Sunday was the first official day of the KZ rally but most people were still arriving. They had a Meet & Greet in the evening to start things off.
Mid afternoon we were just about to head out the door to hunt down Walter, the rally organizer, and someone knocked on our door. Guess who? LOL! It was Walter. He introduced himself and we discussed the rally happenings. We found out that this is just the second year for this way and that they were only expecting about 22 rigs (last year they had 10!) Last year PTB was here but didn’t sell any kits, this year we had two kits sold before the rally began. I’d say that those are some pretty big improvements over last year.
Nice manageable group size
Michael did his seminar on Monday afternoon at 2:00 pm. I thought we might not have many in attendance when there was only one gentleman there at 2:00 pm but we ended up with a total of 10…which isn’t bad when you only have 22 rigs! We didn’t really have a whole lot interested in disc brakes but several had suspension related questions.
That afternoon we were surprised to find that our Heartland friends, Bob & Connie had pulled into a site just down a bit from ours. They were only here for an overnight but Michael and I both went over and visited briefly since they still hadn’t finished setting up. It’s been several years since we’d seen them but the brief visit was nice.
Lake Shipshewana?
It stormed starting about 8:15 pm and it rained HARD and got pretty windy. Poor Michael had to go out in the middle of it to unhook the awning from the ground as he had the sun shade bungeed to some stakes. He came in absolutely soaked.
It rained again Tuesday afternoon…no thunder or wind this time but it rained really hard again…we were left with a small lake in front of our steps that had to be hurdled if you didn’t want wet feet.
I never get tired of this…
Tuesday was pretty quiet rally wise. Most of the rally goers went on a tour at MorRyde so there wasn’t much left here. We took advantage of that and Michael went with me to E&S to pick up some groceries and then stopped at Ben’s Pretzels for a snack on the way home.
Dean & Cheri
We went out for dinner with Dean & Cheri at the 5 and 20. Dean and Cheri were here to get disc brakes installed but they also happen to be part of our Heartland family. Cheri attended my Instant Pot Seminar at the Heartland National Rally last summer and we’ve been following each other on Facebook ever since.
We had a nice visit over dinner. Dean and Cheri just started fulltiming in November and are enjoying themselves so far. We know quite a few of the same people so we had fun catching up.
I’ve had better…
I finally got my Turkey Manhattan (and so did Dean & Cheri) as it’s the special on Tuesday nights at the 5 and 20. It was ok…but it could have been warmer and I would like the turkey to have been thinly sliced rather than being chunks. Oh well.
Apparently it looks better than it tasted. 
Michael ordered the fish…some kind of white fish, he says, but he wasn’t real impressed. He said it was edible…but that’s about it. LOL Can’t wait to have a fish fry in Wisconsin soon! LOL
It rained again on Wednesday. We had some axle tag pictures to get and were waiting for it to dry up some so Michael was rolling around in the mud but it rained again while we waited so he ended up having to crawl around in the mud after all. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad under the coaches…just getting under while dodging puddles was the tricky part.
Our Wednesday was actually more like a typical Monday…lots of phone calls and emails to work through and then we also had quite a few people stop by inquiring about disc brakes and suspension kits. The rally folks had gone to MorRyde for a tour the day before and Gary had sent anyone interested in upgrading their suspensions to us.
Enchiladas
By the time we ended up finishing up getting the tags and talking with customers it was pretty late and I just didn’t feel like throwing our dinner on the grill so we ended up going out (we gotta stop that!). We decided to try something different so we went to El Zoritto Mexican Restaurant on the other end of town.
Chicken & Beef Nachos
We were surprised to find 6 Amish buggies in the parking lot when we arrived and found that of the 5 tables that were occupied in the restaurant…5 of them were filled with Amish customers.
Michael got the same thing he always gets…enchiladas and I ordered nachos. Everything was good…not spectacular but you have to take into consideration what part of the country we’re in. I think we’d go back if we got a hankering for more Mexican food.
Michael broke a tooth a few weeks ago and finally ended up going to the dentist on Thursday. The tooth was one that had had a crown on it and just broke off right at the gum line and since it had had a root canal who knows how long ago it didn’t give him any pain…thank goodness.
All they did at that appointment was to evaluate and make a new appointment for 8/22 to have the remaining part of the tooth extracted.
Repair in progress
A couple of days ago when I was washing dishes me feet got wet! I looked down to find a rapidly expanding puddle coming from under the island and when I opened the cabinet under the sink found water dripping from above.
Michael got a chance to look at it on Thursday and found that the plumbers putty and seal had deteriorated enough to allow water to get by. He applied new putty and a new seal and we’re back in business.
The boys were excited for their first real camping experience.
Dan, Amanda, Alex, Ben and Zoe came to visit (and camp) Thursday evening. They got here about 8:30 pm and made quick work of putting up a tent within minutes. It had rained quite hard before they arrived and our coach was on a little island within our site. Luckily, where their site was they were wet, of course, but no standing water. We visited until about 10:00 pm and then everyone headed for bed.
Friday morning we all ended up meeting our new friends/customers Mike and Tina at Rise ‘n Roll for breakfast. We did some visiting, enjoyed our breakfast, tried some samples and then parted ways. Mike & Tina off to bum around, Michael and Dan off to pick up some parts at MorRyde and Amanda, the kids and myself back to the campground.
This years quilt garden at the Dutch Country Market
However, we stopped at the Heritage Creamery and Dutch Country Market to sample some cheese and honey treats. I picked up a couple of items at the creamery and Amanda picked up a couple at the Dutch Country Market. Amanda also filled up her gas tank and then it was back home to wait for the boys to arrive.
While it was pretty humid…the fire actually felt pretty good.
We took the rest of the day kinda easy. Did a little work, DnA and the kids went to look for a lake to go swimming (no such luck), played some Spades, grilled a couple of meals and ended the evening at one of the communal fire pits. It took quite a while to get the fire to finally stay lit but when it did Dan made popcorn, chocolate chip cookies and apple pie pudgie pies over the fire. Oh! And don’t forget the s’mores!
The kids LOVED ‘investigating’ the rocks on the area behind their tent.
On Saturday I had a few errands to run and Dan, Amanda and the kids enjoyed me while Michael stayed home to hold down the fort. I needed to get some donuts from Rise ‘ Roll (Sunday breakfast), pick up some Bees Wax from Dutch Country Market (they were closed), pick up some bacon from Yoder Meat & Cheese and then pick up a couple of items at E&S for dinner.
Since Dan and Amanda hadn’t been to Yoder’s or E&S they did a little shopping (and sampling) at both places. I also picked up lunch from E&S for Michael (sandwich) and I (salad). We were both very pleased with our choices so I’m sure that we’ll be going back in the future.
Enjoying some time with the babies while their mom & dad finished packing up.
We had a communal meal again for dinner (pork tenderloin, grilled potatoes and grilled zucchini) which turned out quite tasty. After dinner I went home to do the few dishes we had, do a little pack and then relax while the everyone else went back over to the communal fire pit to enjoy some more treats (popcorn, apple pudgie pies and pudgie pie chocolate chip cookies). I was in bed by the time the babies came in to give me bed time hugs and kisses.
Sunday morning was time to part ways. The Verona Barnett’s headed home to Wisconsin while Michael and I headed 17 miles down the road to the Elkhart County Fairgrounds where we’ll be set up for 3 weeks and two rally’s – the FROG (Forest River Owners Group) and the Grand Design National.