'23/#16 International Travelers

 Friday was a blast with all the old cars. Over 900 entries in St Ignace's 47th annual car show, a local event that everyone looks forward to and we see why. Saturday we headed farther north for another local event. 

Saturday we participated in the Sault Ste Marie International Bridge walk. This was the return of an annual event that had been cancelled since 2020 due to the Covid epidemic. People were excited to have it back. Representatives of both Sault Ste Maries, Michigan and Canada, were there to welcome back the event as well as all the supporters and participants. After a few speeches the crowd of at least 500 set off to walk accross the bridge that was closed for the event. Overviews of the Soo Locks and a warm welcome by Canadian officials and we were international travelers again. Water and snacks were provides and buses were available to drive everyone back to the U.S. 

Having spent time in south Texas and now in the U.P. of Michigan we can say that we have walked from Mexico to the U.S and from the U.S. to Canada...... just not in one trek.

Once again customs in Canada was a simple I.D. check and "welcome to Canada" while the return through U.S. was just short of a cavity search. I understand post 9-11 cautions but these were buses designated for bridge-walk participants. "Why are you in Canada?", "where are you from?" ( my license is in your hand!), "where did you work?", and "you're done,"! No thank you or welcome back. U.S. customs agents need to get personality lessons from our much friendlier Candian neighbors that man the customs check points headed north.

Anyway that was our weekend and this is the end of this blog. Back to work. The Fourth of July crowd will replace the car show crowd in the campground next week. Back to back busy weeks and then just the steady summer tourists and campers that keep this campground going.

So having retuned from our world travels (wink, wink) I will sign off from our home in St Ignace because.....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#15 Touristng And Localing

 We are getting out and about more now that we are familiarizing ourselves with the area. This weekend all kinds of things were going on so we decided to join in. There was also some chores around the rig because, like I've said before, this is not a vacation. It is a lifedtyle.

As always, chores come first. I had wanted to do some construction in the basement and after the battery/charging issues that project moved up the priority list. Friday morning we went  to town to drop off some mail and pick up a prescription.  That was first because the Annual St Ignace Car Show started that afternoon. When we got back home the tools came out and the work started. A couple of hours later my modifications were done and looked pretty good if I do say so. 

The work was done. Now it was time to play. We loaded the E-bikes in the truck and drove into town. The bikes worked out just as we had hoped. We were able to ride up and down the main street in town and check out all the cars. With the cars cruising at slow speeds as most in town car shows do we could ride along with them while we checked them out. Two and a half miles up and two and a half miles back and we had seen most of the cars in town. Ooohing and aaahing and lots of pictures made for a great time.

Birthday Present?

Saturday would be another day so I will sign off and continue this blog tommorrow. Goodbye from our home in St Ignace because.....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#14 Adaptability Is An RVer's Best Tool

 We have been here in Michigan for three and a half weeks and things have been going non-stop. We are settled into our site and have been working for the past three weeks. The job is not that big a deal, it just takes a while to get into a routine. We are getting to that point. The people we are working with are great and easy to get along with which is always nice.

When we got here the batteries in the RV were giving me some trouble. I suspected that they would need replacing but my multimeter wasn't working. I borrowed one and sure enough the charger was fine but the batteries would not take a charge. A trip down to Cheboygan and a toasty credit card had everything working just fine. We were OK plugged into the utility pedestal but lots of thing in an RV work on 12volt so it needed to be dealt with.

The site we are on is a water and electric site with no sewer hook up. That means alternate ways of disposing the waste water. We have a "blue boy" that is a portable waste water tank. When things get full we dump it into the "blue boy" and dispose of it at the dump station. There will inevitably be some spillage (yuk) so I decided to get a macerator pump. This will move things along more efficiently and keep all the nastiness contained. I needed some hose and fittings so we took a trip to the nearest Home Depot in Petosky. Once everything was assembled it worked like charm.

One way or another we will find our way around Michigan. Today was a miserable day weather wise. The high was only 58 degrees and drizzle all day long. It was a good day to stay in and stay warm. Mary made some chilli and there is bean soup in the near future. All the foods that warm ones cockles, whatever a cockle is. Something to do with the latin language. 

Well I am going to sit in front of the electric fireplace and warm everything that isn't a cockle. That's the scoop from our home in St Ignace because.....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#14 Settling In

 Work has started and like any new job there is a learning curve. Not that cleaning is foreign to us but there is the way we do it and the way the boss wants it done. Also finding all the supplies and using the products that they supply will take time. It takes time to  get into work mode also.  As old people we have to ease into the physical activity needed on the job. Can't over do right out of the gate.

Mary and I have to get into a routine then everything will be easier. We will make this job our own like we do everywhere we go. For example, housekeeping has the key ring from hell. Everything is in order but the markings are hard to read and all the keys are on one big ring. I took the keys and separated them into three groups, put them on separate rings, and put them on one clip. Now I don't spend half my day sorting through keys to get into the cabins.

Like I said in the last blog the people here are very nice. The manager makes a point of having a little social gathering for special occasions. One of the girls has a birthday coming up so we will all get together for treats and just socialize and get to know each other better. Workcamping is more than travel, it is about the people you meet. Over the years we have made friends from all over the country and around the world that we still keep in touch with.Occasionally we meet up  out on the road. We've been told we are living the dream and there are no arguments from us.

It was a long day and dinner will be ready soon so I will sign off from our home in St Ignace because......

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#13 The Summer Adventure Begins

 Sunday we arrived at the campground in St Ignace that will be our home for the summer. It was an easy trip up from the casino and we we weren't tired from travel. The plan worked!

We met the manager and found a site that will be our home for a few days before we move to our regular site for the season. The campground is very nice and all the people we have met so far seem nice. It feels like it is going to be another good experience for us. We don't start work for a couple of days so we are driving around and getting the "lay of the land" so to speak. Grocery stores, post office, restaurants, and any thing else we might need while we are here. 

Tomorrow we will take a ride to Sault Ste Marie and see what is there that will be of interest to us. It's a bigger town with more shopping and major chain stores for the things that we can't find locally. It is about an hour or so away so it won't be a weeky trip but close enough if we need something. 

We just had dinner at a local bar. Food was great and the prices were better. They also invited us to participate in their triva night. We said why not? If full bellys and an entertaining night weren't enough we also won the trivia contest and came away with a gift card to come back! A great way to end the day.

I am going to sign off now and call it a night. So good night from our home in the Upper Peninsula because....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#12 Right State, Wrong Town

 When I left off in the last blog we had made it to Michigan. We are staying at the casino RV park on the indian reservation. The last two legs of our journey are short ones. This was planned so we could arrive at our summer destination earlier in the day and a little less tired. 

The two days we planned on staying on the "res" turned into three. We enjoyed relaxing and the break from just trying to put miles behind us. The only chore we did was the laundry that we had accumulated on the road. Other than that we checked out some of the cheese shops in the area and spent our complimentary credits in the casino. It's not Las Vegas or even the Hard Rock in Tampa but it seems like a nice place if gambling is your thing. It's not something I care to do but we support the places that we stay at in our travels.

One more night here in Standish and in the morning we are St Ignace bound. Looking forward to settling in for a few months and exploring the U.P. of Michigan. I will sign off now from our home on the reservation (the RV,not a teepee) because ....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary

'23/#11 Almost There

 It doesn't seem like only six days since we left Zephyrhills. With a couple of long days, some very early mornings, amd a mapping miscue or two the days have flown by so fast that our concept of time is completely thrown off. Five days in a row of travel has earned us a rest. We are at an indian casino campground near Standish Michigan. It is only twenty-one dollars a night and they give us free credits to use in the casino. Can't beat that.

Now let me recap the last two non-blog days. Let's see, after the giant skillet we stayed in Columbia TN and were able to get together with Mary's friends from high school. This was my first time meeting them and they were very nice people. It was fun to watch Mary and Alanna reminisce while Rick and I talked about life in general. I learned about their family and Rick had questions about our RV lifestyle. It was a good night with good food and even better people.

Tuesday was a shorter travel day so we didn't have to leave at the crack of dawn. Next stop was Berea Kentucky. There was a little confusion between Google Maps and outdated Garmin but we made it to OH Kentucky campground. The place looked familiar and we agreed we had stayed here before but couldn't remember when or where we were going at the time. It was raining off and on and sirens were going off but nobody seemed too concerned. Apparently there is one siren for severe thunder storms and another for tornados. We found out which building was for storm shelter and went to our site to set up since the rain had stopped for the moment. We got some rain but the winds had died down. All was good.

 By morning the rain was gone but was replaced by fog. A short trip down the highway and we stopped at another Bucees for fuel and breakfast. 320 miles that day turned out to be just about the ideal amount of travel for us these days. Still trying to catch up on sleep from the graduation whirlwind but doing fine. As much as Google screwed up the day before it redeemed itself this day. Google notified us of a road closure ahead and automatically routed us around it. It was a good day for Google Maps. The KOA in Perrysburg would be our last stop before entering Michigan.

I'm going to stop here and see what we have planned for the day, whatever day it is. I will continue later from our home near Saginaw because.....

Home is where we park it,

Frank and Mary