Indiana In Review

After our break at Tablerock we picked up our RV in Illinois and headed straight to South Bend, Indiana.  With one daughter only 5 years away from college, Jim thought it would be great to visit a handful of campuses this year.  We raise Natalie & Alayna with the "when you go to college, not if you go to college" mentality and love the idea of them dreaming big as we see colleges around the country.  Our visit to Notre Dame brought some great discussions... What is it like to live in a dorm?  What kind of classes can I take?  And chats about the lifelong friends they'll make & the excitement of gaining independence and (hopefully!) responsibility.  As we told the girls how they'd get to choose their own class schedule but wouldn't have mom & dad to get them up and out of bed, Natalie grew concerned.  "Will they have a bell that wakes everyone up?!?"  Spoken from a 13 year old...  :)

The Notre Dame campus was so beautiful... 

"God, Country, Notre Dame"

Next was Decatur, Indiana where we visited the Fleetwood Manufacturing Plant.  We took a 3 hour tour that walked us through the building process of our RV!  Sadly, no cameras were allowed.  We started with a look at the chassis delivered from another company such as Freightliner or Mercedes and walked through each step of the building process.  Instead of an assembly line, the RVs would move from site to site within the warehouse, ending at the paint area.  Huge stickers are rolled onto the exterior & layers of paint are added, with taping in between, to get the typical RV design.

Did you know it takes one gallon of paint for every two feet of RV?  Some of the fancier paints can cost up to $2,500 a gallon!

We were even able to get our home into the shop for a few warranty repairs... headboard pulling away from the wall, broken pull shades replaced and a light fixture to replace the one that shattered onto the kitchen table!
Our last stop while in Indiana was about 4 hours south to the town of Clarksville.  While technically in the state, our week of exploring Kentucky actually began here, as our campground was just minutes away from Louisville, KY.