Kellogg, IA, Elkhart, IN, and the Arrival of a New Little Princess to our Family!

We left Kellogg, IA Monday morning heading toward Joliet, IL for the night. The trip was pretty uneventful…

passed some beautiful old barns…

Mississippi River…

 

until we were approaching Joliet. There is major road construction on I-80. Mac was trying to be careful with all the holes in the road and large drop offs from new highway to the old one.

Needless to say, we hit one of those large areas where the new road ended and the old highway was really bad! The little trailer hit really hard and one of the tires started wobbling again….darn. Now we needed to get somewhere that we can pull off to check it out. We had already decided not to stop for the night in Joliet but continue on to Elkhart but we had to find a place to pull over. We decided that we could pull off at the Casino that we had originally planned on staying at. Mac looked at the tires and all looked ok now, so we decided to go on. We were wanting to stay out of anymore of that construction so off we went on highway 30…big mistake! It took us right through all the little suburbs, stop lights, and MORE road construction! Evidently the little trailer tires were not ok. We had someone pull up beside us and tell us that the tires were wobbling again….darn. It was ruining the new tires that we had just put on a couple of days before. Mac pulled off again and decided to lock the tires so that they wouldn’t swivel. That’s not really a good thing to do since when you make turns the tires won’t swivel..they are just drug around the corners.

the trees are starting to turn here…

After hours of going through all the suburbs, we finally made it to Elkhart about 7:30pm…we left Kellogg at 9am….9-1/2 hours…now that’s a LONG day. We were exhausted!

 

We got checked in at Elkhart Campground and set up. Chuck & Kathy were waiting for us with big hugs! That was a great way to end a terrible travel day! We were so tired that we didn’t cook dinner or even go out. We just sat down and tried to unwind.

Tuesday morning, Chuck & Kathy had an appointment with Mor-ryde and then moving over to Goshen for the Montana Rally. They stopped by later in the afternoon to visit and we all went to Bob Evans for dinner.

Wednesday, we had made plans to meet Chuck & Kathy at Shipshewana and go to the Flea Market…so off we went…decided to take the toll road so it would be a quicker trip…No Way!! LOL…the road was backed up for miles! So I called Kathy and told her that we were going to have to back-track and take another route. We finally made it about 45 minutes late….lol. We spent a couple of hours at the Flea Market and bought some Fruits & Veggies. Kathy bought some of the same, plus these beautiful pots of Mums!! They are big & full of blooms…none for me though.  :(

We left the Flea Market and headed to Rise N Roll for some lunch. Their sandwiches are really good. We also bought some Caramel donuts, and some cookies…yum, yum.

When we left, Kathy and Chuck were headed one direction and we were headed toward to Goshen so we could find where Lippert is located. They still had not called to set an appointment time and Mac decided to just go and see them face to face. That worked! We had an appointment time set up. We just had to print and sign some paperwork that they had emailed to us.

Thursday, Mac was up and out of the RV headed to have some blood work done. He was gone a very long time and I was beginning to get worried. He drove over to Michiana to a Lab and when he got there it was closed down, so he had to drive all the way back to Elkhart and go to the hospital. He also went by Heartland and bought a new ladder for the back of the RV that had gotten broken…

Chuck & Kathy came by in the evening after they had been to a Rally Dinner somewhere herein Elkhart. We visited for a while and then they took off to head back to Goshen. They are having way more fun than us even though they are going to have some work done on their RV also after the Rally is over.

Friday, we were in waiting mode….we were expecting a new little princess to enter the world and join our family. Cody had taken Britny to the hospital and they were going to induce her…

Carley Nicole Eakes arrived at 1:23pm…9-lbs 3-oz and 21” long! Welcome to our family Miss Carley!!

proud parents Cody, Britny and little Carley!

Mom and baby were doing good! Congratulations Cody & Britny! She is adorable!! Can’t wait to get back to Kansas to hold that little one close and do some snuggling!!

Mac worked on the little trailer doing some adjusting that was recommended. I went through a lot of stuff here in the RV filling bags of stuff to take to Goodwill on Monday. We headed out to a little Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Mac had found it online and said that it was authentic Mexican food. Well, it was pretty good. The Burrito that Mac had was huge!

Saturday it rained off and on all day…we pretty much stayed indoors. It was cool and really gloomy…

Today, I  had decided to make some home made Chicken & Noodles. I got things going and just let them simmer most of the afternoon. Mad some mashed potatoes, and green beans…turned out pretty good.

We have just watched TV most of the day…NASCAR….congrats to Tony Stewart!!

Tomorrow we need to check on having the tires installed on the RV and get it ready to move over to Lippert on Tuesday morning for them to replace the axle and get everything aligned. Hopefully this will fix that problem.

We will probably be here until Thursday or Friday when we will start making our way toward Defeated Creek COE for “Lisa’s Campout”

Stay tuned…..

(((HUGS)))