We were honestly not expecting much and only decided to stay there to break up a drive. However, it proved to be a favorite! The Subway photo might seem like nothing but, when we got gas they had a Subway and the kids wanted their pizza. This one did not have pizza so kids were forced into sandwiches that they actually ate – THIS IS HUGE considering they live on air.
Kenzie loves plain spaghetti noodles and kept reading signs for the Old Spaghetti Factory so I decided to see if they had one there. We surprised her by taking them to dinner there. Food was okay, but it was a neat place. They have part of a train car inside where you could sit to eat. We did not make reservations so just had to wait to sit anywhere we could (place holds 350). They had someone coming around making balloon animals, which the kids loved.
We decided to walk around. Ended up on a carriage ride downtown and by the canal. Saw their capital building, where the Colts play and the largest JW Marriot in the world. They also have bicycles and electric cars that you can rent downtown. (electric cars were plugged in at different places along side of road, like bikes – where you put your information in without talking to someone). It was really nice.
Side note:
Speed limit in our RV campground was 6.5 miles per hour. I had never seen a 1/2 on a speed limit sign & thought it was hilarious. Craig on the other hand, seemed to ignore it. As he was putting kids inside, a guy in a golf cart came up and said “I don’t know who was driving but you were going over 10 mph and need to keep it to 6.5 mph. There is a sign up front.” For those that know me, you know I try very hard to follow rules as I hate being told I was doing something I should not have done. So this was very hard for me. Thanks, Craig! haha!
Children’s Museum
All the reviews made it sound pretty amazing. Honestly, they can’t even do it justice. Just go, if you are ever near there and have little ones. Plan to spend the entire day – get there right when they open. It is not cheap so buy ahead to save money or do through AAA. It cost us right around $100. But, so worth it. They have 5 floors total. Exhibits included dinosaurs, space, a train/train station for kids to pretend to work, Dance, Pop Culture, the Circus (kids LOVED), Hot Wheels/racing, Travel to China, an area for 5 and under (impressive area), Carousel, mirror fun house, kid size houses and ice cream store, and so much more. We pretended we were cave explorers and the girls had to find cave fish (part of a program – each family had a different animal to locate inside), then the kids were able to fill out a booklet regarding how their animal has adapted and what it eats. The entire day was such an incredible experience. I apologize for all the photos but I really LOVED this place!!
Count:
5 States, 1,028 miles, 4.5 people, one RV (still same one – in one piece), a few rented cars (plus one borrowed… thanks, Missy), and now one Bed Rail (Kenzie slept in our bed one night so Zoe begged to sleep in top bunk, fell out around 4 am, then two nights ago she fell out of bottom bunk at 4:45 am so we made it a mission to find a bed rail)
Decatur, IN
We were able to do a tour of the American Coach plant, where they made our RV. It was really incredible to see where they start (plain pieces of wood turned into cabinets, a chassis with not much else, creating/building the side walls, slide outs, insides – I mean what a process! We stayed in a parking lot for two nights at the REV facility, which is where they do the repair work on several types of RVs. We tried to get an appointment a few weeks ago and were told earliest was in September but, could come as a warranty “drop in” and maybe they could get to us. We arrived and not too many RVs in parking lot. By night time, the lot was full plus others parking in non lot spaces. You have to go into waiting room at 6 am. Wait for a service rep to come and talk to you. We got lucky as we were first on list and they had a cancellation. Warranty work drop ins trump other drop ins. We left there after 12:30 p.m. but they fixed our issues. (We had about 1 inch of water sitting in an under cabinet on the outside from the crazy rain and it also came in on the lower bunk – I wanted to make sure those were sealed.) Then, little stuff. While we were there, we realized how difficult it was going to be to book our places for July 4th (still haven’t planned ahead). We found places for all but June 30-July 2 so hopefully someone has a cancellation (or there is a Wal-Mart parking lot???) haha! On to Michigan!
Tour of Plant:
Can kids make it 6.5 hours in a waiting room??
They did!!! They did amazingly well. We had several people come up and talk us and tell us their grandkids would never be able to sit there for any where close to an hour – let alone what we did. They did crafts, played games/watched leap pads, took lots of selfies, ate plenty of snacks but stayed on the couches and did really well! Thank goodness for good days! well…
Then our kids returned…
I decided we could not drive anywhere since kids got up super early and had to sit for 6.5 hours. I also decided we should take a nice, long walk to the local grocery store so we could get the kids out some. We made it to the store and about 2 minutes in (1 minute after the nice photo of them below, where they look happy and content), they lost their little minds. It was the longest 10 minutes ever in a store… So, I am not really sure kids can make it for 6.5 hours in a waiting room… even when they appear they can. But, thankfully, we got back and they did puzzles, played on the keyboard, and we played board games. (Last picture shows the parking lot we stayed in for 2 nights…)
dewbus 