Sunday, June 29, 2025

Out of Our Rut Blog Welcome Page


Welcome to the Out of Our Rut blog landing page.

Who we are:

We are a couple of former engineers that lived and worked in the Rochester New York area for over 30 years. When we were laid off from two different companies, one day apart, we took that as a sign to change things up. We had built a beautiful home on 50 acres and loved the place, but with plenty of time on our hands, we began to travel more and realized that when we were on the road for weeks on end, we didn't really miss all the “stuff” we had back home. Plus the work involved with maintaining our home and property seemed to be the only reason we would head back home. That prompted us to get out of our rut and sell 95% of our possessions and our home and move into our 38 foot motorhome and travel the country full time starting in June of 2016.
Chris and Jack Hiking in Washington State
At Pullout Along Rugged Oregon Coast
Our mission:

To explore the country with a strong bias towards outdoor activities. Our passions are hiking and geocaching with some mountain biking on the side. I am an avid photographer. I guess working at Eastman Kodak for 32 years had an influence in that. And while we live in a motorhome and stay in many campgrounds, we really are not campers. We seldom have campfires and don't have a corn hole game. We rarely stay at a campground for its amenities. We pick a place that is near where we want to explore. We think of it more like our home happens to have wheels and can move around. Our desire in these travels is to slow the pace. We didn't want to see if we could get to all the National Parks as quickly as possible. We like to keep a travel day to less than 200 miles and if the place warrants, stay for a week or more.
At Geocaching Headquarters in Seattle for #10,000
The blog:

For friends and family (as well as us) to keep track of what we have been up to, we have created this blog. It chronicles where we've been and what we've done as we wander around the country. Each stop along the way will, at minimum, get mentioned in the blog. Some longer stops in areas we enjoyed may get multiple blog posts in order to give that stop it's due. Generally the blog has lots of photographs as I find it difficult to eliminate photos I like. The blog will talk about the campground to some extent, but it shouldn't be considered a campground review. We seldom seem to exhaust the things we want to explore before we exhaust ourselves and need to move on. That means we may completely skip some activities or places in an area that others may consider essential. We look at that as a reason to come back in the future.

Pretty Sunset in Quartzite Arizona

At the Window in Big Bend National Park
This landing page:

The problem with just about any blog is that fact it is chronological. This is fine since that is how the events occurred in real life. But since our blog is so much about a given location, it can be difficult for somebody to find a specific blog post for a given location. I even find it a challenge to remember when we happened to be at a given location if I wanted to look something up. For instance, if someone asked about Twin Falls Idaho. I know we stayed there but it might take me awhile to figure out that we were there in June of 2017 to get them to the right post. If I could only look at a map of all the places we have stayed and have an easy way to get to the relevant blog post.

Since I already use Google My Maps to keep track of our locations, I have created a special map that has all of our stops since going full time. None of the routes are included in the map since that just seems to clutter it up and don't really add value. By clicking the link below the map, an interactive map with all of our stops will open in another window. It is then possible to move around the map and zoom in an area of interest. Clicking on any pin on the map will pop up the name of the location along with a link to the blog post(s) associated with that stop. Since I am nearly always 2 to 4 weeks behind in the blog, some of the most recent map points may not have a link to a blog, but they will in time. The GREEN pins are locations that happen to include one of our annual or yearly reviews.

So if you want to see what we found to explore in a given area, this should provide a much easier way to find the blog post.





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Our Ninth Year of Fulltiming in Review

June 29, 2025 marks our ninth year of traveling across this wonderful country in our motorhome as full time travelers. The journey continues to be mostly fun and exciting although we still need to try to remember to not treat our lifestyle as a vacation. Generally, vacations are to a new area for a limited time period, and the urge is to try to squeeze in as many activities and sightseeing destinations as possible. So when we pull into a campsite in a new location for a week, the inclination might be to do a search for the top 10 things to do in that town and fit them all in. Since we are big into hiking, we often use AllTrails, or similar sources, to seek out the best hikes and work those into the plans as well. But our experience has been that maintaining “vacation” pace can work for a few weeks but it is next to impossible to maintain for 52 weeks a year.


We stayed well east of the Mississippi River this past year. The map below shows our route. (Clicking on the link below the map will open up the Google Map I created for the year and permit you to zoom and scroll to better see the route.) Sort of looks like a poorly drawn letter “Y”. I doubt we will ever choose our route with the intention of creating some interesting artwork, but who knows? We camped at 40 different campgrounds, Elks Lodges or parking lots over the past year. Several of the stops where at places we have visited before with the longest stop (175 nights) being at The Great Outdoors in Titusville Florida - but since we now own an RV lot in this resort, it will likely be a common destination over the winter months. Other repeat stops were simply because they are convenient overnight stops along a route we frequently travel.



Thirty-one of the stops were at places we have not stayed at previously. In all honesty, it’s the opportunity to see a new place that motivates us to continue the travels. We started out year 9 just a few weeks into our 2024 summer plans of visiting the New England area. Exploring the Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and portions of interior Maine were quite enjoyable. The three months seemed to go by quickly.

Another month was spent heading south. We should have budgeted more than 8 nights in the Boston and Cape Cod area of Massachusetts but now we know of some decent Elks Lodges in that area to return if we want to explore more. Even some of the simple overnight stops provided for unique experiences. Frackville Pennsylvania was a nice location to get a free tour of the oldest brewery in the country - Yuengling. Even the small town of Wilson North Carolina had some of the most incredible whirligigs we have ever seen.

After our extended stay in Florida for winter, we opted to head through northern Georgia for some excellent hiking before a long stop in Cincinnati to visit with family and then up through Indiana and into Michigan where we end year nine participating in a Habitat for Humanity build in Marquette on the Upper Peninsula. It has been a full year!

Another style of map I create from all of our stops are “heat maps”. The first one shows all the states we have camped in over the past year. The darker shade of red indicates more nights while light red means we stayed fewer nights. We managed to camp in 18 different states. The second map shows a similar idea but includes all 9 years of our travels. With our stop in Rhode Island, we are now up to 45 states. Since our USA map is nearly completely filled in, I am including one more heat map that is divided down to the county level. We have bumped up our number of counties by 24 over this past year for a total of 295.

Heat Map of Year #9

Heat Map of First 9 Years of Fulltime

Same as Above but Broken Down to County Level

Like a good engineer, I have all sort of data that I keep track of from our travels. I don’t bother to include expenses that we would have if we were living a conventional life in a sticks and bricks house like groceries, dining out or sightseeing costs. But items related to a nomadic lifestyle are included. I have limited the table to just this year and the 5 most recent years to make the chart readable. Prior years data can be found in similar posts I have done at the end of June each year.

Condensed Stats for Last 6 Years

There really isn’t a lot of unexpected findings within the data. We drove the motorhome slightly more than last year but pretty much in line with our typical amount from prior years. Since we tend to enjoy staying at state parks, it was nice to be able to improve on our number of nights spent at them. One thing worth noting about our stays at private RV parks, when we purchased our lot at The Great Outdoors, we knew what the quarterly HOA fees and annual property taxes would be and they had provided what sort of rental income we could expect for our lot if we are not staying there for various times of the year.  Now that we have gone through a year of lot ownership, it turns out that our lot ended up costing us just under $23 per night (including electric) for the 175 nights we stayed there. That’s not bad for a place that has excellent facilities and charges $110 a night for visitors.

For the past few years, I have used our yearly reviews to highlight some excellent hikes or bike rides we have found over the past 12 months. (Our calendar year end reviews highlight our top places we stayed at if exploring by foot or bike aren’t your thing.) We managed to get in roughly 75 hikes over year #9. Chris and I looked over them all, remembering nearly all of them and each voted for our favorites. This year we came up with 8 of them that we feel deserve to be on our list. For each one, I’ll give an overview of the trail, a picture from it and a link to the blog post that fully describes the outing to better show why it made it to the list. In chronological order, here are our top 8 hikes/rides.

  • Avalanche Lake Trail - Lake Placid NY
We tackled several nice hikes in the Adirondacks during the two weeks we spent in the area but Avalanche Lake Trail stood out with both its beauty and challenging terrain. There are a few starting points to get to the lake. We picked the one from the Adirondack Loj since it sounded to be the least flooded option during our stay. What started as a nice hike in the woods became steep around the 2.5 mile point as we climb over Avalanche Pass before heading down to the pretty mountain lake. You’ll want to continue along the challenging rock climb along the edge of the lake. There are assorted ladders and stairs in place to scale the larger ones. But the real draw for us was to check out the cantilevered platforms that are in place to get around the sections with only a shear rock face along the lake. Read the blog post, to discover the story behind their name - Hitch-Up Matilda’s. Our out and back hike came in around 12 miles but was well worth the effort.


One of the Hitch-Up Matilidas at Avalanche Lake
  • Newport Bike Path to Canada - Newport VT
While visiting the area of Vermont known as the Northeast Kingdom, we get the mountain bikes out and head north on the Newport Bike Path. It’s a pleasant ride along the shore of a large lake and in 5.5 miles, we make it to the Canadian border in the small town of Beebe. In a few more miles following a combination of bike paths and lightly traveled road we make it to the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. This is a beautiful old building that straddles the  border between Canada and USA. We did a little more sightseeing in the town of Stanstead before retracing our route back into Vermont and out campground. There are easier ways to visit the library but we really enjoyed the 25 miles bike ride and unique sights along the way. 
 

Chris Straddles the International Border
  • Devils Gulch Trail - Eden VT
A 4.6 mile loop with about 1000 feet of elevation gain in the woods of northern Vermont. Half to the hike is following the Long Trail which extends the length of the state from south to north. While the bulk of this hike was nice, it was the quarter mile portion near the mid point that made it special for us. The trail enters a small canyon area with lots of boulders and extremely lush vegetation at least when we were there. This section is dubbed Devil’s Gulch and was a really neat stretch of the Long Trail. It was somewhat challenging simply because of the wet and mossy nature of the area made for difficult footing but worth the effort to see. 
 

Chris Hikes Devils Gulch
  • Lamoille Valley Rail Trail - Vermont
While staying in St Johnsbury for a month, we found several rail trails that were fun to explore. The LVRT stuck out as a more enjoyable bike ride with some beautiful scenery and unlike the Ammonoosuc River Trail and Presidential Range Trail, the LVRT does not permit motorized vehicles so the trail surface was excellent. This 94 mile rail trail runs the width of Vermont from Lake Champlain to St Johnsbury. We did two different 22 mile sections of the trail by bicycle and found all sorts of interesting things to see along the way. We started our visits at trailheads in West Danville and Hardwick but from our experience, any portion of this trail is likely to be wonderful. 
 
Blog post with second LVRT bike ride
 
Train Sized Covered Bridge on Lamoille Valley Rail Trail

  • Penobscot River Trail - Grindstone ME

A privately owned but free trail system with a very well maintained 16 mile loop trail. Half of the loop follows the Penobscot River and is quite pretty. Since it is not a former railway bed, there are more hills than we originally expected but they were not too strenuous. There are intermediate connector trails along the loop so it is possible to shorten the ride if the full loop is too long. Near the halfway point is the Long Meadow warming hut. It turns out that this place is also used for cross country skiing and snowshoeing during the winter months. The hut is positioned to give a great view of Mount Katahdin. The return portion of the loop goes through the woods but is still a nice wide gravel trail. You can even show up without a bicycle and borrow one of their loaner bikes and helmets. It even sounds like they have cross country skis to borrow. The commitment required to develop and maintain such a wonderful property is what really appealed to us.
 

Warming Hut with Mt Katahdin in Distance

  • Sentinel Mountain Trail - Baxter State Park Medway ME
Baxter State Park is the beginning (or end) of the Appalachian Trail so it is a very popular location for hikers. In fact there are some rather unusual rules and regulations within the park to limit the number of visitors permitted in various areas. We were not up for the extreme distance and elevation required to hike the last leg of the AT but we did find a beautiful hike to the southwest of Katahdin that seemed to be more within our capabilities. Sentinel Mountain at Kidney Pond Campground is rated as a moderate 5.4 mile out and back hike with a little over 1100 feet of elevation gain. The initial part of the hike is relatively flat along the edge of Kidney Pond.  Most of the climbing is required in a half mile section with an average slope of 24%. But once to the top of the mountain, there are some spectacular views of nearby mountains. 
 

Nice View from Sentinel Mountain

  • Table Rock Trail - Pickens SC
Located in northern South Carolina, Table Rock State Park is less than 15 miles from Brevard NC which happens to be one of our favorite places for hiking. It seems like we should have visited this part of the foothills of the Appalachians earlier. This trail is rated as hard with 6.8 miles and over 2300 feet of elevation gain! It was a steep and challenging climb to the ridge of the peak. There are several viewpoints along the easier terrain along this ridge with some incredible views of the surrounding mountains. Our timing was excellent by reaching the final viewpoint in time for lunch and to soak in the scenery. As we finished lunch, a cloud bank rolled in and shrouded the whole top of Table Rock in a surreal fog with almost no visibility beyond a few hundred feet. This is a tough but beautiful hike. 
 

View from Table Rock

  • Sittons Gulch Trail - Cloudland Canyon State Park Trenton GA
We had made a day trip to this state park back in the fall of 2021 and found one of our favorite hikes for our sixth year review, but this time we camped in the park so we could explore some of the many other trail options. Our favorite hike from the earlier visit was the West Rim Trail that follows the top of the canyon. We repeated that hike again but also did this trail which follows the creek along the floor of the canyon. At almost 5 miles out and back and just over 1000 feet of elevation, this hike is moderately challenging although the majority of the elevation is comprised of a metal staircase that leads down from the visitor center to the two beautiful falls before proceeding down the side of the creek. The water was flowing rapidly and it was nice to have the constant sound of rushing water for the full hike. Being at the bottom of the canyon makes it feel like a completely different environment even though we are within a mile of the other trail. 
 

Nice Hike Along the Creek

Below is a map showing all 401 places we have camped at over the past nine years. Just below the map is a link which will open up an actual Google Map. Doing so will permit you to pan and zoom around the country. Clicking on any pin will pop up a window with a link to the blog post(s) for that location. If you are visiting an area we have stayed near, our previous posts may help you find interesting places to see - especially if you are into hiking, mountain biking, geocaching or simply to see some photos from outings we took while visiting. We do not do write much about the campgrounds we stay in so don’t use the blog posts with the hopes of finding campground reviews.



We have some of year 10 planned out. After an excellent 2 weeks here in Marquette Michigan volunteering with the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate helping to build two different homes, we will be heading further west in the Upper Peninsula before dropping down into Wisconsin for the Oshkosh Air Show. Then we head into Minnesota for a month before starting our journey back to Florida for another winter season. No clue where next spring and summer will lead us.
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Friday, June 6, 2025

A Day Trip to Chicago

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

With just one day left at Indiana Dunes State Park, we set off to the Windy City - Chicago. We generally shy away from big cities but Chris has a good reason for heading there. We definitely would not bring the motorhome anywhere near Chicago and would prefer to not have to drive the car in all the traffic either. But there is another option - we can take the train. The South Shore Line runs near the state park and heads into Chicago. Dune Park station is only a mile from the campground so it could reached by foot or bicycle but the parking is free so driving makes more sense.

There are lots of places to see in Chicago but we had a singular mission - the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. As former engineers, this type of place has a lot of appeal to us but Chris had another reason for heading there. As a kid growing up in the upper Midwest, she had taken field trips to this place and had many fond memories. Sometimes trying to relive childhood memories doesn’t work out but we shall see if a visit many decades later turns out to be a good experience or not.

Looking at the train schedule, there are lots of times to choose from with departure from Dune Park station starting as early as 4:30AM! The train ride to the stop near the museum is just under an hour but the museum doesn’t open until 9:30 so the 8:24 train would work out well for us. There may be other things to see in this part of Chicago but it is expected to be rainy at times and this is the South Side of Chicago - and we all know what Jim Croce says about this part of town! We head over the the train station a bit early to figure out how to buy tickets instead of dealing with installing an app on the phones.

Outside of Dun Park Train Station

There were a few people already waiting inside since it was a bit damp. We purchased tickets for the trip in and the trip back just to save time later. Total cost: $32 for four one way tickets which sure beats having to drive and find parking. We started talking with one of the passengers waiting in the terminal. She lives nearby the park but attends the University of Chicago and needs to take the train into the city rather frequently. Just a little before the train is to arrive, more people come in and we have around two dozen catching this train. Fortunately the train was pretty empty so it wasn’t an issue getting a seat. Shortly after we start up, the conductor comes and checks our tickets.

Covered Platform at Dune Park Station

Our Train Arrives on Time

The train ride was fairly comfortable. I wouldn’t consider it a very scenic ride as it heads around the south end of the lake at Gary Indiana before heading north. The train definitely felt fast at times. I discovered that I could use Google Map to get the current speed and we did hit 70 MPH at one point. There are only 6 intermediate stops along the way so the hour seemed to go reasonably quickly and before we knew it, we were at the desired 55th-56th-57th Station.

Exited at 55th-56th-57th Station

It is less than a half mile from the train station to the museum. However it wasn’t currently raining and I really wanted to get a geocache at some point during our visit. I had scoped out one in Jackson Park immediately to the south of the museum. From the map of the park, it looked like we could walk from the station, find the cache and get to the museum in just a little over a mile so it wasn’t “that” far, and Chris went along with the plan. It is a nice park and we were just about the only people here. When we got near the cache, we needed to cross over one of the many bridges over the ponds in the park only to discover it was closed. From the signage and the vegetation growth, it looked like it has been closed for many years so we were forced to head to the far south end of the park to get around the one pond instead of over it. But cache was found and we made it to the museum around 10:15.

Sculpture in Jackson Park

Marina Near Museum

Not Your Normal Column Design

The skyline near the museum isn’t as impressive as I was hoping for but the major skyscrapers are over 6 miles north of here so we have to make do with what we have. The Griffin Museum is a beautiful building. Opened in 1933, it has a long history of teaching students (like Chris) about all sorts of things. But it has evolved to have things more interesting to the current generation as seen by the huge Spider-Man banners hanging in the front entrance. General admission was about $26 per person. There are three optional venues - a coal mine tour, a submarine tour and the Spider-Man exhibit - each running an additional $12 to $18. We knew the museum had more than enough things to entertain us so we stayed with the base tickets. It is possible to get the other tickets later if we decide we need to see one of them.

Skyline Next to Griffin Museum

Griffin Museum of Science and Industry

Entrance with Spider-Man Banners

This is a very big museum with several floors of displays. Chris had several areas she wants to get to but it is early enough in the day that we will attempt to wander around in a more systematic fashion. After awhile, we should be able to gauge how well we are doing time wise and adjust accordingly. We start out in the main rotunda which has a huge domed ceiling overhead and all sorts of varying images displayed on this dome, walls and floor.

Main Rotunda Dome

One side of the rotunda enters into the Transportation Gallery. This is a huge room that extends up into the balcony level where we should later get to check out the planes hanging overhead. There are lots of old cars, trains, trolleys and a wide assortment of travel displays.

A 1923 Electric Car

1929 Duesenberg Model J

Possibly the most interesting venue takes up the most space in this hall is named The Great Train Story. It is a model train exhibit using HO gauge train tracks. It represents the train ride between Chicago and Seattle. The skyline of the two cities has been created in great detail. There is 1400 feet of track and over 20 trains running. The mountain scenes are impressive as well.

Chicago Skyline

Mountain Scene

Seattle Skyline

We head over to the Numbers in Nature and the Mirror Maze. Lots of displays explain how nature has all sorts of patterns hidden in plain sight. From the golden ratio to fractals. As numbers people, we find it all rather intriguing. But by far, the mirror maze is the highlight of this area (possibly the museum - at least for me). An attendant sits at the entrance mainly to ensure that not too many people are in the maze at a particular time and to remind kids not to run in the maze. She didn’t give us that instruction so we might try running. They do offer a shortcut path around the maze for those not wanting to see themselves over and over again.

Mirror Maze Entrance

When I had first heard about the mirror maze, I immediately thought of the type that includes mirrors that make you look tall or fat or simply distorted in some fashion. This maze was much more interesting. The whole room of mirrors are set up with a series of equilateral triangles.  Most of the panels have mirrors and there is lighting along the floor that changes color over time. When we first step in, we just see a repetitive pattern extending to infinity.

Which Way Do We Go?

The first thing is that my mind becomes quite confused trying to interpret what we are seeing. As we headed in, I completely lost my desire to run and found myself walking quite slowly trying to figure out which way to go. There are a few dead ends but there is only one way out. At each intersection, I try to determine where my reflection is, or actually where it isn’t, to decide which way I should go. At any point, there are multiple versions of Jack and Chris every which way. As other people would wonder by, it looked like there were nearly 100 people surrounding us. At one point I wondered if they had a rescue team to extract lost visitors! But we eventually got towards the end and could hear people in the next display area and we made our way out safely - what a cool experience.


I See at east 4 Chris'

On our way to the next exhibit was a work area closed off but with large windows to see inside. It housed some large 3D printers and all sorts of creative and unusual items that had been printed.

3D Printed Art

Yesterday’s Main Street is a step back into a 1910 Chicago street scene. It has multiple businesses lining the dark street. Most are just a storefront with windows to view inside but there is a movie theater with a dozen or so seats with a black and white silent movie running on a loop. We sat for a bit to watch the film.

Movie Theater

Back out to the rotunda and to the opposite side of the transportation gallery is the Science of 
Storms room. This was a very popular section and filled predominantly with schoolchildren. There are numerous displays regarding things mainly related to weather on our planet. From avalanches to fire to a tornado and lightning generator. A circular theater with a large sphere dangling in the center was having a program taking place with several dozen kids listening to the instructor and watching the display on the glowing orb. It was packed, so we could only observe from the perimeter. The tornado generator had a line of kids waiting to step into the swirling vortex. When they set off the lightning generator high above, the thunder shook the area.

No Seats Left

Kids in a Twister

Lightning Strikes

As we continued around the displays on the main level, we enter the Extreme Ice exhibit. There is an excellent video that shows the rapid pace of the demise of the world’s glaciers. They also have a 7 foot tall chunk of ice that has an attached refrigeration unit. It was clear that the goal of visitors was to place their hands on the ice and melt an imprint of your hand. I put my hand in the depression already started to try to make it deeper but it turned out to be much more difficult than expected. I likely didn’t last a minute before my hand was too cold to continue. The Whispering Gallery is another crowd favorite. You and another person stand beside a large curved dish on either end of a long room. Even the slightest whisper can be heard but it was nearly impossible to experience since there were lots of people either trying it or talking as they walked by.

The next exhibit that really appealed to us was the Art of the Bicycle. This hallway was loaded with all sorts of creative, unusual or simply old bicycles. We spent a fair amount of time reading about the bikes on display and what makes them special enough to be in this museum. The all wood frame was an interesting idea and I really wonder how well it rides.

Built for Speed

 Bikes from 1800's

So Many Saddle Choices

1960's Spaceliner Bicycle

Wooden Frame Bike

Heading down to the lower level, we start in the Ships Gallery. There are several dozen model ships from all ages and all purposes. There is a lot to learn about and see in this exhibit. It was about noon and the museum kitchen was next door so we stopped in for lunch. There is a wide selection of food choices but nothing was cheap. They know that they have a captive audience. At least the burger and fries we got were pretty good.

Ship's Figurehead

After lunch we headed to the nearby Fairy Castle. This was another stop that Chris was really wanting to see. Built by a film actress from the early 1900’s, this dollhouse has been on display at the museum since 1949. Even though it is a 1/12 scale model, it is extremely large. This means the tallest tower of the castle represents a real tower of 144 feet high! The detail of all the furnishings in the various rooms is incredible. We spend a great deal of time walking around and carefully examining each room.

Fairy House Courtyard

Detailed Interior Room


The Farm Tech exhibit was our next stop. There were lots of displays explaining how much technology now exists in the world of farming. The big John Deere tractor was impressive and I really wanted to sit in it, but it would have meant standing in line with a bunch of little kids. I didn’t see any adults taking a turn so I moved on.

Big John Deere

Stagecoach

The Henry Crown Space Center was another excellent exhibit. There are so many different displays from all the different space programs from Mercury, Apollo and lots about the SpaceX programs. Even those with only a little bit of knowledge about our space programs will likely find the displays and movies interesting.

Rockets Lined Up

Tight Quarters Inside Space Capsule


Lunar Lander

The last display on the lower level was the U-505 Submarine. While tours inside the sub are an additional fee, all museum visitors are ago check out the numerous displays surrounding the huge sub. We start out on the bridge of the USS Guadalcanal when this US escort carrier was stalking a German submarine off the coast of Africa during World War II. We get to listen in to the events which led to this submarine being captured by the US Navy.

Hunting a Submarine

The actual sub is huge. Coming in at 252 feet long and over 1100 tons! A hallway leads from the front of the sub and down along the one side before coming to the gated entrance to the tours. There are plenty of displays along the way before we turn back.

Looking Down the Length of the U-505


There was one other exhibit on this floor that looked pretty neat called the Idea Factory. We could see some of it from a viewing area above the room but you need to be accompanied with a child 10 years or younger. We decided stealing a young child just to get into this exhibit might be frowned upon!

We made our way back to the main level to check out the Blue Paradox exhibit. We had skipped this earlier since a timed entry ticket was required but when we checked out the kiosk to see when we could get a ticket, we found we only had a 10 minute wait. The concept of this exhibit is to showcase what a big problem plastics in the environment is. When our showtime arrived, we entered a room with 10 other people. The small room was lined with dozens of screens on one side and mirrors on the other sides. When the show started, the whole room was aglow with scenes of plastic trash in the oceans and how we need to do something about our continued used of all sorts of plastics. It was well done but probably not a must see in our estimation.

Inside Blue Paradox Exhibit

There was still the balcony level which mainly overlooks the exhibits below but there are several displays up here as well. They have several flight and motion simulators that you can pay to experience as well as access to the inside of the 727 aircraft.

German WWII Plane

Cockpit of 727

The last exhibit was one called You! The Experience. There were some really unique and interesting displays and interactive games to be played. There was clothing that “barked” like a dog if you got too close and a dress that displayed lightning bolts if you clapped. Perhaps the one that caught our attention was a game where two people on either side of a table donned a special head set that somehow measured your brain activity. The goal was to clear your mind more than your opponent which would move a hockey puck towards the goal. There was one guy that seemed to have a real knack for calming his mind. I knew that I would not stand a chance at that game!

Electric Dress

It was approaching 4 o’clock and by now we were exhausted from the slow walking around of the full museum. Even though we knew we could still probably get tickets for some of the extra exhibits, we knew we would not enjoy it so we head out. We had a fun but tiring day. Based on the train schedule, we knew if we left shortly, we shouldn’t have too long of a wait to catch the next train back out of Chicago. At least we didn’t need to go looking for a geocache so we could make our way directly to the train station. We needed to be a bit more careful since there were several other trains that come thru this stop so we had to pay attention to board the correct one. When it did arrive, it was full and we were forced to stand for about half the trip before enough people had exited so we could grab a seat. At no point did a conductor come by to check tickets so when we got back to camp, we offered our tickets to the campground hosts since the tickets should be good for a month.

While there still may be more places to see out of Indiana Dunes, I think our 4 nights here was a reasonable time to get the highlights. Our original plan had been to head into Michigan since we are right near the state border and we need to be in Marquette in the Upper Peninsula in a little over a week. Our plan is to visit several Elks Lodges and maybe a casino parking lot so we have a lot of flexibility. But over the winter in Florida, we had woken up one morning to find our windshield cracked. It had been fine the day before but when I put up the shade, there was a 13 inch crack on the lower passenger side. As Chris investigated places to have it replaced, she stumbled upon RV Glass Solutions in Elkhart Indiana. After initiating a claim with our insurance, we were able to schedule an appointment with them for right after our stay at Indiana Dunes. We did have one thing to complete prior to getting to Elkhart. We needed to mark the locations of the powerful magnets that were installed when we had our MagnaShade installed back in November of 2023. We marked on the inside trim and even made a template of sorts to help with the reinstallation of them on the new windshield.

Windshield Crack

We had read good reviews about this business. They have several spots for RVs with electric hookups and do the actual installation inside their large building, out of the weather. It’s only a 63 mile drive from Indiana Dunes. As we are approaching the business the area seemed familiar. Turns out it is immediately next to Bradd and Hall where we had come in October of 2021 to have new captains chairs and sofas installed. It was really weird that we had camped about 300 feet from here getting work done on the rig at a different business. Although this is Elkhart - the RV capital of the world - so maybe it wasn’t all that unexpected.

We pull in on Thursday afternoon and back into one of the spots for the night. The next morning just before 8 AM, the guys come out to look it over and have us sign some paperwork. Florida requires full glass coverage so it won’t cost us anything other than our time. The rig is pulled into one of their service bays and we head into the waiting room. It will be an all day process. They anticipate they will be finished with the installation by 3:30 or so but another requirement is to not drive the rig until the next day to allow the adhesive to cure.

We get a little bored in the waiting room. There was one other customer having his windshield replaced too so we chatted with him for a while but we needed to get out. So we hop in the car and drive into Nappanee to the Newmar service facility. They have a very nice parts department and store. It lays seems like we find all sorts of specialty things that we need for our Dutch Star. We found what we needed and kept the bill under $70 which felt like a win for us!

We had seen a very large building in Elkhart on our drive so after eating our lunch in the car, we stopped by Southgate Crossing. This place is impressive. The center cupola stands over 80' tall and provides 51,000 square feet of retail space. It is an Amish built peg and beam building that would have been fun to watch going up. There are several floors with one large hall that looks to be rented for parties or receptions. Most of the stores are comprised of local artists selling their creations. There was a little bit of everything as we wandered around killing time.

Main Hall of Southgate Crossing

We made sure we were back at the shop to see them backing the rig out of the service bay. We inspected the work and signed some final paperwork. Spending another night here won’t be too bad other than we are not allowed to drop our leveling jacks or put out any slides. Apparently they don’t want the rig to not have any twisting or flexing while it sets up. After a good night’s sleep, we pull out the next morning to head into Michigan. First stop, Battle Creek - the home of Tony the Tiger and Snap, Crackle and Pop!

New Glass Installed
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