Tag Archives: Indiana

Episode 11 – Where are you guys and are you still doing videos and podcast

Welcome to Towaway Couple’s RV Transport Podcast.

Episode 11
We have been distant for the past few months and we have received many messages asking questions like: Are you OK? Where are you today? Are you still transporting RV’s? Are you still doing Videos and Podcast?   Today we answer all the above questions as well we discuss all the personal things we have been going through for the past 4 months.

Please check out our Website and Youtube videos at http://www.towawaycouple.com

We are in the process of submitting our show to all the podcast sites all over the internet and we will list where you can find us right now.  If you see our podcast anywhere not listed here, please let us know and we will list that site.

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Episode 10 – We setup our RAM for Flat Towing – Commercial Insurance and Check your brakes

Welcome to TowawayCouple’s RV Transport Podcast.

Episode 10
We recently posted three videos to our YouTube channel on Setting up our RAM 3500 for Flat Towing. We discuss more information on Commercial Insurance and we do a follow up on a previous video on Checking your trailer brakes.   We combined the three videos to make this podcast as we are getting very positive feedback from the viewers.  Check out our YouTube Channel today to see other content not available on podcast

Please check out our Website and Youtube videos at http://www.towawaycouple.com

We are in the process of submitting our show to all the podcast sites all over the internet and we will list where you can find us right now.  If you see our podcast anywhere not listed here, please let us know and we will list that site.

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Episode 9 – Questions to ask RV Transport recruiters and Come to Orientation Prepared

Welcome to TowawayCouple’s RV Transport Podcast.

Episode 9
We recently posted two videos to our YouTube channel on Questions to ask RV Transport Recruiters and Come to Elkhart, Indiana prepared for your orientation.   We combined the two videos to make this podcast as we are getting very positive feedback from the viewers.  Check out our YouTube Channel today to see other content not available on podcast

Please check out our Website and Youtube videos at http://www.towawaycouple.com

We are in the process of submitting our show to all the podcast sites all over the internet and we will list where you can find us right now.  If you see our podcast anywhere not listed here, please let us know and we will list that site.

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Tradewinds Restaurant in Elkhart Indiana

3147 Northview Drive Elkhart, Indiana 46514 – 574-333-2020
About 100 yards to the right of Dan’s Hitch

We have been transporting RVs for right at 2 years now and we were always going to Dan’s Hitch to get things added to our truck and would stay at the Travel Lodge and would eat at either the Perkins in the adjoining parking lot or the Cracker Barrel across the street.

We had seen the Trade Winds between the R P home and Harvest store and Planet Fitness and originally thought it was a sports bar from the distance so we never actually went over to check them out being we are not big drinkers (except when we are in Jamaica)

We recently seen a billboard coming off the 80 toll road with a breakfast special and today we decided to go in and check it out on a Sunday.  While they do have a breakfast special, it is only available Monday thru Friday from Open until 10am excluding holidays.  The breakfast special seemed like an awesome deal for a new transporter coming into Elkhart on a budget waiting for orientation or their first dispatch.  for $3.99 you have four choices to choose from.

Breakfast Special $3.99
Two Eggs, Hashbrowns and choice of toast
Buttermilk Pancakes with choice of Bacon or Sausage
Half French Toast with choice of Bacon or Sausage
Half Belgian Waffle with choice of Bacon or Sausage

Our thoughts of why are we telling you about this restaurant? well, after seeing the breakfast deal, we know a lot of new transporters as well as current transporters are always going to Dan’s hitch and have very few choices, they can sit in the drivers lounge for what could be a few minutes to several hours depending on what they are having done or they can hop over to one of the three or four restaurants in the close proximity walking distance. there are also several restaurants over the bridge if anyone wants to exercise and walk a little further.

We decided to try out the Tradewinds and we were very happy with our visit.  the restaurant is more of a mom and pop style vs corporate vibe, the staff were not only very friendly but kept checking on us even after we got our food for anything we might have needed. Many of you know, typically when your food arrives you are forgotten until they bring you the check.

Tom order the country fried steak, eggs over easy, hashbrowns and pancakes for $10.99 and  Bunny ordered the Biscuits and Gravy for $3.99  Toms meal was spot on and we would 100% recommend it to anyone.  because we travel transporting RVs we have become somewhat of a Biscuit snob with home made biscuits around the nation, the Tradewinds were more pre packaged biscuits, while not bad we were expecting a little more from a mom and pop but the price was great and it was still fine. We just didn’t want to get our southern readers all excited and call us out! haha

The menu was huge so the options were plentiful, so if your not a big breakfast fan they have many options for everyone.   We took photos of all the pages of the menu so you can look it over before you go.

For anyone looking for a nice place to get Beer, Wine or Spirits, next to the Tradewinds is the Galley Sports Pub owned by the same owners.  We were told that anyone ordering food while at the Galley Pub received the same exact foods as served in the Tradewinds as the restaurant kitchen was shared kitchen for both places and that the people could expect the same quality as a sit down restaurant.

Yes, as mentioned there are the Perkins and Cracker Barrel that everyone could see when turning in to go to Dan’s Hitch, but this little out of the spot gem was worthy of us taking a few minutes to tell everyone that it is an option and should be on their list to check out when in the area for great food, inexpensive prices and friendly service.

Why we got into Tow Away RV Transport Hauling

Watch TowAwayCouple Tow-Away Towaway on YouTube

Click the image above to go directly to our YouTube channel

Hey everyone. We are Tom and bunny AKA,  tow away couple. And I’m the driver and I’m the sandwich maker, sandwich maker doing this video in our video room. We actually have a full on youth, YouTube studio in our house. So we, we do another, we do other channels elsewhere, but we are going to be embarking on our new journey as tow away drivers for.

Horizon transport. Yes, we actually leave in, um, 11 hours and 20 minutes. Yes. They had to NBN. So we said, we’d do start to finish. And we did a couple of videos already. We did an introductory video and then us installing the fifth wheel hits only because we had to get that installed. Yes. And we done, um, what you’re putting in the toolbox and that hasn’t released yet, so, Oh, that’s right.

And we did what. What’s in Bunny’s bag of tricks, but those will be released after this one. So, uh, and we’re going to separate them out by a few days. So that way we can make you wait for a little bit. It’s a teaser, it’s a teaser. So what got us into, well, first off we did create a website tow way, couple.com.

Well, you did well. I did. And it’s basically tollway couple.com. We’re going to put. Blogs. We’re going to put videos and we’ll put pictures on that website because apparently we’re going to have a lot of downtime. Okay. Uh, you can only drive for 11 hours a day, then you’re screwed for eight. So they want you to sleep and everything.

So what else are we going to do? We’re going to work on websites, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube videos. So. And, uh, along with that, definitely go like us and follow us on tow away, couple on Twitter and Instagram. Right. And definitely subscribe to our channel on YouTube. Please, please follow us. Is that begging?

That is begging look the little bell. So, uh, what got us into doing the tow weight and we haven’t started officially yet. We have our orientation. I’m playing with my drawer. We have our orientation on Wednesday, so, and we’re going to go out there a couple of days early right now. It’s Saturday, and we’re going to leave Sunday.

We’re going to be out there Sunday night, and we’re going to take our truck over to Dan’s hitch and repair shop. Uh, I guess everybody knows about. Dan shop. So we got, we got in there, we have a scheduled maintenance, but we will discuss what we have to do there on a different video, but that’s why we’re going to go.

Yeah. So that way he can have it for an extra day and not. They’re not rushed and we’re not rushed and we’re there and we’re ready to roll. Yeah, exactly. Plus for having a lot of stuff done. Yes, we are. So, all right. So as you go bigger, go home, go big or go home, baby. Now we, yeah, go look at the hitch video.

Now we work for a travel company and me and bunny travel all over the nation and the world. And we. I do social media and I do marketing. We do videos. We also bunny does the sales and she’s a travel consultant. So, and we’re, we could be typically found all over the United States and are in Jamaica.

Mostly we spent about six weeks a year in Jamaica. We’re Jamerican American. So anyway, we been laid off since March 8th and we came back from an event in Jamaica and the whole Corona COVID hit everybody in the face. Like, uh, like you just got punched. Yeah. And let me tell you, we were, like we said, we were gone.

Oh, um, 15 days that time. So when we came back, you know, after being in Jamaica and not watching the news or anything, no, they don’t, they got one channel and then half the time it’s nothing of importance. Right. So we had no clue what was. What we were coming back to. I think they limit their population on what they know on the outs.

Well, they want people to have fun on vacation. That would be about the news. Didn’t even think about that. I’m a news junkie. So we, we come back. We are literally. Uh, we’re employed, but they’re, they’re furloughing us. So what, now we’re going to get unemployment. We never been on an appointment, so it’s, that was a stressful, I’ve been of all of our life.

The first time we go on an appointment, stressing out that government, unemployment, everything under the sun. So our unemployment actually was going to, it’s going to run out the end of January, right? Yeah. Cause the pandemic and the pandemic. Insurance runs out July 31st. Right. And so therefore we started panicking here.

We are June 27th and that’s only a month and we have bills to pay. We have car payments, just like anybody else in the world. And if we are not on unemployment, it’s kind of hard to find a job when you have no money. Exactly. Especially cause we live in an itty-bitty tiny little town in Alabama and. We’re too old to go to work in the plants and at the mills.

So, I mean, if we needed to start a new job, a regular job, we would have to load up our RV and move to a bigger yup. And find a campground. But again, with no money coming in, now we did our savings, but kind of blew a lot of that on this venture here. And we always taught our kids, um, be self-sufficient get a job, move out of the house.

Right. We don’t want to. Moved back to their house without a job. So, so I started, uh, thinking about what can I do? Uh, we’ve been working in the traveling history. I was a network administrator for blue cross blue shield and also a network administrator for IBM, but that was 20 years ago. So I know I’m totally out of date for those jobs.

And I’m. Little old for those jobs. Yeah. So I was getting a little panicked on my employability. It’s down to word. It is a word. Okay. So I get a little panicked and I, um, anxiety. So I was thinking, what can I do? What can I do? Well, we have a awesome truck and we literally drove. We, we put 75,000 miles on it, the last two years, just going from state to state city to city.

Event to event promoting our travel to people. Yes. With our own RV, with our own RV. And I thought, well, hell my truck is equipped to pull anything. King pin, fifth wheel bumper pole, you name it. I can attach it to my truck. And I’m like, we have a monthly payment. And if our unemployment runs out, I would rather the truck make its own payments.

We might as, um, with the, with the payment that we have on that truck, we might as well have a, a house, right? Yeah. Or definitely some type of a high-end Mercedes. Right, right. But yeah, it’s an $80,000 truck, that truck payments over 900 a month. And we were just panicked because we’re already half more than half paid off.

We all, we only owe like 36,000 or 35,000 now. And I’m thinking I don’t want it to be repossessed fast, no, over something so stupid and not figuring out how to make the payment not and then have bad credit on it and all the other. Crap that made me sleepless nights. So now we’re going to make the truck, make its own paint.

So I thought, well, let’s make the truck make its own payment. I know I’m kind of rambling because we didn’t really think this through because you always ramble. They’ll find out soon that we ramble. So I started researching, what can I do? What can I do? Yeah. And I even looked at pulling FEMA trailers because they were going to be sending all these hundreds of trailers to California, um, New York and all these places.

I went out and bought a forge bumper pull hitch because you gotta be able to pull 20, some thousand pounds on your hitch. And I have a class five and I’m like, okay. I went and ordered that I submitted out and they didn’t pull any trailers from our area. So I never got a call, but I invested that money.

Into that hitch. So that kind of sucked. So I thought, well, what else can I do? Can I go? Like, I saw that Mo that show, um, where they transport all the, the stuff for people, they’re shipping Wars. I saw that and I’m like, I don’t want to get stressful on that, but that’s something I can, and on the road though, but on the road we seen, you know, everybody hauling RVs and we started seeing a lot of RVs on the road and I’m like, Wonder how to get a job doing that.

And I honestly didn’t know. So I start, I was getting, I was waiting for the RV manufacturers to reopen and we are going to call them directly and say, what does it take to haul your RVs? And the more I researched, the more I started finding out they actually contract through transportation companies, such as the company.

We took a job with horizon transport. But we also submitted applications to Indiana transport because we were talking to, uh, an acquaintance through a mutual friend who drives for Indiana transport. And I came across a video on YouTube for synergy transport. So I put a application in there. So all the application, I only put in three and then I find out there’s a bunch.

Of transportation companies, but I only did the three applications at the time and all three companies contacted me, but horizon contact me within minutes. I don’t can’t believe how fast it was. They contact me within minutes and I was still doing my research and everything. And then I got a contact from synergy, which was the third application.

And then I got contacted from Indiana transport. Correct. Now the ball’s in my court. So I asked, yeah, so I started researching each company now because I didn’t want to go with the wrong company and I might, I might be going with the wrong company. I hope not. Right. Well, we won’t know until we get on the road, but I did talk to people and I asked him that drive her horizon.

I said, what do you think of the company? After two years of working for them, do you still enjoy it? Are the people good? Uh, any issues I should be aware of and it’s all been positive feedback. Well, up until this point, um, with our recruiter and we had to get a couple other people involved. Because of another issue, they’ve all been Johnny on the spot and very, very helpful.

Yeah. If I email them are, if I call them, I, if I can’t get a hold of my, leave a message, I literally get a call back right away. And if I email them, I get an email back right away, as long as they’re working, as long as they’re working and we emailed and the girl was. Aw, because I needed something from the doctor and she emailed the very next day and she apologized profusely explaining she was off for the day.

So I asked a synergy at the time when I was talking to them, I said, Hey, uh, how many trailers do you have right now for people to tow? And they’re like, we have 211 right now on the dispatch board. And I’m like, Oh, okay. I thought that was quite a bit. So I told them I was still doing research. I was going to go visit my kids.

And then I come back and I was talking to Indiana transport. And I’m like, how many do you have on your dispatch board? And he’s 330. And he says, yeah, that’s what the average, every day, about 330. And I’m like, that’s even better. And the guy I was talking to was from India. Oh, well work for Indiana transport.

So I thought that’s awesome. And then I talked to horizon. I said, how many do you have? And she unfortunately. Didn’t have the ability to tell me right there, because she’s not a holler, she’s just a recruiter. So she goes, I don’t have access to that right now. I can find it for you, but I don’t have access.

And I said, okay, no problem. I was just curious. So I reached out to somebody who drove for horizon and I said, Hey, Can you look on your dispatch app and see how many trailers right now? There are IEDs. I’d appreciate just, I don’t care what they are. Just want to know a number. And he came back with over 550 trailers that are waiting for drivers.

And I thought, okay, that’s another upgrade Mark. Yep. Okay. So now they’re contacting me. They’re emailing me. They’re answering all my questions. Cause I’ve never done this. No, no. We’ve always done something completely different. Yeah. So all new to us, I’m out watching YouTube videos. Like you’re watching us and you know, everyone tells their story, but.

I’m a very analytical person. I want as much information as humanly possible. And everybody seemed to have started their channel, uh, you know, long after they’ve been on the road. So they didn’t have the back information as far as how’d it get started, or if they did go and get back information, they, they didn’t forget.

They just didn’t include a lot of stuff because you forget things. So we, uh, We’ve been watching all like hot shot videos, where they have the gooseneck trailers. We’ve been watching the, uh, tow wave videos and everything in there. They’re very, very informative because they’re teaching us stuff that we didn’t think about.

I mean, we’ve been pulling our own trailer, not a customer’s trailer commercially, and I didn’t re you know, when you’re driving down the road, we didn’t know that. If a rock kicks up, you’re responsible for that rock, even though you didn’t personally throw it at the trailer, you’re responsible for every little blemish on that trailer, unless you.

Do a, pre-trip like you do a full pre-trip inspection, you know, kind of relate that to, if you rent a car from Hertz or from somewhere, you do a walk around first to verify there’s no dents and scratches and point that out or on your home, home inspection, it’s the same thing you need to inspect those trailers before you pull them out.

Otherwise you’re responsible. Exactly. So now I, now I informed both Indiana transport and synergy because they both called me to. Follow up. And I told him, I said, well, uh, one of my, I told him, unfortunately, horizon was Johnny on the spot. They were contacting me left and right. Um, didn’t leave any holes in the, in the gap.

I said, so I went with the, and I researched them. They are the, they are the largest transport company out there. So I that’s what I wanted. I’m go big, go home. I mean, I understand smaller transport companies are probably little more personal. Uh, so I don’t know. So the quick answer was they still need drivers.

They said, you know what, go do your hauling. Go, go, go, go to work at horizon. Enjoy your time. If for some reason it doesn’t work in a workout. Call us. Yeah. That made me feel good. That made me feel good. That made me feel good. So. In a nutshell, we are doing this because our unemployment’s running out. We’re excited, but we’re very nervous.

And I don’t like the thought of sleeping in my truck two or three days. I don’t like the thought of not knowing when we’re going to take showers and where we’re going to eat, how we’re going to eat because every dime you spin. Is profit that you’re spending, you’re spending your profits, the name sandwich maker, because that’s going to be my job every morning, any before, because we, Tom doesn’t want me to have sandwiches stuff, spread all over Walmart.

Cause I think it’s a hazard before we take off every morning, it’s going to be my job to make our, make sure that we have our sandwiches and our lunch and ready to roll. So we’ll get to eat. At least one meal out, whether it’s going to be breakfast or dinner, we haven’t decided yet. Now I, I, I mean, we enjoy doing our videos here in the comfort of our own home.

One of the things that we’re going to do is we’re going to try, we, we have lapel microphones. We’re not going to use the camera microphone, but we’re going to try the microphone in the, on the windshield of the truck. And with our lapel microphones, and we’re going to see how that works. Some of the videos I see where they’re driving, I hear so much background, wind noise.

It does drive me a little bit nuts and I’m deaf. And I can imagine if I had great hearing. So we may opt to do most of our videos when we’re pulled over. Right. So we’ll be either be doing them for rest areas, hotel rooms, hotel rooms, trucks, ups could be anywhere. Yeah, absolutely. One thing though that we have going for us is the fact that we have hauled around the whole us anyways, in our own RVs.

So we do know a little bit of what to look for and where we can go. And we definitely know that it’s virtually impossible. You get a parking spot in a rest area after 10 o’clock or after seven at night. Now, when it starts getting dark, you start losing rest areas, spots, and we’re going to talk about all that we are going to videotape.

Everything from our pre-trip inspections to when we have to pull over and we reinspect. Cause you should always check your hitches, make sure no one pulled your fifth wheel while you’re sleeping. And you didn’t realize it because that has happened to people checking your tire pressures, uh, making sure you have your tires, making sure you have your tires and torquing.

Everything under the sun, we are going to be doing different videos on, and we definitely invite you to subscribe to our channel, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, because we’re going to be posting pictures and different little, little tiny videos along the way. And also too on product product that we’re trying because I’m a girly girl.

So I am not going to be able to just throw my hair up in a hat. No, um, you know, go without makeup. So different things. I’ve already got some things waiting for me at the hotel. So definitely in Indiana, cause I couldn’t get them in my small town in time, so definitely, uh, keep an eye on our channel and definitely subscribe and follow us.

Yeah. And everything that we talk about, we will put a description down in our. Description of the video. And if we can, we’ll put Amazon links. Cause that’s the cheapest way of getting it. And we invite you to check it out, check it out. I just got these toolboxes. And I didn’t do a video on it, but I’ll do a video on the install.

Yeah, those are pretty cool. I didn’t even know they existed in here rusting on it. Cause it didn’t come with any install papers. They had a one little image on their promotion on Amazon and it said, step one, two and three. And that was it. And literally I had it installed in five minutes. It was so easy.

So we’re going to do an install video on the. Driver’s side, uh, when we get to Indiana. Yes, absolutely. So, all right. We just want to add to our introduction. Yes. Now that we’re comfy and clean and not sweating. If you have any questions, if you have any comments, if you have any suggestions, if you are a tow weight driver and you can add to our channel, we would love for you to comment on our videos because we don’t know everything.

We don’t know nothing right now. But we also, we learned from other people and, uh, and we hope whatever we put out here helped you. Right. And that’s the whole reason why we do them so we can help somebody else get started too. Um, we hate to learn by mistakes. Unfortunately it happens, but you know what, if we’ve made a mistake and we can put out there, so somebody else doesn’t make it.

And it helps and wait until you see the videos. Cause we haven’t done them yet. Where we talk about are my DLT physical, the DOTD drug test. Oh, that was so stressful. And no, I don’t take drugs, but we’ll explain all that. Uh, what else we go through? Oh, my registration. So we’re, it’s the worst. And by these videos, we hope they help.

Yes, definitely. Definitely. All right. Until next time and these videos, videos will be very randomly put up. Yeah. Cause we can only do them when we get time. Definitely subscribe. You see it at the bottom right underneath bunny and click the little gray bell to be notified of our videos. Please comment.

Yes, please comment. And, uh, if you could help us, we would appreciate it. Yes. So definitely please subscribe. And, um, I guess it’s about it. Yep. All right. So we gotta go, we gotta go to bed. We gotta be off and on our way to Indiana and we will be doing a video launch. Correct. So we’ll see you down the road.

Bye-bye.

About our truck!

Here are some items we highly recommend you have doing Towaway or Driveaway

We highly recommend a DASH CAM that also records GPS and SPEED as well as Audio
Rexing V1P Pro Dual 1080p Full HD Front and Rear Wi-Fi Car Dash Cam with Built-in GPS & Speed Logger
https://amzn.to/38TZPAA

Officemate OIC Carry All Clipboard Storage Box, Letter/Legal Size, Black and Gray
https://amzn.to/30WxUMc

Demco 8550035 AutoSlide Ultra Series 21K Above-Bed Fifth Wheel Hitch
https://amzn.to/2ODB1Gj

Capture Plates for Demco for different trailers

Demco Hijacker Autoslide Locking Plate for Lippert Rhino Pin Boxes
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Demco/DM76FR.html

Demco Hijacker Autoslide Capture Plates for Trailair Rota-Flex Pin Boxes
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Demco/DM6171.html

Demco Hijacker Autoslide Locking Plate for MOR/ryde Pin Boxes
https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Demco/DM6025.html

Reese 30154 Fifth Wheel Rail Kit Mounting Adapter For RAM
https://amzn.to/38Sf90s

Husky 31425 Round Bar Weight Distribution Hitch with Shank Assembly – (1001 lb. to 1400 lb. Tongue Weight Capacity)
https://amzn.to/312hWzP

CURT 17132 Replacement Weight Distribution Hitch Shank, 2-1/2-Inch Receiver, 8-Inch Drop
https://amzn.to/2ONmHuD

Tow Ready 228.1073 Reese 63840 Class V Hitch Ball – 2-5/16″ Ball x 1-1/4″ Shank x 2-3/4″ Shank Length, 20,000 lbs. GTW, Chrome
https://amzn.to/3bVzjZv

CURT 40090 Chrome Trailer Hitch Ball, 10,000 lbs, 2-Inch Diameter, 1-1/4 x 2-5/8-Inch Shank
https://amzn.to/3luDsXv

Rigidhorse 12 Inch LED Light Bar Single Row Flood & Spot Beam Combo 10000LM Off Road LED Light Bar
https://amzn.to/3cM8Mgr

WeatherTech TECH SH DGE RAM1500/5500
https://amzn.to/3eO534K

WeatherTech Custom Fit FloorLiner for Dodge Ram Truck 2500/3500-1st & 2nd Row (Black)
https://amzn.to/3eT9tXT

Foxfire F3TK Roadside Safety Reflective Warning Triangle, DOT Approved with Weighted Base and Case, Collapsible, 3 Pack
https://amzn.to/3qVzqZf

Tumecos Emergency Flare Alert Warning Signal Caution Light LED Beacon Pro with Magnetic Base for Vehicle (Yellow 1)
Need qty 3
https://amzn.to/3lscdg8

3ft 7-Way Trailer Plug Wiring Harness [7-Pin Trailer Cord Extension Wire Cable] [Gooseneck Hitch Extender] [Plug-N-Play] [10-14AWG] 7 Prong Trailer Tow Wiring Connector for RV
https://amzn.to/2QnclCt

CURT 58270 7-Pin RV Blade Trailer Wiring Towing Vehicle Socket Tester
https://amzn.to/3rZBssU

 

RedRoof Inn Elkhart

Redroof Inn
Address: 2902 Cassopolis St, Elkhart, IN 46514
Phone: (574) 262-3691

Cost about $57.00 a night with all taxes

We only stayed here a few hours one time so we don’t really have much knowledge as for pros or cons. NOTE because we personally did not like staying here, we do hear many positives from others so we are listing it on our resources with our views listed below.

We were told it was a non smoking hotel, upon entering our room it more or less smelled like someone who stayed before us was smoking in the room, we don’t smoke and have no problems with people who smoke however we personally do not want to stay in a room that smells like smoke as it gets all over our clothes and makes us stuffy

the parking lot is pretty small so parking our truck next to the other trucks was pretty tight, all the rooms are on the outside so it’s easy to keep an eye on your truck.  as for trailer parking it looked as though people were parking on the access road next to the parking lot.

The staff were nice and helpful and even suggested ways to do a points plan to earn free nights, so if you plan to stay here check on that.

We did get a loud knocking on our door at 6am, when we looked out nobody was there. this is one of the reasons we do not like hotels with the doors facing the parking lots.

We have also been seeing reports of peoples RVs being damaged and batteries being stolen, we know this can happen anywhere at anytime but we recently over the past few weeks seen three different post on batteries from people staying at this location, so just be aware of our surroundings and remove your batteries and make sure anything in your vehicle is hidden from view or take it all into your room if it’s valuable.

after staying here one night we switched to the Garden inn across the street and with all their cameras, onsite security and inside rooms and no odors of smoking inside the rooms we feel more comfortable.

CountrySide Inn

CountrySide Inn
Address: 2004 W Market St, Nappanee, IN 46550
Phone: (574) 773-5999

Cost about $52.00 a night with all taxes

Pros

  • Friendly Staff
  • Clean rooms
  • TVs with a lot of channels available
  • allows RV and Trailer parking on first come first serve, limited.
  • Free coffee in lobby
  • Free continental breakfast
  • Ice Machine
  • Pizza Delivery available Bourbon St Pizza. (awesome pizza)

Cons

  • Pillows are hard, we bring our own.
  • Verizon phone data not very good quality, voice works good
  • No High Speed internet although promoted by hotel.
  • There is a pool but not useable

Dining and Food

  • Bourbon St. Pizza delivery
  • Arbys, Mc Donalds, Taco Bell and a few restaurants about 5 miles

 

The Garden Inn Elkhart Indiana

The Garden Inn
Address: 3011 Belvedere Rd, Elkhart, IN 46514
Phone: (574) 266-2121

Cost between $47.00 to $52.00 a night with all taxes

Pros

  • Friendly Staff
  • Clean rooms
  • TVs with a lot of channels available
  • Large lighted trailer and RV Parking with video surveillance
  • Parking lot security
  • Verizon Phone and Data work very well
  • Very high speed internet!
  • Large bath towels
  • Free coffee in lobby
  • Work with 10 hour breaks
  • Winter Rates
  • Ice Machine
  • Walking distance from Dan’s Hitch
  • Close to dually depot
  • most dining can be found across the street and in the parking lot

Cons

  • Pillows are hard, we bring our own.
  • No breakfast offered
  • No late check out
  • Parking lot fills up fast (which is a good thing)
  • Pool but not useable

Suggested dining that is local, Most are directly across the street, we love Wings Etc, they are around the corner and you can walk but suggest driving. there are many other restaurants that we don’t know the names of that are also close by.

  • Callahan’s
  • Culvers
  • Texas Road House
  • Olive Garden
  • Buffalo Wind Wings
  • Red Lobster
  • Mc Donald’s
  • Taco Bell
  • Wings Etc..