Day 52 South Bend/Elkhart North KOA, Granger, IN

May 21-23

Days 51-53

Today’s blog post has been hijacked by the other traveler on this journey. The visit to South Bend Indiana was mostly my idea. I really wanted a chance to visit Notre Dame University. I have been a fan of Notre Dame since I was 8 years (which is a long time), and I have always wanted to visit the campus. In my younger days I lived and died with Notre Dame football. Since this was almost on the way home, it seemed like a great chance to see a place I have always dreamed of.

We got to South Bend late in the afternoon on Friday. The ride was great until we hit an area south of Chicago. There the traffic got heavy and the road got very rough. We struggled through the area at about 40 mph until we got east of Gary Indiana. From there we had pretty good sailing into the KOA South Bend/Elkhart campground in Granger Indiana, about 7 miles from the Notre Dame campus. Since the ride was a little stressful, and the day was winding down, we set up and just enjoyed the evening at our site. The campground was very nice and reminded us of camping back home in the Adirondacks. Getting home was starting to feel very real now.

As we relaxed and watched some local news we discovered that this was graduation weekend at Notre Dame. Our plan was to visit the school tomorrow morning but now we were wondering what the crowds would be like. Fortunately only seniors were left on campus, and the main graduation was on Sunday. So we felt like Saturday would be a good day for a visit.

We woke up early and were excited about our pilgrimage to the campus. Well, maybe I was a little more excited than Alison was. But she was excited for me. As we drove the 7 miles, Alison kept giving me the count down. Four miles to go, three miles, one mile. Then we turned on to East Angela Blvd and into the Notre Dame campus. The first thing we noticed was how beautiful the grounds were. Everything was well manicured as you would probably expect for a big day like graduation. We admired the architecture as we drove up Notre Dame Ave to the Hammes Book Store. This was our first stop to get some Notre Dame swag and was a central place to park to walk around the campus.

The book store proved to be an amazing shopping experience. Anything you could ever want with a Notre Dame logo was there. While everything was also a bit overpriced, we did find a couple things we had to have. Actually, I think I was the one who had to have stuff.

We left the book store and headed to the famous gold dome. The golden dome sits atop the administration building which is better known as the Main Building. It is really the symbol of Notre Dame and was visible from the book store sidewalk. We really didn’t know exactly where we were going on this tour but that seemed like an easy place to start.

All around the grounds of the Main Building were kids in graduation gowns and their families and friends. Parents were proudly taking pictures and kids hugged their friends and fellow graduates. We were focused on taking pictures of the golden dome, but the energy of kids starting a new chapter in life was pretty exciting.

To the left of the Main Building was the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. This is the main church on the campus of this Catholic Institution, and a beautiful one at that. We were allowed to go inside and walk through the church while the organist rehearsed for services tomorrow. The stained glass and ornate fixtures would rival some of the great cathedrals in the world. As we exited the Basilica we walked into an area known as the Grotto. It is a stone shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary. People were on their knees praying and there were many candles that had been lit by faithful Catholics.

After spending some quite time at the Grotto, we headed over to find Touchdown Jesus. A mural of Jesus, the apostles and other figures from the various time periods in the Christian faith was painted on the wall of the Hesburgh Library facing the Notre Dame stadium. The mural is beautiful and depicts the Apostles around Jesus with his hands in the air. The mural was completed in the early 1960s. The Notre Dame football team went undefeated the year after the painting was completed. They continued being very difficult to beat at home and people started to credit the new mural. No one knows exactly when the painting started to be called touchdown Jesus, but students realized the hands raised resembled the symbol for a touchdown. Today it is an iconic fixture on the campus and watches over the Notre Dame football stadium. We even got to see the bronze statue of First Down Moses in front of the Library. Because of the graduations going on, we did not get a chance to actually go into the stadium. But we did get a great view of the outside as we continued walking around the campus.

We spent about 2 hours touring the campus of Notre Dame. We saw classroom buildings and residents’ halls. We saw lots of kids celebrating this big day in theirs and their parents’ lives. It was such a great experience for me to actually be at a place that has been a part of my life for so long. Not only have I been a big Notre Dame fan, but my dad, brother and even my son Luke have been fans. You see places on TV all the time but never really get to appreciate what those places are until you can be a part of them in person. I finally got to be a part of the University of Notre Dame. Even if it was only as a visitor.

After our campus adventure we went down into the town of South Bend to shop at a local farmers market. This was a huge farmers market that even had entertainment. We weren’t sure if the couple guitar layers, accordion player and singer were a band, or just people who got together to play in front of the building. But they sounded pretty good. The market had lots of veggies, meats and specialty items. I had my first hot dog wrapped in a soft pretzel. I hope it is not my last because it was delicious. After a couple trips around the market we headed home to let Tucker out of the RV for his afternoon walk.

Our last bucket list item in South Bend was the RV Museum Hall of Fame located about 14 miles east of us. This was a relatively new attraction based on the building, but well worth the trip. The oldest travel trailer in the World on display was a 1913 ‘Earl’ travel trailer and Model ‘T’ Ford. They had RVs going back to the 1920s including the first production travel trailer called the covered wagon. It came out in the late 1920s and looked just like the name suggested. But instead of it being horse drawn, you used a vehicle to tow it. The museum was very interesting and the displays made us realize how great our own RV is. We headed back to our very modern and comfortable trailer to get ready to head out in the morning. We are heading to a stop outside Cleveland to see friends we met in Key West last winter. It will be our last stop before we head home and end this incredible adventure.