Elkhart & South Bend, Indiana

Technically we spent two nights in Niles, Michigan which is just over the border from Indiana. The purpose was to make a pilgrimage to Elkhart, Indiana which manufactures 80% of the RVs made in North America and is home to the RV Museum & Hall of Fame.

We traveled across Ohio to get here. I can see why Ohio is part of the heartland. Acre after acre of flat farmland…. corn, vineyards, apple trees, and other crops of which I don’t have a clue since I’m not a farm girl. A picturesque drive. 

Sunday, Sept. 16th we arrived at Spaulding Lake Campground. Small and let’s call it quaint. To check in we’re walking into the woman’s home and paying by check or cash since they don’t take credit cards. As we’re checking in, I can hear the clinking of dinnerware in the backroom. Apparently we interrupted dinner. The campground was fine. We’d stay again. It’s just so funny that the night before we were in a 600 site resort behemoth and tonight we’re in a small campground behind someone’s house! During our after dinner walk, we bumped into a couple with their dog Turbo who sold their home in Scarborough, Maine two years ago and are full-time RVing except that they just bought a “pad” in Mission, TX where they plan to winter from now on and then travel out from there. They were parked here for a month because they had an appt. scheduled in mid October for some work on their RV. 

Monday, Sept. 17th we visited the RV Museum which was great fun! Apparently “camping” has been around since 1917 in something that was called a “telescoping apartment” complete with a bed and drawers that folded out of the back trunk area. Charles Lindbergh had his own travel trailer that he used in the 30s and Mae West had a high end bus type vehicle that was used to shepherd her to and from her acting assignments. There was a “porch” on the back of the bus for a rocking chair. Form did indeed follow function in these well crafted first version of tiny homes. There was also a 1970s version motor home that was completely re-done to the tune of $500,000 that was absolutely stunning but apparently drove like crap when all was said and done so the owners donated it to the museum… and no doubt received a nice tax write-off for their trouble. 

From there we headed to South Bend to visit the University of Notre Dame. Founded in 1842 by the Holy Cross Congregation, it’s huge. A sophomore student named Jacqueline gave us a tour. There are over 30 chapels on campus. Each dorm building has a chapel and many of the classroom buildings have a chapel. The dorms have mass at 10pm on Sunday night and students can attend in their pjs. As she said, “I’ve never been to mass on campus but don’t tell my dad.” Tuition is $65,000 a year with room and board before any aid packages, but Notre Dame has the 4th largest endowment in the country so student aid is a big benefit. Her tuition to attend Notre Dame was less than it would have been to attend Dartmouth or Villanova. Plus 8 previous family members attended Notre Dame so I think she was destined to go there. The gold dome added in 1882 is a landmark on campus and sits atop the main building at Notre Dame. A 19 ft. statue of Mary stands on the dome. Inside this main building, which looks more like a mansion than a building on a campus, are enormous murals painted by Luigi Gregori of Christopher Columbus and Native Americans. They are somewhat controversial these days because of Columbus’s poor treatment of Native Americans. Luigi also painted the murals inside the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, another notable landmark on campus and, not surprisingly, Luigi became a professor at Notre Dame. The basilica is a beautiful church with a pipe organ of over 5,000 pipes. It was a gift and cost over $4,000,000. Having a wedding at the Basilica is a big deal but there is a two year wait. He better be worth it! There is also a one seventh reproduction of the famed French Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. Every night at 6:45 the rosary is prayed rain or shine at the Grotto, and lots of candles are lit during finals and football games. The campus is indeed beautiful with lots of green spaces, although we thought the part of Duke University that we saw with it’s stone buildings was even more charming. 

Notre Dame does have it’s football, which is a huge draw on campus and a very big part of their identity. There are many religious statues all over campus and they all have a football nickname. I’m not sure if the clergy would approve, but perhaps they would.  All the students can attend the football games and 99% do. Tickets are $250 total for the 6 games played on campus. If a student can’t afford the cost, then their dorm picks up the tab for them. They sit in the stadium based on their year. Freshman get the worse seats. Jacqueline did say that the football guys are some of the nicest on campus, so that was nice to hear. 

That ended our day in Elkhart and South Bend. Next we head to Shelbyville, IL and Bo Woods Campground, which is a Corp of Engineer park.