Sep 8, 2020 - Petoskey MI

First thing Friday morning I had a company come by and wash the filthy fast house and the equally filthy Jeep, then I did some minor repairs and shined up the rims – all they did was wash them – on the house. Driving through rain makes both look like we’ve been off-roading in the desert. That’s unacceptable. Our fellow Tiffin owning friends James and Connie came over around 6:00 and we gabbed for about an hour then headed into Boyne City, about 20 minutes south on the banks of Lake Charlevoix, to the Red Mesa Grill for some dinner which...

Apr 15, 2020 - Nappanee, IN and Charlotte, MI

2020-04-18.Nappanee, Indiana and Charlotte, Michigan We had solar panels installed on top of the RV this week at Solar Energy Systems in Nappanee, Indiana. It was an interesting process and for those who are interested in the benefits/how it works and all the other technical issues, ask Bob, who, as you might imagine, spent hours researching the products. The business is Amish owned and "off the grid" with a facility powered by...solar and a generator. It is located in the heart of the Amish community and carriages traveled the road...

Apr 15, 2020 - No Tax Day

2020-04-15. No tax day Well, it's tax day, or rather, not yet tax day. How our lives have changed in only a month! We got the repairs finished at Newmar and then, spent two days at Solar Energy Systems in Nappanee, Indiana having solar panels installed on the roof of the RV. Now, we can be "off the hook" for quite a while without needing power (hopefully). Then, we drove the 130 miles to Charlotte, Michigan to the Spartan Chassis factory for some general service. As you may know from the news, Michigan has very strict restrictions in place...

Nov 10, 2019 - And We're Off!

We got away from home about as fast as we could, which ended up being about Noon! We had to leave then as we could not fit one more thing into the car, even if it was just a piece of paper. The rain held off so we were driving on clear roads and we made it to Mackinaw City in time for us to eat lunch at Audies. We crossed over the bridge and it only cost us $4.00 instead of the $16.00 it used to cost us in the RV. Love seeing the bridge and always enjoy crossing the straits into the Upper Peninsula. We had planned to take US2 in St. Ignace,...

Sep 4, 2019 - Getting to know Rome

We got an overview of Rome today by riding the Hop on/Hop Off bus around several of the major sites. After lunch at our apartment & a siesta we headed to Campo de Fiori. Along the way we passed many little shops, vendor shops & restaurants and MANY people. A few minutes later we discovered the reason-we were at Trevi Fountain! What a beautiful sight. This is the fountain used in the classic movie "Three Coins in a Fountain". The tradition is you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain to insure a return to the beautiful city of...

Sep 2, 2019 - And the adventure begins

We are about to leave home for Rome, Italy. The anticipation has been over the top. I hope we have all we need! Since I wasn't able to check in online, we are going a little early to make sure all is okay. Not fun to start with a glitch. The weather forecast for the next week in Rome shows rain almost every day. Let's hope that is wherever we aren't!

Aug 23, 2019 - Logging Musuem and Shipping Graveyard and waterfalls

First stop was a Logging Museum ... offered low cost stay while we drove about 35 miles to see Whitefish Point... the shipping graveyard of the Great Lakes. They have a nice museum with an emphasis on some deep diving technologies to reach depths of over 500 ft. Of course there was a lot of attention paid to the Edmund Fitzgerald. Interesting fact: the days of the high traffic of iron ore freighters is over. At the trades height, there were over 3000 trips annually (no wonder there were so many sinkings at the bottleneck at the eastern end...

Aug 22, 2019 - Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

2019-08-22. Traverse City, Michigan Before waxing poetic about the beauty of Great Sleeping Bear Dune National Lakeshore, a word about camping in state or local fairgrounds. We have stayed at many different fairgrounds on this trip. Check ahead of time for when the events are happening at the fairgrounds, but if there are no events, you may have the place to yourself at low cost but with at least electric and a dump station and often, water as well. Yesterday, we spent the night in the Upper Peninsula State Fair Grounds ("Upstate") in...

Aug 18, 2019 - Michigan and home

From the Blue Mound State Park in Minnesota we traveled northeast past Minneapolis, through Northern Wisconsin. We traveled along the northern shore of Lake Michigan and crossed the Mackinac Bridge. On Monday the 19th we arrived in Greenville, Michigan, where Randy lives, and camped at Wabassa County Park. A very nice campground. On Tuesday, I rode mountain bike with Randy and 8 other friends. Wednesday, traveled south to Middlebury, IN. We went to the Grand Design RV factory and took a tour of the facility. Excellent tour! We found a nice...

Aug 17, 2019 - Boondocking at the winery

We are implementing a slightly different tact on campground expenses. Often we can get discounted camping during the week (Sun through Thursday) while the weekends cost more. So this time we relied on the Harvest Host program to reduce overall cost. We can park free in many wineries and farms. This time we checked out a couple for Friday and Saturday. Then we went to a more upscale resort on Sunday.

Aug 13, 2019 - Pictured Rocks rv Park

We missed the RV park coming in and the GPS didn't take the address so we drove all the way into Munising and had to turn around at the boat dock but Ray was able to make it. I could not get anyone in the RV park to pick up the phone and we drove back as I knew it was close to the Casino. At the Casino I went into a gas station as we still could not find the RV park - it was just up the way and there is a sign to make the turn but it's not obvious until you are right there. This is a new RV park and it's spacious. We are in a spot for...

Aug 12, 2019 - Visiting our "new neighbors"

Our next stop was to visit our new friends. Mike and Pat Mandjack are our neighbors, living across the street from us at our new home in Bradenton, FL. They invited us to stay with them as they have electric hookup for us and water. We were treated royally as we learned about the area, going to evening music concerts and touring the area. One highlight was attending a bonsai club meeting with them. John golf a couple of times. We thoroughly enjoyed the visit.