Mothership

Newmarians call the Newmar Headquarters and Service Center in Nappanee “the Mothership”.  We planned on being there for the next week and a half getting some warranty work done, some maintenance work done and making some interior changes that will transform our “off the lot” coach into our true Busse Bus home.

Here’s the service center:

At Newmar, we are having our full wall slide reinforced – covered under warranty and  some minor issues that we have found along the travels.  When Newmar reinforced the slide out, there were nine tiles that had been cracked due to the undue stress of the wall.  We knew that there were four, but Newmar found additional ones and replaced them as well.  We were also planning on taking care of some chassis maintenance work and have Newmar install our new theater seating that we purchased from Villa out in California.  All that work was supposed to take five days and then we planned on moving the coach to Wood Design (about one mile down the street) to have our new kitchen table and buffet installed as well as reupholstering our valances and chairs which should take a day to accomplish.

You know that you are in Amish country when you roll the coach over horseshit on the pavement pulling into town.

First thing I needed to do was to wash the coach and get rid of the smell.  It was strong!

A positive about coming to Nappanee (besides embracing the pace) is to visit friends – Ashley and Justin Bradley, who live in town.  Great seeing them and their kids (Dylan and Connor).  We know them because Katrina used to work with Justin’s mom, Janice at BeautiControl.  And of course, Janice was able to join us for dinner at their house too.

A negative aspect about coming to Newmar for service is that they start the day at 6:00am.  That’s when they come to get your coach, so you have to be up and ready with the coach.  That means 5:00am wake ups.  Way too early for us these days.  Due to this and COVID measures (1/2 hour to clean the coach every morning and 1/2 hour to sanitize the coach every afternoon, as well as wearing masks and getting your temperature taken every morning) we decided to stay at the Oakwood hotel on Lake Wawasee for a few nights.  We got to spend some time on their beach:

We didn’t need to worry about Bear as Ari and Matt were watching him over this time – that meant we needed to stop back in the Chicago area to pick him up.

The Oakwood hotel is nice and we were able to have dinner there on the patio overlooking the water.

A pretty location to spend my birthday.  We were also able to video chat with the kids.  All-in-all a very mild 29th birthday for me.

The next day we were able to get back to the coach and after getting it settled we headed over to the Shipshewana Flea Market to meet Janice and look around a bit.  Then we headed up to Elkhart to have a very nice dinner at the Artisan.

Wonderful ambience and food!  We also loved the painted buildings!

The following day we met Janice at Sylvan Cellars in Rome City for a drink and then decided to try the pizza as well.

Let me tell you – not Lou’s!  We were able to catch some beautiful sunsets before heading back to the Newmar Service Center Campground.

Very nice evening.

On our last day (Friday) at the Newmar Service Center we learned that the chassis maintenance work could not be accomplished because one of their technicians had been out all week – very disappointing.

Note to self:  From now on, have Freightliner complete all chassis work and Newmar complete “house” stuff!

We were also very concerned that the new theater seating that we ordered was not going to arrive in time.  We had until 12:30 at the latest – it arrived at 11:30!  Just under the wire.  After placing a call into the Newmar CEO, we got the chassis maintenance completed before the end of the day.  Check out the upgraded theater seating:

Check out this fix:

We even upgraded to chrome!

We poached on the Newmar campground over the weekend so that we could join Janice and her boyfriend, Jim, at his lake house on Lake Jimmerson.  Beautiful location and outstanding lake.  We were able to take multiple boat rides and look at the houses.

On Sunday, Jim and I headed over to Tom’s Donuts – WOW!

I’m not sure what crack is like, but I think these donuts might come close to that feeling!  We had to wait in line for about 20 minutes before ordering at the window.  Well worth the wait.

Got the Busse Bus over to Wood Design at 6:00am on Monday to start the interior updating.  Check out these pictures to see the differences:

Old pull out sofa.                                                    New theater seating.

The new executive desk / china buffet!

Old table, buffet and fabrics (chairs / valances).        New executive desk / buffet and fabrics.

Lots more room to place dishes on when we eat dinner and a drawer for hanging files!  Also notice the new fabric on the chairs and the valance.  More the Busse Bus now!  We also purchased a table that sits on top of the steering wheel (when parked):

It provides us with additional surface area!  Wonderful!

Well, all work completed on the coach and time to head out to continue our adventure.  Our goal this summer is to finish seeing the seven states which will make us complete in visiting all 49 drivable ones!  Hope this doesn’t impede our travels: