Show Links: www.millersinmotion.com/links
Ever wondered why Elkhart, Indiana is considered the RV capital of the US? Let's embark on a virtual journey through this charming city as we share tales from our adventure of picking up our Alliance Valor toy hauler. We guarantee you'll learn why RV enthusiasts are drawn to this midwestern gem, be it for a guided tour of an RV manufacturer or a visit to the RV/MH Hall of Fame—a dog-friendly location that also happens to be a Harvest Host hotspot.
Our trip was also filled with unexpected surprises. We uncovered the city's historic gems, from the Ruthmere and Beardsley houses to the railroad museum, and even traced the area's strong Amish influences on the Heritage Trail. Regrettably, we missed out on visiting the Hall of Heroes, the world's only comic and superhero museum, due to the four-legged members of our family. We laughed, we explored, and, of course, we ate—savoring everything from our favorite ice cream in Fort Worth, Texas to a fulfilling meal at the Chubby Trout restaurant in Elkhart.
As we wrap up our Elkhart odyssey, let's reflect on the practical aspects of visiting this city. We'll share our experience with pet-friendly accommodations and the unique challenges of managing four-legged companions in a hotel room. We'll also provide handy tips on the city's food and lodging options, offering invaluable advice for those planning a similar adventure. So grab a cup of coffee, snuggle up with your furry friend, and let us transport you to Elkhart, Indiana. You'll feel like you've been there and back, all from the comfort of your own home.
Show Links: www.millersinmotion.com/links
Ever wondered why Elkhart, Indiana is considered the RV capital of the US? Let's embark on a virtual journey through this charming city as we share tales from our adventure of picking up our Alliance Valor toy hauler. We guarantee you'll learn why RV enthusiasts are drawn to this midwestern gem, be it for a guided tour of an RV manufacturer or a visit to the RV/MH Hall of Fame—a dog-friendly location that also happens to be a Harvest Host hotspot.
Our trip was also filled with unexpected surprises. We uncovered the city's historic gems, from the Ruthmere and Beardsley houses to the railroad museum, and even traced the area's strong Amish influences on the Heritage Trail. Regrettably, we missed out on visiting the Hall of Heroes, the world's only comic and superhero museum, due to the four-legged members of our family. We laughed, we explored, and, of course, we ate—savoring everything from our favorite ice cream in Fort Worth, Texas to a fulfilling meal at the Chubby Trout restaurant in Elkhart.
As we wrap up our Elkhart odyssey, let's reflect on the practical aspects of visiting this city. We'll share our experience with pet-friendly accommodations and the unique challenges of managing four-legged companions in a hotel room. We'll also provide handy tips on the city's food and lodging options, offering invaluable advice for those planning a similar adventure. So grab a cup of coffee, snuggle up with your furry friend, and let us transport you to Elkhart, Indiana. You'll feel like you've been there and back, all from the comfort of your own home.
Welcome back to the RV shenanigans podcast. I'm Ryan.
Speaker 2:I'm Lauren, and together we are Miller's Emotion. We recently sold a ranch in Texas and are enjoying new adventures in our Alliance Valor toy hauler.
Speaker 1:And we are coming to you from Texas. Still, we are still in the Lone Star state getting ready to head south for the winter, but we're going to get through the holidays first. Also, we have a lot of exciting things while we're down in Florida that we have coming up, and so we are recording a handful of these podcasts early so that we have some fillers, just in case. So if it feels a little bit out of the wonky timeline thing, that's why Doesn't mean we're not going to interact with it. If you're on YouTube or anything else just means we're knocking some stuff out, because we have a lot of really fun podcasts scheduled while we're down there. We need to focus on those.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, we do have some live podcast recordings while we're at the 2024 Florida RV Super Show, which, spoiler, we're talking about today. So if you're going to be at the show, make sure and swing by the Alliance booth. That's where we're going to be, and you can't miss the big RV shenanigans podcast tent right there. Come, say hi, we'll answer some questions on air, and we have an absolute ton of guests that we are very, very excited to talk to and share stories with you guys. So today's show. Though we are talking about today's show. We are talking about the destination that everybody goes to Elkhart, indiana.
Speaker 2:It's on the top of your list, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, so it very much so. Is that pilgrimage for a lot of RVers? So we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to dive into all the things. Elkhart, the Hoosier State.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, is that what you learned?
Speaker 1:One of the things I knew that from the movie Hoosiers. So Elkhart, indiana. Why would anybody just say you know what? I want to go Disneyland. I don't want to go to Disney World, the coast, let's go to the Midwest and go to Elkhart.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be polite here and say it's probably out of necessity.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, it kind of is Like I said before, we took the break. It's very much so that pilgrimage for a lot of RVers. Most of the RVs in the US are made there, not all of them. There's a handful spread out in other places.
Speaker 2:And also a lot of accessories and things, because when you produce and make RVs, you need the accessories and things to go in.
Speaker 1:I want to be honest If they make the fridges across the street from make the RVs, shipping's really cheap.
Speaker 2:Bingo.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's kind of known as the RV capital of the US, maybe the world, but that's because so many are built there. Our first rig was built there. Our Alliance Valor was built there. We actually went. That's why we went there is to pick her up. And then there's, like Lauren said, not just a bunch of accessory companies but like Mooride. So if you are going to go have IS or independent suspension installed on your rig, that's where you're probably going to go. You can go a few other places, but that's the main spot. So the running joke too is like it's the mothership. All the little subships have to come back every so often. So okay, let's say you're in Elkhart. What is there to do besides RV manufacturers and getting warranty work?
Speaker 2:done. Take a tour of your RV manufacturer.
Speaker 1:Which, by the way, is probably the biggest attraction of them all. Almost all of the manufacturers, to my knowledge, allow tours. Now it's guided. Sometimes they let you film, sometimes they don't let you film. And if you're thinking about buying an RV, I will tell you. If you're really curious to how that specific manufacturer builds it, go take a tour. That's actually why they do that.
Speaker 2:Well, right and more. I did the same thing, and so I was able to do that and actually did learn a lot and appreciate it. But outside of that, there are a couple things to do. Yes, and we went to find them. For you, I would say the first thing and the most common thing you'll probably hear about is the RV manufactured housing, not motorhome Hall of Fame, and so we went and did that. A couple of notes on that they are dog friendly. So if you see our YouTube video, you see that we took the dogs through the whole exhibit. They had a fantastic time and they are harvest hosts.
Speaker 1:I don't know that. I'd recommend taking the pops.
Speaker 2:No, most certainly not. It made us a little bit more adventurous.
Speaker 1:We didn't have much of a choice in the matter because of how we were doing everything, but it it worked out fine.
Speaker 2:It did. They had a fantastic time and they were tired by the time we got done.
Speaker 1:No accidents were had. That we know of that. Well, that's nice. Well, they were unleashed the whole time.
Speaker 2:So so, as far as that place goes, I think it's $20 a person to get in, something like that at the time of recording at the time, of course. So that, take it or leave it, it is what it is. I think that it was fun to do, but I don't know that we would do it multiple times per se.
Speaker 1:It's cool to see. I mean, there's a lot of old vintage stuff in there, there's not. I mean, if you're looking for like the new modern stuff, that's not what this is. Now I will say that there was in the go RVing section. Go RVing is a company or association. They had that fury on Rig that they retrofitted. That's like super, super modern. So that's really about it. Most of it's more like a look in the past.
Speaker 2:It's it's a museum after all right, and it was interesting to see those things and see how far things have come.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I read somewhere that someone said it's a full-day thing. It was not a full-day thing for us, it was a hour and a half-ish long thing and, and it's one of those things, once you did it, it's. I did feel like it was a little more. Check the box, took the picture, got a shirt.
Speaker 2:We're out of here.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, but it we enjoyed our time. Just no real reason to go back unless something drastic changes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, certainly no regrets doing it, just wouldn't do it again.
Speaker 1:I would tell you from the harvest host side of things, the grounds were really pretty.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they really were, and it was like flat paved. What more can you ask for if you're looking for boondockers? Harvest, host stuff?
Speaker 1:Right and, and I could imagine, as the museum closes, it's probably pretty quiet there, assuming there's not somebody like us running our generator because we don't have our batteries yet yet. But yeah, it's the important part. That conversation had one a little further yesterday too, so but it as far as the harvest host side, great site. I would actually actually plan on a stop there if we were with the rig and we could boondock or we were on our way somewhere and needed to use that so Definitely it would be.
Speaker 2:You know a place we could get out and walk the dogs? Well, it all the things you could ask for so aside from that.
Speaker 1:So one of the biggest things for me and we mentioned this in the YouTube video we did was just the vegetation was so more. I think we described it as lush.
Speaker 2:I think multiple times yes, now we went in August, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And in Texas in August it's hot and it's I call it the hot version of dormant. It's so hot that there's no rain, that the grass goes back to dormant because it's so crispy, and so that's it's hot and crispy.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, which means it's also kind of brown and jewelry and you don't want to be outside. So, to see all that greenery was fantastic.
Speaker 1:So, that being said, we did as much as we could possibly do outside, plus we were out of a rig. So I guess we never really said why we were in Elkhart. We went to Elkhart to pick up our Alliance Valor 44 v 14 and work with Alliance as well as more right on some of the suspension and accessory Stuff, and so we went up there without a rig. So we drove up with the intentions of bringing Harvey back Plan for two weeks, spent many more, and so we stayed at a hotel and then you had to come back on your own, unfortunately, and then the dogs and I came back in the rig and here we are.
Speaker 2:Yes, so this whole time we did have the dogs with us. So you'll see that most of what we did was very pet friendly.
Speaker 1:It was in fact all of it was pretty much because we had no choice didn't trust them in the hotel alone, so Other attractions. Because it was so lush and we had the dogs, we went to parks.
Speaker 2:We did. They actually had some fantastic County parks and everything, not necessarily paved, but at least Well-maintained pathways that were easy enough to navigate.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say we took a hike, long walk, at the Cobas Creek County Park or trail, however you want to say it. That was really cool because it kind of interwind, intertwined back and crossed a little creek. There was like Garden areas and then they had the typical park stuff with like the jungle gym for the kids and tables, and I thought I saw like Like grass of volleyball courts and that kind of thing right, and that's one of like seven in their little system.
Speaker 2:That was just right there that we could have gotten to very easily, right?
Speaker 1:We Unfortunate. I wish we could have spent more time doing stuff like that, but we kept having to go back and do things and we had to move the rig a couple of times and so there was and we're working, and so unfortunately, there was a lot of that during the day.
Speaker 2:So we did what we could with when we could that's right, and they also have a botanic gardens that we did not make it to, but given how lush and beautiful everything was, I can only Imagine that that would be gorgeous. Right, we did go to a kind of garden, a kind of. We're still confused about this. We did a lot of research you're confused? No, you did a lot of research. I showed up and was confused.
Speaker 1:When they get go, still a little confused.
Speaker 2:All right. So whenever you look at what to do in Elkhart, you will find that this place called Linton's Enchanted Gardens keeps coming up and you're like, oh, it's like Botanic Gardens Kind of. And then, when you keep doing your research, it says it's the largest home and garden store and you're like is what am I getting into?
Speaker 1:the Nards Kind of ish, but bigger.
Speaker 2:So we went to go check it out and it is. It is very large. You can buy plants for your house if you live there, which, if you're traveling there, no, you don't live there. And if you're in an RV, you probably don't have the need for a lot of plants, but it was still interesting. And then they have a petting zoo you can do like paddle boats and all kinds of things.
Speaker 1:There's a bunch of stuff. I will say it was a. If you have an hour to kill, it's, it's fine, it's free. That's bonus yeah well, unless you want to do any of the things that's true.
Speaker 1:But but for the most part just to kind of wander around, do everything it was free. It was very pretty. Mm-hmm, I will say it was dead of summer, so I think a lot of things were out of season, so it wasn't necessarily super colorful when we were there. I'm sure if you go there in the spring, color everywhere and they obviously put a lot of love, care and attention into everything that they did. They it does feel a little gimmicky with all the stuff.
Speaker 2:It did.
Speaker 1:I'd say the petting zoo was the closest thing to an actual petting zoo that we found, because, like you, could do a swan thing, the no kidding the pond was maybe the size of our living room. I mean, what do you look like? You would go five feet, five feet, five feet and then you're in, right. And so it was that kind Of stuff or what. They had something else with a little hill like a zorb ball or something like that. Oh yeah, mm-hmm in the hill, no joke, was like 15 feet long.
Speaker 2:I know they had the little golf cart or go cart track.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, dirt.
Speaker 2:It was very small, so Set your expectation accordingly. If you want to get out for a little bit and stretch your legs and you need somewhere to take the dogs, it's fantastic.
Speaker 1:Have you ever been in one of those like the knick-knack stores on like an old Main Street that just like you walk in and you can barely move because there's so much stuff that's right, don't breathe, you'll knock it over all has its place, I kind of say like the Hallmark store field. But on steroids, this is kind of what the inside felt like and they have a cafe, I think.
Speaker 1:I guess I don't think I saw it through all the stuff, but it's really hard to move. So imagine what dogs, how it was it was terrifying. We didn't spend much time in there because we were terrified they were gonna break something expensive.
Speaker 2:Yes, so anything else on Linton's?
Speaker 1:No, just that, I'm still confused.
Speaker 2:We're all still confused.
Speaker 1:Go check it out. I will say for us it was literally across the street from Alliance, so off the main road. So it was really really handy for us. I had to throw it really really in there for you.
Speaker 2:And I was just intrigued because it's on all of the hit list of things to do and I couldn't figure out why and I will say as far as Attractions go.
Speaker 1:Elkhart, if you're not familiar with where it is, it's in the northern part of Indiana. It is Kind of attached to Goshen and South Bend. Goshen is just Goshen, I don't know how there's nothing else there, it's just south. But to the west is South Bend. South Bend might sound kind of familiar because that's the home of Notre Dame. So if you're a big football fan of the Notre Dame fighting Irish, it's a very historical college. Obviously. That's one thing I wish we would have had more time to do. We went to South Bend a couple of times. That was where the Costco was.
Speaker 1:And the airport when I had to leave and you and she had to fly out of the airport. I wish we would have had time to do like a campus tour or see the stadium, and I agree with that.
Speaker 2:That would have really kind of changed things up a little bit for us we didn't have the time and we didn't have anything to do with the dogs, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:So, we didn't get to do that. Just know that is something you can do if you're there, and I would say, try to do it because there's, especially if you like you know collegiate sports and in history and that stuff. That's one of the oldest schools in the country.
Speaker 2:So, kind of on that note, things that we would like to have been able to do. Granted, with the dogs mostly was the biggest thing right, and there are a lot of historic places there. So if you're interested just in the history of Elkhart and that area, there's the Ruthmere and Beardsley houses and that's where you can learn about that and they are historic houses. It's a campus of two, so everybody says that that's really interesting. If Elkhart in particular isn't quite your gig, there's the railroad museum. I always think that that's interesting just because it's the whole United States and how things came to fruition.
Speaker 2:I think we passed it once probably we passed a lot of things. We took a driving tour several times and then, if you kind of want to get outside and enjoy the culture and more what's active right now, there's a lot of Amish culture around and then there's the heritage trail which kind of supports that. So it's a driving trail and it's like 20 miles long and there are different stops along the way so you can get out and see different flowers or buy different knickknacks and gifts and things that support the Amish and local communities and that and speaking of the Amish culture there it's.
Speaker 1:If you're not used to that, like if you're from Texas, like we are, it's a little. It's not shocking. By any means, just be prepared for it is that it is a very heavy Influence, especially in in Goshen, but you're it's not uncommon to see horse drawn buggies kind of everywhere and that kind of stuff. So just know, when you're driving around that kind of thing, just be aware of them. They're not. The horses are still horses, be nice.
Speaker 2:That's right. Be respectful of it. And if none of that suits your fancy, there is one thing that you can do in Elkhart that you can't do anywhere else, and that is the Hall of Heroes. Oh, yeah, that is the world's only comic and superhero museum.
Speaker 1:She brought this up with me and I said let's go do that. And then I realized we had the dogs, so that was kind of what killed it. But also I'm pretty sure you would have drug your feet pretty hard.
Speaker 2:It's a good chance, but, oh darn, we couldn't go.
Speaker 1:The dogs, no, maybe next time and I will say it's probably like legit comic books. So if you're a big fan of like Marvel movies, that's not what we're talking about. It's like the actual Marvel comments and DC comics and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:So I don't know that.
Speaker 1:I'm I'm a nerd, but I don't know that I'm all nerd. I'm like 80% nerd.
Speaker 2:So my two cents is get outside and do something, but hopefully something of all of that variety suits your fancy, right? So mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I kind of want to talk about food.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1:Okay. So the only reason I say that is because A this was almost an attraction for me. So my litter and I wish I could say that this wasn't true and I love Texas and Blue Bell and all of those things, but this was my favorite ice cream on the planet thus far.
Speaker 2:Oh really.
Speaker 1:And I don't know why it's an L card. It needs to be in Fort Worth, texas. It does. It's called the Vanilla Bean and we went there too many times.
Speaker 2:Too many times. If they'd had a t-shirt, I'd have gotten it.
Speaker 1:They did. You didn't see it. No, I didn't. Yeah, there were t-shirts.
Speaker 2:I mean, we got enough ice cream to bring back to Texas in our new RV.
Speaker 1:So we went once just after dinner because we were trying to get out and we could park and leave the dogs in the truck with the engine running in the air conditioner on for a few minutes while we went and got ice cream and see them through the window in the whole nine Right.
Speaker 1:And we it came back to the truck with them and ate it out there and we both looked at there the first few bites like, oh, why? So? We didn't find it till well. After the halfway point of our trip, unfortunately, she had to fly back. I was still there, so I went back and got. Did we go there one more time? Oh, we did.
Speaker 1:So we went there three well, I went there three times. You went there twice. So one of the last things she said to me before she got on the airplane was I wouldn't be upset if a couple of the to-go things of ice cream ended up in the RV before you headed out.
Speaker 2:I said you're coming back with a freezer, Put it to use.
Speaker 1:So I put it to use and I went and bought. I bought four pints, quarts, quarts. I bought four quarts of ice cream and it did I mean if we didn't just eat it all in like a few days or anything, I mean it lasted for like a month and a half fish maybe Mine did. Okay, that was mean. But yeah, we did go there a lot, we tried. There wasn't a bad ice cream. There's just flavor preferences at that point.
Speaker 2:And we tried a lot of flavors. I loved it, yeah, so that might have been my favorite attraction.
Speaker 1:That's why I wanted to do it right after attraction. So there's a bunch of other food places there. I will say it's very heavy in the chains, not good, bad, indifferent. It just kind of is what it is. Because we were in a hotel, we ate pizza a couple of times, we got a lot of to-go stuff. We did steak and shake once Don't recommend At least up there. We did Texas Roadhouse, which we're texting, and that just kind of felt like meat instead of all of the other stuff. But it's a very heavy Midwest vibe. I don't know why. I thought it would be anything different.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure either, you're in the middle of Midwest.
Speaker 1:If you're unfamiliar with what that means, that's kind of a meat and potatoes diet, and so there is a whole lot of that. We were told about a couple of good pizza places by the guys at Alliance. Fortunately, we just didn't get to them.
Speaker 2:And there were a couple like brew houses and things like that, something that may have had a little different menu or vibe.
Speaker 1:We had to kind of stick with the to-go stuff, so things that we thought would be good to go or that would do it reasonably quickly because the dogs or we had to be able to take the dogs, because we just didn't want to leave them back in the hotel we could have. We just chose not to because we wouldn't want to owe the hotel a bunch of money for the image, exactly. I also did go to the Chubby Trout.
Speaker 2:We debated on that one a little bit and elected to let you go by yourself.
Speaker 1:Well, we didn't.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So when Mr Lauren flew out, I was still there because, well, we found some things that we needed to fix on the RV before we left with it. Just no different than when you do your PDI. You know, a trim piece here or that kind of stuff, all little things. But it did make us stay a little longer, and in doing that I happened to be able to overlap with some friends of ours and so while I was there and we had been posting some stuff on Instagram, they saw that, and so Chris and Martha from Venturesome Couple, were actually coming up to drop off their rig to have some warranty work done. They had to fly.
Speaker 1:Chris Works in California, so they had to fly out, so they were there for a couple of days. So I met up with them for dinner at the Chubby Trout and then Curtis and Melody from we plus three were also in town. They were actually getting ready to turn the Frog rally, which is Forest Rivers National Rally, at the Elkhart 4-H Elkhart County 4-H grounds down in Goshen, and so they were there for a few days prior at the same campground we also kind of utilized in the latter half of this trip and it was okay, it was really busy. So because it's more of a local place, it was very, very busy. I thought the food was okay. I mean, I'll be honest, it wasn't anything to sleep right home about. It had more flavor than, say, texas.
Speaker 1:Rote House did, but they both have their place. The atmosphere is a lot better than, I would say, just the chain places, so it's worth going.
Speaker 2:But Texas Rote House gave us like two dozen rolls.
Speaker 1:They did give us two dozen rolls, and I don't know why I didn't complain. We also got like a vat of that cinnamon butter too, so that was like breakfast a couple mornings it really was not a carb-light diet that week.
Speaker 1:No but the Chubby Trout was good. I'd say go check it out, just don't like it's. I guess that be in Texan thing. You're expecting stuff to have a lot more kind of spice, and I don't mean that like more flavor, I mean actual spice. And I got to stop thinking that things are gonna be spicy when they aren't because it's just a different flavor profile and palette up there that they're just not as used to the spice levels that we are here in Texas I guess so.
Speaker 1:Other than that, we got to do my fate one of my favorite fast food places, and what?
Speaker 2:I'm just smiling.
Speaker 1:Thank remembering this, Okay so yeah, up in the Midwest there's a burger place called Culver's frozen custard butter burgers.
Speaker 2:It's very confusing when there's no comma and you don't know what it's talking about and you don't understand why frozen custard would be in A butter burger and how this goes so if you're from Texas, it'd be like saying what a burger, it's just that kind of a thing.
Speaker 1:And so the they have their frozen custards. They call them cements because they're really thick, but we don't get them very often. My family is originally all from Wisconsin, so I'm used to it. Lawrence, not, we didn't get to hit up a Perkins, no we didn't there was one, but we didn't get to go to it.
Speaker 2:That would have been even more confusing if it was cement. Frozen custard butter burgers. Well, the cement is the frozen custard.
Speaker 1:I know it's like saying a mix of dairy cream.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:What else food you got?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really about it. It was not a Culinary person's dream.
Speaker 1:I would say it was adequate.
Speaker 2:It got the job done.
Speaker 1:But I just.
Speaker 1:There's nothing to rave about besides the vanilla bean and this wasn't necessarily that destination where we Came here with a bunch of restaurants in mind. We wanted to try, like we've got a trip Well, not planned, but it's, it's planned, but we don't know when we're doing it to New Orleans, where it's like a restaurant, restaurant, restaurant, where there's like very iconic places you want to eat, like cafe de mon and that kind of stuff, whereas Elkhart we didn't really know we were getting to, so we just kind of rolled with the flow right and we set our expectations accordingly.
Speaker 2:It's not like we go to the Midwest and expect Tex-Mex and you know all these things.
Speaker 1:So better be a good potato.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:So while talking about food, you know we keep referring back to we were in a hotel, and because so many people take their RVs for service, it's very likely that if you do that, unfortunately, you're probably not going to be able to stay in your RV. So it's important to know that there are plenty of hotels there really are, and Several of them were supposedly pet friendly.
Speaker 2:We stayed at the true, which was very pet friendly.
Speaker 1:They were very accommodating to us, yeah so true, by Hilton is the full name. It was a little more on the north side of town, I know. Depending on where you're going to be, that's situational. This was reasonably close to the Alliance headquarters and Manufacturing plants, so for us it was only about a five minute drive. And there were a handful of other hotels there. We landed on this one because it was one of the newer hotels and then for us the pet friendly thing was almost a requirement. She's right, I will tell you, if you're gonna state the true, I think it was a little less expensive because the rooms are a little more minimalistic.
Speaker 1:True, yeah, we were in it for true, oh my gosh, we were in the hotel room for how long about a week.
Speaker 1:No, you were in the hotel right a week so, but it was about two in total, I think, if I remember correctly. But they were super accommodating. Unfortunately, when you put your RV into the maintenance program, sometimes they find new things. Sometimes it's faster Time frames, kind of a open-ended thing sometimes, and so you know, we intended on being there for a week and then staying another four or five days or so in the rig. Lauren was all the plan for. Lauren was always to fly black because she wasn't gonna have time To stay through the duration and then be able to get back, so her flight was scheduled pretty much before we ever got up there. It just so happened that I stayed About a half a week to a week, longer than how long I thought I was gonna stay. Yeah, now we did cheat and you haul up our bed because I didn't want to sleep on the mattress that came with it, and RV mattress comms not there.
Speaker 1:They're in Arizona, one of the few RV things. So yeah we.
Speaker 2:The.
Speaker 1:Hilton was great. They had a little pool table down there. The breakfast was exactly what you think the breakfast was gonna be, but we may do and ate a lot of bagels with cream cheese. That's right and it served its purpose. The room was a little snug.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I think the dogs being there have a lot to do with that?
Speaker 2:I was just gonna say because it's not.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's think about it. They don't design these things for pets in mind, they just don't. It's designed for a couple of people to come in, spend a handful of days and then take back off, whereas for us we had the dogs, and so none of the dogs but their stuff, and we had to Essentially take a handful of things out of the rig, and we also didn't know how long we're gonna be there. So we had luggage like we were there for a week and a half.
Speaker 2:Right, we wanted to, to be prepared, I guess you could say so. We had our pillows in case we need to stay in our own bed, and a lot of luggage, and then the dog food Container and all their stuffs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in addition to that, my batteries in the truck died while we were there. Thank you triple a yeah, triple, they didn't do anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they did, they came and they did.
Speaker 1:They came and jumped me.
Speaker 2:I forgot about that, yes, they did so I'm sorry they did they.
Speaker 1:We have triple a, but with there's an RV version of it. They happen to be by and so the guy literally ran over jump me. And then I went down to auto zone and had to buy two brand new batteries.
Speaker 2:We have a diesel, so two batteries, not one several adventures while we were there, but if you're not keen on staying in a hotel for one reason or another, you can always check out like Airbnb. I hear there's quite a few around there. We had no timeline when we got there. That was set, so we didn't know how that would work. Hotel was easier for us, but I have heard of several people staying in Airbnb's. That worked out really well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, so I'd be hard-pressed to also not talk about campgrounds while we're doing. Obviously, if you're bringing your RV up, you may have to stay a couple days before or after At some point. Lauren left and we did get the RV, so I did have to move it to a campground for a weekend and put it through its paces. So we stayed at Elkhart campground, which was literally a block north of where the hotel was, and it's only even closer to Alliance than we were At the hotel. It was a great little campground. I say little was actually really big. It's not like there's not a lot of frills to it, but I think it's a staging area for a lot of people or or a jumping off point.
Speaker 2:But I think that they understand that every time you talk to them, they were flexible, they're very kind and accommodating and I think they understood the assignment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they did and it was. I mean, it was what you would expect to spend on a nice Ho, not nice nice hotel. It's not a hotel on a nice campground, it's a very large campground so they have a lot of pull-through sites because they know people kind of come and go a little faster. There's a handful of back ends in some places, but even along the edges for the most part it's almost all pull-throughs.
Speaker 2:Well, and especially having this new rig. That is giant. It was easy for you. I don't know if it was easy, it was easy for me. You could maneuver in there and not knowing all your specs and everything. And so you were easy to get into a site and get comfortable.
Speaker 1:Well, and because I was gonna be towing the rig back to Texas by myself with the dogs and Lauren wasn't with me, I wanted to take our precautions beforehand ever leaving, like putting a backup camera on board, getting the the tire pressure monitoring system up and going. I wanted all that stuff on board because I didn't have Lauren's eyes, so if I had to back into a site with shocker, I did the entire time. I didn't have much of a choice. I had to get that backup camera on. So Elkhart campground served as a really nice jumping off point for me so that I could have some room spread out a little bit and Get work done on the new RV, just to get it roadworthy for us and safety and how our comfort level goes.
Speaker 2:So what else you got. So that's my summary of Elkhart. Make sure to go to the vanilla bean and If you take your dog, you're in good shape. Ice cream.
Speaker 1:So I do think it's important and we talked just briefly about this earlier, but a big reason why people go. We said maintenance a whole lot, but national rallies are also a huge thing. Sure, grand design puts 600 something rigs at the Elkhart County 4-H fairgrounds Alliance is growing. I think they. It was kind of cool. I actually went to this last year's national rally. Before we picked up our rig, we just wanted to put eyes on one of the prototypes. Make sure we're gonna be happy with it because we essentially bought its site unseen. But the amount of Woke in Curtis and Melody were there. They were getting ready for the Frog rally, which is Forest Rivers National Rally. There's a lot of things to do. So if you're there for the national like, go a little early, stay a little late, it's worth it, just for the ice cream.
Speaker 2:I Couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1:All right, well, I guess that's gonna pretty much wrap up our destination guide for Elkhart. Elkhart, if you have any questions or we didn't answer anything, by all means shoot us a note. You can do that by clicking the link down below in the show notes or description, depending on where you're listening or watching this. You can also sign up for our newsletter, and we have a handful of other things on that link as well.
Speaker 1:We would love to hear from you, Absolutely All right. Well, that's gonna do it for us. We hope you have an amazing week and we will see you next week.