Shipshewana

Our first destination was Shipshewana IN, home to a large Amish-Mennonite community in extreme northern Indiana.  Shipshewana was named for a local Potawatomi Indian chief.  We are here to attend a rally of Country Coach International (CCI), the national club for our brand of motor home.  This is not our first trip to Shipshewana.  We visited here August 2010 on our way to Michigan and Minnesota (again!).  On that trip we spent a day at an Amish farm where they also make replacement cooling units for ammonia absorption RV refrigerators.  We installed a new cooling unit to replace one I had recently installed, which turned out to be defective.  You can read that post here.

People often ask us what an RV rally is and what we do there.  Essentially a rally is a gathering of RV owners, usually who own a similar rig or have some other common interest, to socialize and visit.  It gives these RVers a reason to travel to a location or venue that they may not have thought to visit by themselves.  We share stories and experiences and close friendships are formed.  Eating and adult beverages are usually involved.  We belong to two manufacturer-related RV clubs and both have rallies 3-4 times each year.

Prior to our arrival, the area had many days of hard rain.  When we arrived the weather had cleared and was perfect for the duration of our stay.  During the rally we toured Shipshewana, over-ate, visited the Midwest's biggest flea market, over-ate, visited the Entegra Motor Coach factory, over-ate, visited Cook's Bison Ranch, over-ate, torued the Menno-Hof museum, over-ate, rode carriages to an Amish home for dinner where we over-ate and, finally, we over-ate.  There were also adult beverages involved.

The Amish shun automobiles and other modern conveyances
This photo and many others in this post courtesy of George H.

Dorcas and Irene in a quilt flower garden

Buggies all in a row

Boarding a wagon at Cook's Bison Ranch

Beefalo on the hoof up close

Hand-feeding the bison.  Have you ever been licked by a bison? 

Dorcas after the buggy ride to an Amish dinner.  Does she look full and happy?

An Amish farm

Myron and Dorcas boarding a buggy to the Amish dinner

View from a buggy

Preparing to be fed at an Amish home

Another view from the buggy

A Spartan chassis; the foundation for many fine diesel pushers

Near the beginning of the Entegra production line

I wonder what they thought of all these Country Coach owners viewing the Entegras.  I bet they were hoping for a sale.

A view of the cockpit through the D/S living room slide out

Entegra Motor Coach is the luxury motor home line of the Jayco Company.  They list for over $400K.  We're not buying a new coach any time soon.

We stayed at the Shipshewana Campground- South Park for seven nights, but now it is time to move along.