Shipshewana/Lagrange, IN

The pretty sunny day you see above seemed elusive this visit to the Shipshewana/Lagrange area to have our trailer serviced.  We arrived early to avoid moving in the rain.  Then we moved a day early to the service center in Lagrange, IN to avoid moving in the rain, again.  After that, we watched it rain.

We got a couple of walks in.  The bicycles were serviced - Donna got new tires.  We both got new accessories: new front lights for the bicycles - good for being seen in dark tunnels - and I got a new flashing taillight for my bike.  We did manage to get some Ben's Pretzels, one meal in at Boundary Waters Cafe (Sturgis, MI) and found a new frozen yogurt shop to indulge at.  Otherwise, we watched it rain.  As of this morning, I was convinced that if you weren't on a paved road, you were in mud no matter how much grass you were walking on.  This part of the country is saturated!

New for us is that we've probably pulled our trailer at its heaviest that we ever have.  When we decided to move a day early to the service center, I set the holding tanks up so we could dump the day of the move.  Once that was done, I filled the freshwater tank to, maybe 80 to 85 gals of freshwater (100 gals max).  Unfortunately, the evening before we were planning to move, the campground's sewer system failed & we were told not to dump or drain our holding tanks.  So the day we traveled to the service center we were carrying an almost full freshwater tank, a full black water tank (toilet) and an almost full gray water tank (shower & sinks).  We were pretty heavy for the eight or so miles to another campground to dump the two holding tanks.  Couldn't tell any difference in handling before or after we dumped the two holding tanks, but we were overloaded!

As of this afternoon, trailer service is done.  Everything we moved out of the trailer into the truck bed to make servicing the trailer easier is now back in the trailer.  We still need to review all the work that was done and pay the bill.  So we'll get a late start tomorrow and move to Angola, IN for the weekend.  After that, and if all goes well, it appears we'll be traveling three rainy days down to Virginia for a few weeks stay there.

As least that's the plan! Everyone have a great weekend. David