Thursday & Friday, August 25th & 26th Still in Traverse City

 Thursday - Just hung around the campground. It rained in the area but only drizzled on and off here. We thought about going to Grand Traverse Bay to watch the sun set, but it was just to damp and cool to go set by the water.

We did have some entertainment during the afternoon. I was sitting at the table working on my laptop when I happened to look out the windshield and noticed the woman across the street using their campers outside shower to give her dog a bath. We older folks can remember the song, She Wore an Itsy Bitsy Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. This woman's bikini was black, but it was VERY, VERY itsy bitsy. After washing 2 dogs she then took a lengthy shower (she did shower in the bikini). The hot water heater in her camper must be huge because she was either washing dogs or showering for over 45 minutes. 

Friday - We packed up to leave Timber Ridge this morning. I put the water softener in the back of the Flex because its easier than storing it under the coach, and I would be hooking it back up at the campground we were moving to. As I walked by the Flex I noticed that the passenger side front tire looked low, again. I had put air in it 2 days ago. I checked online and found an auto repair shop 15 minutes away. A puncture, near the sidewall, had previously been plugged. The tire was leaking around the plug. They wouldn't patch it because the puncture was so close to the sidewall.

I looked the tires over before we bought the car and they look like they have 20k of tread left on them. The recommendation for AWD's is that you replace all tires at the same time, so that they all have similar tread depths (i.e., similar diameters and circumferences on all four tires). They didn't have this size 19" tire in stock so I had them order a set of four and they put the donut spare on. The new tires are supposed to arrive at their shop Mon AM and be installed at 11:30 Mon.

Fortunately I was able to extend our reservation here thru checkout Tuesday AM. I cancelled our reservation at the campground in Zeeland/Holland. 

So, what did I learn today? Part of my Old Testament reading for today was Psalm 9:1-9. Psalm 9:5 - "You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance, O God, our savior." My New Testament reading was John 9:1-23 the story telling about Jesus healing the man who was born blind. As I was sitting outside reading this during the afternoon I wondered if the manner in which I became aware of our tire problem was an "awesome act of deliverance"? The tire could have deflated when we were pulling it behind the coach. We probably would not have known that we had a problem until we saw chunks of it flying off and destroying the front fender. Christians know that "we are in the world" in that we will experience trials while here. Jesus said that the blind man was born blind so that God's glory could be revealed. I need to be sure to be on the lookout for some  way that God's glory might be revealed by our minor inconvenience. 

I think I am a lot like the Old Testament Israelites, I focus on my minor trials instead of being thankful for the multitude of blessings I have received. I have a God who sent His son to pay from my sins and who offers me a way into Heaven. I have family who I love, and who mostly love me 😀. I was born in the greatest nation on the planet. I am in reasonably good health, especially for an obese 75 year old. I worked for over 40 years at a job I enjoyed. While not as wealthy as some of the good Socialists in our nation (Bernie, Nancy, Joe, Kamala), I don't have to worry about how I am going to pay for a set of new tires. Etc.

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

Wednesday, August 24th - Took a Drive

Temperatures got to warm today. I'm kind of wishing we had stayed in the UP for another week. Today's high was 85, the AC is humming.

I forgot to mention that last week we started noticing that the leaves on one type of tree were starting to change colors. We were in Sault Ste Marie on October 1st last year and were disappointed that we saw very little color change. The change in these trees may just be a tease.

Today we took a 120 mile drive around a peninsula that forms one side of Grand Traverse Bay. 

Our first stop was at the Wednesday morning Farmers Market in downtown Traverse City. Kathy bought a couple of tomatoes and some peaches. Then it was on up the coast to Northport.

We have seen many beautiful flowers during our travels this fall. The photo below is a pitiful attempt at showing the flowers in the front year of a house we drove by today.

The shore area of this bay off Lake Michigan must be very shallow. It appears that you would have to wade out to get to your boat, or maybe take a small boat or canoe.

About 1:30 we stopped at the Shipwreck Café in Empire for lunch. I had an Italian sub and Kathy had some type of wrap. Both were good. The place had some seats inside and maybe 7 old wooden picnic tables outside. It is so busy that they give you buzzers and buzz you when your order is ready. We sat outside, no shade and the sun was BRIGHT. It felt like it would be easy to get a sunburn, no matter how tanned you were.

On our way back home we made a couple of stops. Yesterday Costco had a basic model Samsung tablet marked down from $299 to $199, I bought one. My old Asus tablet occasionally acts a little wonky. When I tried to use the Samsung app to transfer the information from old to new the app wouldn't work because my Asus tablet was to old. I checked and confirmed that it had the latest available versions of software and firmware on it, dated 2016. The app was trying to use a WiFi direct method to transfer the information. There is also on option to connect the two devices with a cable to make the transfer. Of course I didn't have the correct cable with me so today we stopped at a Walmart and I bought a cable, the wrong one.

The other stop was to buy more sweet corn. We bought 2 dozen ears. Kathy cut the corn off the cob and froze it. Our freezer is full. We may stop by the place again tomorrow and buy another dozen to take with us when we leave here Friday AM. We can eat it during the next week.

There was some good scenery today but based on our past and present experiences along Lake Michigan our opinion is that the coastal area is to high brow for old, rednecks like us. MI's UP suits us much better. 

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

Tuesday, August 23rd - Nothing Exciting

 We didn't do much during the morning, mostly just sat outside reading and enjoying the weather and peaceful scenery. I doubt that the campground is even 25% full. There is a lot of airplane traffic over the campground. I know we are close to the airport but never thought it would have so much commercial traffic in and out.

I needed to pick up a prescription at Walgreens so after lunch we headed into town. On the way to town we stopped by a farm stand and bought sweet corn and a few peaches and plums. We had sweet corn for supper, it was great. We plan on buying another dozen ears tomorrow. Kathy is going to cook them, cut the kernels off and freeze them.

In addition to the fruits and vegetables there were nice flowers along the edge of the field.

After picking up the prescription we went down the street a short distance and did some shopping at Costco. We would like to find some more comfortable lawn chairs but so far haven't found anything we like. Its not even the last week in August and Costco has toys and Christmas stuff out.

In the late afternoon I took a walk on one of the many paths around the campground. There is a LOT of stuff out in the woods.

A pond/beach with lots of water toys.

A cornhole facility, with  bleachers. They must have some serious tournaments.

A pickle ball(?) court.

A track for radio controlled cars.

A guy was running this around the track while I was there.

All of the above, plus miles of walking paths through the woods were on one side of the campground. I probably ought to check out the other side tomorrow.

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

Monday, August 22nd - Happy Birthday Kathy

 Today was moving day. We moved from the Tiki RV Park in St. Ignace to the Timber Ridge Resort in Traverse City, 125 miles. We are now back in MI's lower peninsula. Weather was good, traffic was moderate and roads were in decent condition. Kathy even let me drive today, its the most I have driven the coach in a single day. I even got to drive across the Mighty Mac.

This place is big, 250 sites, but calling it a resort is a stretch. It has a pool, a nice playground and full hook ups. Calling a place with coin operated showers a resort is a huge stretch, but I guess if you are going to charge $65/night for a gravel site with a small concrete pad for a picnic table you need to call it a resort.

The site spacing is acceptable, and there are a lot of trees. Many sites look to me like they require some levelling blocks, ours did. There are lots of empty sites so I have no idea why they put us in a site that should have been limited to no more than a 36' coach. It was a booger getting into it and even though it is called a pull thru site the back of our coach would drag the ground if we went down the "ramp" leaving the site. It will be a booger backing out of it.

Getting into the site required missing the tree on the left, not hitting the tree on the right as the rear of the coach swung during the turn and not driving over the fire pit. A guy from the campground bent the green roadside sign over against the ground so that the tail of the coach could travel over it.

The ramp leaving the site is much steeper than it looks.

They do have some nice places for kids to play.

Some strange things were in the air as I walked around the campground. Look for the strange thing near the top center of the photo below.

Did you find it?

Some of you know that my sister-in-law, also a Kathy, has been dealing with a kidney stone for well over a month, thank you for praying for her. It took forever for her to get in for surgery. Yesterday they finally removed the stones (as it turned out she had more than one). Everything seemed to go okay.

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

 

Sunday, August 21st - Slow Day

Yesterday's high/low temperatures were 78/54. It was mostly sunny, but a little hazy. We are sure getting spoiled by all the great weather we have had this trip.

We didn't do a lot yesterday. I got hooked on an apocalyptic fiction book and was up until 2AM Sunday reading. I did get it finished during the day.

Kathy saw an ad for the restaurant at the St Ignace Kewadin Casino. The ad touted their Sunday buffet and a dining room that overlooked Lake Huron. When we got there we found out that they no longer have a Sunday buffet, but their Sunday specials looked good. Kathy had their chicken florentine and I had a steak french dip sandwich, both were good. At $21 it was the cheapest meat we have had during the trip. We did have a table with a nice view of the Lake. There were two people dining when we arrived and a couple came while we were eating. A maximum of 6 people in a place that probably seated 200. 

There are 5 Kewadin Casino's in the eastern half of MI's UP. Two near Lake Superior and two near Lake Michigan and one near Lake Huron. Most, if not all, have RV "campgrounds" in, or very near, their parking lots. It's basically overnighting in a parking lot with water and electricity connections, and an available dump  station. You could not reserve a site. There were maybe 30 sites and over 10 of them were empty. At $15/night it is a good deal it you only want to park somewhere for a couple of nights so that you can check out the local tourist sites. If an RV'er had seeing Mackinac Island on their bucket list it would be a great place to stay two nights. I think the shuttle bus for the ferry would come to the casino and pick you up.

After lunch Kathy dropped me off at the coach. I took a nap while she checked out the local grocery store.

During a walk around the campground we saw that the Texas couple, Mike and Kathy, who were our neighbors at the Soo Locks campground in Sault Ste Marie had arrived. We forgot to exchange contact information while at Soo Locks so I left a note on their door with our  contact info and inviting the over to sit by the campfire and visit during the evening. They came over and we had a nice evening.

Mike and Kathy live near Dallas/Ft Worth. Hopefully during our winter months travels we will have an opportunity to spend a night or two in that area and spend some more time with  them.

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

Saturday, August 20th - Day 51, Mackinac Island

We have driven the coach 1,430 miles and the car another 1.770 since leaving Centertown.

The weather was good today, until late afternoon, when we started getting occasional light showers. We were back at the coach long before it started raining.

Some campground stuff first. The car next door.  I need to get over there when the folks are out and get a better look at it.

One of the 20+ yurt tents that must be part of the campground.

We took the 9:30 ferry from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island. As part of the trip the ferry makes a loop under Mighty Mac before heading to the Island. It isn't foggy, that is spray from the boat. She is a beautiful bridge. Clearance for ships is 155'. The roadway is 199' above the water. The water is 140' deep at the piers. The piers are sunk 105' into the soil/rock bottom.

We thought the Island was commercialized when we walked around it over 50 years ago. Now the area around the docks is so touristy that it is hardly worth bothering with, but once you get away from that area it is still a nice place to visit.

There are 3 ferry companies that bring people from both Mackinac City and St. Ignace. The water is fully of ferries. There are 3 bunched together in the photo.

Rent a kayak.

Rent a bike.

But you may want to bring your own across on the ferry, many people did.

Gordon Food Service semi's are brought over on freight ferries. The semis pull onto the pier and are unloaded into horse drawn wagons.

Our neighbors at the campground had been to the Island the day before we arrived. They told us to make sure we ate at the Chuckwagon, so we did. The restaurant is no more than 20' wide. These 2 guys did all the cooking and were interesting to watch. I took this photo from my seat at the bar.

Our breakfasts. Everything was good.

They cram a LOT of folks in a small area, and feed them fast. No pressure to hurry eating. The waitress came by and refilled my coffee cup at least once.

With all the horses on the Island they eat a lot of hay. This freight ferry brought some over. A fork truck is moving the bales from the ferry to the pier. I didn't see how they were being loaded and hauled away.

Some photos leaving the Island. Many beautiful homes. I should have taken photos of some of the flowers planted around most of the homes. They must have a LOT of people who love flowers as much as Alice Longfellow.

The Grand Hotel. You can have brunch there for $80/person.

We enjoyed visiting the Island again It is very commercialized, especially near the docks. We didn't walk a long way away from the docks but it was easy to get out  of the heavily commercial area and see nice, well kept homes, most with lots of beautiful flowers around them. There is a lot of points of interest worth seeing that we didn't bother with, most we saw 50 years ago. For people capable of riding bikes, so that you could get further away from the commercial stuff. It would be a great place to visit. There was a nice playground, open for all, at the public school building.

Kathy has a couple of photos on her phone that I may put on my laptop and add later. 

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

Thursday & Friday, August 18th & 19th - Hummm, What Did We Do

 Thursday - Didn't do much other than enjoy ourselves. I did get the last two wheels cleaned up.

We went to Zorba'a, the place we we have gotten a good salad and pizza almost every time we have been up here. We when we were there a few weeks ago it was the least good we have had. Today was better, but not up to what we have had in the past. It rained a little when we were in eating. After lunch we drove down to the Meijer store. We sold $6.30 worth of aluminum cans (63 cans with MI's 10 cent per can surcharge) and did some grocery shopping.

When we arrived back at the campground there was quite a bit of activity. A squall of some type had hit the campground. Depending on who you talked to, 4-6 RV awnings were destroyed. The ladies across the street from us have a free standing, screen enclosure. It ended up down about 4 campsites from theirs. They are parked near a storm drain and said the water was 8" deep just outside their camper.

It appears that the rain sensors on our Fantastic Fans don't work. We had some wet throw rungs and Kathy's side of the bed got wet. Our main awning is supposed to automatically retract in a high wind, it didn't but does not appear t have been damaged.

Friday, Moving Day - We packed up this morning and moved to the Tiki Campground in St. Ignace, MI, just on the north side of the bridge. It was only a 60 mile move. I'm not a real happy camper today, not with the site they put us in. I told them we had a 40', 4 slide coach, this site is probably okay for a 36' coach with slides on one side, if you have a lot of leveling block.

We jockeyed around, got parked. The jacks weren't long enough to raise the front end enough to level us. We backed up the coach, drove it up on 1.5" blocks and I put blocks under the front jacks. We got level but couldn't get one of the slides all the way out. Back down off the jacks. Re-positioned the coach and back up on blocks. We got level, the slides will deploy and most of the storage bay doors will open fully. We were far enough away from the power pedestal that I  had to use the 50 amp extension cord I'd made to get us hooked up to power. The water hydrant was also far enough away that I needed an additional short section of hose to reach it. Bottom line we FINALLY got set up.

The road behind the coach is one of the campground exits. I hope someone doesn't hit our bedroom slide on their way out of the campground. The gravel this side of the car is the driveway for a house.

The gravel behind the coach is access to another campsite. There was a pickup parked on it when we pulled in.

It must be at least 12" from the ground up  to our  first step.

Interesting outfit across the street from us. A semi with a good size sleeper behind the cab, a 5th wheel camper and two motorcycles. There has been a little "smart fortwo" car parked in front of the camper. Also, this guy must either planning on staying here a long time or, he like to build really big campfires.

For supper we went to Clyde's Drive In. They are noted for their world famous hamburgers. The place was a madhouse. We waited 50 minutes, after placing our order, for two mediocre hamburgers.

But...the good news is that we have 50 amps electrical service and we have a water and sewer connection. (No sewers, only a dump station at Soo Locks) Kathy has been doing laundry for hours.

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