After spending August in Wisconsin, we spent time in Illinois and Indiana before heading East for the fall. In September we attended a lot of special events, visited our first national park since becoming full-time RVers, and really packed our days with activities. This recap post will share everywhere we stayed, all the fun things we did in September, and thoughts on life as full-time RVers!
Where We Stayed in September
Home- Since we had to go through Illinois to get from Wisconsin to Indiana anyways, we decided to do a short visit home. We stayed back at home base for just long enough to see some local friends and work on projects before hitting the road again.
Sand Creek Campground- Indiana Dunes State Park and National Park both have campgrounds- but they fill up fast. Because of events we were doing in the area, we needed 2 weeks and couldn’t get that long at either public campground. We ended up finding Sand Creek Campground nearby. It was full hook-up sites which was nice, but kind of a weird vibe there.
Harvest Hosts- The end of September saw us heading east towards Pennsylvania. We had about 670 miles between our Indiana campground and eventual Pennsylvania campground, so we split the drive into three days and stayed at two Harvest Host sites along the way. Our first night we stayed at Muffleheads Brewery in Ohio and our second night we stayed at Unity Community Church in Plum, PA. Both were nice sites with plenty of room for parking and felt safe.
What We Did in September
Special Events
Sandwich Fair- Our friend Erica came down from the city to visit and one of our activities for the day was going to the Sandwich Fair. We’ve been wanting to go for years and just never got around to actually doing it. We ended up getting there later than planned because of the Big Boy, but made it in time for the demolition derby and walking around the fair. The Sandwich Fair has been around since 1888 and has so much history- it was so cool to finally experience it.
Big Boy Train– The other activity we did with Erica was seeing the Union Pacific Big Boy in Rochelle. The Big Boys are the largest steam locomotives ever built and No. 4014, which we went to see, it’s the only operational Big Boy. It’s been on tour and one of the stops to come see it up close was the intermodal terminal in Rochelle. We knew it would be popular, but did not expect to sit in traffic for almost 3 hours just to get in! News reports said over 60,000 people came out on the one day it was in Rochelle. Besides the train being cool itself, it was neat to be part of something so big. Josh and I saw the Big Boy again the next day when it drove by our local train station.
Kane County Cougar’s Game- Our friend Allen works a side job at our local ballfield and called up Josh’s dad to suggest we go see one of the last games of the year. We hadn’t been to a game in a few years, so said yes and the three of us had a great time. It was a tournament game after regular season, so it was cheaper and we had really good seats too!
Wild Ones Gibson Woods Chapter Native Plant Symposium- The first of our two events near Indiana Dunes was a native plant symposium with the local chapter of Wild Ones. This was our second native plant symposium of the year, and was really good. There were sessions on soil & backyard carbon sequestration, native insects, and ecologically responsible tree planting. It was also fun to get to meet and talk with some of the members from another chapter.
Century of Progress Home Tour 2024– The main event at the Dunes was the annual tour of the 1933 World’s Fair Century of Progress homes. These houses were built as displays for the World’s Fair and then later bought and brought over to Indiana by a wealthy local. Today, they’re owned by the National Park Service, leased to Indiana Landmarks, and then subleased to private individuals. The residents of the homes pay a few million for a long-term lease and then also have to agree to restore the houses (and pay for those restorations!). They’re popular to look at for any Indiana Dunes tourist, but the public is only invited inside once a year for the annual home tour.
Indiana Landmarks offers this tour once a year and they say it sells out fast. I wasn’t sure at first how fast they mean by fast, but just to be safe I got up early and was on the website refreshing 15 minutes before tickets were supposed to go live. And it’s a good thing I did! By the time I was done checking out, most of the time slots were fully sold out and by the end of the hour it was all sold out.
Westchester County Township History Museum Events- While staying in Chesterton, IN we did a couple different events at the local history museum (which is part of their library). We went to Back to School themed trivia night- and won! Then we went back that Saturday for their downtown history hunt. This was really fun too! Each clue had a puzzle to solve to go to the next location in town. We, of course, finished and got to pick some prizes!
Chesterton European Market- We had time between the Century of Progress homes tour and history hunt to fill so went to check out Chesterton’s European Market. This was such a great market! There were plenty of farms selling produce, food trucks and stands, and fun downtown businesses were open. We got pierogies and a homemade pretzel, sampled (and bought) whiskey, checked out the local candy store, and went shopping at an antiquarian book store. If I was local I’d go to this market all the time!
Museums, Historic Sites, Gardens, Etc.
- Blackberry farm with our friends and their kid- we rode a carousel, took a wagon ride, rode the mini train, visited the museums, and saw a demonstration of historic spinning & weaving
- Brincka Cross Gardens- this was actually pretty disappointing because the gardens are not maintained
- Furnessville Cemetery to see the grave of artist Frances Biesel
- La Porte County Historical Society Museum- which I have two blog posts about already:
- Westchester Township Museum- three times! Twice for events and once just to tour the museum, which is part historic home and part local history exhibits
- Gabis Arboretum mostly to visit the railroad garden
- Porter County Museum where I completed two scavenger hunts to win prizes
- Ogden Gardens
- Old Lighthouse Museum in Michigan City and the nearby modern lighthouse pier
- Beverly Shores Depot Museum during the Century of Progress Homes Tour
Hiking, Etc.
Of course while camping near a National Park, we did a decent amount of hiking! We had a string of rainy days, though, so not as much as we thought we would. We hiked in a few different units of Indiana Dunes National Park and one hike in the State Park. We also earned stickers for a few! On the National Park side, we did the Diane of the Dunes Dare where we hiked the dune succession trail and learned about Alice Mabel Gray, known as Diana, who lived in the dunes in the early 20th century. On the state park side, we completed the 3 Dune Challenge. This trail takes you up and down three of the big dunes in the park. We also hiked the Heron Rookery Trail and Pinhook Bog- which is only accessible on a ranger-led hike.
Botanizing
The botany highlight of the month was visiting Pinhook Bog, a large quaking bog. We’ve been to other quaking bogs (most notably Volo Bog in IL), but it is still always cool to see a bog up close. We saw lots of carnivorous pitcher plants and a few small carnivorous sundew plants.
How’s RV Life Going?
I was having trouble thinking of what to write for reflections this month- because RV life just feels so normal now! We have our routines and systems, and it feels more normal being on the road than being at home. One thing I really liked about our Dunes trip was how many events we did and that’s something I want to make more of a point to do going forward. The plant symposium was fun because of meeting new people, and by the end of the week everyone from the Westchester Township Museum knew us because we kept coming to stuff. It was also fun doing so many challenges and hunts! We earned stickers from the Diana of the Dunes Dare, 3 Dunes Challenge, and Dunes 3 Pizza Challenge. We earned buttons from the scavenger hunt at the Porter County Museum and stickers from the Westchester Township history hunt. And we won a restaurant gift certificate from trivia. Having a challenge or goal makes things more fun since there’s always so many things to do and not enough time to do it all.
What’s Next?
October will spent out east. We’re starting in Pennsylvania, then will be in Maryland near DC, and then end the month in Virginia near DC. In Pennsylvania we have a Wild Ones planting project we’ll be helping at and later in the month Josh has a conference in DC. I’m also excited that we’re spending Spooky Season here since there’s should be lots of good New England fall activities.
