MAY 10 - May 16, 2018: Repairs in the Country & Hamvention Prep

Thursday, May 10, we left the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds in Goshen, IN for the 90 minute drive to our appointment at the Linnemeier Repair Service near Ossian, IN, about 15 miles south of Fort Wayne, IN. The shop is in the midst of family farmland and mainly provides service for many types of large equipment - construction and dump trucks, farm vehicles, fire engines, buses, etc. We were referred there for chassis work by a fellow customer at Cruising America RV Service in Celina, Ohio a few weeks ago.  One of the Linnemeir employees, John Taylor,  is a former REV chassis specialist and very experienced in motor home repair among other things.

We wanted to have our air suspension system looked at because of an intermittent problem of not "airing up" for travel on the first attempt.  We also needed our dash air recharged, and our rusting exhaust "turn down" replaced.  John Taylor started with the diagnostic work as soon as we arrived.....a rarity in repair shops...and finished with the a/c recharge job as well as making an adjustment in the air suspension system.  Parts were ordered for the rest of the work, and we settled in the rural setting next to the shop for the weekend with a 30 amp electrical hookup.  After being next to the railroad tracks and 40 to 50 daily freight trains for 11 days in Goshen, the quiet country environment was a welcome relief.

Tuesday, May 15:  Little House went back inside the large shop for the exhaust repair and to have a hydraulic filter replaced. After a quick power wash of the engine area, we were on our way about 2:30 P.M. for the 3 hour drive to the Xenia, Ohio Walmart.  A good portion of our drive was in heavy thunderstorms, including the drive from Dayton to Xenia, and we even experienced some small hail before getting settled in at the Xenia Walmart.  We're in Xenia for the Dayton Hamvention, the largest ham radio event in the world, to be held May 18-20.

Wedneday, May 16: We did some Walmart shopping before driving the 3 miles to the Green County Fairgrounds,, where the hamfest is being put together and our home for the next 5 nights.  The fairgrounds has 100 campsites on grass with water and electric hookups. Upon arrival, we dumped our tanks at the dump station and set up in site 148, the same site we had last year. The next 5 days will be busy ones, and we hope to meet up with many of our ham radio friends.







We're in the grass camping area just above the left corner of the racetrack. The Hamvention flea market is in the racetrack infield, and vendors are located in several buildings and large tents, with food service trucks and seating scattered throughout the areas. Last year's attendance was nearly 30,000 over the 3 day period and this year should be another good one!