With no caravan we stayed in a lovely wooden cabin in a camping ground in Middlebury, Indiana. This small town is in the midst of the Amish community and is a very popular holiday and tourism area. During last winter the town had some sixty eight inches of snow, obviously not all at once, but had three to four inches on the ground all the time. We can't quite imagine living and working the land when it is minus ten. Come spring and summer the gardens are planted brightly and they are beautiful. Middlebury had amazing baskets of flowers in the main street and even the tops of the rubbish bins had been planted. Elkhart and the surrounding area shares the slogan "RV Capital of the World" as so many manufacturing companies are based there and export throughout the USA and Canada and to a number of other countries around the world. However, surprisingly it didn't appear to have many used units. Be assured, we checked. We met with the claims adjuster (read assessor) on Tuesday and the outcome was the our lovely small caravan would be written off. Our emotions were mixed, at least we didn't have to wait around or return to collect the van, and we were free to move on. We had had time to check out what was on offer so made the decision to buy brand new and take delivery within twenty four hours. The model and brand decision making was made on keeping the van small, availability and price. So now we are the owners of a seventeen foot Coachmen Viking. It has the standard queen bed, table and cafe seating, shower and toilet, air conditioning and gas heating. We took delivery on Wednesday afternoon and drove straight through to Chicago. It was definitely time to continue our adventures. Fortunately for us the purchase price of caravans is much less in he US - I guess the power of mass production. Let me add that the quality of the builds is not that great either. We have found that there is rarely a camping ground closer than about an hour travel to a very large city. Chicago was no different - they all required a train trip of at least an hour into the city which is not ideal. A search of the Internet provided a solution and at a good price too - bus and RV parking in a secure parking facility on the waterfront and only ten minutes or so from the city. This was "dry" camping - no facilities whatsoever, but we are set up for this so no problem. We arrived in the city around 7 pm and the freeways were still very busy and a bit of a challenge finding the right lane, for the right exit etc. we made it! Next morning we decided to "Uber" into the city as we needed to pay a visit to the Australian Embassy to the polling booth. For those who are unfamiliar with Uber perhaps check it out on Google - it is like a taxi but using private cars and the fare is normally less and they provide great service. With our voting completed we were free to explore the city. We had decided to shorten our stay in Chicago to just two nights so this was our only day. We meandered for some time, stopping to listen to a lunch time concert put on by a large group of disadvantaged teenagers and their support people. This included a choir, modern dance, quartet with brass accompaniment and hip hop. They were absolutely amazing and although we intended to only stop for a few minutes stayed for the entire concert. African American young people can certainly sing and dance. Chicago was the beginning of the historic Route 66 and it was interesting to see the sign confirming the spot. We have always thought of driving Route 66 however we understand that very little of the original road is now in existence as the modern highways have been built and it is only in a few places the original road is signposted. With only limited time to see the sights we decided to take the hop on, hop off bus which is something we very rarely do. However, on this occasion we were happy we did. In a few short hours we were able to tick off my list of "must see" and by the end of the day we were happy to Uber back to the sanctuary of the caravan. Next morning we waited until after peak hour before heading out of town enroute to Wisconsin. Even though peak was well over the traffic was still very heavy and we couldn't decide if this was normal or because it was Friday morning and the beginning of the Independence Day long week-end. Check out the photo of the great car we were following at one stage. Sadly the driver of this car had a baby in a capsule in the rear but she was talking on the 'phone and constantly changing lanes for one which just might be a little quicker. We drove our customary 200-250 miles for the day and stayed overnight in Tomah, Wisconsin before continuing on to Minneapolis in Minnesota. For the years between 1980 and 1997 Peter had visited Minneapolis at least yearly as the Head Office of the company he worked for was based there. To be in the city again has brought back lots of good memories as we visited the office and also the hotel where he always stayed. We stayed a couple of nights and have had time to explore some of St Paul and Minneapolis which are known as twin cities on opposite sides of the great Mississippi River - yes we have reached the Mississippi again but this time at the opposite end of the country. We even found an authentic American diner to have lunch. We have now adapted our planned itinerary due to our delay in Elkhart. So over the next week we will continue directly west heading to Glacier National Park in Montana where we have a reservation from next Sunday. We will have about five days of driving ahead of us!