Day 59: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Campground.

We decided to stay one more night here at Indiana Dunes. We have been so busy riding the train into Chicago for the last two days and getting back late in the evening, we thought it would be nice to spend the day just relaxing and catching up with life at the campground and maybe do some exploring of the nearby cities.

2 nights ago when we returned from our first day in Chicago, we returned to find that our propane tanks have been completely exhausted. I had switched to a fresh full tank when we started running the furnace during our boondocking nights but I had not expected it to run out so quickly. It was really unfortunate because the next day we had another long day of transit and I knew I would not have time to go fill up the tanks. That meant I had to drive around all night looking for a propane refilling station. I drove nearly 60 miles after calling as many nearby gas stations as I could find. I learned that when you ask a gas station attendant on the phone whether or not they ‘refill’ propane thanks, you have to further clarify that you are not looking for a tank exchange.

As I was driving around, I found my way through many of the nearby cities. At Michigan City, I found our first Steak N Shake since we ate at the one in Las Vegas. We decided that today we would come here and have lunch.

Even though there is really no comparison, Steak N Shake is serving as somewhat of a temporary fix for my In-N-Out Burger addiction.

Ava and Marlene spent the afternoon doing homeschooling outside at the picnic table. We finally were able to enjoy the beautiful campground we are in. Since today is a Sunday, most people have left for the weekend and we are once again at a practically deserted campground.

Since there are no hookups and most sites are well shaded by the trees, we busted out the generator for the first time on this trip. The sites here are so far apart and most of the nights there was no one closer than 2 sites away from us, we can basically run the generator all night long if we wanted to. I bought 2 gallons of gas and the plan is to use it all up before we leave so I would not have to worry about storing it.

We are really loving the fall here in the Midwest and the changing color of the leaves are as amazing as people have told us. We are surrounded by leaves of all colors and Ava decided to create her own rendition of it with some acrylic paint.

I took this opportunity to catch up with work and the blog while Mila watched Toy Story 2 for the 568th time.

After arts and crafts time was over outside, Ava resumed homeschooling inside. She is getting great at addition and subtraction, thanks to her 10 fingers.

As we get further into fall, there is a better chance with every passing day that we will hit snow at some point. After today, we will be heading north along the eastern side of Lake Michigan which is taking us back up in elevation. I am expecting the weather to get cold soon.

We have an appointment in a little over 2 weeks at the Airstream factory in Jackson Center, Ohio to get some work done and get to finally do our tour and stay at the Terraport. After that we will be headed to our friend Carrie’s house in historic downtown Louisville to spend Halloween. Ava has been talking about being Sally the Rag Doll from Nightmare Before Christmas and we still need to make her costume since none seem to be available to buy off the shelf.

Tomorrow we will leave Indiana Dunes and head east into Amish country.

over and out,
dan