South Bend Indiana part 3 Oliver Mansion plus....

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   Included with our combo ticket for the Studebaker Museum was a guided tour of the Oliver Mansion. Unfortunately  we could not take any pictures inside the home. What made this home different then a lot of other mansion we visited was that almost everything in the home was original to the home. The Docent that was our tour guide told stories as if she lived in the home. I can never say how great it is when  these dedicated volunteers and paid docents can make for a wonderful experience. The home was the home of J.D. Oliver who started with a farm plow and grew it into the Oliver Tractor Company. Later the White Tractor company went through several other name changes. Check out www.centerforhistory.org for more great stories. You can find a great Oliver family history at this site.

The workers house, we could take pictures inside this house.

   The Center for History was housed in the lower level of the Studebaker Museum. There was one section highlighting the "Women Who played Hard Ball". Told the story of All American Girls Professional Baseball league. Another section was the Ernestine M. Raclin Gallery of Notre Dame History.  Another gallery was the Voyages Gallery, told stories from prehistoric times to the underground Railroad. There was also a" Sweet" gallery, the story of The Wonderful World of Chocolate, Candy and ice Cream. This is in the Changing Gallery featuring changing exhibit's. This is were we learned about the chocolate factory tour.

The original sign from the "drive in".

Thanks for following along

RV updates - Residential Refrigerator installed

     Had a few emails about our updates on the RV. First we went to Fox RV in Middlebury.  We had a 30amp plug installed behind our hitch so we could plug in our generators from the bed of the truck. We had all our slides adjusted.  We had our waste water drain shorten. We had our water pump moved to make it more accessible. Had a shut off valve put on the water line for our toilet. The big thing was we had a 21.6 residential refrigerator installed. That was a big job and took a lot more work then Larry Fox anticipated.  This was the first change over he has done. We also had an invertor installed. It took time to run the water line for the ice maker and the wires for the inverter, but it all got done.

Before

Old frig coming out

Empty spot

 

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New frig going in, note door and frame removed

Almost in

Made it

Looking in through the old refrigerator vent

And the finished item

Fox RV, where we stayed while work was being done

        Expect to spend time at Foxes, because he is so good at doing RV projects that he is very busy and short handed. We spoke to at least 5 other customer's, while there,  who have been coming to him for years. Some drove several hundred miles to get some work done. He was also highly recommended by many of the Carriage Club members.
     We then went to Mor/Ryde to have the Independent Suspension and disc brakes installed. We also had a new brake controlled installed. One teck worked about 14-15 hours on our rig for two days and finished completely without jumping around to another  job. Very professional. The brake controller was installed by Dan's Hitch. Also very professional.
     Then we went to Bigfoot and had our system checked out and our rear jacks turned around.  Took about 3 hours and was very professional.
    Next we went to Focal Wood to have Carlyle trim the new refrigerator. He did a super job. We also had him build a table surround for us. We had seen his work on several other carriage Club members RV's and decided to have one made for us.

Before

After, the table is pushed all the way in, it is on a slide, our original table with a different leg

The table pulled out, there is 16 inch leaf  stored in the table

 

Set for dinner for two

 

At Focal Wood

      We have spent a lot more time in the area, but all the shops were very busy. Make sure you make an appointment if using any of these shops. We were  please with all the work we had done.

PS anybody need a 4 door 12 cubic gas/electric refig? It is at Fox RV, asking price $2450. about half of the original price. Larry Fox will install it for you.

South Bend Indiana part 2 the Studebaker Museum

     We drove to the Studebaker Museum. This was a very very interesting museum. We learned a lot about the Studebaker family. The display of cars was terrific. They started with farm wagons in the 1800's. There is group of award winning Presidential Carriages from the family's personnel collection. They had many classics like the "Bullet Nose". Over 400,000 were build and is the Studebaker icon. One thing caught my eye, it was a 1950's green pick up. When I was a young boy my neighbor had one just like it. Brought back many memories. Of course when I was in high school the Avanti made its appearance on the scene. One of the fastest cars at the time. I remember when one of the Avanti's broke the 200 mile an hour barrier. Never knew Studebaker made the "weasel", of World War Two fame. So many great memories. See this web sites for some great stories and information, www.studebakermuseum.org  www.studebakerdriversclub.com  Check out all the Studebakers at the "Brickyard", as race cars and pace cars. This is just a sampling of the many cars. Thanks for following along.

There's that lady again, she sure gets around The iconic Bullet Nose.

1904 Model C, oldest surviving gasoline power Studebaker, 2 cylinder, 16 HP, new $1600.

1922 Big Six Child's Hearse

The Big Six, 6 cylinder, 60 HP, new $2,000.

1928 Commander Roadster, set new speed and endurance record in Atlantic City, avg. 65 mph, 6 cylinder, 85 HP

1958 Packark Hawk, only 588 built, V8, 275 HP, $3,995

1963 Avanti, 1st Studebaker to exceed 200 mph, V8, 585 HP, $4,495

1947 Champion Delux, Station Wagon, prototype

1933, #34, inline 8 cylinder, 1932 finished 13th, 1933 finished 7th at Indy.

 

 

 

 

1964 Pursuit Marshall, high performance police cruiser, used Avanti Jet Thrust engine

1950 Commander Starlight Coupe

1953 Commander Starlight hardtop

The basement storage, they rotate the cars every couple months.

 

1965 Wagonaire, with sliding rear top. Don't ever remember these.

 

 

1936 Ace Cab Forward, made by Studebaker, saw one of these in a collector's yard(junk yard), but he was a collector and restorer of unusual  cars and trucks. That was in Jerome AZ. It had a 4 car car carrier attached. I will try and locate that picture for a comparison.

1963 truck prototype

1959 Lark rear engine portotype

1949 2R5, made from 1949 to53, nearly quarter million sold, 6 cylinder, 80 HP, $1,262

 

 

South Bend Indiana, part 1, Notre Dame

We had a great day in South Bend. First we did a short tour of the campus of Notre Dame. Then we toured the Studebaker Museum along with the Center for History and the Oliver Museum. We took a lunch break in between at the Chocolate Café. We then went back to the museum. After the museum we went to tour the South Bend Chocolate Company. It was a long and tiring day.
     First we did a driving tour of the Notre Dame campus and visited the book store.  Then we got information on a guided walking tour which we hope to do while in the area. More to come, thanks for following along.