54th Escapees Escapade--Goshen, Indiana

Monday

Well its actually Tuesday and I realized that I did not update the blog yesterday.  It was a busy busy day once we got going.  We did have a lazy morning, but I am getting over being sick and all the hours we put in at Boot Camp.  Bonnie went over and toured the market place and talked to some of the vendors.  After lunch I went over with her and we looked at some of the things she is interested in doing or getting.  Then at 3pm we had the first drawings and the opening session of the 54th Escapade.  We met some of the staff that put this all together and also two 500 cash prizes were given away.  We caught up with John and Kathy and Bill and Kris so we all sat together.

Bill and Kris

First $500 winner

 The rally opened with the presentation of the colors, the pledge of allegiance, and then the parade of chapter banners.

Line up for the parade

 Then we were all welcomed and given info for the week.  At the conclusion we all retired outside where an ice-cream bar was waiting for us.  We then sat down inside and chatted for a while.  Finally time for supper and back to the coaches.

Johnny Counterfeit and band were the evening entertainment.  He is a singer, song writer, impressionist etc.  He was very funny and entertaining.  Back to the coach exhausted we pretty much went straight to bed.

We had some rain overnight but its not too wet where we are.

Tuesday

Tired again tonight but I need to write a little before I retire.  We were up at 7 this morning way to early for me.  We each had a seminar we wanted to attend.  I wend to one on extending campground WiFi and Bonnie attended interior refurbishing.  Then Bonnie went to one on cleaning your RV without chemicals and I went to Technology for RVers.  Then we both attended Nick Russell's talk on Highway History and Backroad Mystery, very informative.  It was so good we attended his talk on the Frugal RVer along with John and Kathy Huggins.

The Famous Nick Russell

I was ready for a nap and we headed back to the rig.  It smelled so good in here as Bonnie had been cooking chicken in the crockpot all day.  We later had that and steamed veggies for supper.  I did the dishes, Bonnie said it was my turn.  Actually I usually do them but she has been kind and doing them while I was not feeling up to snuff.  Then we headed over for the door prizes, none of us one any thing.  Then the Homestead Pickers came on stage to play for the evening entertainment.  Then are from Branson and I think they are pretty good.  However the sound was such that I could not hear what they were saying.  Bonnie agreed and was ready to go.  John is a sound guy and he said it was painful for him to listen to.  They had never seen our rig so we invited them in for a tour.  We talked for a while, exchanged some ideas and then called it a night.

Bonnie has been reading a while so now I am going to head in to bed also.  Another great day at the Escapade.

Wednesday

Well the sun has set, although we really did not see the sun all day.  It has rained all day long steady mostly and down right hard at times.  Its after 10 now and when the heat pump is not running the rain is loud on the roof.

Bonnie started a class at 8:30 this morning and pretty much did that all day.  We did meet for lunch and talked to the Red Cross Doves briefly.  I slept in until 8:30 and then took my time waking up.  I got some batteries out to trade with John Huggins for a TPMS repeater that he was not using.  I also checked the Hydro Hot and added some coolant to that, I am hoping its just air coming out from the replacement last year.  I will keep an eye on it.

After lunch I attended a seminars and also checked with the post office to see if my package from MCD shades had come in.  Not yet.

Maybe tomorrow Mail Closes at 1:30

Just before the next seminar started a got an email that FedEx had delivered my package.  I went over to the Fair Office since the mail room was closed and sure enough there it was.  I picked it up and went back to my last seminar for the day.  Then back to the coach in the rain.  Bonnie was there relaxing and we got a call from friends about dinner.  We picked the South Side Soda Shop, it was featured on Diners Dives and Drive-ins in 2007.  They came over a while later and we took the CR-V and found the place even with the Detour on the main road.  The food was good and the desserts were delicious.

John and Kathy Huggins
livingthervdream.com

If you look in the back ground there is Nick Russell his wife and a group of vendors from the rally.

You know these two

We had a good time and good conversation.  I think it was not raining when we walked back to the car.  We picked up Bonnis's RXs at CVS (cheaper than WalMart) and headed back to the rig.  John and Kathy do a weekly PodCast and went to their rig to do it, I guess they wanted the sound of the rain for a background.

I looked at the MCD box and decided to see if I could put up a shade.

They were calling my name

While I started on that Bonnie wanted to work on her picture some.  So she broke out the Viking.

Trying to work on the project

What we were doing in the bedroom was replacing the pleaded day/night shades that were hard to but up and down with MCD roller shades.

The before

I had two small ones to do at the head of the bed and one longer one over the dresser.  I used the bed again as my work bench.

Working on disassembly.

 The install went pretty smoothly and I only had to adjust the first shade as it rubbed.

Starting final assembly 

I would say it only took about an hour and we are pleased with the results.

The small one at the head of the bed

The one over the dresser

I put the tools away and called it quits for today.  Time to relax.  Thats about the time I remembered it was Wednesday and time to post the blog.

We are having a good time this week and have already learned so much.  There is still a lot to do and we have realized we can not do it all in one week.  So we are trying to rest a little more and attend a few less seminars.  We have really had a lot of rain and certain areas are much wetter than others.  We are hoping everyone can get out safely on Saturday or when they need to.  Time to post this and get some of that rest.


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