From Studebaker to Jelly Bellys!

After heading north on I-65 for a bit we turned eastwards on a digression towards South Bend and Elkhart. The roads are still bad and if it weren't for that, this part of the trip would be pleasant with lots of rural area. There are more windmills (yes, they're everywhere) and soybean and corn crops in a patchwork of fields. These corn and soybean crops are rotated from field to field as not only are both good crops but it helps control diseases and pests that bother each individually. The soybeans put nirogen in the soil which improves the corn crop. Some farmers add alfalfa and wheat to the rotation.

As we drove along I caught glimpses of deer several times including one which was a deer running along the edge of a field. Further along we were sometimes in a cottonwood blizzard where the cottonwood trees release their seeds like dandelions. I tried to get some shots of that but the camera and cottonwood fuzz just would not cooperate.

We soon turned off the interstate headed for South Bend ... the roads were even worse! It gets just a little confusing when you arrive as one building houses the History Museum which includes the Studebaker Museum, a Tiffany museum, an exhibit of Notre Dame architecture and tours of the nearby Oliver Mansion and the Worker's Home which is a house furnished to reflect that of a working class family in the 1930's. We only had time for the Studebaker Museum but if you are making plans to be in this area, give yourself at least one whole day for all there is to see and do.

The parking wasn't the best for Wolf and we ended up over behind the Worker's Home under some mulberry trees. We got PoGoGo unloaded and entered the lobby which is where you pay admission based on how many of the museums you plan to visit. The Studebaker collection is off to the right from this lobby and turns out to be much larger than one might suspect from outside it.

I had absolutely no idea how much Studebaker had done. It began in the 1850's when the Studebaker brothers opened a blacksmith shop in South Band becoming a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn wagons and carriages, eventually providing wagons to the Union forces in the Civil War, carriages and such to presidents, supply wagons including the beginnings of the Jeep, and the impressive wagons pulled by the Budweiser Clydesdales. The museum has many models of Studebaker wagons, carriages, and automobiles on display.

Remember above where I mentioned we parked under some mulberry trees? At the time, having had experience with mulberries as a kid, I warned Geoff to watch where he walked and clean his feet off before he went back in ... well, he forgot. Now we had dark purple footprints up the steps, across the carpet, over the engine hump and onto the driver's side carpet.

From here we and the dark purple footprints headed further east to Elkhart and the RV/MH Hall of Fame. The RV Founders Hall displays trailers and such going back to the 1920's. It was interesting but unless you have other reasons to be in this area I'm not sure it is worth the trip. The store was also disappointing for the most part with not much available and much of it aimed at the RV'er's needs.

We soon headed for the nearby Elkhart Campground for the night. Admittedly, Elkhart is pretty much the RV capital with all sorts of RV dealers and stores and if you're looking for something special for an RV, Elkhart is a good place to look. If we had had more time we might have looked into getting the dashboard fixed.

The next morning we retraced our path and headed north through Gary, Indiana, and then up through Chicago. One interesting sight was that of a metro system which runs principally through the median of the interstate from Gary up into Chicago. It is quite odd to glance to the center median and see metro stations smack dab in the center of the median. Another odd sight are the signs indicating 'crash investigation sites' pointing to widened roadsides with room for those in an accident to pull out of the traffic pattern and exchange information, quite probably a good idea in such a heavily trafficked area.

Other odd sights along the way include a two story mobile home being pulled along and so-called road trains with tractor trailers pulling three trailers instead of just one or the infrequent two. The hustle bustle of Chicago finally eased off as we headed in to Wisconsin on I-94/I-41.

A few miles into Wisconsin is the exit for Pleasant Prairie near Kenosha and the Jelly Belly warehouse tour. The tour is free and again, we found the staff very helpful to the mobility impaired. We had left my PoGoGo on its carrier on Wolf as the website showed the little train that takes visitors around the warehouse tour. The initial person at the counter spotted that I was having to lean on the wall or Geoffrey while we waited in line and had us come around to a bench we could sit on to wait our turn. Then she escorted us to an elevator to go up to the first area, called Jelly Belly Station, which shows some of the older machines and works to group enough riders for a train load. We then got escorted to the train and helped into it.

The train tour itself goes from stop to stop with videos showing how the jelly belly candies are made and imparting some of the history of the company. At the end everyone is given a small packet of jelly bellys. The stop of course is right at the entrance for the store but who can go to such a place and not buy any jelly bellys? And NO, I am not gonna tell you how much I spent there!