Covered Bridges and Amish Buggies

After Massachusetts, we decided to knock out three states (and the stickers that go on our window map) in one day. What we didn’t plan on was staying in Vermont as long as we did. After packing up, we drove north around Boston where we stopped for a coffee with Danelle’s cousin. Then we drove an hour to Maine, stopped long enough to snap a few photos and then pointed Ralphie towards New Hampshire.

We just barely touched it and have decided to go back when we have more time, and the campgrounds might be open.

Originally we planned to do the same with Vermont and just drive across the bottom of the state, but we found a campground that was still open just south of Burlington and decided to go there. On the way to Burlington we spent a night in a Walmart parking lot near Montpelier. I found a couple of covered bridges only minutes from there so we unhooked the car and took a spin to go check them out.

Burlington surprised me at how nice it was, but it was fall and unseasonably warm so we might be a bit jaded. We toured the Magic hat Brewery, ate ice cream at the Ben & Jerrys, bought some real maple syrup, and had a few great drives in the countryside. Once again, we want to go back and spend more time on the area.

So, why didn’t we just stick around longer? First, we knew the nice weather wasn’t going to last much longer, and we had to get to the Newmar factory by the end of the month for some scheduled warranty work.

The drive from Burlington to Albany NY was really pretty. We took our time driving across the southern part of New York, spending the night near Corning.

The next day we finished up the drive to Nappanee Indiana and got everything ready for our service appointment.  We showed up with eight items we wanted fixed, and since we are still under warranty, the service writer said to add anything else and if there was time they would try to get it done. We ended up with a list of seventeen items fixed and countless questions answered. The guys working on the RV were great and didn’t mind me poking my head in while they were working to ask questions.  Service days consisted of waking up at 5 am, getting everything put away and ready to roll by 6 am when a tech would show up to drive the bus away.

We waited and tried to pass the time until 2 pm when the techs would start driving the RVs back.  We would unload back into the RV for the night and do it all again the next day. We did end up spending two nights in a hotel so they could finish some work on the floor and get paint done.

The area surrounding Nappanee is filled with Amish people who drive buggies, ride bicycles and generally live a life at a slower pace than most of us. Quite a few of them work at the Newmar factory and can be seen riding into work (if you get up early enough) in all weather conditions. They seem to have adopted the use of blinking LED lights to a point that they could be confused with a mobile Techno dance party. This is especially true on the buggies at night. In fact in the future anytime I see a semi-truck with a billion marker lights on I’ll just say that they are lit up like an Amish Buggy.

So service is done and Ralphie is better than ever, it’s getting cold and unlike everyone we met at the factory, we are not heading south yet.

Stay tuned.