Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Campfire!

The title of this entry seems to say it all. I am going to condense the rest of this week since we saw and did a variety of things and I want to highlight the more interesting of those entities.

We had to make a Walmart run and the closest store was in Traverse City. We decided to make a day of it and headed off onto some back roads the GPS lead us down. I guess it was in the mood to see some of the little known sites (and roads) so it finally got us to Traverse City and let me tell you, it was a busy place. We learned that this week was the week of the Traverse City Film Festival. The festival brings an enormous amount of people into that area and the retail stores were in heaven! After going to Walmart, we drove along the shore of Lake Michigan and noticed the small beach areas and numerous parks. After a short cruise, we parked the car downtown behind the stores and walked onto the main street.

The streets were buzzing with activity and most of the stores were open and filled with customers. A large banner stretching across the street proclaimed The Traverse City Film Festival and we were amazed at how many little shops there were with such a variety of unique things for sale. One store caught our eye, since it was cherry season, so we went inside. It is called the Cherry Republic and had everything that could be made from cherries. We sampled the various cherry sodas, chocolate covered cherry pieces, cherry wines and a host of other samples. They even had a Sangria made specifically for cherry soda. Of course we again helped the economy of the area with our purchases.

We traveled around town and was told one of the better places to eat was only a few blocks up town at Bubbas. So we started walking...and walking...and walking some more. I guess the girl in the Cherry Republic store must always take her car there because this was no short walk. We finally found Bubbas and went in. We ended up eating at the bar where the drinks came quick and the the food was also quite fast. I had a burger and Peg had a Chicken Quesadillas. Both were very good. We carbed-up for the lengthy walk back to the car!

The next night we drove to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and took the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive up to the top of the dunes. You park and walk about 1/4 mile to the edge of the dune and a view to die for! You look over Lake Michigan from the dunes and the suspended viewing platform/walkway. It was a great sunset that evening as you can see by these two photos. Quite a number of people apparently thought the same thing since the area seemed to be a popular place. I was shooting video while Peg took photos. I got my phone camera out and snapped a few shots as well.

On day three (Thursday) we hung out at the campsite at Indigo Bluffs. I worked on the American RVer show for August and and Peg watched some TV and made some cherry tarts (go figure) and some rice pudding for one of our meals.  So, since we had an uneventful day, we decided to have our campfire tonight. One of the things I noticed about this area is the lack of bugs. At night, there were few mosquitos and it was really pleasant to sit out by the fire. The air was cool, just right to watch the flames jump up towards the sky and feel the heat. Of course we had to make some s'mores (a diabetic's nightmare) which we chased down with our newly purchased wine. A nice ending to that day.

Our vacation at Indigo Bluffs was really nice but it ended too soon. I hope to go back up there another summer and check out more of the area and maybe even go swimming in Lake Michigan. Tomorrow we follow RV friends Millie and Jerry Cohen north to Hearthside Grove in Petosky, Michigan. Hearthside is supposed to be a very high end RV Resort and we have heard a lot about it. Since we are this close, and we could get a free night there, we decided to try it out...

The Michigan Experience

We're on vacation so we get up late and go to bed late. My kind of schedule! Peg awoke earlier than I and began to plan our week long itinerary. We ate breakfast outside on the patio and it was wonderful. The weather was suppose to be beautiful the next few days with temperatures in the 80's and low humidity. I decided to wash the bugs off the front of the motorhome and then we had a simple lunch.

Time got away from us so it was 4:00pm before we headed up to Leland and the Fishtown area. We passed several beautiful blue lakes on the way. A winery came into view so we thought we had better stop and help out the local economy! Good Harbor Winery has been in business since the 80's and they always wanted to make wine that was affordable to the general public. Their prices ranged from about $8-12. We did a wine tasting and then purchased a few of our favorites.

Of course one of those favorites was a cherry wine. The cherries are being harvested this time of year and cherry trees could be seen all along the highways and byways in this area. We stopped at a roadside stand to get some cherries and a couple of ears of corn for dinner. I stopped to take a few photos of a stand of cherry trees along one of our routes.

We drove on to Leland. We parked the car and wondered around the town and found Carlson's, THE place to purchase fish. We got some white fish and smoked trout. This was a quaint little town and the shop keepers were friendly. One told us about a good place to eat north of town called Fischer's Happy Hour Bar. Sounded good to us...So we headed out. We drove quite a while and we almost stopped and turned around but the GPS keep pushing us on. We did finally find it, along with MANY other visitors. We squeezed the car in to a spot and got a table inside. Peg had fried chicken and I had the biggest fried clams I had ever seen. All the food was as good as advertised!

It was getting late so we headed back to Indigo Bluffs. The sun sets late this time of year so it doesn't get dark until after 9:30pm. I stayed outside and read a little but Peg was getting cold (yes cold) and she went in to do some reading.  The TV came on after 9:00pm and we retired later that night. A good day!

Finally. . .On Vacation in Empire, Michigan!

We arrived at Indigo Bluffs just about 3 miles from Empire, Michigan. We took many two lane roads to get here, but most of them were pretty good, even in a motorhome. We had won a week stay at Indigo Bluffs last year and decided to use the stay this year since were were going to be "up in this neck of the woods!" 

Indigo Bluffs has two RV parks back to back. One is their "Resort" area where the sites are very large and separated from each other with beautiful wildflowers. The campground consists of much tighter sites and looks more like a typical public campground. We loved the spot we were in and it had pavers for both the coach and for us to sit on. An above ground fire pit is provided and firewood can be purchased for $5/bundle. We got one bundle and figured we would enjoy a fire later this week.

The roads into the resort are paved and make a great bike riding path. We got our bikes out and road throughout the resort and enjoyed the flowers and cooler weather. 

The first night we headed over to Glen Arbor and after walking over sand dunes for about 1/2 mile to the shore of Lake Michigan to take some photos at sunset (photo above), we ate at Arts Tavern. We had burgers, onion rings and fried smelt. That hit the spot! When we returned to the motorhome, we left the windows open for a cool nights sleep.

The Lake House at Cold Water, Michigan

We drove across Indiana on the I80 toll road to the tune of $21.70! We arrived at James and Jennifer's lake house where Patsy was staying at about 2:00pm. We parked across the street from their small cottage in a lot they bought which had a garage on it. They were not allowed to build anything else on the site and it had plenty of room for us to back the motorhome in in front of the garage. They brought out a 120v, 20 amp power cord for us to get a little power into the RV.

We had a lot of company with almost all of Patsy's family there at the cottage as well as some of James and Jennifer's friends. Peg went swimming in the lake with Patsy, James, Jim, Danielle and friends kids Jack and Diana with their dad Brian. Mom Samantha, Jennifer and I stayed on the shore and watched. We had a nice taco dinner and cooked up some s'mores around the camp fire that evening. The sunset was beautiful over the still lake water.

Didn't get back to the motorhome until 11:30pm and it was still a bit warm. We ran the vent fans and keep the covers off for the night.

The following morning we had a big breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes and said our goodbyes to Patsy and the family, hooked up the car and headed off to Empire, Michigan which was about a 5 hour drive. It was great seeing Patsy again and she always makes us feel like we are part of her family. It was sad that her husband, Gary, who passed away last year, was not there to be with us all.

Leisure Lake RV Park - Joliet, Illinois

The WIT Rally was over and we headed out for Chicago and then to Michigan to see our friend Patsy. We made it to the town of Joliet, Illinois. We found a nice RV "resort" on the shore of a small lake. It was a nice place to rest for the night. They only had a few sites available, so we were lucky to find a place. The price was high at $35 for the night. We also had a scare getting to the resort since the service road looked like it was going to dead end but it continued around a curve and we then saw the park.

Tomorrow we should make it to Patsy's daughters lake house.

We Arrive in Forest City, Iowa

Arrived in Forest City at about 4:30pm and headed for Pammel Park which is close to the middle of town along a bubbling brook. Because we do not own a Winnebago motorhome, we can not park on the Winnebago grounds, so we are happy to stay about a mile down the road at this park. There is more room between RV's. We stayed here last year as well. We were not facing the creek this time because we could not get satellite reception in the available sites.

Next to us were Don and Kim Greene of Harvest Hosts (see photo), a membership organization that allows you to park overnight at a variety of vineyards and farms across the country. They turned out to be nice folks and we went out to dinner with them later in the week.

Tonight was the celebration of the Puckerbush Festival in Forest City. They have a great fireworks display in the evening at the park, next to where the RV's are parked. We got our chairs out and moved to the edge of the park where the fireworks were directly overhead...Pretty intense! Good thing we had our Thermacell mosquito repellent unit with us because the bugs were terrible! That unit worked great!

Tomorrow we set up for the rally and we will be here all week. The second photo is of our booth here at Winnebago.

On Our Way to WIT Rally in Iowa

We were on the road again and headed to the Winnebago WIT Rally in Forest City, Iowa. Our first stop was in Oklahoma and an RV park in a small town called Big Cabin. The park was basically a cow pasture that they put a fence around it to keep the cattle out and then they added RV sites with a gravel road. It worked. The sites were quite level but it was out in the open with no shade or anything to block the wind. It did have 50 amp service but the voltage was pretty low.

Peg and I were working on producing a book for one of our clients so we planned on staying late the next morning to catch up on some work for him. Did a couple loads of laundry and then headed out about 11:30am.

Dave and Jan at home

We made it to the Elks Lodge in Blue Springs, Missouri. We had stayed there once before. Everyone is quite friendly and we had a refreshment and then headed over to Peg's sister Jan's house for dinner. Stayed until about 9:30pm and headed back to the Elks Lodge and the RV. This RV area at the side of the Elks Lodge is on a hill and is gravel filled. I am always a little uneasy staying here because of the severe drop off behind the coach, but I always chock the tires so they do not roll back.

We have a long drive to Forest City tomorrow so we will be heading out in the morning.

Visit With Rick and Joanne in Oklahoma City

We had gone out to dinner with Rick and Joanne Stone during the week of the Fleetwood Rally and they had taken us into the Bricktown area of Oklahoma City. Bricktown is the stockyard area and it shows the old world style of what Oklahoma City used to look like. We ate at the Cattleman's Restaurant. I think everyone was eating there that night! It is THE place to eat in the Bricktown area because, as Rick and Joanne told us, "Their steaks are the best in town." Yes...They were very good!

So after our dinner and short walk around the stockyard area that night mid-week, Peg and I took the Stones' up on their offer to show us more of the city after the rally ended. 

Did you know that Oklahoma City has a canal/river walk which takes you through many shops, stores and some very interesting tourist-like areas. We walked past many of the factories and mills that are still part of the landscape, but have been replaced by modern shops and eateries. We had dinner at Zio's Italian Kitchen, which has a very Italian ambience, so much so that it reminded me of some of the places Peg and I dined at while in Italy.

After dinner we walked some more and saw the Devon Mosiac which is along the canal and incorporates a water feature into the mosaic design. There were many artistic areas of the walk along the canal, and we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and Rick and Joanne's commentary of the area. At one point of our stroll along the water, we walked by the ballpark where the minor league team, the Oklahoma City Redhawks play. Again there were wonderful bronze statues of baseball players at the neat looking entrance to the stadium.

Rick and Joanne also took us to the Oklahoma Land Run Monument, a series of giant bronze sculptures which depicts the Land Run of April 22nd, 1889 that opened "Oklahoma, Indian Territory" up to homesteading by settlers. The monument, which sits on the banks of the Bricktown Canal in Oklahoma City, depicts dozens of horses, wagons, soldiers, and cowboys in a race to settle the newly opened lands.It is big and impressive and there are boat tours on the canal that eventually end up at the sculptures.

As evening approached, Rick and Joanne had one last thing on the agenda for our city tour. It was the Memorial for the bombing of the Federal Building on April 19, 1995. We arrived at dusk and there were several other people walking around the reflecting pool which is located where the building used to stand. An eerie feeling came over me as we entered that main area of the memorial. There are 168 chairs, lighted at the base, called the "Field of Empty Chairs" which stand in nine rows signifying the nine floors of the building and depicting the lives lost in that bombing. 19 smaller chairs stand for the lives of children lost in the bombing.

The reflecting pool stands between two "Gates of Time", the east gate marked 901 (9:01am-the innocence before the attack) and the west gate 903 (9:03am-the moment we were changed forever), signifying the moment of destruction, in time, of the Federal Building and the people in and around it. There was also a survivor wall on the east side of the memorial made out of the only standing walls of the Murrah Building. More than 600 names are inscribed on salvaged pieces of granite from the building lobby.

Across the street on the corner at a church, a statue stands of Jesus with his back turned toward the memorial and his hand over his face entitled, "Jesus Wept" depicting the sad course of events that played out here at this site. I think seeing all these things at night held a special meaning for us and a solemn reminder that we are all vulnerable at any time during our existence here on this earth!

We said goodbye to Rick and Joanne and thanked them for the eye-opening look at some of what Oklahoma City has to offer. Peg and I really enjoyed our time with our fellow RV friends and we realized how nice it is to have met folks that live all over this country. It is sad to leave friends, but always nice to come together at rallies, events or when passing through their hometowns! Tomorrow we head back to McKinney...

Fleetwood Rally in Shawnee, Oklahoma

Peg with customers at the MCD display

Finally arrived in Shawnee, OK for the Fleetwood Rally. Set up the MCD booth and prepared for the show. The rally was not terribly busy, sales wise, but we made many good contacts and helped several folks with minor shade repairs or adjustments.

We had some issues with power where we first were parked at the rally. It was a 30 amp service  and ofter the first day of the show, we returned to a VERY warm coach since the breaker on the pedestal tripped and the temps were in the high 90's. I reset the breaker and later it tripped again. We decided to move the coach to the vendor parking area where it was not grassy (a dirt/rock parking lot) but it did have two 30 amp connections and, with my cheater box, we now had the equivalent of a 50 amp service so both A/C units could be run.

Of course it rained mid-week and we ended up residing in a lake that surrounded the motorhome! Gee, it looked okay when we first parked there!!

The week moved by fast and before we knew it, we were packing the booth up and getting it loaded into the coach. We decided to hang out near here in the Oklahoma City area for the Fourth of July weekend and have an extended visit with our friends Rick and Joanne Stone...

Tire Blow-out While Heading For Shawnee, OK

The Fleetwood Rally we were heading to is in Shawnee, Oklahoma this year. We left MCD's parking lot at 3:20pm and headed west on Rt 380 towards Rt. 35, then north. As we crossed the border from Texas into Oklahoma of Interstate 35, we heard a loud "bang"! Peg was on the telephone with Dave, the owner of MCD and she told him we think a tire blew on the motorhome. I pulled the coach over and saw the passenger side rear fender well was blown out at an angle from the coach and I could see the inner dual was blown apart and looking like an afro hair dew from all the steel belts sticking up out of the tire.

Blown Tire - New Tire

We got on the cell phone to Coach Net and they had a heck of a time locating a correct size tire to replace the one we blew. A few hours later, they called back and said they located a tire and company that could come out and mount it. We also had our air ride air line cut in the blow-out, so Coach Net found another company that could come out and replace that line. In the meantime, we were sitting on the side of the northbound lane between exits one and two on I-35. 

Wheel Well Damage

I decided to try and get the blown out fender well back into place as we waited for the tire company to come. I was successful getting it back into place and securing it by the time the new tire and crew arrived. Unfortunately, the compressor on the repair truck kept blowing fuses and they could not remove the old rims or change the tire. They headed back to their shop for another truck and, about that time, the air line crew arrived. Their compressor did work and they pulled the two duals off the rear so they could get to the air line.

New Coiled Air Line Installed

These guys replaced the air line with a coiled quick connect line and when I aired up, it began to leak at one of the fittings. They tightened it as the tire crew returned. The new truck and compressor were functioning and they made quick work of getting the new tire mounted and onto the coach. Both crews were paid and left and as I aired up the coach again I heard the airline hissing. We called that crew and they returned and worked on the line again. It looked good, they left and again I heard it leaking. They were called and returned again and finally took their time and used other fittings to get the line secured and stop it from leaking. They were happy and I was happy.

Winstar Casino Sign on I-35

We were now on the side of I-35 for five hours! It was getting dark and too late to continue any farther this day, so we limped to the Winstar Casino Campground at the next exit. They told us if we get a Player's Card from the casino, we can get our money back for the night of camping. We did get Player's Cards and when we returned to the RV Park, we brought them in to get the refund and they refused us. They said we paid with cash and not with a credit card so they could not give us a refund. Of course we were never told that when we paid! A perfect ending to a not so perfect day!! At least we were finally off the road.

Tomorrow we will hopefully travel on to Shawnee...

Middlebury Vermont with Don and Barb

Noonies Deli

It is Saturday and our last day in the Vermont area. We are to meet up with good friends Don and Barb Wood who live in Glens Falls, New York where Peg and I built our broadcast TV station several years ago. It was another delightful drive to Middlebury and we met up with the Wood's in a shopping center.

Falls in the Town of Middlebury

Texas Falls

First order of business was lunch. We found a quaint little sandwich shop called Noonies. It doesn't look like much but it was packed with people and we had some great sandwiches, made to order, there. The deli was located near some falls in town and an area called Marble Square. There were not too many shops open today so we decided to head out of town to look at a National Forest called, of all things, Texas Falls. We drove along some rocky creeks, steep grades and typical Vermont scenery to finally get there. Texas Falls is located in the Green Mountains of Vermont.

Peg, Barb and Don

The falls were very nice and we noticed a bunch of butterflies were hanging around a newly built bridge at the falls. The water looked cool and refreshing and we got some nice photos of the area and our friends. It was really good to see them again. Like with many of our friends, we don't see them as often as we would like.

Little did we know, our flight out of Burlington the next day was cancelled. Do you see any pattern here? This time the airlines did put us up in a hotel for the night and gave us food vouchers (to use at the airport) so we spent another night in Vermont. The next day we got up at 3:30 am, took the shuttle back to the airport and did fly out at 6 am. Made it back to Dallas with no further problems.

End of the Newmar Rally Week-Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry's Factory

It is Friday and we began packing up the MCD booth. We drove the packed shipping boxes to the main office at the Expo Center and had them hold the items for Fed-Ex shipping. Since we were then officially done at the rally, we decided to drive to Waterbury, Vermont and to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory. 
 

The factory is as colorful as Ben and Jerry themselves. We took the tour of the plant and Jim was singled out to ring the bell for the start of the tour. At the end of the tour, we all received a free tasting of that great ice cream. After the tour, we looked around the gift shop and Jim had to buy a tie dyed Ben & Jerry's T-shirt. We also purchased some "half baked" ice cream.

The factory had a lot of memorabilia we looked at and some pretty cool areas with bright colors for kids and adults alike. It is located in a rural area (where else?) in the hills of Vermont. It was such a nice day and the drive through the hills was great after a long week of being inside as vendors.

Tomorrow we meet old friends Barb and Don Woods in Middlebury, Vermont for a quick get together before we leave the area.