Camp Newmar

 

We left Haas Lake Park on Sunday, and made the 200 mile drive to Nappanee, IN to claim a spot in the lot at Camp Newmar.  Traffic was light, and although we drove most of the way in a light rain, it was an uneventful trip.  We quickly got set up in site #8, and then had a quick dinner at Mancino’s, one of our favorite restaurants in town.

Monday was our appointment date, so we were up bright & early (actually not so bright, as we were up a couple of hours before sunrise!), and ready for the technicians to take our home into the shop at 6am.  After picking up some donuts and coffee at the new Rise-n-Roll, we settled into the pet-friendly Customer Lobby/Laundromat and got started on the laundry, schoolwork and work.  Luckily, nobody else had the same idea, so I could use all three washers and dryers, and got the laundry done pretty quickly!

Tom and the boys decided to go on the 10am tour to kill some time, so Casey stayed with me while I worked and finished up the laundry.  By the time the guys got back from the tour, we were all starving, so we drove into town to get some lunch, and find a place to fill our empty propane tank.  Tom was really glad we waited – filling the propane bottle in Nappanee was about $9 cheaper than it was at Haas Lake!

Around 2:30, we started seeing all of the RVs start to file back into the parking lot . . . quitting time for the service department! 

Day 1 of service -- We had a new convection microwave!

This one is actually a lot nicer than the one we had, with 2 horizontal shelves, so we can make 2 sheets of cookies at one time!  We didn’t have any cookie dough handy to test it out, but I did make some corn muffins, and they turned out great!

There was still more work to do, though, so Tuesday was going to be another early day!  After breakfast at the Dutch Kitchen, the boys and I settled into the main Customer Lounge, where they now have a row of desks and available wifi.  My cellular signal wasn’t great, so we thought we’d give Newmar’s wifi a try.  It worked well for the boys for school, but my work computer wouldn’t keep a connection, so I ended up getting my Wifi Ranger and aircard, and bringing them into the Lobby.

Once we finished everything we needed to get done, we checked out some of the little shops in Nappanee and picked up some groceries for the rest of the week.  We arrived back at Newmar just before 2:00, and stopped in to see how far along they were with our home.

We were pleased to find out that everything was fixed and we’d be ready to leave in the morning! 

We had to wait until the morning to get all the paperwork competed and sent over to the Extended Warranty company. They were not covering all the little fixes, but did cover the 2 big items – the replacement convection microwave and the leaky grey tank.

After settling up with Newmar, we headed over to see Carlyle at Focal Wood Products, so he could take care of a few more small items for us.  Nicolas and Bryce needed a shelf under their TV for the XBox, so he quickly put one up for them.

He also helped us install Nicolas’s desk,

and my nifty little magnetic spice rack over the stove!

No spices in the jars yet – I need to get to E & S!

He also removed the little nightstand shelves on either side of our bed, and he’s going to make new tops for them out of solid wood, a little narrower so that we have room for the quilt to go down the side of the bed between the mattress and the shelves.  Tom will have to pick those up on Saturday when he and the boys go back to Amish Acres for the Corvette Rally.

So that took care of all our RV modifications for now.  We left Carlyle’s place just after 5pm, and made our way to Shipshewana.  We’ll be here for 5 days, so we emptied the bikes and motorcycle out of the garage so Nick could get it all set up.  By then, it was after 7pm, and we wanted to get some dinner before Survivor.  We considered driving to the McDonald’s in Middlebury for quick food, but then decided to give the 5&20 Restaurant a try . . . we’ve been coming to Shipshewana for 20 years, and we’ve never eaten there.  It turned out to be a good decision!  Tom and I had the soup & salad bar, and Nick had the full buffet, and it was all really good!  We’ll definitely keep this one on our list of favorites!

Tomorrow, we’ll do some shopping at our favorite Shipshewana establishments, and look at the recliners at Lambright . . .