by had a look at them. The most popular units were the Landmark and Bighorn and we actually ran our of Landmark brochures at one point but luckily we had more in the truck.

Linda firing up the crowd and getting the rally started. They have been doing rallies for a few years now and really have it down!

The crowd, sitting patiently waiting to begin eating. The catered meal went very well and everyone had a good time. I know we did! We met a lot of new people and hopefully will be able to keep in touch with them in the future.

They played a couple of games and we gave away our door prizes, and everyone was having a great time at the rally. When we got ready to leave, we found that it had started raining which made our drive back home a bit of a problem, We were on narrow unfamiliar roads, after dark and raining, so we had a miserable drive back, but we made it.

So long.