Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Day 33 Summer 2012 Road Trip

Slept in a bit this morning and had a late breakfast.  Today we are going to visit the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart Indiana.   Karen and I thought this would be a good place to visit.  We can learn about and see various styles of rv’s and this will help us in our search for a unit for ourselves.

We arrived at 11am and wandered around the outside of the building.  Everything is nicely cared for and there is a very large parking area so that there is plenty of room if you bring your motorhome and wish to park.  I am not sure, but you may even be able to stay overnight here.

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We took several photos around the outside.  Karen and I were looking at the patio bricks and all the names of people and corporations that have donated to the Hall of Fame and found a name we actually recognized.  We follow many blogs written by rv’ers, but one blog in particular that we read faithfully is a blog written by Nick Russell.  Nick often mentions his friend Al Hesselbart and there right in front of us was a brick with Al’s name on it.  We didn’t see any other names that we recognized.

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We paid the $9.00 each admission fee and entered the building.

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Ok, well the first thing we ‘discovered’ was this beautiful RV… so, lets just buy this one and we can get on the road.  I guess I was so excited that I blurred the photo, but you get the idea.. brand spanking new and ready to roll out onto the scenic by-ways of America.

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Not in our budget though so we had to leave it behind and enter the museum part of the facility.  The Airstream reminds us of our vacation on South Padre Island TX where we rented and stayed in one very similar.

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If we were to get a travel trailer, I am positive that we would get an Airstream, but we have come to the decision that a Class A is what we are looking for.

Continuing on with our tour, there are rigs of all ages and sizes.  This tiny airstream also caught our eye.

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Karen liked this 1954 Shasta travel trailer but it is a bit to small for the two of us.  I liked this 1964 Coachmen Cadet travel trailer, but again too small and not a Class A.

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It was very interesting seeing all the old styles of rv’s and we enjoyed our visit to the museum.

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On the second floor of the building is a very large library.  Just full of every book, manual and brochure ever published about any make, model or style of RV.  This is a valuable resource to the rv’ers.

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From the second floor balcony, y0u can look down into the museum.

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That concluded our visit to the RV/MH Hall of Fame.  We made a donation towards keeping the museum out of financial debt and we bought some t-shirts and other souvenirs.  Now it was time for a late lunch.

For the rest of the afternoon we drove around to a few RV dealerships, but we weren't finding anything that we were interested in.  We did learn that since the recession, more than a dozen dealerships in and around Elkhart had gone out of business.  Those that were still in business were concentrating on selling travel trailers and fifth wheels.  We want a Class A so our search continues.

Back at the hotel, we relaxed, watched TV, worked on editing and naming photos and writing this blog.

To see all of the photos from today, you can find them by clicking on the link to our FLICKR site.

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