No, we haven’t left for full-time RV’ing yet, but this is my first blog post from the road. We came to Indiana this weekend to go an RV show and explore Amish country with the girls. We’re in Shipshewana, Indiana, and we’re surrounded by buggies and restaurants with really, really, really good food.

Last night we ate at the Blue Gate Restaurant. Family-style buffet. Madeline, who is usually not one to compliment food no matter how good it is, could not stop saying how incredible our meal was. Every few minutes, she would say it was the best she’d ever had, that it was so good, that she wanted more. She told our waitress that it was the “goodest” food she’d ever had.

Makayla, likewise, didn’t barely mutter a word after the food came to the table, which is not only out of character, but usually cause for concern because it means she’s probably doing something sneaky and underhanded in her toddler-stealth-mode. This time, her silence wasn’t something to be worried about. She was too busy eating.

Our dinner included chicken, ham, noodles, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, chicken stuffing, homemeade bread (with homemade peanut or apple butter spread), our choiceof beverage and a huge slice of pie to finish things off. We took the pies back to our cabin and had them after our stomachs had time to work on dinner a bit.

Our cabin was very cozy and a nice “upgrade” from the tent:

It was nice to “camp” and sleep on something better than an air mattress for a change.

The RV show was a little disappointing, and I think it was a bit overhyped. It may be the largest, oldest RV show in Indiana, but the advertising for it should have mentioned what the media was reporting locally: that this year’s show was going to be about half the size of previous shows because of the sagging economy. Showing a picture of last year’s show with about 300 RVs was misleading, becaue I estimated about 120 at this show. And the “huge indoor RV gallery” was, in reality, nine Class A motorhomes.

Even though the show was a lot smaller than we were anticipating, we still were able to walk away with some more information to chew on in our search of our family’s perfect RV. We got to poke around inside travel trailers of just about every length, and also got to look at some Class C motorhomes that just might turn out to be a pretty good fit for us, too.

After the show we came back to the cabin and made big bubbles:

All in all, we’ve had a good time so far. We fought the “fall asleep in a different environment battle” with Makayla again, something we feel we probably won’t have to worry about on the road with her because she’ll be sleeping in the same bed every night, even though the BED may be in a different place, her surroundings will always be the same. I’m sure we’ll have an acclamation period, but once she recognizes her new bed as “hers,” the late-night, bedtime jitters will diminish.

Tomorrow morning we are heading to the Midwest RV Supershow and Rally in Goshen, Indiana. This is our first RV show and we are very excited. The local dealerships we’ve visited so far have had a handful of RVs to look at and browse, so this is the first time we’ll get to see a wide range of floor models and features.

We decided not to “rough it” by staying in a tent at a local campground, mainly because we’re only staying one night. Just too much work to stay the night somewhere. And rather than stay in a hotel for $80-90, we got a cabin at an “Amish campground” in a nearby town for $45. The girls are looking forward to it because the cabin has a bunk bed for them. Hannah and I are looking forward to it because it has central air and we won’t have to mess with setting up and tearing down a campsite.

So anywya, right now, instead of sleeping like I should be, I’m up going through my pre-trip routine: making sure all my gadgets are charged. I really, really need to get a charging station. Right now I have two iPods, a cell phone, a Bluetooth headset, two cameras and a laptop charging. I’m such a nerd.