O23/#23 Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'......

 And the wheels keep rolling as we get closer to Albquerque NM. Overnight stays are easy and don't take too much time to set up and tear down. 15 to 30 minutes and we are off the road and set up for the night and usually a little less to get back on the road in the morning. Tonight we are in Amarillo Texas with one more stop before we get to the balloon festival.

Our next stop we will prepare the rig for "off grid living" while we are at the festival grounds. The details are not important but it will let us enjoy our time there without worrying about RV living.

On another note, I do watch the responses to the blog and look forward to each and every comment. I know it is easier to post as anonymous, and that is ok, but if you could mention who you are or give me a clue in the comment it would be great. I like to to put a face to the comment. 

A short trip so a short blog. Until the next blog I''m gone. From our home in Amarillo Texas because.....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#22 Life Back On The Road

 I know I pointed it out before that we have been very busy. Well we finished our work commitment in St Ignace and got the rig ready for travel, all in time for our planned departure. Our little KOA family got together for dinner and dessert one last time before we left. We got very close to these people and will keep in touch. Some we will get together with once back in Florida. Another season and our workcamping family keeps growing.

October 3rd the wheels officially started rolling. First stop was Elkhart IN. We have passed through the area many times and always try to spend a couple of days. It is after all the epicenter of RV manufacturing. And don't forget all the gooood Amish food! As a bonus a friend from the Post Office lives just down the road from where stayed. We had a 2 plus hour lunch just laughing and telling stories over good food. But it was time to move on down the road.

Our next stop was just an overnighter. We stayed at the Illinois State Fairgrounds for $20. What a deal! On the road early the next morning and into Ozark Missouri. Another cheap parking lot campground with a special feature. It was the proximity to a close friend that Mary worked with in Forsyth about 5 years ago. We spent a couple of days catching up, seeing how big her boys have grown, saw her new house, and met her new husband. it was a great visit but once again the road was calling.

Today we are in Choctaw OK. Another one night stay but it was time to catch up on some chores. In another day I was going to have to go commando if we didn't do some laundry. We also needed a few groceries to get us to our ultimate destination....Albeuquerque New  Mexico and the Balloon Festival.

The washers are done and things are starting to come out of the dryers. And since clothes don't fold themselves I will end this blog.Until the next blog we are home in Oklahoma because....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#21 Busy, Busy, Busy

 It's been a couple of weeks since the last blog but things are happening quickly. With the season winding down we have preparations to take care of before we hit the road and there are things we want to do before we leave, oh... and there is work. Our prep work involved moving the rig to a full hook-up site to have continuous access to sewer. This will let me get the waste water system ready for the road. If you RV you know and if you don't there isn't enough room here to explain. Just know that it is a necessary evil in the RV world. We also spent at least three days just cleaning around our home. We like to arrive at our destination all clean and ready to hit the ground running for our next adventure. And we had to work sometime in there.

We also participated in the Michigan tradition that is called the Annual Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Walk.  The Mighty Mac, as it is know, is shut down to vehicular traffic for six hours and opened to pedestrians. Our group of workcampers all went with our manager's blessing leaving only one person on site until we got back. The five mile bridge would mean ten miles to walk back and forth the whole length since there was no return transportation available. We opted to walk to the halfway point and turn around as many do. Fun and interesting. The center of the bridge sways pretty good and requires decent balance. Enough balance needed that there were some who turned at the expansion joints when you first feel the sway. Fortunately it wasn't too windy. We have heard that on windy days it is hard to stay on your feet! Another thing on our list to do. Oh and again there was work.

Tie dye Chuck and Mary

Here we are on the steel deck

Just last week we finally made it over to Mackinac Island. That is the big draw to this area. With only 300 year round residents and thousands more during the summer it is like most northern summer destinations. It is a quaint little town with shops, hotels, and nature trails like many other small town destinations. There is one difference. Mackinac Island allows NO motorized vehicles. The island transportation is either foot, bicycle, or horse. That is the novelty of Mackinac island. Getting around can be challenging for those with moblity issues but is doable. We had a great time bicycling and taking a horse drawn tour of the island. We came, we saw, we checked another item off our to-do list. Oh, and again there was work.

Gotta find the Post Office

One of the many horse drawn tours

At the Mackinac Island dock

Well I will sign off now because we have to run into town for a few things. Oh and this is our final week of work! Until the next blog from our home in Michigan because......

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#20 Holiday At The KOA

 Labor Day weelend is a sign that the summer is coming to an end. This is the last hurrah for locals and tourists to go camping and enjoy the outdoors before winter sets in. Winter in the U.P. is not for the faint of heart. Temperatures that will freeze the Great Lakes and storms that will sink large ships can come from any one of the lakes that surround Michigan.

This is also a time for us to brace for the last busy weekend of the season. In the pictures you can see how busy we got and how empty we became once everyone left. From now until the time we leave here things should be much slower and work will be at an easier pace. 

Now that things will be slowing down it is also time for us to make preparations to get back on the road. We have already started cleaning and purging the inside of the RV of all the stuff we have gathered while sitting still. Next will be checking all the working components on the trailer and truck to make everything road worthy. We will also move to a different site with full hook-ups. That means a real sewer connection and no more portable waste tank to empty at the dump site. Think "honey wagon" but 30 gallons at a time. Not horrible but time consuming and a bit of a pain in the ass. 

Well we have to go to work since the crew is now down to the managers, two sets of workcampers, and one local. The work will be easier but we will all be spread thinner around the campground. The seven of us all work well together so it shouldn't be an issue. 

So I will sign off from our home in St Ignace because.....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#19 End Of Season Signs

 We are almost three quarters of the way through our workcamping gig. The season is showing signs of the end getting near. There are the weather changes, subtle as they are, but soon to force us to crack out some warmer clothes. The trees are just barely showing the change in the colors of the leaves, and we are looking forward to that. Maine's leaves were beautiful and I am sure Mary will be posting Michingan fall colors soon.

But there are other changes that are unique to workcamping. Hitch-itch, the urge to get the wheels rolling, grows the longer we sit in one place. Looking forward to the next adventure is exciting also. But there is a bitter sweet part to the end of the workcamping season. Celebrating our time with our new friends and having to say goodbye. 

Tracy, one of the workcampers, organized a pot luck campfire at her site. We ate and talked and laughed and shared our plans well into the dark, even knowing we had to work in the morning. Alan would be the first to leave to get his kids back home for school. There was no shortage of interim grandparent/grandkid interactions with his family around. Tracey will be leaving next and little by little the group will disperse to all points of the compass. 

The next day Lynette, the manager, had a mandatory attendance phot-op that none of us would have missed anyway. Again we talked about plans after St Ignace and how we all became a tight knit group, almost like a family. Some talked about meeting up elsewhere in the future while others promised to keep in touch. It was a sign that things were winding down.

Just like any family it takes all kinds and we wouldn't change a single one of them at all.

Well, it is raining so this will be a good day to run errands and get some shopping done . Real stores are at least 45 minutes away so we will make the most of this excursion. I will sign off now from our home in the U.P. because.....

Home is where we park itt,

Frank and Mary

'23/#18 Part II

 In the past I have said that sometimes there just isn't much to blog about. That is when I vanish from the blogging world. Then things get interesting and I'm back. So now that we have caught up with the boring stuff that is part of everyone's lifestyle, even on the road, let's get back to the adventure.

The other day we planned to head up to Sault St Marie and check out the locks connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron. Coincidentally a young couple, April and Kait, said they were going also and would we like to spend the day together. Boat tickets were bought on line and we all met at the dock the next morning. 

Most of the passengers went to the front of the tour boat but we migrated to the stern and had the whole area to ourselves. We were introduced to their friend Luke and the tour began. This was one of those days where everything was just perfect. The weather we ideal, the company was outstanding, and even when lock traffic forced us out of line for through passage all that happened was the tour was extended and we go to see more of the whole US/Canadian lock system. We had a rare sighting of the railroad bridge lowering over the lock. No train, just a work truck but still pretty cool.

The locks raise and lower boats of up to 1000' the 25' difference between lake Superior and Lake Huron. This helped create a shipping channel from Duluth Minnesta all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. While we passed through the locks there was a 1000' freighter in the next lock over. 

After the boat ride we walked into town and had a great lunch at Zorbas Greek restaurant. The whole time we are talking and sharing and laughing like a group of old friends. We walked back to the dock and took a walking tour on the Museum Ship Valley Camp. The Valley Camp is 550' long so was about half the size of the largest freighters on the Great Lakes and still it was huge. We learned about life on the ships of the Lakes and of the the ships and sailors that perished on the Lakes. The Edmund Fitzgerald may be the most famous of the many wrecks in the Great Lakes and was also featured in the museum. 

We parted ways with our friends at that point to do some grocery shopping in Sault St Marie before heading home. Good weather, great exploring, new experiences, and great friends with whom to share it all. Who could ask for a better day?

Today we get back to work and start making plans for next week? So I will sign off from our home in St Ignace because.....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#17 Two Part Catch Up

 It has been a while so either one really long blog or two shorter ones are in order. I choose to spread it out. So here goes.

The last month or so has been less than blog worthy. Eventful? Yes. Shareable? Maybe. Mary had to have cataract surgery so that has curtailed a lot of what we would have liked to be doing in the U.P. Surgeries, follow-ups, and post surgery care took up most of our days off. The manager here has been awesome about schedules to accommodate us as have the rest of the crew. It is a good crew and we all try to help each other out whenever we can. 

During this time we also had to work. July and August is peak season here in the Upper Peninsula so it has been very busy. Most of our work is indoors so it was easier keeping dust and smoke out of Mary's eyes. The eye drop regimen was my responsiblity. Multiple drops, multiple times a day, and different schedules due to staggered surgeries kept me on my toes. After all Mary has been through I didn't want anything to get screwed up, especially because I might mess up her eye drops. One eye is done and two more weeks of drops for the other and Mary will be good to go.

Now that the eye thing is just about done we will get back to our adventure. We have some things to take care of today so I will continue blogging later. We are headed back to Sault St Marie next.  This will be more of what this blog is about. So until later from our home in Michigan because.....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary