We celebrated 4th of July 2025 in...
In our full-time RV life, we often feel like we celebrate the freedom of America every day. We know the roads and landscapes better than we ever thought we would. We embrace local cultures and the histories from which they were developed. News outlets paint our country in a negative light, showcasing the divide between our political parties and publishing story after story on the negative impacts that divide has on our lives. As nomads, we see a lot more good than bad as we traverse the US, and we still find reasons to celebrate this country every day. When the 4th of July comes around, we don't usually know where we'll be, but we know that this is a day where we all join together to show our love for our country, no matter what else is going on in the political sphere.
So far in our travels, we've spent 4th of July in Virginia's Shenandoah Mountains, West Yellowstone, and Traverse City, Michigan. This year, we were due for RV repairs in Indiana right after the holiday weekend. We decided we had about a 100-200 square mile radius to play with that would keep long drives down and still get us to Nappanee in time for our repair appointment at ATC the following Monday. Two weeks before the 4th, we still didn't have campground reservations, and many places had been booked up for a long time. We thought about going to the east side of Michigan near Detroit, a part of the state we'd yet to visit, but campsites were slim pickings all the way from Detroit down to Toledo, Ohio. We almost booked a site on Catawba Island east of Toledo, but the price was insanely expensive and it would put us 200 miles away from Nappanee. We thought about going back to South Haven, Michigan, where we stayed during repairs last year. We love that town and it has a really nice 4th celebration. Only that would mean driving up there, coming back down to drop off our trailer, and then heading almost the entire way back because we booked our displacement Airbnb in a nearby town. That was too much back-and-forth for us.
4ths on the Road:
Nicole Anderson
Nicole Anderson
Nicole Anderson
We realized that, as much as we wanted to celebrate the holiday, we needed to prioritize our upcoming repairs because we had a lot of chores and packing to do before our displacement. We can find 4th celebrations anywhere, including right where we felt we needed to be. It was decided. We'd celebrate 4th of July in the RV Capital of the World: Elkhart, IN! We booked a site at Elkhart Campground for Wednesday, July 2 to Monday, July 7. On Monday, we'd have about a 40-minute drive to the ATC manufacturer, followed by another hour and a half drive up to our Airbnb in Michigan.
Despite driving through Elkhart on many an occasion, we had never spent much time there. This is the hub of most of the RV manufacturers and equipment suppliers. We talked a little about how this "RV Capital" came to be in our last post. We chose Elkhart Campground as our home-base because it's the best rated campground in the area, had availabilities for a full hookup site, and was in a convenient location for 4th festivities and our trek down to ATC. So far, we haven't been impressed by the campgrounds we've stayed at in this region, so while it's not saying much, Elkhart Campground has been our favorite. The sites are well-spaced for an RV park, the amenities are great, and our neighbors were friendly. We had a few frustrating moments with poor communication from staff, but in some weird way, it helped us get to know the staff and owners better. We also expected a lot more chaos during the holiday weekend, but besides the distant fireworks from outside the park, everything was pretty quiet. The park didn't even fill up. We got the feeling that Elkhart wasn't really a destination spot when people had enough days off work to venture further. But we were happy to be there.
Almost an entire row still empty in the afternoon of July 3. It never got filled.
Site 508, pull-thru, FHU 30 amp
Picnic table, fire ring
Campground recommended? Yes
Campsite recommended? Yes
Just as many locals chose to leave Elkhart for the 4th, not a lot of out-of-towners came in. We knew that the town doesn't plan to host many tourists because the flyer for their 4th event simply said the celebration would be held on the "Central Green" downtown. There is nothing called the Central Green on the map, but the townies must just know what it is. We were total fish out of the Elkhart River.
If we wanted to attend the celebration, we'd need to figure out first where it was and what time it was being held. Then we'd need to determine all the usual specifics, like where we can park Giant Clyde. We found a few other posts that gave us more info: The event would be from 5-10PM, with fireworks at some point, and there would be food trucks. We assumed by the music notes on the flyer that there would also be live music. That was all we found out before the 4th, and so around 6pm, we drove in the direction of downtown to see what we would find.
After driving around for a few minutes, I had the idea to put the Town Hall into Google Maps, because oftentimes there is a town green not far. It worked! We ventured onto Main St and found a closed off portion of road with all the tents and food trucks.
The actual name on the map? City Center Park, across from Civic Plaza. One of the nearby public parking lots looked to be open, but we didn't need to even go that far, as we found a parking spot right on Main St.
Lots of people had set up their camping chairs in the park to enjoy the performance by a country band whose name we didn't get. Advertising could have been better for their sake, but hopefully the locals knew who they were. For a small town local band, they were quite good. We walked around to see what was being offered for food, and we settled on grabbing a soft pretzel and some ice cream instead of spending money on a full meal. The Midwest heatwave hadn't died down entirely, so we were battling temps well into the 80s with humidity close to 70%. Sitting eating hot food in our own humidity soup didn't sound very appealing.
Our snacks were delicious, though. We had heard of Ben's Pretzels before because there are several locations in the area, including Shipshewana, but we opted for Yoder's instead when we were there. Ben's tasted like a very good pretzel. If you're looking for a very good pretzel, Ben's is the way to go. If you're looking for a pretzel so upleveled that it's barely a pretzel anymore, Yoder's has it in the bag. I got a scoop of cookies and cream and a scoop of strawberry from the Vanilla Bean Creamery food truck. It melted quickly but was a delicious treat on the hot day.
We didn't stick around long and also didn't return for the fireworks. We never read specifically when they'd be set off, but we assumed around 10pm because it wouldn't be dark until then. We did see several fireworks right from the campground, though, mostly set off by civilians. I snapped some very poor quality photos before running back inside to my beloved air conditioning.
We enjoy feeling one with the locals, and travel has allowed us to see how different towns celebrate various holidays. We think for people who live around here, Elkhart delivers a very nice, small event. Nearby towns like Goshen also host 4th celebrations. The great thing about 4th of July is that no one needs to travel far to feel one with a community.
The following day, we procrastinated on chores so we could finally go to a place that's been on our list since year 1: The RV/Motorhome Hall of Fame and Museum. How could we stop in the RV Capital of the World and not go here?! We had hoped to make this our finale stop on our Harvest Hosts Challenge last year, but it was closed for an event. In fact, every time we've tried to go, it was closed for an event. They host a lot of events here, and when you visit, you see why. The building is massive. It has to be to fit a bunch of RVs, but it also has its own event hall. We were pleasantly surprised that the museum was open every day of the holiday weekend.
Even though we've deemed this museum a must-see because we're RVers, we soon realized that this is a place even non-RVers could enjoy. The exhibits tell the history of motorhomes and travel trailers, and how they initially served the purpose of being able to bring families together when fathers needed to take business trips. The recreational vehicle evolved from there, satisfying many pressing needs for families in the US who wanted to travel with their own space. Little did people know 90 years ago that someday technology would result in a boom of remote work, thus sparking new interest in RVing once again! We deeply feel our place in the history of RVing, coming in during the COVID-19 pandemic and cementing our roles as digital nomads. We're proud of this. Sometimes we struggle to feel like we fit into the RV community. We're young, we spend a lot of our time inside working, and we don't even have an RV model that most others have! But we also like adding complexity to the shape of the RVer mold. We always say to "camp your own camp," and we've tried to do that since we first got our trailer.
The museum is divided into a few sections, with the main two being manufactured homes and RVs. We got to walk through the evolution of each, and many of the models allow visitors to walk inside. It's astounding to see the changes in decor over the decades. We'll take the clean lightness of modern decor any day. We have enough trouble tracking dirt into our RV as it is. We can't imagine how much would track on built-in shag carpet!
The museum houses some RVs of celebrities like Mae West and Charles Lindbergh, and the Daydream Bird, a vintage motorhome made famous by RV influencers Keep Your Daydream, who lugged this RV along the entire stretch of Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. Still one of our favorite seasons of their vlog.
Upstairs is the Hall of Fame, acknowledging various leaders in the RV industry from manufacturers and suppliers, to administrators, to campground owners, to RV association members. There is also a library, where you can find tons of books and articles about RVs over the decades.
Exploring Elkhart for us meant getting a sense of the local and economic culture here. It always feels really good to be in a town where RVing is common and normal. That isn't the case where we're from. We never expected to be RVers. Neither of us RVed growing up and it was never on our radar until we felt the need for a major shift in our lives. In some ways, it was a calling for us to get out of our comfort zones, and we're thankful every day that we took the leap.
Our exploring of Elkhart was minimal this visit because we needed to prepare for our 3rd displacement of the year. We talk about "packing" and "staging" for displacement a lot in this blog, but what do we actually mean? It kind of depends on where we're going and how long we'll be gone, as well as what types of repairs we're getting. We always pack whatever we need for our time away from the rig. Usually, we will do some cleaning and tidying to help make our return easier. There is always some mess we need to tackle when we get back, but knowing we did a recent cleaning job makes us feel less stressed about it. We always dump our wastewater tanks. When we're planning to be out of the trailer for a while, we attempt to use up as much perishable food as possible. This displacement in particular, we ate a lot to prepare. We wouldn't be in our trailer for nearly 5 days, and whatever we pack in coolers would need to stay cold for hours before we could check into our Airbnb and have a fridge again. In 80+ degree heat, we opted to transport as few food items as possible.
Night before displacement: Almost empty fridge, bags getting packed, and Tanner helping
Usually, we bring enough to our Airbnb that we need extra space to pack it all in the truck. Because of this, we'll remove RV-only bins from the bed of the truck and store them in the trailer, so we can fit Airbnb items. If our repairs are only on the outside of the trailer, like when we had our axle appointments, we don't need to do much inside except our normal packing and securing of items. However, this time, we'll be getting repairs inside the trailer as well. This means we need to make sure all areas where the guys will be working are accessible.
The morning of displacement includes all the things that need to wait until the last minute, like securing our items and packing up the remaining items from the fridge and freezer...with Tanner's help, as usual.
Lastly, when we have a lot of repairs on the agenda – always the case when we go to ATC – we review the list, order the items by priority if necessary, and send the list to all parties involved. When we arrive to our appointment, we go over the list in-person. ATC has always been great about having the list in-hand when we arrive.
We always try to have full hookups before we drop our RV off for repairs. This way we can dump and flush for as long as we need, we can run our ACs on hot days when we're busy cleaning and packing, and if we need to, we can even empty our freshwater tank and run off city water. Elkhart Campground may become our new staging area before ATC repairs. We won't be surprised if we see more of the town Elkhart in future years.