Das Dutchman Essenhaus

It was hot when we went to bed last night. I actually ended up getting up and turning the air conditioner back on as even with the fans running, the open windows weren't cooling anything off. About one thirty major rumbling woke me up. The old story about the Norsemen playing ten pins in the sky came to mind as the heavens rumbled and roared. It wasn't like the usual thunderstorm where you have lightening and then loud booms. This was just a constant grumbling that lasted for several hours. Somewhere in there, it began to rain as well, finally cooling things down.

It was still raining when we got up this morning, but it was blissfully cool. The sky gradually cleared off and it began to get hot again about three in the afternoon.

Toward evening, we got in the Toad and drove the seventeen miles to Middlebury to Das Dutchman Essnhaus, an Amish style restaurant owned by Bob and Sue Miller.

I met Sue when I was first elected to serve on the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board. She was a veteran Board Member and a great mentor to a newbie. While their children have pretty much taken over the day-to-day management of the restaurant and conference center (as well as their other restaurant in Sarasota, Florida), the lady at the front desk says that Sue still comes in once a week or so.

We had some very good chicken pot pie for dinner and Forry splurged and had a piece of peanut butter chocolate banana cream pie for dessert.

Blessings to Stuart's Service!

Up early and on the road; Forry's driving Auntie Violet; I'm following in the Toad.  We had scouted out the route yesterday afternoon, so it was an easy trip in spite of the early Monday morning traffic.  Our appointment was at 9:30 and we pulled in a few minutes early.  We had called the HWH factory early last week --

and they referred us to this authorized Master Service Center in Elkhart --

Chuck and his crew of two immediately got to work on Auntie Violet's hoses, so we took off and went to visit the RV/MH Hall of Fame, Museum and Library.

They have an incredible collection of old RVs.  Many of them were one of a kind, hand-crafted jobs like this one, The Tennessee Traveler --

Many of the early ones were just small trailers, but even then they had awnings --

You sure wouldn't miss this one going down the road --

We had barely gotten a good look around the museum when Chuck called and said that Auntie Violet was finished and ready to go.  We quickly went back and found that, indeed, she was!  They had replaced three hoses, one one-hundred inches and two one hundred and fourteen inches and added hydraulic fluid to replace all that we had lost. And they only charged us for two hours of shop time. All I can say, is that if anyone needs work done on their hydraulic systems, Stuart's Service is THE way to go!

We drove back over to Elkhart Campground and paid for another night.  It was SO nice to put the jacks down and let out the slides -- it's amazing how much room we have. And between the new batteries and the filled hydraulic reservoir, the slides just zipped in and out!


This evening we drove over to Middlebury to Das Dutchman Essenhaus for a wonderful dinner.  My former Mennonite Church Executive Board member colleague, Sue Miller and her family own this Amish-style complex.  I had chicken and Forry had sausage, but we had to get take-home boxes for part of it, so that we would have room for pie.  I had a red raspberry cream pie (my Sister Sherry's is better!) and Forry had a piece of chocolate, peanut butter, banana cream pie that he raved about. Nothing like returning home completely stuffed!