Dec 29, 2020 - Sandestin with Parents (December 26-29, 2020)

Stayed at Sandestin Beach & Golf Resort Dec 26: drove in, ordered dinner from Crazy Lobster, picked up groceries Dec. 27: walked to beach, walked down Grand Boulevard, drove to Goatfeathers and Alys Beach Dec. 28: pizza from Grimaldi's, drove to beach, showed Dad Grand Boulevard at night Dec. 29: drove back

Nov 25, 2020 - Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow. I have been in Detroit since last December when a health isssue arose over my Christmas visit and I was lucky enough to receive treatment at the Universty of Michigan Hospital. Treatment ended on March 8th and the Covid 19 lockdown came on March 16th. My plans to get back on the road have been on hold since then. So the question is: What I am I grateful for in this horrible year of 2020? I am grateful to be alive so that I can make this entry into my journal. I am grateful that none of my family or close...

Oct 29, 2020 - Destin

Janet, Aaron & Charlie joined from RV (COVID)- played "juvenile detention" with Charlie Sunday, October 25 - Saturday, October 31 Drove down Sunday, stopped at Zaxby's indoor heated pool, lots of bedrooms Arrived Sunday evening Monday- went swimming, went to beach (too late for sunset) Tuesday- went to beach, picked up dinner from Back Porch Wednesday (stormy)- went to beach to watch the waves, grilled galbi for dinner, watched Bolt Thursday- ordered Mellow Mushroom for dinner, dug holes in beach (windy), went to pier with Charlie (saw the...

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...