Newmar Service Center, Nappanee, ID

                                                      Oct 19, 2014

After our 5 day stay in Lansing, MI. for our visit to the MSU Small Animal Clinic, we drove south to the Newmar Service Center in Nappanee, Indiana. We had a couple things that needed to be worked on, so we made reservations a month prior.

The first night we stayed in the overflow section, because we got there after 4PM and the full hook up section was full. We had to be up and the coach ready to go for service by 6 AM the next morning. It was still dark out, when the service man came to our door and took our coach away for a diagnostics day. While our Nest was gone, we found a spot opened in the full hook up section, and placed a "save this spot orange cone" on it. Joe then had to give our service rep. the new site number, so he would know where to park our RV for the night.

After having breakfast at McDonald's, and spending most the day in a very small lounge that allowed dogs, it was time to get our home back. All the RV's are brought back to their sites at 3:00. We found a spot across the road from the service center that Mallery liked to walk for her daily duty. Most of the parking lots at the center are gravel, so it was not to Mallery's liking.

View from the lot across the street to the full hook up camping ground of Newmar Service Center.

After walking Mallery we crossed the street back to the Newmar plant and walked through the gas model chassis stock lot.

Half of Nappanee is comprised of Amish and Mennonites who have businesses, farms, and work in the RV manufacturing industries. I enjoyed the many horse drawn buggies that we saw during our stay in Nappanee.

In  July of this summer the water heater would not work with electricity. We had to turn it on with the propane. Joe tried to fix the problem by changing the water heater element, but to no avail. The diagnosis came back that the circuit board was burned out. This circuit board part needed to be shipped to the service center.

 

In the full hook up campground section of the service center, we were in the last spot at the end of this row. You can see just the front end of our white Honda. There was a large lounge in the building to the left, but dogs were not allowed, and Mallery was with us because dogs are not allowed in the RV's while being worked on.

The next day we slept in until 8:00 because we were tired. Our bus didn't get picked up until 9AM.  Someone told Joe, if you didn't want to get up and be ready at 6AM, they couldn't do much about it, so we just sleep in. After our bus left us we went to McDonald's again and than looked around Nappanee. We found that Nappanee had decorated apples all around town.

There is a annual Apple Festival held here which is probably why they have apples through out the town.

The Apple Festival is held on the 3rd weekend of September for 3 1/2 days. A 7 ft wide, 600 lb apple pie is baked annually.

While downtown we stopped to see the annual Fall Flower Carpet which is created from 7,000 12' Belgian Mums.

I stood on the platform to take this picture of Joe and Mallery.

It takes 12 people working 135 hour over a 4 day period to build the display.

We saw this sign at the local Baptist Church. This scripture is one of my favorites found in Psalm 46:10.

Joe took this picture of the Nappanee Post Office.

This tree in front of the Post Office was created by an artist after the tree came down.

We spent a couple of hours browsing in the Kountry Cabinets and Home Furnishings. The Amish have such high quality workmanship in their furniture and cabinets.

Loved this picture in the store, but I had to pass it up as I don't know where I would put it yet in our home.

Nappanee is a regional center for both the RV manufacturing industry and the Amish craft and tourism industry.
Nappanee holds the distinction of having the longest city name in the United States containing each letter in its name twice.

Back at Newmar I took a picture of this motor home who met it's match with a witch on her broom.

 Amish Acres is located just a mile down the road from the Newmar Service Center. Amish Acres is home to Nappanee's Arts and Crafts Festival. This festival has won many awards. Readers of Sunshine Artist magazine rank the Art and Crafts Festival as the third-best Classic and Contemporary Craft Show in America. The Art festival was also listed at number one in the category of "best attractions for group travel in Indiana" in Travel Trade Magazine. Senior Group Traveler selected the Arts and Craft Festival as one of only seventy "Editor's Choice of Outstanding Festivals and Major Events"; the Art and Craft Festival being the only one chosen from Indiana.

The Round Barn holds plays at the theater at Amish Acres.

Amish Acres also has a restaurant that serves authentic Amish Style cooking.

We decided to eat there the night before we left.

The meals were a bit expensive at $22 each. (Or at least expensive for us)!

 Tom and Rose, a couple we met in the dog lounge at Newmar Service Center showed up and we invited them to our table. They full timed for 10 years and now travel during the summer. Originally from the state of Washington, they purchased a winter home in Lake Havasu.

The food was great, but there is more than we normally eat. Drinks and desert are included, and each table gets to chose two meats choices. There were too many side dishes brought to our table to remember.

We also had the leak we discovered, a week prior to leaving our new home in Boyne City fixed. Our service tech found two running lights above our front window that were cracked allowing moisture in. The lights had been chalked several times, but due to age they needed to be replaced. All of the other running lights were also replaced. Then our bus was run through a building that produced a rain shower of 4 inches per hour to check for complete sealing. We have also had several hard rains since, with no leaks.We spent 4 nights at Newmar, mainly waiting for the water heater part, which was a lot longer than we had planned. While there, we also took turns doing the Newmar factory tour. One day Joe went and the next day I went. Someone had to stay with our Mallery, making it impossible for us to go together. On the tour I learned that anyone is welcome to stay free at this service center, whether you are a Newmar owner or any other RV owner, even if you are just passing through. They must be hoping you will go through the tour and decide to buy a Newmar! The day we left, I woke to find myself extremely dizzy. I went to walk Mallery and bent over and nearly past out. When I went to bed that night, while lying down, and turned my head to the right, my head spinned for what seems like10 seconds or more. This condition has continued now for a month and I am wondering what now!

We are currently in Gulf Shores, AL. for the winter. I haven't blogged for a while as the family is keeping me very busy. Mallery seems to be doing better, as I have put her on 2 different supplements.