Pullman National Historical Park, Chicago, IL

I found out about this newest addition to the National Park system from a reference at the Indiana Dunes NP website. Had no idea who George Pullman was, although I have heard of Pullman cars related to train travel. Since it was so close to Indiana Dunes, I added this to our itinearary. We arrived just before the visitor center opened, admission was free. The visitor center was formerly the administration clock tower building of Pullman Palace Car Company, built in 1880.

The exhibits in the visitor center covered how George Pullman developed, manufactured and marketed luxury train cars in the 1870s, such that Pullman became synonymous with luxury. Uniformed porters, mostly African Americans, were part of that image. There was a corner of the wall that showed famous people affiliated with Pullman porters. I had no idea that Thurgood Marshall, the late Supreme Court judge, was a porter, and that former first lady Michelle Obama's great grandfather was a Pullman porter.

We learned the neighborhood around the visitor center was part of the planned community that Pullman developed to house workers. There was a lot of history related to the town itself, including labor unrest, civil/labor rights and the strike of 1894 which ultimately led to the IL Supreme Court ordering the dissolution of the company town.

Above: House of the Pullman general manager was restored under the Pullman House Project. We had coffee inside the house, and watched a movie about workers who lived in the town.

We walked around the neighborhood. Most of the workers' houses are now privately owned. We visited the church and passed by the former stables and fire house. There were groups of school kids walking around on ranger guided tours.

Below is the Hotel Florence, named after George Pullman's daughter. It was closed for renovation.

I finally gave in and bought the National Parks passport, and the Pullman National Historical Park became the first stamp in the passport. I will have to stop and get the Indiana Dunes NP stamp on my return trip.

Before driving on to Madison, WI, we stopped by a nearby Planet Fitness for a nice long shower. Arriving in Madison about 3 hours later, we did some shopping at Walmart in Monona. RVparky said this Walmart allowed overnight parking, but recent reviews said not so. We were the only RVs on the surface parking lot (the main parking garage was underground) and did not feel comfortable there. We drove a bit further and spent a restful night at Cracker Barrell.

Miller Woods Trail, Indiana Dunes NP

Rain stopped this morning. I took the opportunity to empty my cassette toilet in the porta potty at the Indiana Dunes NP Visitor Center. Easy peasy. Went in to talk to the ranger on duty, asked about non muddy hiking trails that were moderately easy. He recommended going to the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education at the west end of the park and hiking the Miller Woods trail, said the lupine are blooming at this time. His recommendation was spot on, we enjoyed the hike that went over dunes, vegetation with lots of lupine, lakes and ended up on the lake shore. We then took the relatively easy paved road back to the Center's parking lot.

Instead of staying a 3rd night at the visitor center, we drove west to get a head start the next day. We found a Walmart in Hammond, IN that allowed overnight parking using RVparky.com, a great app for identifying places to stay in a particular town/area. Users reported/reviewed locations that allowed overnight parking; the app also lists campgrounds with reviews.

Elkhart and Michigan City, IN

Early in the morning, I called around and found a RV mechanic who could replace batteries. He was located in Elkhart, IN, the "RV Capital of the World. It would take me 1.5 hours to drive back the way we came. But first, I really needed a long non-RV shower, so on the way out, I stopped at Planet Fitness in Gary, IN. I joined PF in Bowie a couple of weeks; the black level membership allows me to use any PF outside my home PF gym for a total of 10 times a month.

In Elkhart, Bryan, the owner-mechanic of Custom RV Repair checked my RV's battery and found it to be in excellent condition. He said a battery's charge would not normally last overnight supporting the devices in the RV. I asked "What about the second battery?" Brian said, "You have only one battery". He had another mechanic check again, said there was no space for another battery. I called my go-to expert Jerry, who confirmed that Thor Rize standard specs included 2 batteries. Jerry and Brian had a conversation on my phone, Jerry said he's never come across such a case. Then I called Thor Customer Service (their manufacturing plant is at Wakarusa, close to Elkhart) who confirmed that there should have been two batteries in my RV. How did the RV managed to pass QC checks? And, Camping World grossly misdiagnosed my RV problem. Thor CS agreed to make it right and will approve a claim to install the 2nd battery as part of warranty even though my RV's warranty expired three months ago. But, it would take about 3 days for the claim to be approved, parts to be delivered, and with the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, it would be a week before the work can start. Since we had camping reservations and a schedule to follow, I arranged to come back to Elkhart on my return trip in July. Which meant that I will have to cope with low battery power for most of the trip. Bryan, his two other mechanics and Jerry gave me tips on that.

After a quick lunch in Elkhart, I drove the 1.5 hrs back to Indiana Dunes NP. Nadine texted that she was in Washington Park, Michigan City, so I met here there. It was a very pretty park with parking spots right next to the beach, but there were warnings about dangerous conditions due to the weather. We walked along the pier, saw three young men fishing, one of them showed us the steelhead trout he caught.

It started raining heavily. After the rain let up a bit, we drove back to the Visitor Center for the night.

Battery woes in Ohio

I woke up to warning signs that the RV's coach battery level was low. This had happened before on a short trip to Bergen NY, when I boondocked at Jerry's winery. I was supposed to get my batteries checked, but thought that was just a one time incident. Wishful thinking on my part. Found a Camping World nearby, waited for them to open and was able to get the RV checked. They determined that the batteries were bad but they did not have a lift to replace the batteries. I decided to continue to our next destination and to look for an RV service along the way.

We drove to the Indiana Dunes National Park Visitor Center, 3.5 hours west, where we stayed overnight in the large parking lot. It was cold, rainy and windy, so we were not able to do any hiking. I used the time to search for RV services but most were not answering their phones. The next day was still cold and windy, with a light drizzle. We decided to check out West Beach and trails along the way, driving my RV so the batteries would get charged, leaving Nadine's rig at the visitor center. Unfortunately it was not a fun drive as the road was being resurfaced. The West Beach parking lot was also the start of the Diana of the Dunes trail which I had completed 2 years ago when I visited the Park. We took the paved road to the top of the dune; there were just a few hardy visitors around. West Beach was cold and windy, with waves hitting the shores of Lake Michigan. We stayed just a few minutes to take a few photos.

On the way back to the Visitor Center, we stopped at Tolleston Dunes Lookout and did a short loop of the trail. We spent the rest of the evening in our respective RVs. I brought out my Fire TV and watched news and documentaries, using the Verizon hotspot via my phone. It actually worked out pretty well.

Coast-to-coast RV trip begins

Official start of my RV trip from MD/PA to WA. Won't be blogging in real time, and descriptions may be short due to time and connectivity. I activated unlimited hotspot on my Verizon account, and it appears to work pretty well. Still we expect to encounter dead spots as we go into the more remote areas.

Above: our two RVs at my friend's house, all loaded and ready to roll. First stop, a visit to Catawba Island State Park at Port Clinton, OH close to where we will spend the night.

This is a very nice area; the state park is on the shore of Lake Eerie, surrounded by private homes on the other side.

We took a drive to nearby Catawba Point Preserve and hiked the short loop trail in the Preserve, located within a residential area.

Then we walked to the Catawba Island Dock and watched cars lining up for the Miller ferries that carry passengers and vehicles from Catawba Island to the Lake Erie islands, Put-in-Bay and Middle Bass Island. The ferries would have accommodated our RVs. But, it was late afternoon on a weekend and they would not take vehicles/passengers across without proof of lodging on the island(s).

We continued on to Petersburg OH where we spent the night at a Cracker Barrel parking lot.

Evening drive around Pittsburgh

I arrived at my friend Nadine's house near Pittsburgh on the evening of May 15 to prepare for our caravan to the Olympic National Park WA. Her son Andrew took us on a brief drive through the city in the evening, stopping at the Mount Washington overlook for the beautiful views below, as well as the Point where the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers meet.

Below: Saint Mary of the Mount Church

Another fascinating feature was the Duquesne Incline a historic cable car that took coal miners from town to the top of Mount Washington. The cable cars were restored and put back into action for visitors. There was a small museum at the station that displayed the history of the incline and we were able to go around to see the cables in action.

We drove over a few of the many bridges in Pittsburgh and passed by some universities: University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne University before having dinner at Morcilla, a Spanish tapas restaurant with really good food.