Bob and Gita Patel, owners of Elkhart Campground, love it when a big rally comes to the fairgrounds in Goshen, some 30 miles south of here. Being the largest and best campground in the area, many RVers come here first to hang out for a week or two before a rally starts, and a lot of them return after the rally because they like the place so much. That’s how we first discovered the campground so many years ago.
With the place filling up with Escapees staging here for Escapade, we’re seeing lots of our RVing friends and having lots of fun. Even a trip out to the dumpster to drop off trash usually involves running into somebody and a quick (or lengthy) chat.
Yesterday I went for a walk and ran into Bob Wallis, who told me he spent much of the winter helping his son convert an MCI bus and that they relied on the story of our bus conversion project on our website to give them a lot of direction on how to do it. Bob said they had not tackled the cabinet yet and asked if they could hire Miss Terry for that because she did such a great job on ours, but I told him she hung up her tool belt when we sold the bus.
A few minutes later I met up with Steve and Karen Fischer and we had a nice visit. I think the last time we crossed paths was last July at the Escapade in Gillette, Wyoming.
About 4:30 we went down to Larry and Marilyn Forbes’ site, where a small group had gathered for happy hour. Here is my buddy Sharon Del Rosario, who, among her many accomplishments and activities, is an instructor for the RV Driving School.
I didn’t get everybody’s name, but besides Larry, Marilyn, and Sharon, there was Sharon’s hubby Don, Ivan and Marlenna Davidson, Charles and Chris Yust, and John and Kathy Huggins and probably half a dozen others. Sharon took a bunch of pictures of the group, which you’ll find on her blog, Gypsy and The Mariners’ RV Adventures.
We got a shipment of books in from Amazon yesterday, including a bunch of printed copies of Miss Terry’s Kitchen for Escapade, and when happy hour broke up John and Kathy came home with us so Kathy could get a copy. I took this historic photo of Terry signing the very first printed copy of her book for Kathy.
Later on, we were just finishing dinner when George and Linda Loutzenhiser came by for a visit. I think the last time we saw them was at our last Gypsy Journal rally in Celina, Ohio back in 2012 and it was nice to see them again.
Soon after George and Linda left, Charles and Chris came over from their motorhome parked next door and we spent the rest of the evening laughing and having a good time. I mean, how can you not have a good time with Charles and Chris there?
Today Terry and Chris are going to have a girls’ day out, and I’m hoping to get a lot of writing done. But with so many friends here, who knows what might happen? Whatever it might be, it will be fun.
Don’t forget to sign up for this week’s Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Judy Howard’s Going Home With A Cat And A Ghost. All you have to do is click on the Free Drawing link and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.
Thought For The Day – A diet is the penalty we pay for exceeding the feed limit!
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Nick Russell
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