Friday, Septemeber 2 - From Traverse City to Mom's

 Last night the campers who had just moved in across the road set up a screen and showed a movie. Didn't pay enough attention to see the actual move but it looked like an impressive setup.

At night

The next morning

We were packed up and on the road at 9:45. It was 260 miles from Traverse City to Mom's, south of Coldwater, MI. We weren't in a hurry. We stopped for lunch at a rest area. There were at least 3 varieties of apple trees planted at the rest area, sadly they had not received much care.

The apple tree and the tree with the red berries were planted so that they twisted around one another. There were apples lying on the ground, going to waste. We picked one off a couple of trees and tasted them. They were to sweet for me, I like Granny Smiths.

Michigan may have nice rest areas but their Interstates are bad. We drove 10-15 miles of I96 where an 8-10" wide section of the concrete pavement had been sawn out every 8-10'. It seemed like they must have done a poor job filling the cutouts with asphalt because the surface of every one of them was depressed enough to cause a bump.

We arrived at Mom's around 4PM. 

Parked at Mom's. My 93 year old (94 Oct 3rd) Mom is on the right.

We had supper outside and sat out and visited until around 7:30.

When at Mom's we are about as close to "boondocking" as I care to get, actually we are closer than I care to get. We have to get water from my brothers, a quarter mile down the road, because Mom's well water is HORRIBLE. (She says it fine, she has been drinking it for 93 years and is in better health than her kids.) There is an electrical line that runs from the corner of the barn (you can see the corner of the barn above the hood of our car) down to the shelter house. It powers lights and a refrigerator at the shelter house during the summer months. Power is very limited. Not having a sewer connection isn't a problem. Our black tank is big enough for a week, for the two of us. We just water the grass with the gray water.

It was hot, high mid 80's, and humid yesterday. When we got back in the coach I shut the windows and fired up the generator and AC units. It took a couple of hours to drop the temperature/humidity from 85/75 to 72/41. I shut if off and it stayed comfortable all night long.

In case you are thinking, what an idyllic lifestyle, let me burst your bubble. Coaches, especially 14 year old ones, have problems the same as sticks and bricks houses. They are just different problems. 

1, I'm still working adjusting the latches for the bay doors. Hopefully I will get them figured out. 

2. I need to borrow a ladder from my brother to see if I can see why the main awning won't deploy. 

3. Our living room slide doesn't want to go out (better than not going in). First time that happened was here at Mom's.

Even with the issues noted I think I'm pretty close to the idyllic lifestyle.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.