Day 8 - Elkhart Rotary

Doug was our tour guide today for the Elkhart area. We had an absolutely fabulous day and saw many great interests in this county.

Our first stop was a factory tour at Conn-Seimer brass band instruments. Vincent Back was the founder of this establishment and once he decided to retire he sold to the Conn-Seimer company. If you want to have a closer look see http://www.bachbrass.com/. We were shown through all the different sections of the manufacturing process from when the brass is initially presses to the final finished product and testing. It was fascinating seeing how they did checks at each phase to ensure the product was always up to standard and how the instruments gradually took shape throughout the process.

Our next stop was the Elkhart County Visitors and Conventions Bureau. Here we learnt more about the County, the Amish Country (which we get to experience first hand tomorrow) a new concept of a Quilt Gardens tour, where quilt patterns are grown in large garden beds. Very interesting idea. We were also given a lovely pack of information on the area including the book "Taste of the Midwest".

We then went and presented to a very large Elkhart Rotary crowd at the Matterhorn. We had a scrumptious smorgasbord lunch and were asked some very interesting questions. It was great after we finished as we got to place a message in books that were going to the local elementary school to encourage literacy and quite a few of the Rotarian's came up for a chat.

We then headed off to see the Wellfield Botanical Gardens which is an amazing project being developed by this local group as part of their centennial project. The planning was all completed and now the earth works were beginning and some of the plantings being done. The project will be positively amazing when it is completed in a number of years time.

Our final visit was too the historic Ruthmere Museum. This was beautiful home built in 1908 and lived in from 1910. They have restored the building back to its former glory and it is amazing in side. They had a combined piano/organ/pianola that had organ pipes piped into the library and the games room.

Doug kindly finished the day with a driving tour of some of the housing and local area in the Elkhart area before we were dropped back to our families.

Cheers for now

Cath

PS Sorry no pictures. My camera has decided to take a holiday of its own!!!