Burger Wars

Northern Indiana has a competition in which restaurants compete for the award of 'Best Burger'.

The View Tavern won with their 'Becky Burger'.

The Burger Competitors

This seemed to be a really good thing to check out so we made our way there.

The View Tavern is the quintessential neighborhood bar with lots of neon signs, beer signs, bar stools and a number of table that seat four. You must be 21 to enter and (of special interest) smoking is allowed - perhaps even encouraged.

This is important as my sister is very averse to smoking and avoids any place that smells of smoke. She walked into the bar and immediately turned to leave, however we we there to have the award winning burger and ended up sweeping her into a chair so we could order. This put her very far outside of her comfort zone but she was a good sport even thought I think she laundered her clothes immediately on returning home to get the smoke smell out.

My sister at the View Tavern

Julie awaiting a Becky Burger

My Brother in Law enjoying the moment

April was our waitress and she is most personable. She made the entire lunch a great experience.

The Becky Burger has two kinds of cheese, BBQ sauce, bacon and a 98% lean burger. A burger that lean could be very dry, but it was actually very moist.

I did some research to find out how to make lean ground beef turn out juicy burgers. Several ways are listed - 1/4 cup of finely ground carrots per pound of beef, an egg if the meat is to be cooked to well done, oatmeal and/or searing the beef to lock in the juices. 

I don't know how the View Tavern does it, but they have some way as the burger was REALLY good! If you are in the area be sure to stop by.

Chicago

We left South Bend in a blowing snow and headed to Chicago. We wanted to spend some time in the windy city so we arranged our departure from Chicago for the next day.

Train arriving in South Bend

We explored Union Station for a while getting our bearings.

Union Station fountain

Union station greenery

Amtrak has a nice waiting area for Business class and Sleeper coach passengers

While at the station we enjoyed a classic Chicago dog. 

Gold Coast Dogs in Union Station

Poppy seed roll, hot dog, celery salt, tomato, relish, onion, peppers, dill pickle and mustard - no ketchup

Later we made our way to our hotel - Club Quarters at the Loop. It was nicely done with clean rooms and a nice decor.

View from our window

After settling in we went to the downtown library and found a number of good books and sat around and read/relaxed for much of the afternoon. The library had nice signage and great architecture.

Next day we grabbed a bite to eat at McDonalds where one of the customers told us all about the upcoming mayoral elections and his thoughts on the candidates - most interesting.

There is a service in which you can rent bicycles for a short period of time to get around the city. I'd like to try this in warmer weather.

We strolled thru Macy's (former Marshall Fields) and admired the merchandise and store architecture.

Target has a downtown store that has provisions to move your shopping cart to different floors using an escalator for shopping carts.

 While looking over the news stand at Books a Million I found a copy of 'Wreck Diving'. This issue includes photos of dives on two different WWII U-boat wrecks.

 We left Chicago at the start of a snow storm and had a nice trip home.

Great posters on-board the train

RR museums along the way

Leaving the train at 2:30 in the morning

RV Hall of Fame

Elkhart, Indiana is the center for recreation vehicle manufacturing. 87% of all RV’s made in the USA come from this area.

The history of people camping out of their vehicles is long and varied. The RV Hall of Fame includes a museum full of examples of camping units starting in 1913 thru the 1980’s.

Entrance to the RV museum

They had a nicely done 1/24th scale model of an RV factory showing the manufacturing process.

Model of the assembly process

This is an example of a camping unit that fits on the rear of a Model T Ford. A portion slides rearward and makes a sleeping area while the sides slide out for storage.  

This is a 10 foot Airstream prototype that was built as a potential product for the European market. It was never put into production.

Airstream prototype for the European market

Several examples of Teardrop trailers were on display. These were designed to be lightweight and easy to tow. These same features are popular today for the current generation of teardrop trailers.

This is an example of the type of aluminum trailer that was a forerunner to the Airstream. It was quite striking from an interior viewpoint.

The interiors of some of the trailers from the 1930’s were beautiful. The use of natural materials lets them age gracefully.

Several of the Shasta trailers brought back memories of the units we used to rent for family vacations.

They also had new RV's on display - This Winnebago Trend model caught my eye. It has a bed which descends from the ceiling, big skylights, European styling and front wheel drive.