Back @ Traverse City

We survived the M&M and returned to Traverse City on Friday.  Since then Donna's gotten a bicycle ride in from Sutton's Bay to Boardman Lake, went to church with Carl & Beth, had dinner with Tom & Heather, walked the trails along Boardman River (last picture, below), dodged lake effect rain for most of the week, got the truck serviced, and worked on a Habitat for Humanity house near the old train depot.  So we've gotten some things in though it was rainy and cool (about 60*) for much of the time.  Good to know the heaters still work.  Another bicycle ride is planned for Donna tomorrow plus a return visit to Moomers.  I think we get rain, again, for the weekend.  We'll survive, I'm sure.

So that's it for us.  Hope you enjoy the pictures here, and that everyone is doing well.  Everyone have a great weekend!  David

M&M @ the Middle of the Mitten

This week we're attending the M&M (Michigan Mini) rally at The Church of God's St Louis Campground here in St Louis, MI.  Organized by Greg & Judy Bahnmiller, the group is part of the NuWa Owners forum (HitchHiker 5th wheel brand of trailers).  While we don't own a HitchHiker, we're part of the forum.  So we "invade" even though we don't own a HItchHiker.  Most people here are from Michigan and many winter at Gulf Shores, AL.  Only a few of us are full time RVers.  Most are snowbirds.  Greg & Judy have been invaluable to us as we adjusted to the full time RVer lifestyle and introduced us to Gulf Shores as a winter location.  They also introduced us to Ben's Pretzels (14 Weight Watchers' points each).

The excitement this year was that the campground where this rally was planning to stay was experiencing power problems - problems like 99 volts power problems.  A last minute change was made to move the rally to the St Louis Campground, and it's worked perfectly for us.  The campground is a Passport America discount campground and has both shaded and sunny spots (all on grass), 30/50 amp electrical service in the large field campsite area (big rig friendly), 30 amp electrical service in the shaded sites, and all have water.  No sewer, but there is a dump.  There are two sets of restrooms & showers with the set on the north side of the campground being the nicest.  Alma is a nice, nearby college town that's great to walk around, and there's the paved Heartland bicycle trail that runs about 50+ miles.  So you know where Donna's been.

Like any rally, there's games, camp fires, too much food, and lots of story telling & lessons learned.  We all went to Hearthstone restaurant (Alma, MI) for lunch, yesterday.  Today's the last day, so there's one last pot luck and get together.  All of us plan to be gone by Friday.  We're headed back to Traverse City, MI and plan to stay there almost three weeks.  Then head to Pennsylvania for a  Folks-on-Spokes Rally where Donna gets to ride her heart out.

So we hope everyone is doing well.  Enjoy your weekend!  David

Traverse City, MI

We're enjoying our week here in Traverse City.  After arriving on Sunday at the Holiday Park Campground and getting a somewhat cloudy Monday, we've had great weather.  Finally had a light thunderstorm (some lightening, but no hail) come through this evening.  Lows are in the high 50s/low 60s with highs around 80.  Interestingly, the winds seem to build throughout the day.

After a visit to the Visitor Center on Monday where we got all our local maps, we've set out on bicycle rides.  Donna's rode three days in a row, now.  We've found a nice parking lot at the south end of Boardman Lake (picture of the lake at top) to leave the truck, then ride up the Boardman bike trail to the center of the TART trail & go from there.  We rode west on Tuesday for just a little over a 11 mile round trip ride, then east on Wednesday for about a 14 mile round trip ride.  I needed a break, but Donna was still itching to go, so I dropped her off in Suttons Bay, and she road the 20 miles back to our favorite Boardman Lake parking area where I pick her up.  She's had a lot fun on that bicycle!

Haven't visited any mom & pop places for meals, but we have made it out to Moomers for ice cream.   For those unfamiliar, Moomers is a local dairy that seems to make a lot of ice cream sold around the local area.  Worth a stop if you're in the area.

Tomorrow we meet up with some Folks-on-Spokes for lunch.  No idea what we'll do after that, but I'm sure we'll have fun.

We're here until Sunday, then off to Sumner, MI for almost a week to meet up folks from the NuWaOwners forum, then back to Traverse City.  We need to get out to Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore and take some hikes.  They had some tremendous winds a couple of weeks ago - as a mater of fact, the whole area around here experienced those winds.  Clean up seems to be making progress, so we're thinking we should wait until we return to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Well, time to go.  It's football night, and there's a piece of cheesecake that needs to be eaten.  Later, David
  

2nd week in Ludington

We've survived our first week in Ludington, and we're into our second week.  We've had a great visit with Frank, Beth, Gordy & Gordy's caregivers.  Ate too much ice cream at the House of Flavors.  

Walked the city marina and light house a few times.  Listened to the local symphony play a few songs, yesterday.  Washed the trailer.  Donna's gotten two long bicycle rides in, so far.  Survived two somewhat strong lines of thunderstorms - both including light hail.    So things are going good.

If all goes well, we'll move up to Traverse City Sunday.  Short trip.  Be there a week is the current plan.  Not much else going on.  Everyone enjoy their weekend.  Later, David

Ludington, MI

Back in Ludington for a couple of weeks and visiting Frank & Beth while they're here.  We had a good trip over with a nice stop in Shipshewana, IN for Ben's Pretzels & a bike ride on the Pumpkinvine.  Been warm with nice weather since we've been here.  Some humidity, too.  Seems a cold front came through, yesterday, so today's a nice day outside.

We're here for another week.  Hopefully, we'll get to see Gordy before we leave.  Get the trailer & truck washed, too.

Only item of interest was - once again - with our DishTV service.  Last year DishTV sorta held us up from changing our service address & receiving local channels for the Ludington area until we agreed to have a DishTV service rep come out and "service" our satellite antenna. Got angry over that as our satellite antenna was up and had locked on to all the satellites it need.  We finally relented and agreed.  Then canceled the "service" appointment an hour or two later when we had gotten our locals and knew they were coming in just fine.

This year, that process went off without a problem.  But once we were switched to local channels, we found the local stations (ABC, CBS, FOX & NBC) had dropped their channels with DishTV over a fee dispute.  No problem.  We raised our broadcast TV antenna and got locals that way.  Then, after checking the TV Guide app, realized there was really nothing on any of those local stations we were interested in watching, anyway.

You have to wonder just what these people are thinking when they get into these fee disputes.  Do local station owners really think they're hurting DishTV or us by blocking a TV signal I can get for free over the air?  Makes me want to print out that "You must be some kind of 'special' stupid." sign you see from time-to-time on Facebook and present a copy to each of the local station owners.

Anyway, that's our excitement.  Everyone try to have a good weekend.  Ours may be a little wet, but we plan to have a good time, anyway.  See ya! David

Traveling

This week is traveling week.  We're about halfway to our initial stop in Michigan.  We left Mitchell, SD Monday.  So far we've had stops at Fairmont, MN & Oakdale, WI.  Tonight we're near Utica, IL.  Current plans are to spend the weekend at Shipshewana, IN.  A visit to Ben's Pretzels and a bike ride along the Pumpkinvine Bicycle Trail are our plans while there.

Otherwise, we're fine.  So far the trailer has faired this potion of the trip pretty well.  Traditionally, we break or lose more stuff traveling this section of interstate than any other area we travel.  We still have one more day of travel, so there's still time I guess. Donna says the new frig is still awesome.

That's it from us. Everyone have a great weekend!  David

Corn Palace Stampede Rodeo Week

Came out to South Dakota to take care of some business and ran into the Corn Palace Stampede Rodeo week.  It's made for an interesting week here in Mitchell.

We did get our business taken care of, but once again, we've lost a package.

 It got to Mitchell, but that's all we know.  Maybe it'll show up someday...maybe not. Otherwise, we've stayed out of the heat.

It's in the 90s here.  Not bad in the shade as we have some wind, but get in the sun & you know it's warm.  Our first though when we got here is that we should have stayed in Two Harbors!

But it's not too bad.  We dodged most of the major storms that have passed through.  We're just not as active here as we were in Two Harbors - just not as easy to walk around in town from the campground.

Pictures here were taken today.  Bad shot of the Corn Palace as the sun is behind it plus people are preparing to

watch the parade.  The remaining pictures are from this morning's parade.  Pretty large parade which we enjoyed watching.  We managed to watch from the staging area and stand in the shade, so we made out pretty good.

We plan to be here until Monday.  Head back toward Ludington, MI for a couple of weeks and visit Beth & Frank is the plan.  We'll be in and around Michigan for most of August if all goes well.  As always, plans can change quickly.   Later, David