Campground Review - Cassidy RV Park

We had a quick stop over at Cassidy RV Park in Laporte, Indiana.

Staff - 7 - Staff takes care of hotel, they were nice, did not see anyone around during the day.

Natural surroundings - 7 - Nice little pond sits in the center of the park. Interstate runs right by it.

Roominess - 8 - Normal sized lots.

Facility Fun - 5 - Pond is nice to walk around, not much else to do.

Facility usefulness - 1 - Not a lot to offer here.

Bathrooms - 2 - Just an outhouse.

Cleanliness - 8 - Clean and well taken care of.

Nearby attractions - 6 - Close to Michigan City and Benton Harbor.

Value - 9 - Paid $18 a night for a pull-through site with full hook-ups. Used Passport America.

Overall - 6 - Clean park, and the right price with PA discount, but basically just a traveler's park.

Santa Claus, Indiana

What would be the perfect time to visit Santa Claus, Indiana? One would think around Christmas time, but one might be wrong in that assumption. A couple of days after Thanksgiving we stopped in the little tiny town of Santa Claus and found the town pretty quiet on a Saturday afternoon!

The campground in town was closed for the season, so we could not stay there, which meant we could not stay to see the light show at night. The theme park Holiday World was closed for the winter and so was a local eatery called Frostys. Hmmm, maybe this town should have had a Labor Day theme!

We did stop by Santa's Candy Castle, which was open for business and our main reason for swinging by this oddly named burg. Even here we were a bit disappointed by what was mostly a store with five dollar hot chocolates and a chance to write Santa at seven dollars a pop! I guess Charlie Brown was right when he said Christmas was becoming too commercialized!

They do have some fun bubble gum machines inside where for a quarter you can watch your bubble gum do all sorts of fun twists and turns and bounces and lifts before you eventually get it for some chewing delight. This was fun, but our favorite thing in Santa Claus was the chainsaw artist who was carving a St. Nick out of a hunk of wood in the parking lot of the Candy Castle! We enjoyed watching him in his element and perusing his completed works. Almost wanted to buy one, but then where would we put it in Howard!

So from our perspective, Santa Claus, Indiana may be a better place to visit in the summer! At least we did not drive very far out of our way and we had a little fun stopping in this town.

 

Campground Review - New Vision RV Park

In our quest to move south we stopped at a little place called New Vision RV Park in between Terre Haute and Vincennes, Indiana.

Staff - 9 - Owner who checked us in was quite helpful and friendly.

Nearby attractions - 8 - Very close to Vincennes which has some history and other fun stuff to do.

Natural surroundings - 7 - Close to state highway and train track was pretty close. Park is on a lake with some trees.

Value - 9 - We paid $11.50 a night for a back-in gravel site with full-hook ups with a discount from Passport America.

Bathrooms - 7 - In basement next to laundry, there is only one, but shower is big and warm.

Roominess - 7 -  Average-sized sites.

Facility fun - 7 - Small playground, fishing on lake, no license needed.

Cleanliness - 8 - Park was well taken care of.

Facility usefulness - 9 -  Laundry, propane, picnic tables and fire rings at each site, free wifi, exchange library and small store.

Overall - 7 - The train was the biggest drawback, but very clean and convenient park.

First year in review

It has been awhile since I, Sunset the Snake gave one of my reports from the road. So since I do not have as much to do I thought I could report on the first year the Martin family has spent on the road. Yes a snake has put together a video, made the map and compiled the stats! If you do not believe this then you're imagination is seriously lacking and I am afraid you may suffer from serpent prejudice! Sorry about the lack of sound on the video, youtube has been having fits accepting the music, but we are trying to replace the sound with an audio swap but youtube is also having fits with that!

So here is the adventure by the numbers:

• We started in Cambridge, IL and ended the year in Pittsburgh, PA.
• We traveled over 35,000 miles between the RV and the vans.
• We visited 22 states
• Over 100 Walmarts and 1 Target
• We replaced eight tires.
• We visited 17 Zoos/Aquariums.
• We lost a total of 7 teeth.
• We explored 49 National Parks.
• We soaked up the sun on 10 different beaches.
• We ate at over 70 unique eateries and 25 different McDonalds and 95 other national or regional restaurant chains! 
• We saw at least 277 different species of animals.
• We toured 27 workplaces.
• We went to 6 different amusement parks.
• We spent time in two different countries.
• We traversed through 42 state parks.
• We stayed at over 120 campgrounds!
• Celebrated 7 birthdays.
• Expanded our horizons in over 40 museums.
• All in 372 days (this is from 9/23/10 - 10/1/11)

more...

Check out the basic path we took on our trip in the first year!

Campground Review - Rocky Falls Campground

During our stay in Evansville we chose the Rocky Falls Campground just outside of town.

Staff - 7 - Spoke with camp host who was cordial.

Nearby attractions - 6 - right in Evansville and within 30 minutes of Ownesboro and Santa Claus.

Natural surroundings - 8 - Outside of town, very country atmosphere with man-made water fall that runs from May through September.

Value - 8 - We paid $25 a night for two nights.

Bathrooms - 6 - Slightly below average.

Roominess - 7 - Average sized sites, but the campground was not super busy.

Facility fun - 7 - Small playground, game room with free pool table and air hockey table.

Cleanliness - 7 -  Some long-term sites looked a little run down, but it was pretty decent.

Facility usefulness - 8 -  Fire rings, laundry, picnic tables, dump station. 

Overall - 6 - Nothing special here without the water fall.

Evansville Museum

We visited the Evansville, Indiana Museum for one reason. Membership to this particular museum gets you the benefit of a reciprocal membership to many other museums across the country, and the membership cost of joining the Evansville Museum is one of the lowest on the reciprocal list at only $50 a year for a family!

The museum itself is not that great and not worth traveling very far to see. The best part of the museum is actually an adjacent transportation museum. Membership at the Evansville Museum gets you free entrance into the transportation museum. In this museum they have a model train set and a real train with passenger cars to explore and an engine with a bell to ring. The passenger cars were used by both the Eisenhowers and Johnsons during Presidential campaigns, so we had a bit of history to explore.

The main museum had a floor with some art exhibits, some bamboo baskets made in Japan, a small area with some hands-on exhibits  and an area showing what life was like in Evansville through the years. the museum is pretty small and took less than two hours to go through both of them.

RV/MH Hall of Fame

We are sorry, but we have removed this post becuase it is a part of our new book entitled Napkin Dreams.

Campground Review - Eby's Pines Campground

We stayed at Eby's Pines Campground in Bristol, near Elkhart, before we went to the RV-MH Hall of Fame. Campgrounds up north are getting pretty quiet this time of year!!

Nearby attractions - 8 - Right in the middle of Amish and RV manufacturing country.

Staff - 7 - Spoke with one cordial staff member.

Natural surroundings - 9 - Lots of big pines, ponds, streams and on the banks of a small river.

Value - 6 - We paid $35.99 a night for a pull-through gravel site with full hook-ups.

Bathrooms - 7 - Large and clean, but the showers had a hard time getting warm enough.

Roominess - 8 - Bigger than normal sized lots.

Facility fun - 8 - Playground, two pools, one with a slide, games, fishing, horseshoes.

Cleanliness - 8 -  Not bad!

Facility usefulness - 9 - Dump station, fire rings, laundry, camp store, exchange library, propane.

Overall - 7 - Good for an overnight stay for sure.

Kevin Shutterbug and the Interview

Kevin shares a little of his frustration at being ignored during our recent television interview on WIFR in Rockford, Illinois. We thought he was going to talk about this great campground we were at in Indiana, but he could not get over himself!

Amish Acres

On our way to Elkhart we had to stop off at Amish Acres in Nappanee, Indiana. There are a ton of things to do at the the Amish Acres including a Thresher's Family-style Dinner, little shops, a fudge store, a playhouse with dramas showing nightly and a meat and cheese store. We chose to look around and have some ice-cream at the soda shop.

During this time of year there were several scarecrows on display put together by local businesses, charities and school groups. We liked the scarecrow that looked like a crow with little scarecrows on his shoulder. We did not like the Elvis scarecrow whose head had fallen off! Too weird to think of a beheaded Elvis!!

We took the time to educate our sons on the Amish way of life. A couple of years ago we visited Amish country near Lancaster, Pennsylvania and took a buggy ride through the area with a nice Amish gentleman as our guide. Our older boys remember this, so this was a refresher course. But our littles guys were quite thrilled to see so many horses and buggies and little boys in straw hats! This was a short stay at Amish Acres, but a place we want to spend more time in the future. Patsy and I are thinking a nice weekend away just the two of us and a Thresher dinner with an Amish play.

Campground Review - Camp Timber Lake

A great little campground is located near Huntington, Indiana called Camp Timber Lake. The couple that own the campground are a very nice Christian couple.

Nearby attractions - 7 - Not far from Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.

Staff - 10 - Super nice lady checked us in and also spoke with her husband who was very helpful.

Natural surroundings - 9 - In the country setting, with trees, a pond and a stream running through the campground.

Value - 9 - We paid an average of $14.40 a night for a back-in gravel site with full hook-ups using our Passport America card.

Bathrooms - 9 - They even have a touch of home and very clean.

Roominess - 8 - Bigger than normal sized lots.

Facility fun - 8 - Lake with fishing and boats to rent. Playground, lawn games for a deposit.

Cleanliness - 9 - Lots of seasonal sites but everything looks crisp and clean

Facility usefulness - 9 - Dump station, fire rings, picnic tables, small laundry, camp store, wifi, propane.

Overall - 9 - Loved this park, very quiet and pretty!

Fort Wayne Art Museum

Tanner's digital masterpiece!

This post has been removed since it is a part of our new book Napkin Dreams available on Amazon.com

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50 McDonalds - Indiana

We visited our 21st State McDonalds in the town of Warren, Indiana. This was a convenient stop because it was just off of Interstate 69 between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. We had actually stopped at one earlier but could not find a parking space for Howard so we drove on in our relentless pursuit of fast food goodness with spacious truck parking. Our quest was not in vain!!

Campground Review - S & H Campground

We had an enjoyable three night stay at S & H Campground in Greenfield, Indiana.

Nearby attractions - 8 - Close to all Indianapolis sites and suburbs.

Staff - 7 - Everyone we talked to was pleasant and helpful, but a little forgetful.

Natural surroundings - 9 - In the country setting, with trees, a pond and a stream running through the campground.

Value - 7 - We paid an average of $34 a night for a pull-through gravel site with full hook-ups using our Passport America card for Monday night (not applicable on weekends).

Bathrooms - 5 - They were a little run down, toilets would not flush.

Roominess - 9 - Be and extra long lots.

Facility fun - 10 - Swimming pool (closed after Labor Day), BB court, three playgrounds, picnic pavilion, fishing in pond, petting zoo, hayrides, mini-putt, inflatables (extra cost) and lots of porch swings.

Cleanliness - 7 - Lots of seasonal sites and some are nicely kept up and some are run down.

Facility usefulness - 9 - Dump station, fire rings, church service, small laundry, camp store, wifi, propane.

Overall - 7 - Decent park, quieter on the weekdays.