We taught Girl Camper College in Illinois, then returned to Indiana to drop off our Rockwood MiniLite 2205s for wall replacement. 

Girl Camper College

Having arrived at Big Rock Campground on Thursday, we had a good part of the day Friday to work while we awaited our Girl Camper students. 

A main aspect of our meeting students upon arrival, is that a lot of people indicate they want help becoming more confident in backing into their spaces. So, we want to meet each person as they arrive and make sure they get into their sites safely.

Once they are in their space, we like to meet each student and make sure they are set up to “survive” the night. The reason this is important to me is: at our first December class, a student came to class in the morning saying she hoped we were teaching how the furnace works, because she was so freezing cold all night. We felt so terrible! So now, there is a checklist that we go through. We make sure students are level, and have all the appliances and hookups they need to be comfortable.

Friday evening our Girl Camper Illinois Guide, Karon, hosted a meet-and-greet at her site. You may recognize Karon as a host of our Mini Lite rally the previous weekend. Along with her husband Jeff. Karon is one busy lady! 

Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to class time. We teach in 12 topic segments, with breaks in between. We teach these classes not only for Girl Camper, but for any group of 10 to 20 students that wish to book us. We are very grateful to Janine Petit for agreeing to allow us to teach to Girl Camper groups, and to the various state Guides who have hosted College camps.

Basic Training Camp

Outside of Girl Camper, we call it RV Basic Training Camp. Nope, we are not military nor ex-military. The name just happened that way. If you are interested in booking a basic training camp, please let us know. We would love to join your group! Our goal is to make campers more confident with their RVs.

We got FROGged

Owners of Forest River branded RVs are part of an elite group called FROG or Forest River Owners’ Group. One fun activity enjoyed by many FROG members (and grumbled over by others) is FROGging. We had our first FROGging during Girl Camper College. Our neighbor and fellow Girl Camper had a Forest River brand travel trailer, so I suspected the frog was from her, and I was right. Thank you, Jo Anne!

More hours on the highway

On Monday, we gave the students their “final exam” and stood by to offer tips and assistance with hooking up their trailers and dumping their tanks. 

When all the campers were loaded and dumped, we got on the road to return to Indiana. For some crazy reason, we chose the route that went right through Chicago. Three years ago we visited Chicago for a day, and I found it entirely too crowded for my taste. After about an hour in traffic, I decided my initial assessment was correct. 

Between Illinois and Indiana, We drove through a few different toll areas. I think all together we paid about $80 in tolls. We chose not to avoid tolls, in an attempt to arrive more quickly. However, it was so expensive and took us through such high-traffic areas! I think I am much happier avoiding tolls and taking the quieter route. Illinois tolls can be looked up and paid online. In Indiana we had to stop at a booth and pay. At least we don’t have to worry about missing a toll bill in the mail. 

Shipshewana, if you wanna

We spent one more night in Shipshewana. We had a lot of work to do, packing up and emptying parts of the Mini Lite that needed to be ready for a wall replacement. Remember when a campground punched a hole in our wall? Yeah, so we had an appointment to drop it off Tuesday for the repair, and storage until we return in August.

I did a big load of laundry and packed a lot on Monday night, and more on Tuesday morning. It is HOT and HUMID in Indiana right now, and I took a lot of breaks inside the camper or laundry room in the air conditioning. 

Camping will be intense

I mean, in tents. We plan to make good use of our tent camping supplies this summer. With that in mind, we needed to pack into the truck more than just our clothing. We also needed our screen tent, and a few other camping supplies. Considering the back of the truck was already fairly full with the bikes and griddle, it was like a game of Tetris making the extra supplies fit. The truck is now stuffed, cab and bad!

Let’s NOT get on the road today

We had every intention of dropping off the trailer at Rockwood, then heading west to visit our friends in Davenport, Iowa. It would have been almost 300 miles to get to them, and we wouldn’t be able to leave before about 1:00 pm. By 10:00 we were so hot, and tired, and frustrated, that we called off the drive. As much as we wanted to visit Jason and Abby and their family, we just couldn’t face another day that full. Instead we took a little more time with getting the trailer ready, and after we dropped it off we drove directly to the Das Dutchman Essenhaus for an Amish buffet lunch. We stuffed ourselves full of noodles, fried chicken, and tea (sweet for Tony, naturally). Wait, though, I did have salad first. I even have photographic evidence! 

Then we checked into a hotel for a quiet afternoon and comfortable night. As hot and sweaty as we were, we still thought the hotel room being set to 60 degrees was a bit colder than necessary! 

 Shhhh

We spent a couple of quiet hours just taking it easy. Well, I did make a trip out to the truck to rearrange a few things I had tossed in willy-nilly in the morning. There is barely room for everything, so it needs to stay pretty well-organized or we won’t be able to fit in our hotel bags when we get back in the truck in the morning. 

Beer

We were still pretty much stuffed from lunch, but we were in Goshen, close to Goshen Brewing Company and we couldn’t resist a cold one, or two. Their Tuesday special is Pad Thai, and I surely wish I had been hungry enough to try it. It smelled delicious but I barely had room for a glass of cider. We chatted with staff, plus we were sitting at the bar right next to the service station so we also made several new drinking buddies. 

Dinner?

I had made the mistake, before lunch, of mentioning maybe for dinner we would have beer and a soft pretzel. Unfortunately, Goshen Brewing doesn’t serve soft pretzels. Sorry, Tony.

Instead, Tony thought he would be satisfied with some French fries. So when we left the brewery we drove through Dairy Queen. He got some fries and a shake, and I got a blizzard. What a healthy dinner! 

Now we rest

We are spending a quiet evening in the hotel room, kind of freezing (we reset the air conditioning to 72, but after the nearly 100-degree outdoors it feels kind of cold!) and letting our brains and bodies take a break before we get back on the road tomorrow. We have some fun plans, but we will be driving daily to get home before friends visit.