Some Shopping And Relaxing In Amish Country Is In Order

First let me say this is a longer than normal post.  Just so much to add in to what we have been up to.

So we’re here in Bremen, Indiana.  The heartland of Amish country.  We’ve been here before, just up the road in Nappanee.  Nappanee, Indiana is just a hop, skip and a jump east.  We usually hang out there as the Gulf Stream Coach factory is there and when in town we are able to stay for free in their parking lot with water and electric.  However, with Gulf Stream not producing any

coaches as of late, the place seems to have pretty much shut down. So we found this large campground in Bremen just down the road.

Pla-Mor Campground is a lovely and mostly quiet (theirs a train but it’s a good distance away) campground in the middle of the two communities.  Large sites with full hook-ups it’s an easy place for a big rig like us.  We are staying here for 2 weeks, just hanging out, checking out other motorhome manufacturers in the area and enjoying Amish country.

We went and saw Newmar and Entegra Coach while here.

While Newmar does not let you take pictures and has a nice tour guide, Entegra let’s you take pictures and has a very poor tour guide.  I’m sorry, but it’s in my humble opinion that if you are going to be a tour guide, you should know about the product that you are showing.  But in their defense, they (Entegra) were short staffed and just pulled someone away from their desk to give the tour.  Oh well…I digress.

We were impressed with how the two coach manufacturers make the coaches.  They use aluminum stud work and batten insulation.  Their competitors and many others in the industry, use the traditional vacuum bonded board onto foam.  Newmar goes one step further and runs all the electrical lines through holes in the aluminum studs.

In Nappanee, just driving around, you can see the prosperity that has come to this town since the rv industry is on an up swing.  Their’s new shops, the houses are well kept up and then we found Coppes Commons. This was not here last time we were here.  Well, the building was, just not the inside stuff.  The building itself dates back to the mid 1800’s.  It was a hot bed of activity back then.  It was a saw mill, box factory and it’s most famously known for the Nappanee Dutch Kitchen Cabinets.

Saved from destruction and falling apart, it now houses artisan shops, a nice sized market and deli and a really bad (because it’s so good) ice cream shop and bakery.

The baked goods can be dangerous though.  I think we’re going to steer clear of the bakery next time we visit.  We went a little over board.

How cool is that!

Pun intended.

While in Coppes Commons we also met Lera.  She is a weaver and she makes these beautiful rugs, table clothes, runners, what ever you’d like.  She has this custom made, one of a kind (5 foot) loom that she makes her large rugs on. At the time of our visit she was making a large table cloth.  It was so beautiful, I’d hate to use it for such.  I’d be afraid it would get stained and ruined.  She also has two smaller looms that her daughter and her friend were using at the time.

Yup…we bought a rug.  They are very reasonably priced considering the time and effort it takes.  Plus, they are all hand-made from recycled material.  Left overs from the rv industry as well as other scraps from all around.

Once we put it in our coach, we loved it so much, that we went back and bought a bigger rug for our living area.

Oh, we also drove into Elkhart, just 18 miles or so north of us to do some shopping.  This is where all the rv surplus stores are and they always have tons of stuff that you never knew you needed and some things you do need.

David found this and immediately thought how cool it would be outside our motorhome guarding it.

I think not…it stayed in the store.

However, I have to admit, it would look cute with a Santa hat on it for the holidays.