I have discussed 2 of the largest employers in the Decatur Indiana area that produce world class products that draw people from across the country. We have produces some of the most recognized luxury motor homes, and speed boats, It’s only fitting that Decatur Indiana should be the home of Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, Inc.

If you not familiar with the Lingenfelter name then you definitely are not a Corvette enthusiast.  John Lingenfelter has won 13 NHRA national event titles and holds countless speed records.  Lingenfelter Performance Engineering is the premire companies when it comes to making high performance engines and accessories for Corvettes , Vipers, Cadillacs. Lingenfelter Performance Engineering  has been featured numerous times in magazines such as Car And Driver, Motortrends, Corvette Fever and Road&Track.  So if you looking to beef up your stock Corvette and have $20-50,000 to spare, you can rest assured your getting a quality product. 

As you can see in my past 3 articles Decatur Indiana might be a small community in the heart of Amish country, but we are definitely not without out some national recognition.  These three companies I have discuss build some of the world’s most sought after products and draw people from across the country . When people ask you why anyone would want to come to Decatur Indiana, just ask them “Why haven’t you been here before?”.

In my previous post I discussed one of Decatur Indiana’s better know companies Fleetwood American Coach.  While the American Coach may draw owners to the Decatur with their luxury motor homes, Thunderbird does the same with it’s high performance boats and yachts.  Thunderbird which produces a line of high performance Formula boats moved its headquarters and production facilities from South Florida to Decatur, In in March of 1988.  Thunderbird has been producing quality high performance powerboats since the mid 1950’s and is still a leader in the boating industry.  In their 50 years of crafting these high quality boats, they have won numerous awards including its most recent : “Boat of the Year” in 2006 by Powerboat Magazine.  Even though Decatur, In is a small rural community, high quality luxury products like Thunderbird’s Formula powerboats help to put us on the national map.

I’ve noticed recently that a lot of the visitors to this site are not from the Adams County or Decatur Indiana area.  At first, I figured maybe they had family or friends located in Decatur and were just wanting to know more about the town.  Then I examined some of the stats from the website a bit closer.  Many of the people are looking for things to do in the Decatur Indiana area.  That got me thinking why would anyone come here.  Well, as it turns out, we have several businesses in town that draw customers from around the country.  Today I’ll discuss one of them: American Coach

Fleetwood motor homes produces the American Coach line of RV’s right here in Decatur Indiana.  I had forgotten that there if a factory service department located here for those motor homes.  Which is terrible since I know several people that work there.  If I remember right one of them had mentioned that people come to Decatur to have warranty work done on their American Heritage, American Eagle, and American Tradition luxury motor homes.  I contacted some old friends that worked there and sure enough people come from all over to have work done here.  Their service department’s schedule is booked solid months in advance.  The Fleetwood motor home production plant also offers tours.  I don’t know about you but if I’m spending tons of money on a luxury motor home I want a tour of the plant. Perhaps, this is why people from around the country want to come to Decatur Indiana.

I’ve been asked recently what exactly is that zoom button showing up on your articles.  BloggingZoom is a community that allows bloggers and readers to rate articles based on the value of their content. If you or another blogger finds an article interesting or informative enough you can click the zoom bottom to vote for that particular article.  When an article receives enough ”Zooms” it will get showcased on the front page of BloggingZoom.com.  As a blogger this is important as it give your site more exposure.  If you have any questions about it feel free to email me or check out the frequent asked questions at BloggingZoom. 

I usually don’t like to air my personal feelings on my website, but today I’ve finally had it with Kroger.  About six months ago or maybe it was a year, I’m not sure, Kroger bought out our local Decatur Indiana Scott’s grocery store.  At first, I didn’t really care one way or the other. I thought getting a larger grocery retailer in the market would help to lower prices at all the stores. Whether or not that has happened I can’t tell you for sure. Enough of the history lesson back to the real point of this post. 

I went in to buy just a few items to supplement the dinner we were having, some french bread, Parmesan cheese, some extra sauce and a few other staple items for the rest of the week. Not being an overly thrifty shopper I usually don’t pay much attention to the prices, but tonight was different.  I was amazed to find that everything I was buying was actually on sale; at least that’s what I thought.

I don’t know how familiar you are with Kroger or their ” cost savings card program” but evidentially the only way I could get the sale prices on what I bought was by having one of their ” Kroger cards”.  Too my surprise, when I was given the total at the register it was almost $10.00 more than the prices listed on the self.  The clerk kindly pointed out to me that the shelf tags had a little ” Kroger cost cutter logo on them”. This meant that the items were only on sale for “loyal” Kroger shoppers that had one of their customer cards. I was told I could get one by filling out their form and she would re-ring the total.  I’m not a very patient person in the first place and really didn’t have time to fool with it right then.  The clerk was kind enough to let me know if I came back in and got one at a later time, I could get a refund for the difference if I kept my receipt. To this young lady’s credit she was very polite and only following her store’s policies and is not the reason I’ll never shop Kroger again.  I’ll never shop Kroger again because I don’t need some stupid membership card to prove I’m a loyal customer to get sale items.  This wasn’t the first time I’ve ran across this whole cost savings card issue, but it will be my last.  I can easily drive another block down the road to the Wal-Mart Super Center, get better prices, more choices and don’t need to hassle with having a ridiculous card. Like wise the other local grocery store in town doesn’t require such a card unless your writing a check, guess what I’m a cash customer, NO CARD.Most of you out there if not all probably think this is nuts, but as a consumer I’m getting tired off all the gimmicks that retailers are using to advertise lower prices, sale items or special buys.  I don’t want to have to carry any loyalty cards, fill out endless rebates, or take any stinking surveys to get prices advertised on the shelf.  I’d rather they just keep the prices on the shelf at regular retail prices and from time to time surprise me with a discount for being a loyal customer.  Customer service, quality products and convenience are the ways to gain loyal customers not gimmick ads and fancy saving’s cards.

Thank you all for listening to my ranting and raving, you spared my kids having to listen to it.

The Bellmont Brave Generation Show choir and ladies ensemble(L.E.G.S) will be competing this weekend at Homestead Senior High School in Fort Wayne, IN.  The choir competition at Homestead always brings in top choirs from throughout Indiana.  Last weekend the Brave Generation won top honors in instrumentals and took 4Th place overall at the Lakeview High School competition in Battle Creek, Michigan. Hopefully they can pull out a Grand champion award this weekend.   This will be their last competition until they head to Hanover, Indiana for the Southwestern High School Invitational on April 12Th.  If you know any of the choir members be sure to tell them to break a leg.

Adams County Little leage season is about to begin. Registrations for many of the area little league organizations are underway. 

Monmount Baseball Association:

This past week Monmouth Baseball association held registrations for T-ball, minor league, and little league divisions.  Tryouts for players ages 8-12 will be held at the Bellmont Middle School Gym on April 3rd at 5:30pm.  If you missed registration or need additional infromation you can contact Randy Heisner at 724-4986

Monroe Youth League :
    The Monroe Youth League also conducted its registrations this past weekend.   Those that were not able to attend should contact Julie Soldner at 692-6060.  9:00am Saturday, April 5th has been slated for the Boys little league tryouts. These tryouts will be held at Adams Central gym and is intened for all boys 9 -12 years of age.  The tryouts for girls softwall will be held the same date at 11am. These tryouts will also be held at the Adams Central gym.

Decatur Baseball Association:

The Decatur Little league signups begin this week at the United Steelworkers Union Hall on March 12, 18 and 20th from 5-7pm and on March 16th from 6-8pm. April 2nd at the Bellmone auxillary gym is where they will be holding tryouts for the 9-12 year olds and the Kofax league(13-14) will hold tryouts on April 3rd at 6pm.

The Pleasant Mills Youth Ball League has announced registration plans for the upcoming summer session. on Tuesday, March 11 from 5:30-7 p.m., and again on Saturday, April 5 from 9-11 a.m

The RCA Dome, formerly know as the Hoosier Dome opened in 1984 as the home field for the Indianapolis Colts. This past year was the final time to see the Colts in action at this location. The new stadium will be open for the start of the 2008 NFL season. Upon it’s retirement the owners have opted to sell the RCA Dome off piece by piece. You can currently purchase turnstiles, seats, and benches ranging from $250 - $450.  Section and aisle signs are can be had at a price of $195 each.  You can be the proud owner a plaque housing a piece of the roof or field turf for a mere $60. 

In addition to flat priced pieces of memorabilia, you can purchase several items via a live weekly auction.  Among these items are the center of the field that has the Colts logo, various players lockers, a strip of the end-zone, and a locker room urinal. That’s right you can buy Payton Mannings potty!! The starting bid on the 30′ x30′ section of the field with the Colts logo is $10,000.  Lockers start at $2000 and the urinals at $500.  This week lockers include those used by Dallas Clark, Jeff Saturday, Marlin Jackson, Gary Brackett, and Adam Vinatieri.  Next week up for auction will be the lockers of Reggie Wayne, Joseph Addai, and Dwight Freeney ,as well as, sections of the sidelines and another urinal.

If your a big Colts fan ,as all Hoosiers should be, and are interested in purchasing any memorabilia from the now retired RCA Dome, now is your chance. More details are available on the official Colts auction site http://buythedome.com

This weekend the Bellmont High School show choir ” Brave Generation” will be traveling to Battle Creek , Michigan to compete in the Great Lakes Show Choir Invitational  at Lakeview High School.  The competition will start promptly at 9:00am and continue thought the day and should approximately 11:00 pm.  Those traveling to watch the competition can find the school address at the link above.  The Lakeview Spartanaires recently were in Decatur, Indiana for the Winter Spectacular show choir competition where they won Grand Champion in the small show choir division.  We hope our BG’s can return the favor and bring home top prize.  Good Luck to all of you.

    In today’s high tech world of the Internet you need to take special care to protect then not only from local dangers but those that may come from outside your community.  My children have been taught from a young age never to post their real name, photo’s, or other identifying information on over the Internet without my permission.  I thought this would be sufficient until I realized other parents might not take the same precautions.

Out of curiosity one day I took the time to sit down with my daughter and have her show me the sites she visits and uses to meet and share ideas with her friends.  I was shocked to find out that all her friends had profiles on MySpace.  I didn’t think in the small rural town of Decatur, IN it would be that popular among the teenage kids.  The fact that the kids were using these pages wasn’t nearly as shocking as what I found on their sites.  Most of the pages included kids real names, photo’s and basically their entire history throughout their chats.  My daughter didn’t quite understand why this upset me so until I pointed out several things about her I could derive from the sites. Here is some of the common information I found about her and her friend by just viewing their sites and reading their chat.

• Just about every teenager’s full name was listed either in a chat post or directly on the site.      
• Reading the chats I could just about tell you where every one of the kids went to school, worked, or just hung out on the weekend.      
• Most of them even times where they would be at or leaving one of these places.     
• I could tell you what make model and color of car most of them drove.     
• Some were so bold as to list their home addresses.     
• Just about every one of them had a photo showing them and their friend, most pointing out names of each person in the photo.      
• The scariest thing I found was the over half of them were using public profiles allowing anyone to view and comment on their site. 

Some of you may think, so what? Their kids let them have their fun. For those of you that think this way, do you realize that this information is a child predator’s dream come true?  I don’t know about other areas, but in Decatur, In there are 18 registered sex offenders. Why would you let your children expose themselves to such dangers? Please be responsible and monitor how your children are using the Internet.