And away we go

Another day trip is under our belt. (in more ways than one). But no use jumping to the end of the story so early.

We've made the decision to remove the j-couch in the coach (cleaver wording eh!) and replace it with a new recliner. Not that there was much wrong with the old couch but I really needed a better place to plunk down and think about world hunger and space travel and other things of that magnitude. Nothing fancy ... just a chair that I could fall asleep in in something under 10 minutes. We'd actually begun the chair search about a year ago and have tried out quite a few but nothing (other than that $3500 model) felt good enough to buy. Since there was not much chance in me spending that much cash on a chair we needed to find something. We've committed to have the couch taken out in a couple of weeks when in for annual service, so now we have to quicken the pace in finding that 'perfect', affordable chair.

A little internet work and a few phone calls later we decided to head to RV Mecca (you know ... Elkhart Indiana) to check out a few places that made furniture for the RV industry.

So bright and early we headed south to Elkhart. About an 80 mile trip through the farm lands of northern Indiana. Cows and Deere's, horses and buggies. The corn was already above knee high and could be seen by the hundreds of acres everywhere.

I had created a short list of places to visit and plugged the addresses into the GPS and the search began.

First stop was a factory about 15 miles south of Elkhart. Clean and well maintained outside, I was sure this was going to be a worthwhile stop. Upon entering the spacious, well appointed lobby, I spied the receptionist and politely asked where the showroom was. She quickly noted that they just make the furniture there and did not have a show room. For that, I would need to go back into town to one of the retail stores that sold their products. I'm now thinking that maybe I can work that stop in later in the day but thought I'd at least get something so I asked her if she had ever sat in one of the chairs I was interested in buying. "Oh no sir" she replied. "They don't allow us to sit in the chairs we build here and as a matter of fact I've never even seen one". So now I'm thinking maybe this wasn't just a good idea after all and headed back to the car. Our next stop took us about 10 miles further west ... down more country roads ... past a number of well groomed Amish farms, and black buggies with black horse pulling them along side the road.

Our GPS had us turn down an unpaved road and indicated that the next location was about another 1/2 mile or so to our next destination.

We pulled up to a well maintained building in the middle of farm country. With not a car in the parking lot the row of bicycles hinted that this was an Amish run business. We walked inside only to find a big room with lots of furniture but no people. We browsed around for about ten minutes and finally a young Amish woman appeared and offered help. I had a number of questions that she couldn't readily answer to she went to the back and summoned the owner. A tall bearded man in his mid 30's joined us and introduced himself as the owner. We discussed my concerns and we proceeded to try out about every chair in the show room as we talked. Sharon and I both were impressed with the quality, selection and price and decided to buy two of the chairs and a small table. Each properly sized for our respective butts. Since all the furniture is custom built, we'd have to wait until mid-July to get them. We provided a small down payment and each took a little sigh of relief that our hunt for comfortable chairs was over.

As some of you may already know, chair hunting does work up an appetite so we headed back to Elkhart to find something new. As we motored along I passed this big restaurant out in the middle of nowhere that looked pretty good but be drove along for another mile or so before a light bulb went off and said maybe I should turn around and give that place a try. Luckily there was a small business up ahead to make the turn and as luck would have it it was another Amish place that made furniture. However this time it was outdoor furniture make from engineered plastic composites. Wow! what a selection of chairs, tables, kids play houses ... all available in every color of the rainbow. We browsed around a bit and found a number of pieces we liked but since we'd already committed all our furniture money at the last stop we noted the location and headed back to the restaurant. Arriving at the eatery we went inside and quickly noticed aisle upon aisle of homemade cookies, pies, jams, and canned fruit of kind and description. Beyond the back counter was a bevy of young women in white hats and long gingham dresses scurrying around making sandwiches, baking breads and pies and other things all good and wonderful. We each picked out a sandwich and with a few minutes of the young girls brought out our order. The place was clean. The prices were very reasonable. The the food was great.

Since we had made a commitment to ourselves to at least stop at the remaining stores on our list we continued on and after the last stop knew that we had not been hasty, and had indeed purchased from the right manufacturer. It was a good day.

So another day trip is behind us and we finally have some new chairs on the way ...

Still livin' the dream.

Phil