0:11

Welcome back to the RV shenanigans podcast

0:14

. I'm Ryan .

0:15

I'm Lauren , and together we are Miller's Emotion

0:17

. We recently sold a ranch in Texas

0:19

and are enjoying new adventures in our Alliance

0:21

Valor toy hauler .

0:23

And we are coming to you from Texas . Still

0:25

, we are still in the Lone Star

0:27

state getting ready to head south

0:29

for the winter , but we're going to get through the holidays first

0:32

. Also , we have a lot of exciting

0:34

things while we're down in Florida that

0:36

we have coming up , and so we are recording

0:38

a handful of these podcasts early

0:41

so that we have some fillers , just in case

0:43

. So if it feels a little bit out

0:45

of the wonky timeline

0:47

thing , that's why Doesn't

0:50

mean we're not going to interact with it . If you're on YouTube

0:52

or anything else just means we're knocking some stuff out

0:54

, because we have a lot of really

0:56

fun podcasts scheduled while we're down

0:58

there . We need to focus on those . So

1:01

, with that being said , we do

1:03

have some live podcast

1:05

recordings while we're at the 2024

1:08

Florida RV Super Show , which , spoiler , we're

1:10

talking about today . So

1:12

if you're going to be at the show

1:14

, make sure and swing by the Alliance booth

1:16

. That's where we're going to be , and you can't miss the big RV

1:19

shenanigans podcast tent right there . Come

1:21

, say hi , we'll answer some questions on air , and we

1:23

have an absolute ton of guests that we

1:25

are very , very excited to talk to

1:27

and share stories with you guys . So

1:29

today's

1:31

show . Though we are talking about today's

1:38

show . We are talking about the

1:40

destination that

1:42

everybody goes to Elkhart , indiana

1:44

.

1:45

It's on the top of your list , right ?

1:47

Yes , so it very much so

1:49

. Is that pilgrimage for a lot of RVers

1:51

? So we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to dive

1:54

into all the things . Elkhart , the

2:07

Hoosier State .

2:08

Oh yeah , is that what you learned ?

2:11

One of the things I knew that from the movie Hoosiers . So

2:15

Elkhart , indiana . Why

2:17

would anybody just say you know what

2:19

? I want to go Disneyland . I don't

2:21

want to go to Disney World , the coast

2:24

, let's go to the Midwest and go to Elkhart .

2:28

I'm going to be polite here and say it's probably out

2:30

of necessity .

2:32

Unfortunately , it kind of is Like

2:34

I said before , we took the break . It's

2:36

very much so that pilgrimage for a lot

2:38

of RVers . Most

2:41

of the RVs in the US

2:43

are made there , not all

2:45

of them . There's a handful

2:47

spread out in other places .

2:49

And also a lot of accessories

2:51

and things , because when you produce

2:53

and make RVs , you need the accessories and things

2:55

to go in .

2:56

I want to be honest If they make the fridges across

2:58

the street from make the RVs , shipping's really cheap

3:00

.

3:00

Bingo .

3:01

So yeah , it's kind

3:04

of known as the RV capital of the US

3:06

, maybe the world , but

3:08

that's because so many are built there . Our first

3:10

rig was built there . Our Alliance

3:12

Valor was built there . We actually

3:14

went . That's why we went there is to pick

3:17

her up . And then

3:19

there's , like Lauren said , not just a bunch of accessory

3:21

companies but like Mooride . So

3:23

if you are going to go have IS or independent suspension

3:26

installed on your rig , that's where

3:28

you're probably going to go . You can go a few other places

3:30

, but that's the main spot . So the

3:33

running joke too is like it's the mothership . All

3:36

the little subships have to come back every so often

3:39

. So okay

3:41

, let's say you're in Elkhart

3:43

. What is there to do besides

3:45

RV manufacturers and getting warranty

3:48

work ?

3:48

done . Take a tour of your

3:50

RV manufacturer .

3:51

Which , by the way , is probably the biggest

3:54

attraction of them all . Almost

3:56

all of the manufacturers , to

3:58

my knowledge , allow

4:00

tours . Now it's guided . Sometimes

4:03

they let you film , sometimes they don't let you film

4:05

. And if you're thinking about

4:07

buying an RV , I will tell you . If you're really curious to

4:09

how that specific manufacturer builds it

4:11

, go take a tour . That's actually

4:13

why they do that .

4:14

Well , right and more . I did the same thing , and

4:17

so I was able to do that and actually did

4:19

learn a lot and appreciate it . But outside

4:21

of that , there are a couple things to do . Yes

4:24

, and we went to find them . For you , I

4:26

would say the first thing and the most common

4:28

thing you'll probably hear about is the RV

4:31

manufactured housing

4:33

, not motorhome Hall of

4:35

Fame , and so we went and

4:37

did that . A couple of notes on that they

4:39

are dog friendly . So if you see our YouTube

4:41

video , you see that we took the dogs through the whole

4:44

exhibit . They had a fantastic time

4:46

and they are harvest

4:48

hosts .

4:49

I don't know that . I'd recommend taking the pops .

4:51

No , most certainly not . It made us a

4:53

little bit more adventurous .

4:54

We didn't have much of a choice in

4:56

the matter because of how we were

4:58

doing everything , but it it

5:01

worked out fine .

5:03

It did . They had a fantastic time and they

5:05

were tired by the time we got done .

5:06

No accidents were had . That we know of

5:08

that . Well , that's nice . Well , they were

5:10

unleashed the whole time .

5:11

So so , as far as

5:13

that place goes , I think it's $20

5:15

a person to get in , something like that at

5:18

the time of recording at the time , of course . So

5:21

that , take

5:23

it or leave it , it is what it is . I think that it

5:25

was fun to do , but I don't know that we would do it multiple

5:27

times per se .

5:28

It's cool to see . I mean , there's a lot of old vintage

5:31

stuff in there , there's not . I mean , if you're looking for

5:33

like the new modern

5:35

stuff , that's not what this is . Now I will say

5:37

that there was in the go RVing

5:39

section . Go RVing is a

5:41

company or association . They

5:44

had that fury on Rig

5:46

that they retrofitted . That's like super

5:48

, super modern . So that's really about it . Most

5:51

of it's more like a look in the past .

5:53

It's it's a museum after all right , and it was

5:55

interesting to see those things and see how far

5:57

things have come .

5:57

Yeah , I read somewhere that someone said

6:00

it's a full-day thing . It was not a full-day thing

6:02

for us , it was a hour and a half-ish

6:04

long thing and

6:06

, and it's one of those things , once you did it , it's . I

6:09

did feel like it was a little more . Check

6:11

the box , took the picture , got a shirt .

6:12

We're out of here .

6:14

Mm-hmm , but it we enjoyed our time

6:16

. Just no real reason to go back unless something drastic

6:18

changes .

6:18

Yeah , certainly no regrets doing it , just

6:20

wouldn't do it again .

6:21

I would tell you from the harvest host side

6:23

of things , the grounds were really

6:26

pretty .

6:26

Yeah , they really were , and it was like flat

6:28

paved . What more can you ask for if you're looking for

6:31

boondockers ? Harvest , host stuff ?

6:32

Right and , and I could imagine , as the museum

6:35

closes , it's probably pretty

6:37

quiet there , assuming there's not somebody

6:39

like us running our generator because we don't

6:41

have our batteries yet yet . But

6:43

yeah , it's the important part . That conversation

6:45

had one a little further yesterday too , so but

6:47

it as far as the harvest host side

6:50

, great site . I would actually actually

6:52

plan on a stop there if we

6:55

were with the rig and we could boondock or we

6:57

were on our way somewhere and needed to use that so Definitely

7:00

it would be .

7:01

You know a place we could get out and walk the dogs ? Well , it

7:03

all the things you could ask for so aside

7:05

from that .

7:07

So one of the biggest things for me and

7:09

we mentioned this in the YouTube video we did was

7:11

just the vegetation was so

7:14

more . I think we described it as lush .

7:16

I think multiple times yes , now we went in

7:18

August , mm-hmm .

7:20

And in Texas in August it's

7:23

hot and it's I call

7:25

it the hot version of dormant . It's so

7:27

hot that there's no rain , that the

7:30

grass goes back to dormant because it's so

7:32

crispy , and so that's it's hot and crispy .

7:34

Mm-hmm , which means it's also kind of brown

7:37

and jewelry and you don't want to be outside . So , to

7:39

see all that greenery was fantastic

7:41

.

7:41

So , that being said , we did as

7:43

much as we could possibly do outside , plus

7:45

we were out of a rig . So I

7:48

guess we never really said why we were in Elkhart . We

7:51

went to Elkhart to pick up our Alliance Valor

7:53

44 v 14 and work

7:55

with Alliance as well as more right on some of

7:57

the suspension and accessory Stuff , and

8:00

so we went up there without a rig . So

8:02

we drove up with the intentions of bringing Harvey

8:04

back Plan

8:06

for two weeks , spent many more , and

8:09

so we stayed at a hotel and then

8:11

you had to come back on your own

8:13

, unfortunately , and then

8:16

the dogs and I came back in

8:18

the rig and here we are .

8:20

Yes , so this whole time we did have the dogs

8:22

with us . So you'll see that most of what we did was very

8:24

pet friendly .

8:25

It was in fact all of it was pretty much because we

8:27

had no choice didn't trust them in the hotel alone

8:29

, so Other attractions

8:32

. Because it was so lush and we had the dogs

8:34

, we went to parks .

8:36

We did . They actually had some fantastic County

8:38

parks and everything , not

8:40

necessarily paved , but at least Well-maintained

8:43

pathways that were easy enough to navigate

8:45

.

8:45

I was gonna say we took a hike , long

8:48

walk , at the Cobas

8:50

Creek County Park or

8:52

trail , however you want to say it . That was really

8:54

cool because it kind of interwind , intertwined

8:57

back and crossed a little creek . There was

8:59

like Garden

9:01

areas and then they had the typical park stuff

9:03

with like the jungle gym for the kids and tables

9:05

, and I thought I saw like Like

9:07

grass of volleyball courts and that kind of thing right

9:09

, and that's one of like seven in their little

9:12

system .

9:12

That was just right there that we could have gotten to very

9:14

easily , right ?

9:15

We Unfortunate . I wish we could have spent more

9:17

time doing stuff like that , but we kept having to

9:19

go back and do things and we had to move the rig

9:21

a couple of times and so there was and we're working

9:24

, and so unfortunately , there was a lot of that during

9:26

the day .

9:26

So we did what we could with when we could

9:28

that's right , and they also have a botanic

9:30

gardens that we did not make it to , but

9:33

given how lush and beautiful everything

9:35

was , I can only Imagine that that would be gorgeous

9:38

. Right , we did go to a kind of garden

9:40

, a kind of . We're still confused about this . We did a lot

9:42

of research you're confused ? No , you did a

9:44

lot of research . I showed up and was confused

9:46

.

9:46

When they get go , still a little confused .

9:49

All right . So whenever you look at what to

9:51

do in Elkhart , you will

9:53

find that this place called Linton's

9:55

Enchanted Gardens keeps coming up and you're

9:57

like , oh , it's like Botanic Gardens Kind

10:00

of . And then , when you keep doing your research

10:02

, it says it's the largest home and garden

10:04

store and you're like is what am I

10:06

getting into ?

10:07

the Nards Kind of ish , but

10:09

bigger .

10:10

So we went to go check it out and it is . It

10:12

is very large . You can buy

10:15

plants for your house if you live there , which

10:17

, if you're traveling there , no , you

10:19

don't live there . And if you're in an RV , you probably don't have

10:21

the need for a lot of plants , but it was still

10:23

interesting . And then they have a petting

10:25

zoo you can do like paddle

10:27

boats and all kinds of things .

10:29

There's a bunch of stuff . I will say it was

10:32

a . If you have an hour to kill , it's

10:35

, it's fine , it's free . That's bonus

10:37

yeah well , unless you want to do any of the things

10:39

that's true . But but for

10:41

the most part just to kind of wander around , do everything it

10:43

was free . It was very pretty . Mm-hmm

10:46

, I will say it was dead of summer , so I think a lot

10:48

of things were out of season , so it wasn't necessarily super

10:50

colorful when we were there . I'm

10:52

sure if you go there in the spring , color

10:54

everywhere and they obviously

10:56

put a lot of love , care and attention into everything

10:58

that they did . They it does

11:01

feel a little gimmicky with all the stuff .

11:03

It did .

11:04

I'd say the petting zoo was the closest thing to

11:06

an actual petting zoo that we found , because

11:08

, like you , could do a swan thing , the

11:10

no kidding the pond was maybe the size

11:12

of our living room . I mean , what do you look

11:14

like ? You would go five feet , five feet , five feet

11:16

and then you're in , right . And so it was

11:19

that kind Of stuff or what . They had something

11:21

else with a little hill like a zorb ball or

11:23

something like that . Oh yeah , mm-hmm in the hill

11:25

, no joke , was like 15 feet long .

11:27

I know they had the little golf cart or go cart track

11:29

.

11:30

Oh , yeah , dirt .

11:32

It was very small , so Set

11:34

your expectation accordingly . If you want to get out

11:36

for a little bit and stretch your legs and you need

11:38

somewhere to take the dogs , it's fantastic

11:40

.

11:41

Have you ever been in one of those like the

11:44

knick-knack stores on like an old Main Street

11:47

that just like you walk in and you can barely move

11:49

because there's so much stuff that's right , don't breathe , you'll

11:51

knock it over all has its place , I kind of say like

11:53

the Hallmark store field . But on steroids

11:55

, this is kind of what the inside felt

11:57

like and they have a cafe , I think

11:59

. I guess I don't think I saw it through

12:02

all the stuff , but it's really hard

12:04

to move . So imagine what dogs , how it was it

12:06

was terrifying . We didn't spend

12:08

much time in there because we were terrified they

12:10

were gonna break something expensive .

12:13

Yes , so anything else on Linton's

12:15

?

12:16

No , just that , I'm still confused .

12:18

We're all still confused .

12:19

Go check it out . I will say for us it was literally

12:22

across the street from Alliance , so off

12:24

the main road . So it was really really handy for us

12:26

. I had to throw it really really in there for you .

12:28

And I was just intrigued because it's on

12:30

all of the hit list of things to do and I couldn't

12:32

figure out why and I will say as far as Attractions

12:34

go .

12:35

Elkhart , if you're not familiar with where it is , it's

12:37

in the northern part of Indiana . It is

12:40

Kind of attached to Goshen

12:42

and South Bend . Goshen

12:44

is just Goshen , I don't know how there's nothing

12:46

else there , it's just south . But to the west is

12:48

South Bend . South Bend might sound kind

12:50

of familiar because that's the home of Notre

12:52

Dame . So if

12:54

you're a big football fan of the Notre Dame fighting

12:56

Irish , it's a very historical

12:59

college . Obviously . That's one thing I

13:01

wish we would have had more time to do . We

13:03

went to South Bend a couple of times . That was where the

13:05

Costco was . And the airport when I

13:07

had to leave and you and she had to fly out of the airport

13:09

. I wish we would have had time to do like a

13:11

campus tour or see the stadium , and I

13:13

agree with that .

13:14

That would have really kind of changed things

13:16

up a little bit for us we didn't have the time

13:18

and we didn't have anything to do with the dogs , unfortunately

13:20

.

13:20

So , we didn't get to do that . Just know that is something

13:23

you can do if you're there , and I would

13:25

say , try to do it because there's , especially if you like

13:27

you know collegiate sports and

13:29

in history and that stuff . That's one of the oldest schools

13:31

in the country .

13:32

So , kind of on that note , things that

13:34

we would like to have been able to do . Granted

13:37

, with the dogs mostly was the biggest thing

13:39

right , and there are a lot of historic

13:41

places there . So if you're interested just

13:43

in the history of Elkhart and that

13:45

area , there's the Ruthmere

13:48

and Beardsley houses and that's where you can learn

13:50

about that and they are historic houses . It's a campus

13:52

of two , so everybody

13:54

says that that's really interesting . If

13:57

Elkhart in particular isn't quite

13:59

your gig , there's the railroad museum

14:01

. I always think that that's interesting just because

14:03

it's the whole United States and how

14:05

things came to fruition . I think we passed it once

14:07

probably we passed a lot of things

14:09

. We took a driving tour several times

14:11

and then , if you kind of want

14:13

to get outside and enjoy the culture

14:16

and more what's active right

14:18

now , there's a lot of Amish culture around and

14:20

then there's the heritage trail

14:22

which kind of supports that . So it's

14:25

a driving trail and it's like 20

14:27

miles long and there are different

14:29

stops along the way so you can get out and

14:31

see different flowers or buy different knickknacks and

14:33

gifts and things that support the Amish and

14:35

local communities and that and

14:37

speaking of the Amish culture there it's

14:39

.

14:40

If you're not used to that , like if you're from Texas , like

14:42

we are , it's a little

14:44

. It's not shocking . By any means , just be

14:46

prepared for it is that it is a very

14:48

heavy Influence

14:50

, especially in in Goshen

14:52

, but you're it's not

14:54

uncommon to see horse drawn buggies kind of everywhere

14:57

and that kind of stuff . So just know , when you're driving

14:59

around that kind of thing , just be aware of them . They're

15:01

not . The horses are still horses , be nice

15:03

.

15:03

That's right . Be respectful of it . And if

15:05

none of that suits your fancy , there is one thing that

15:07

you can do in Elkhart that you can't do anywhere

15:10

else , and that is the Hall of Heroes

15:12

. Oh , yeah , that is the world's

15:14

only comic and superhero museum

15:16

.

15:17

She brought this up with me and I said let's go do

15:19

that . And then I realized we had the dogs , so that was

15:21

kind of what killed it . But also I'm pretty sure

15:23

you would have drug your feet pretty hard .

15:25

It's a good chance , but , oh darn , we couldn't go

15:27

.

15:27

The dogs , no , maybe next time and

15:30

I will say it's probably like legit comic

15:32

books . So if you're a big fan of like Marvel movies , that's

15:34

not what we're talking about . It's like the

15:36

actual Marvel comments and DC comics and

15:38

that kind of stuff .

15:39

So I don't know that .

15:40

I'm I'm a nerd , but

15:42

I don't know that I'm all nerd . I'm like 80%

15:45

nerd .

15:46

So my two cents is get outside and do

15:48

something , but hopefully something of all

15:51

of that variety suits your fancy , right ? So

15:54

mm-hmm .

15:56

I kind of want to talk about food .

15:58

Oh , yeah , surprise , surprise .

16:01

Okay . So the only reason I say

16:03

that is because A this was almost

16:06

an attraction for me . So

16:08

my litter and I wish I could

16:10

say that this wasn't true and I love Texas

16:12

and Blue Bell and all of those things , but

16:15

this was my favorite ice cream on

16:17

the planet thus far .

16:19

Oh really .

16:20

And I don't know why it's an L card . It

16:22

needs to be in Fort Worth , texas . It does . It's

16:25

called the Vanilla Bean and we went there too

16:27

many times .

16:28

Too many times . If they'd had a t-shirt , I'd have gotten

16:30

it .

16:31

They did . You didn't see it . No , I didn't . Yeah , there were

16:33

t-shirts .

16:35

I mean , we got enough ice cream to bring back to Texas

16:37

in our new RV .

16:38

So we went once just after

16:40

dinner because we were trying to get out and we could park

16:42

and leave the dogs in the truck with the engine running

16:44

in the air conditioner on for a few minutes

16:46

while we went and got ice cream and see them through the window

16:49

in the whole nine Right . And

16:51

we it came back to the truck with them and ate it

16:53

out there and we both looked at there the first few

16:55

bites like , oh , why ? So ? We didn't find

16:57

it till well . After the halfway point of our

16:59

trip , unfortunately , she

17:02

had to fly back . I was still there , so I went

17:04

back and got . Did we go there one more time ? Oh

17:06

, we did . So we went there three well , I went there

17:08

three times . You went there twice . So one

17:11

of the last things she said to me before she got on the

17:13

airplane was I wouldn't be upset

17:15

if a couple of the to-go things of ice

17:17

cream ended up in the RV before you headed

17:20

out .

17:21

I said you're coming back with a freezer , Put it

17:23

to use .

17:24

So I put it to use and I went and bought . I bought

17:26

four pints , quarts , quarts

17:28

. I bought four quarts of ice cream

17:31

and it did I mean if we didn't just eat

17:33

it all in like a few days or anything , I mean it lasted

17:35

for like a month and a half fish

17:37

maybe Mine did . Okay

17:40

, that was mean . But

17:42

yeah , we did go there a lot , we tried . There wasn't a

17:44

bad ice cream . There's just flavor preferences

17:46

at that point .

17:46

And we tried a lot of flavors . I loved it

17:48

, yeah , so that might have been my favorite

17:50

attraction .

17:52

That's why I wanted to do it right after

17:54

attraction . So there's a bunch

17:56

of other food places there . I will say it's

17:58

very heavy in the chains , not

18:00

good , bad , indifferent . It

18:03

just kind of is what it is . Because

18:06

we were in a hotel , we ate pizza a couple

18:08

of times , we got a lot of to-go stuff

18:10

. We did steak and shake once Don't recommend At

18:13

least up there . We

18:15

did Texas Roadhouse , which we're

18:17

texting , and that just kind of felt like meat

18:20

instead of all of the other stuff . But it's a very

18:22

heavy Midwest vibe . I don't know why

18:24

. I thought it would be anything

18:26

different .

18:27

I'm not sure either , you're in the middle of Midwest .

18:29

If you're unfamiliar with what that means , that's kind of a meat and

18:31

potatoes diet , and so there

18:33

is a whole lot of that . We were told about

18:36

a couple of good pizza places by

18:38

the guys at Alliance . Fortunately , we

18:40

just didn't get to them .

18:42

And there were a couple like brew houses

18:44

and things like that , something that may have had a little

18:46

different menu or vibe .

18:47

We had to kind of stick with the to-go stuff , so

18:49

things that we thought would be good to go or

18:52

that would do it reasonably quickly because the dogs or we

18:54

had to be able to take the dogs , because we just didn't want to leave

18:56

them back in the hotel we could have

18:58

. We just chose not to because we wouldn't want to owe the hotel

19:01

a bunch of money for the image , exactly . I

19:04

also did go to the Chubby

19:06

Trout .

19:07

We debated on that one a little bit and elected

19:09

to let you go by yourself .

19:10

Well , we didn't .

19:12

Okay .

19:13

So when Mr Lauren flew out , I was

19:15

still there because , well , we found

19:17

some things that we needed to fix on the RV before

19:19

we left with it . Just no different than when you

19:21

do your PDI . You know , a trim piece

19:23

here or that kind of stuff , all little things . But it did

19:25

make us stay a little longer , and

19:27

in doing that I

19:30

happened to be able to overlap

19:32

with some friends of ours and

19:35

so while I was there and we had been posting

19:37

some stuff on Instagram , they saw that , and

19:39

so Chris and Martha from Venturesome Couple , were actually

19:41

coming up to drop off their rig to have

19:43

some warranty work done . They

19:45

had to fly . Chris Works in California

19:47

, so they had to fly out , so they were there

19:49

for a couple of days . So I met up with them for

19:52

dinner at the Chubby Trout and then

19:54

Curtis and Melody

19:56

from we plus three were also in town . They

19:58

were actually getting ready to turn the Frog rally , which

20:01

is Forest Rivers National Rally

20:03

, at the Elkhart 4-H

20:05

Elkhart County 4-H grounds down in Goshen

20:07

, and so they were there for a few days prior

20:10

at the same campground we also

20:12

kind of utilized in the latter half

20:14

of this trip and

20:16

it was okay , it was really busy . So

20:19

because it's more of a local place , it was very

20:21

, very busy . I thought the food

20:23

was okay . I mean , I'll be honest , it wasn't

20:25

anything to sleep right home about . It had more flavor

20:27

than , say , texas . Rote House did , but

20:29

they both have their place . The

20:32

atmosphere is a lot better than , I

20:34

would say , just the chain places , so it's

20:36

worth going .

20:38

But Texas Rote House gave us like two dozen rolls

20:40

.

20:41

They did give us two dozen rolls , and

20:43

I don't know why I didn't complain

20:45

. We also got like a vat of that cinnamon

20:48

butter too , so that was like

20:50

breakfast a couple mornings it really was not

20:53

a carb-light diet that week . No

20:55

but the Chubby Trout was good . I'd say

20:57

go check it out , just don't like it's

20:59

. I guess that be in Texan thing . You're

21:01

expecting stuff to have a lot more kind of spice

21:03

, and I don't mean that like more flavor , I mean

21:05

actual spice . And I

21:08

got to stop thinking that things are gonna be spicy

21:10

when they aren't because it's just a different

21:12

flavor profile and palette up there that they're

21:14

just not as used to the spice levels that we are here

21:16

in Texas I guess so . Other

21:19

than that , we got to do my fate one of my favorite

21:21

fast food places , and what

21:24

?

21:25

I'm just smiling .

21:26

Thank remembering this , Okay so

21:28

yeah , up in the Midwest there's a burger

21:30

place called Culver's frozen

21:33

custard butter burgers .

21:34

It's very confusing when there's no comma and you

21:36

don't know what it's talking about and you don't

21:38

understand why frozen custard would be in A butter

21:41

burger and how this goes so if you're

21:43

from Texas , it'd be like saying what a burger , it's

21:45

just that kind of a thing .

21:47

And so the they have their

21:49

frozen custards . They call them cements because they're

21:51

really thick , but we don't

21:53

get them very often . My family is originally all from

21:55

Wisconsin , so I'm used to it

21:57

. Lawrence , not , we didn't get to hit up a Perkins , no

22:00

we didn't there was one , but we didn't get to go to it

22:02

.

22:02

That would have been even more confusing if it was cement

22:04

. Frozen custard butter burgers . Well

22:07

, the cement is the frozen custard

22:09

.

22:09

I know it's like saying a mix of dairy cream

22:11

.

22:11

I know .

22:13

What else food you got ?

22:16

Yeah , that's really about it . It was not

22:18

a Culinary person's

22:20

dream .

22:21

I would say it was adequate .

22:22

It got the job done .

22:23

But I just . There's nothing to rave about besides the vanilla

22:25

bean and this wasn't necessarily

22:27

that destination where we Came

22:30

here with a bunch of restaurants in mind . We wanted to try

22:32

, like we've got a trip Well , not planned , but

22:34

it's , it's planned , but we don't know when we're doing it

22:36

to New Orleans , where it's like a restaurant

22:38

, restaurant , restaurant , where there's

22:40

like very iconic places you want to eat , like cafe

22:43

de mon and that kind of stuff , whereas Elkhart

22:45

we didn't really know we were getting to , so we

22:47

just kind of rolled with the flow right and we set

22:49

our expectations accordingly .

22:50

It's not like we go to the Midwest and expect Tex-Mex

22:53

and you know all these things .

22:54

So better be a good potato .

22:56

That's right .

22:58

So while talking about food , you know

23:00

we keep referring back to we were in a hotel , and

23:03

because so many people take their

23:05

RVs for service , it's very likely

23:07

that if you do that , unfortunately , you're probably not

23:09

going to be able to stay in your RV . So

23:12

it's important to know that there are plenty of

23:14

hotels there really are , and Several

23:17

of them were supposedly pet friendly

23:19

.

23:20

We stayed at the true , which was very

23:22

pet friendly .

23:22

They were very accommodating to us , yeah so true

23:25

, by Hilton is the full name . It was

23:27

a little more on the north side of town , I

23:30

know . Depending on where you're going to

23:32

be , that's situational . This was reasonably

23:34

close to the Alliance headquarters

23:36

and Manufacturing plants , so

23:38

for us it was only about a five minute drive

23:40

. And there were a handful of other hotels

23:43

there . We landed on this one because it was one

23:45

of the newer hotels and then for us

23:47

the pet friendly thing was almost a requirement . She's

23:50

right , I will tell you , if you're gonna state the true , I

23:52

think it was a little less expensive because the rooms are a

23:54

little more minimalistic . True , yeah , we

23:56

were in it for true , oh my gosh

23:58

, we were in the hotel

24:01

room for how long about a week . No

24:03

, you were in the hotel right a week so , but

24:05

it was about two in total , I think , if I remember

24:08

correctly . But they were super

24:10

accommodating . Unfortunately , when you put your RV

24:12

into the maintenance program , sometimes they

24:14

find new things . Sometimes it's faster Time

24:17

frames , kind of a open-ended thing

24:19

sometimes , and so you know , we intended

24:21

on being there for a week and then staying another

24:24

four or five days or so in

24:26

the rig . Lauren was all the plan for

24:28

. Lauren was always to fly black because she

24:30

wasn't gonna have time To stay through

24:32

the duration and then be able to get back , so her

24:34

flight was scheduled pretty much before

24:36

we ever got up there . It just so

24:38

happened that I stayed About

24:40

a half a week to a week , longer than

24:43

how long I thought I was gonna stay . Yeah , now

24:45

we did cheat and you haul up

24:47

our bed because I didn't

24:50

want to sleep on the mattress that came with it , and

24:52

RV mattress comms not

24:55

there . They're in Arizona , one of the few RV

24:58

things . So yeah

25:00

we .

25:02

The .

25:02

Hilton was great . They had a little pool table down

25:04

there . The breakfast was exactly what you think the breakfast

25:07

was gonna be , but we may do and

25:09

ate a lot of bagels with cream cheese . That's

25:11

right and it served

25:13

its purpose . The room was a little snug .

25:15

Mm-hmm .

25:16

I think the dogs being there have a lot to do with that

25:18

?

25:18

I was just gonna say because it's not .

25:20

I mean , it's think about it . They don't design these things

25:22

for pets in mind , they just don't . It's

25:24

designed for a couple of people to come

25:26

in , spend a handful of days and then

25:29

take back off , whereas for

25:31

us we had the dogs , and so none

25:33

of the dogs but their stuff , and we had to Essentially

25:36

take a handful of things out of the rig , and we also

25:38

didn't know how long we're gonna be there . So we had luggage like we were

25:40

there for a week and a half .

25:42

Right , we wanted to , to be prepared , I guess

25:44

you could say so . We had our pillows in case we need

25:46

to stay in our own bed , and a lot of luggage

25:49

, and then the dog food Container

25:51

and all their stuffs .

25:53

Yeah , in addition to that , my batteries

25:55

in the truck died while we were there . Thank

25:57

you triple a yeah , triple

25:59

, they didn't do anything .

26:01

Yeah , they did , they came and they did .

26:02

They came and jumped me .

26:03

I forgot about that , yes , they did so I'm

26:05

sorry they did they .

26:06

We have triple a , but with there's an RV version of

26:08

it . They happen to be by

26:10

and so the guy literally ran over jump me . And then I went

26:12

down to auto zone and had to buy two brand new batteries

26:14

.

26:15

We have a diesel , so two batteries , not one several

26:17

adventures while we were there , but if you're

26:19

not keen on staying in a hotel for one reason

26:22

or another , you can always check out like Airbnb

26:24

. I hear there's quite a few around there . We had

26:26

no timeline when we got there

26:28

. That was set , so we didn't know how that

26:30

would work . Hotel was easier for us , but

26:32

I have heard of several people staying in Airbnb's

26:34

. That worked out really well .

26:36

Yeah , exactly , so I'd be hard-pressed

26:38

to also not talk about campgrounds while we're

26:40

doing . Obviously , if you're bringing your RV up , you

26:42

may have to stay a couple days before or after At

26:45

some point . Lauren left and we did get the RV

26:47

, so I did have to move it to a campground for a weekend

26:49

and put it through its paces . So

26:52

we stayed at Elkhart campground , which was literally

26:55

a block north of where the hotel was

26:57

, and it's only even closer to Alliance

26:59

than we were At the hotel . It

27:01

was a great little campground . I say little was actually really

27:03

big . It's not like

27:05

there's not a lot of frills to it , but I

27:07

think it's a staging area for a

27:09

lot of people or or a jumping off point

27:11

.

27:12

But I think that they understand that every time you talk

27:14

to them , they were flexible , they're very kind

27:16

and accommodating and I think they

27:18

understood the assignment .

27:19

Yeah , they did and it was . I mean , it

27:22

was what you would expect to spend on

27:25

a nice Ho , not

27:27

nice nice hotel . It's not a hotel on

27:29

a nice campground , it's

27:31

a very large campground so they have a lot

27:34

of pull-through sites because they know

27:36

people kind of come and go a little faster . There's

27:38

a handful of back ends in some places , but even

27:40

along the edges for the most part it's almost

27:42

all pull-throughs .

27:44

Well , and especially having this new

27:46

rig . That is giant . It

27:49

was easy for you . I don't know if it was easy

27:51

, it was easy for me . You

27:53

could maneuver in there and not knowing all

27:55

your specs and everything . And so you were

27:57

easy to get into a site and get comfortable .

27:59

Well , and because I was gonna be towing the

28:01

rig back to Texas by myself with the

28:03

dogs and Lauren wasn't with me , I

28:06

wanted to take our precautions beforehand

28:08

ever leaving , like putting a backup camera

28:10

on board , getting the the

28:12

tire pressure monitoring system up and going

28:14

. I wanted all that stuff on board because I didn't

28:16

have Lauren's eyes , so if I had to back into a site

28:19

with shocker , I did the entire time . I

28:21

didn't have much of a choice . I had to get that

28:24

backup camera on . So Elkhart campground

28:26

served as a really nice jumping off point

28:28

for me so that I could have some

28:30

room spread out a little bit and Get

28:33

work done on the new RV , just to

28:35

get it roadworthy for us and safety

28:38

and how our comfort level goes .

28:40

So what

28:42

else you got . So that's my summary

28:45

of Elkhart . Make sure to go to the vanilla bean

28:47

and If you take your dog

28:49

, you're in good shape . Ice cream .

28:51

So I do think it's important and

28:53

we talked just briefly about this earlier , but

28:55

a big reason why people go . We said

28:57

maintenance a whole lot , but national rallies are also

28:59

a huge thing . Sure , grand

29:02

design puts 600 something rigs

29:04

at the Elkhart County 4-H

29:06

fairgrounds Alliance

29:09

is growing . I think they . It was kind of cool . I

29:11

actually went to this last year's national rally

29:13

. Before we picked up our rig , we just wanted to

29:15

put eyes on one of the prototypes . Make

29:17

sure we're gonna be happy with it because we essentially bought

29:19

its site unseen . But

29:22

the amount of Woke

29:24

in Curtis and Melody were there . They were getting

29:26

ready for the Frog rally , which is Forest Rivers

29:28

National Rally . There's a

29:30

lot of things to do . So if you're there for the national like

29:32

, go a little early , stay a little late , it's worth it , just for

29:34

the ice cream .

29:35

I Couldn't agree

29:37

more .

29:39

All right , well , I guess that's gonna pretty

29:41

much wrap up our destination guide

29:43

for Elkhart . Elkhart , if you have any

29:46

questions or we didn't answer anything

29:48

, by all means shoot us a note . You

29:50

can do that by clicking the link down below

29:52

in the show notes or description , depending on where you're

29:54

listening or watching this . You can

29:56

also sign up for our newsletter , and we have a handful

29:58

of other things on that link as well

30:00

. We would love to hear from you , Absolutely All

30:04

right . Well , that's gonna do it for us . We hope

30:06

you have an amazing week and we will see

30:08

you next week .