Here In Indiana

     Wednesday morning we left our campground in Wellington, IL, headed for Elkhart, Indiana.
In IL, we woke up to rain and mud…yuck!

    

But by the time we were ready to go, the picture had changed completely. This is what we’ve seen day after day on this road trip. So happy when the sun comes out.

     Thursday we spent sightseeing in Elkhart. We love this area. Still get rain every day but not so much mud and lots to see and do. We’re learning to duck inside till the storm passes. We’ll be staying in northern Indiana for a few weeks.
       Before I post photos of Elkhart I need to post this. It’s a plaque now hanging in the motorhome. It’s a mother’s day gift from our MO kids. They know me too well….
    
      

  First thing on Thursday, we went to the Elkhart Visitor Center. We needed to get info on all the things we want to do while we’re here. That’s where we saw our first Quilt Mural. Along the Historical Trail in northern Indiana, there are numerous Quilt Murals and Quilt Gardens. The murals are painted on buildings all along the trail. This one is on the Visitor Center.

     Guides in hand, we took off for the Elkhart Botanical Garden. What beautifully landscaped gardens. We loved it, even though it rained a bit. So fun to see plants that don’t need to be “drought tolerant”. (Reminder. Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

The first thing we saw was another Quilt Mural.

There are wonderful garden scenarios.

     

       

Corny, but fun. There are painted and decorated elk statues all around Elkhart. I like the one in the middle best.

The gardens have some cool ideas for using recycled items for garden displays.

    

The first garden uses some plastic piping with holes cut for plants. The second is a box made of cheap wood pallets, lined with garden cloth.

The ones below are made of burlap formed into bags, with holes cut for plants and some wooden crates nailed to a fence.

         

I really like the walkway made of paving blocks and grasses.

The beautiful building below is a tool shed!

The entire Botanical Garden is built upon a city water works system. The city water is provided from wells under the gardens. There are several pumps inconspicuously working throughout the gardens. The photo below is one of the pump houses.

    

     Looking for lunch, we went to downtown Elkhart for “local cuisine”. We found it here, where we enjoyed some very tasty sandwiches.

And we found a couple of downtown wall murals.
          

 
  Then we found our first Quilt Garden. We now know the gardens and murals are throughout the county and it’s a bit of a scavenger hunt to find them. This one is in downtown Elkhart.
     Each Quilt Garden is based on the design of a traditional quilt block. They are really too big to photograph well and some of the flowers haven’t quite grown up. They’ll fill in beautifully in a few weeks.

We found another Quilt Garden.

There are amazing dogwood trees around Elkhart.

Along the River Walk, I love the old homes that sit above the river. They just hearken back to a more genteel era. I can envision the summer guests enjoying the view.

Then, a change of pace…yep it’s a motorhome-painted elk     Inside, we learned a bit of RV history. We didn’t know Elkhart is the RV capital of the world!

Pretty cool in it’s day…I guess.

Nope, not for me.

Nope, though we’ve seen some cute retro teardrops.

Wow!

The driver’s seat was an “accessory”. Really?

And we have…drum roll please…the Cadillac of Motor Homes!

But, my personal favorite has to be…just imagine this setting in Yosemite Valley.

And these guys…going to Yosemite in style!

And there were dozens more. The photos could fill pages and pages.
We had a wonderful day of exploring, enjoying and even learning a few things. Today was the same…blog to be posted later.

Wishing you a great day!
Pat