Catching up with family

With our service work complete, we had another short drive – just 25 miles east to Shipshewana Campground South.

After almost a week of camping in a parking lot, it was nice to be back in a campground again!  The south campground is close to town, but surrounded by farmland, so it’s really peaceful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evenings, we liked to walk around the campground and watch the horses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another reason for staying in Shipshewana was that it put us within visiting range of my family.  Two of my sisters have seasonal sites at a campground about 30 miles from Shipshewana, so we were out bright and early on Saturday morning to head over there for a visit.

We had quite the family gathering --

my sisters Diane and Debbie, and my niece Katy, my other niece, Kelly and her husband, Josh . . . my brother, Donnie,

my brothers-in-law, Danny and Charlie, and my Mom.

My niece has a little guy, Jaxon, who is turning 2, and he was the center of attention, as usual!  [Today is his birthday – Happy Birthday, Jaxon!!!]

It was a beautiful day, so Tom rode his motorcycle while the boys and I drove the car.  Tom had to put Jaxon on the bike!

Danny took the boys out for a fast drive on the boat, and a swim, while Jaxon entertained all of us in the little pool,

and then he took Katy, Jaxon and I out for a nice, slow leisurely ride around the lake.

 

Jaxon even helped Danny drive!

The slow, rhythmic, motion of the boat and the warm sunshine made all of us sleepy, but especially Jaxon . . . he was almost asleep by the time we got back to the dock! 

Since we were going to miss his birthday party, we brought our present with us . . . Bryce had fun picking out some silly gifts for him, but they weren’t very durable!

The silly glasses were already missing one lens,

and the whoopie cushion didn’t survive Danny sitting on it!

We got some mileage out of the glasses, though!

 

 

 

As usual, we had a great dinner – Charlie BBQ’d ribs and chicken, and we had fresh corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelon . . . along with Amish noodles and cake.

After all that food, we needed a nice long walk . . . so we gathered up the garbage and went for a walk! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way back, Jaxon and Casey took turns riding in the wagon!

 

A Saturday night tradition at Manapogo Park are the wagon rides . . . these used to be the highlight of Nicolas and Bryce’s weekend when they were little, so when the announcement was made that it was time for the wagon ride, they took Jaxon to introduce him to the fun!

There they go!

The wagon has steps to make it easy to get in now . . . when Nicolas & Bryce were little, we had to climb up over the side!  Some of the campers even throw candy to the kids . . . and the big boys made sure Jaxon got some!

After the wagon ride, Tom, Katy and I took Jaxon back to the camper while Nicolas and Bryce stayed at the pavilion with Danny to play some BINGO . . . they didn’t win anything, though!

We sat by the campfire for awhile, enjoying the beautiful evening, until it was time to make the drive back to Shipshewana. 

We all enjoyed spending the day with family, and it certainly feels good to be home again for a little while . . . well, almost home, but Manapogo Park was my home-away-from-home for many years, and even the boys spent a lot of time there when my parents still had a seasonal site.  In fact, when the ladies in the office saw Nicolas driving the car in, they commented on how they remembered when the boys used to come up with my parents in the summer during the week.  On Friday evenings, they would sit down by the office, waiting for Tom and I to show up!

We’ll be seeing a lot more of the family when we get settled in Monroe, but for the next couple of days we explored Shipshewana and stocked up on all our Amish favorites!

We had pretzels at Jo-Jo’s, 

 

 

 

 

 

YUM!!!

stocked up on bulk foods and meat at E&S and Yoder’s, popcorn at Yoder Popcorn, and cheese at Guggisberg,

had Hawaiian shaved ice one evening, and even checked out a few RVs.

 The boys still like the front living rooms!

At the Coachmen Factory, we were amazed by the sea of E-450 chassis’s that we saw – they must have bought up all they could before Ford stopped making them!

Tuesday was Flea Market Day, so Tom and Nicolas walked through it while I worked and Bryce kept me company . . . they didn’t see much, though . . . it really is turning into just rows and rows of the same old China junk you can get anywhere else!  That night we had the buffet dinner at the 5 & 20 Restaurant, and it was delicious . . . and much more reasonable than some of the other bigger restaurants in town!

Another enjoyable visit to Indiana Amish Country!

Thanksgiving & Black Friday shopping

The turkey was ready to carve, and the side dishes were waiting in the wings . . .

My brother was doing most of the cooking, while Mom watched  . . . Donnie had banished her from the kitchen!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything was delicious, and it didn’t take long for everybody to stuff themselves!  When we weren’t eating, we played some cards and checked out the Black Friday ads.

We had big plans with my Mom and 2 of my sisters & brothers-in-law for Black Friday, so we spent the night at my Mom’s.  On Friday morning, we hit the road early (9:30m . . . OK, not really too early!) to tackle the “doorbusters” where else but . . . .

Shipshewana!!

It was a beautiful day, with temps near 60 degrees, and we we definitely not the only ones doing our “Small Business Saturday” shopping on Friday!

We all got some Christmas shopping done, stocked up on staples at the E & S Bulk Food Store, visited the puppies at Eash Sales, and opted for pizza for dinner.

It was a great day of shopping – and we didn’t have to deal with crazy crowds, pepper spray, or even get up at the crack of dawn!

Campground Review–Eby’s Pines

 

Dates we stayed here:  June 30 – July 6, 2011 (Thursday – Thursday)

Location:  Bristol, IN

The campground is off State Route 120, 3 miles west of State Route 13, and just a few minutes from the Michigan state line.  It’s conveniently located close to Middlebury, Elkhart and other Amish communities in northern Indiana.

Our site:  #167

This site is considered a “deluxe full hookup” site.  It was level, plenty long to park the truck in front or back, with reasonable spacing between it and the neighboring sites.  With the orientation of the site, we had full sun in the morning, and shade from the RV in the afternoon.

Looking down the main road, towards the office and entrance.

We had full hookup with 50A electric, which was stable even with a full campground and everybody running their A/C (90 degree daytime temps).  Water pressure was good, and we had a strong Verizon signal.  Wifi was available for a fee ($5/day or $25/month), but the signal was strong.  No cable TV, but our batwing antenna pulled in all the major networks.

We paid $256 for the week, which included the 7th night free and a $10 “holiday surcharge”.

Amenities:  The campground has a store with basic groceries, camping supplies, souvenirs, and ice cream.  There is a laundry facility, but I did not check it out.  There are several bath houses, but they looked old and in need of updating.  We did not use them, since we had full hookup.  They have a couple of pavilions and while we were there, there was a band playing one night, and karaoke another night.

The Little Elkhart River runs along the back of the campground, and there are a couple of ponds for fishing.

Kids fishing in the large pond.

The campground is fairly large and spread out, with seasonal areas, tent & popup areas, and the full hookup area that we were in.  There are walking paths throughout the campground, and one trail that takes you to Bonneyville Mill in Bristol.

Covered bridge on the walking path near the big pond.

One of our favorite features on the hot days were the pools.  There are (2) pools which are open 10 am – 8pm daily, with a lifeguard.  The large pool has a water fountain, 2 slides (for 12 & under), and several water spouts.

The older pool is less busy, and is reserved for adults between 6 – 8pm.

The big pool was a popular place for families on those hot July days!

The campground also has a large playground, basketball and volleyball courts, a large open field for baseball or other sports, and horseshoe courts.

Overall Impression:  We liked this campground, and it was a good location for visiting the nearby Amish communities.  Even though it doesn’t have the premium resort feel, it was still nice.  the full hookup sites were plenty long for big rigs.  Some of the seasonal sites were a little run-down, but all of the people we met we friendly and welcoming, including the staff. 

The rates were OK, but I think wifi should have been included for free.  Some of the facilities we old and in need of repair, but the pool was really nice , and for us, that more than made up for the other deficiencies.

We preferred this campground over the Shipshewana campgrounds, due to the better shade on the sites and the addition of the pool.  We would definitely stay here again.

A Bike Ride, a Mill and a Geocache

 

One of the many quilt murals in the area

After a leisurely morning we decided to check out a trail that our neighbor told us would take us to the Bonneyville Mill, an Elkhart County Park.  It was an easy 1-mile bike ride through woods and a meadow, along the Little Elkhart River. 

This wrong turn took us on this bridge that suddenly ended, right at the edge of the river!

Without the aide of much in the way of trail markers, we arrived at the Bonneyville Mill.

There were a couple of Amish families having a picnic at the park, too.

There was a geocache at this location, as well, so we brought along our GPS to see if we could find it.  This was a 2 Phase Cache.  Phase 1 required us to answer some questions about the mill and its history, and then give our answers to the Miller, who would give us the coordinates and the Phase 2 clue.

It’s no longer a commercial operation (but I won’t tell you since when!), but you can still buy cornmeal and whole wheat flour that is produced right here at the mill.

We successfully found the answers to the clues (Thanks Bryce!), and after a few minutes spent remembering how to operate our GPS, we were off to locate the cache!

Our walk took us across a meadow,

past an Observation Tower,

and finally down the trail that would lead us to the cache, “off the beaten trail”.

Bryce leads the way with the GPS

We do really well at zeroing in on the location, but we’re still not very good at locating the actual cache.  We’re pretty sure we got to the right place (as long as we can trust our GPS), but we never found it!

Tom and Nicolas checking out the view from the top of the Observation Tower

While Tom & Bryce searched for the cache, Nicolas picked wild raspberries (I wouldn’t let him go into the woods – he gets poison ivy too easily!)

We did enjoy our visit to the mill,  saw lots of beautiful scenery along the way, and got a bit of exercise (even though it was really hot!) . . . so it was all worth it!

Back at the campground, we had some lunch and then went over to cool off in the pool for awhile.  It felt really good after our bike ride and hike!

Tonight we’ll have a relaxing evening around the campfire, and then tomorrow it’s time to go home.    Oh well, only a couple of weeks and then we’ll be off on another adventure!