What's up?

    I've had several friends send me an email asking me what's up because I haven't posted in a week.  I have also missed some major happenings in friends lives in the last week or so.  So congratulations on the new rig, Jim and Sandie, and on the new grandbaby, Julie and Mike!

   One of the problems we've had is internet, or lack thereof.   Staying camped in the manufacturers and repair shop's parking lot has meant no real access to internet.  We're having a problem tethering to my phone, which is our back-up internet, so the only internet we've had is by tethering to Paul's phone which is so slow, it's hardly worth it, so we only do it for short periods for important stuff.   Once our daughter moves in on Sunday, we'll use her Iphone to create a hot spot and hopefully that will solve our issues for now.  I feel amazingly cut off from the world when I can't log on whenever my heart desires.  Meanwhile when we get good download speeds we'll reload the software for my phone and see if we can get that back up and running, but we've been so busy, its a low priority.

   Having our home parked in the repair facilities/manufacturers parking lot really takes a toll on daily life.  At one place, they took the 5th wheel inside and we weren't allowed in the building.  That didn't make Paul very happy.  The cat has had to spend all day, every day, in his carrier, on the bed.  I'd say he hasn't been happy, but really I think he just slept through the day anyway.  Once we got back to DRV, the manufacturer, they pulled the rig in the building but they allowed us to stay in it.  Much better, but we can't do much because they need full access to inside and out.  I read books all day, and Paul followed the workers around, either learning from them, or showing them stuff.  At least he was happier there- felt like he was part of the process, and that the trailer was getting fixed properly.

     This trailer had/has quite a few issues with it.  Most of the important ones have been fixed at this point, and we have an appointment in October to fix the rest.  Paul ended up fixing some things himself, partly for something to do, partly because he wanted it done his way.  It was funny to see that by the time we left DRV,  "they" trusted Paul's knowledge enough that they asked for his opinion and input. 
     After our initial few days at DRV, we moved to the other repair place,which was almost a waste of time.  Several small issues got taken care of, but the two major things they tried to fix, were in worse shape when they were done, causing another two days of work to be needed.  The original caulking on the roof was a "bad batch" and didn't cure, remaining completely wet to the touch.  DRV knew there had been a problem and the caulking was supposed to be completely replaced.  But the repair guys didn't take out all of the old caulking.  In a lot of spots they put the good stuff over the old stuff and in the process tracked the wet stuff all over the roof, creating an absolute mess.  They were also supposed to fix the mechanism that brings the slide room in and out, but they adjusted it in the wrong direction, causing an issue that actually would void our warranty on the slide.  So, DRV had to have the manufacturer of that part come out to look at it and fix it.
     After a few days at the repair place (notice I am not mentioning any names), we decided we were done with them, and went back to DRV first thing Monday morning.  They then spent the next few days fixing and re-fixing the trailer.  The refrigerator has been fixed twice already- we think it's all set now.  The caulking issue has been fixed twice, the slides have been fixed twice and still aren't right.  Our Keyless door entry has had all the parts replaced twice, and finally works (turns out the instructions were wrong?). One of our cabinets couldn't be opened because it hits the light fixture.  They are custom cabinets, so DRV didn't realize that would happen. Paul created a new light fixture, using  parts from 3 different ones.   The rest of the issues were more minor, and for the most part, we are satisfied, or Paul has decided he'll do it himself.


traffic jam!

     So, it hasn't been a ball of fun for the last two weeks, but really, in the scheme of life, it's not that big a deal. We did manage to do some sightseeing.  Not too much since the temperature hovered at 100 during the day.  We went shopping in Shipshewana.  I've never been there so it was new for me.  There are a lot of Amish who live in this area.  I found it interesting the differences between here and Lancaster, PA, another area with a large Amish population.  In the Lancaster area, it seems that the Amish are the tourist attraction, and much is made of things being "Amish made", "Amish grown".  Here, it feels less like a tourist attraction and more like just an area where the Amish and the English both happen to live, somewhat intermingling in their everyday lives.
  We have now left DRV and arrived in Muncie Indiana!  We had dinner with our daughter last night for the first time in 2 months.  Over the next few days we'll move her out of her apartment and into the trailer for the next couple of months.

Zipping around the Midwest (7-20-11)

    After spending a week in Muskegon MI getting settled into the new home, we have moved to Indiana.   Before accepting the trailer, we got agreement from the factory that we could go directly there to get all our issues resolved.  Of course, after we left our dealer and called to make arrangements with the factory, they told us they couldn't fit us into their schedule.  HA.  A bunch of phone calls later, they agreed again to do the work, with the understanding that we might have to stay a day or two so they could work on the trailer in the afternoons.  
         We stopped first in Canton, to put some things in storage and go "shopping".  We pulled out about 8 feet of stuff in our storage unit, to see what we could get rid of, and what we might want to have with us.  We need to make room so that Jess will have some space for her stuff.  We did get rid of a lot!  While we were there we had some friends over for dinner to show off the new trailer, but we were only there for 2 nights, so not too much socializing for us. Before we left Canton,  the refrigerator stopped working.  Paul got it going again and first thing this morning the technician reset it.  Unfortunately, by this afternoon it wasn't working again and Paul had to reset the thermostat again. 
      After sitting at the DRV factory all day today, they told us they didn't have time to work on our unit, and that we would probably need to be there for a week in order for them to have time to fix everything on our list.  We went to speak with the customer service manager, who came out to look at the trailer and seemed to be appalled with the way we were given the run-around, and with the issues we have with the trailer.  So, he has sent us to a nearby repair facility that does have the time to fix all of the problems this week.  Some things are pretty minor- buffing of fibreglass and caulking the shower, but there are a couple of bigger issues too.   It's a little discouraging but overall we're still happy with the quality of the trailer.  It's hard to sit around for too many days though.  With temperatures soaring we can't leave the cat in the truck at all, and if he is in the trailer he has to be in his carrier so the workers can go in and out.  Poor Dozer!
Paul's new saying:  "How do you know a salesman is lying?  His lips are moving."

Our new home! (07-11-11)

We picked up our new Mobile Suites 36TKSB4 on Monday, July 11th!
    The day didn’t start out very well, but I guess we were still lucky, all in all.  We woke up abruptly to the sound of 60-70 MPH wind gusts buffeting against the Alpine, raising the awning like a flag.  With a torrential downpour, complete with thunder and lightning, a squall line was coming through.  Paul ran outside to hold onto the awning, and I followed right behind.  For about 10 minutes we hung onto it, in the wind and the rain, successfully rescuing it from being ripped right off the side of the trailer.  If we hadn’t been planning on trading in the Alpine in about 2 hours, I’m not sure we would have been so stupid.  But, like I said, we were lucky.  8 awnings were destroyed in the RV park and one trailer was moved about 2 feet, off the blocks it was sitting on.  That couple was trying to hold their awning too, but when the awning became a sail, and the trailer started moving, they went inside.  Their awning was facing the wind, a much more dangerous situation.  We heard later that the storm was so bad, numerous trees were down, and about 50,000 people were without power.
        Anyway, after that, we were anxious to get rid of the Alpine before something did happen to it!    We got to the dealership early, dodging a second storm that was due to come through later in the morning.  We spent 4 hours going through the new trailer, checking to make sure everything works.  There are a few issues, and they forgot to do one of our customizations- installing the wires for outside speakers- so we are headed to the factory next week to get that taken care of.  At about 3 pm we gave our final acceptance of the new rig!
    That’s when the real fun began.  We swung into action in 87 degree weather, moving all of our belongings to the new trailer.  At least it wasn’t raining, but the humidity was awful.  It took us 5 hours.  In the end, we were just throwing things in there because the dealership closed at 8 pm and we wanted to get back to the RV park before dark anyway.  Once we were back at the RV park, it took us another 2 hours to get things to the point where we could go to bed.
    Dozer seems to have adjusted ok.  As usual, he needs to find and explore every nook and cranny of his new surroundings. This trailer has a completely different layout than the last two, so he is a little more unsure of himself. 
      Tuesday morning we got our recliners that we had ordered 6 weeks ago from the local Art Van store.  They worked out perfectly. 
The last few days have been crazy busy, settling in and making decisions.  I am amazed at how many people stop and comment on the trailer or the truck.  Honestly, the truck gets just as much attention.  6 people have already expressed an interest in seeing the inside of the trailer, but we put them off until its more set up. 
I did finally decide it was cleaned up enough that I could post the pictures of it, although we still have a long way to go before its how we want it.
If you hover over the picture, you’ll see the description, if there is one.
   
            
 

Traverse City, MI (7-10-11)

We knew when we came to Cherry Festival that we wouldn’t spend the whole week doing Cherry Festival things.  We picked several events we wanted to go to, and planned accordingly.

         We took an Orchard tour on Friday.  The tour starts with a tasting room where they serve all kinds of things made with cherries, including bread, ice cream, salsa, and muffins.  We had fun trying a bunch of stuff before heading to the open air wagon for the orchard tour.  This land was bought by local farmers and is leased to Michigan State University.  The school performs  growing experiments with cherry trees as well as other local crops, like grapes.  There are 80 wineries in the Traverse City area.  They experiment with planting, strains of trees, soil etc. and help the farmers find new strategies for growing crops.

That same day we attended the Cherry Grand  Buffet. Believe me, it sounds much grander than it was.  We’ll try anything once, but we sure won’t be going  back to this “grand” buffet again.  They advertised  a live show as entertainment while we ate, and the show wasn’t too bad for local talent, but our sitting of the buffet was scheduled for an hour and a half.  The show was over in 35 minutes (Paul said he was fine with that!).  The food was just ok, served on paper plates, with only Pepsi or water left to drink by the time we got there.  They also ran out of dessert       ( chocolate chip cookies) long  before we went looking for them.  Oh well. It was a different experience, for sure.

Other days were spent exploring the area.  Carol and Larry came up for a day and we all took off to Leelanau Peninsula, an area that Paul and I have never been to before.  The weather was perfect for a drive!  We stopped at the Grand Traverse Light house, at the tip of Leelanau Peninsula and wandered around the grounds.

    There are several small, interesting villages in this area.  We stopped in Leland, a town on the water, with a unique shopping area, called Fishtown.  It consists of old shanties along the water,  that were rescued from being  bought by a real estate developer, and turned into small  boutiques and restaurants. We started out with drinks and appetizers outside at the Cove Restaurant. The weather was perfect when we got there, but by the time we got our drinks, the sun was gone and the wind had picked up, so we moved inside to have dinner.  

 











Yesterday we put the dinghy in the water on Grand Traverse Bay. I know I go on and on about how beautiful the water is up here, but it really does look like the Caribbean, and  being out there on the dinghy didn’t disappoint.  The weather was perfect for a dinghy day- no wind, and it was hot.  Really hot.  The lake water is not as cold as the ocean back home in MA, but its  still “refreshing”. 







That brings us to today. Today we left Traverse City, regretfully.  I am sure we’ll be back.  We both loved it there and want to spend more time in this area.  At our campground there we met a very friendly family, staying in the rig next to us.  In the course of the conversation, we mentioned that we are getting our new Mobile Suites soon.  They wanted to see what our Alpine looks like inside, so we gave them the tour.  They liked it so much, it looks like they’ll be buying it.  Not from us.  We are trading it in tomorrow.  They have contacted the dealer and it looks like they may have a deal.  It’s a good opportunity for them to get a 2012 5th wheel at a used 5th wheel price.   I hope it works out for them!
So, tomorrow, if all goes well, we’ll have our new home.

Cherry Festival- Traverse City, MI (7-5-11)

                                                                       Traverse City is high on our list of favorite places right now.  In fact, it’s high on our list of places we could see ourselves  living- but only six months of the year!  I really wouldn’t want to spend the winters here, but who wouldn’t want to wake up to this view every morning?

  

Of course one of the first things we had to do when we arrived in Traverse City was to eat Cherry Pie.  In fact we’ve already done that several times this week, and I doubt we’re done.  We also got some fresh cherries but since the spring has been so bad, the cherries were brought in from further south- the Traverse City cherries are not ripe yet.

We’ve wandered the grounds of the festival and enjoyed the music, the food and the carnival atmosphere.

July 4th here reminded me a lot of July 4 back in Boston.  The fireworks are set off from a barge out in the harbor, which means people can enjoy them both from the shore and from boats.

 

The West Coast- of Michigan (7-1-11)

I would say that the west coast of Michigan is the most beautiful part of the state, but in reality, Michigan has a lot of beautiful areas.   The west “coast” is definitely one of them.  We  spent 3 days in Muskegon, a town that is located on the shores of Lake Michigan. 

The RV park we stayed in was one of the “resort” types.  It happened to be very kid/family oriented, which was fine with us, except every time we drove the truck we thought we were going to run one of the critters over with it.  It was entertaining at times, however.

     The new trailer isn’t ready, of course, in fact it apparently needs the paint touched up before they can ship it to MI.  Who knows if that’s the real issue, since we aren’t there to see it, but in any case, the earliest we could get it would be July 11th and even that it is starting to look “iffy”, since the factory is on shut down for the holiday week.  We canceled the delivery  of the recliners and headed out to explore the Muskegon area.  We stopped for Ice cream along the way (bad habit of mine) and attached to the ice cream parlor was a photo gallery with the most awesome pictures of Bald Eagles that I’ve seen.  We talked to the photographer, who also happens to own the ice cream parlor, and found out that the pictures were taken locally and that there are several pairs of nesting Bald Eagles nearby, with eaglets in the nest right now.  We didn’t have time to check it out, but we’ll hopefully have more time next week when we go back to pick up the trailer.
     A friend of mine that I used to work with, Carol, and her husband Larry keep a trailer in the nearby town of Pentwater.  Coincidentally, they are good friends with Al and Debbie- and Paul worked with Al for many years at Ford, so the 6 of us have actually gotten together before.  Al and Debbie keep a trailer right next door to Carol.  Paul and I headed up to Pentwater to visit, and see  the sights with Larry and Carol. 
The town of Pentwater is a really cute, active and interesting town, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Someday we’ll take the dinghy out and around the lakes in the area.

 Our sightseeing trip included a stop at the Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant.  In the early 1970s a reservoir was built at a higher elevation than nearby Lake Michigan.  There are 6 turbines that connect the reservoir to the lake.  The water is pumped UP to the reservoir at night, when the electricity needed to power the pumps is less expensive.  Then when the demand (and price) for electricity goes up during the day, the water is released through the turbines, generating enough electricity to service 1.3  million customers.

      Back at Carol and Larry’s trailer, we enjoyed dinner and a campfire before heading back home for the night after a great day.
      I mentioned to Paul this morning that I have noticed a big difference between this year and the previous year.  Last year we were focused on seeing places- this year we have spent much more time seeing people.  Not that we haven’t been to interesting places as well, but we’ve been much more social.  From the Escapees rendezvous in January, we met up with friends in New Orleans, spent time with our daughter in IN, then met up with friends in NY before spending time with family and friends in Boston.  From there we saw more friends in NY, and have spent time with friends on both sides of Michigan.   We have another couple of weeks to travel and then we will be in Muncie Indiana for a month, supplying a home to our daughter while she works for a few weeks before heading to Michigan for her wedding.
    On a side note, I am now using Live Writer to compose my blog posts, then uploading the finished product, with pictures already inserted (thanks Elaine!).  Anyone who uses BlogSpot has probably had the same issues inserting pictures into their blogs.  They don’t  always stay where you put them, creating a disjointed look to the page. Live Writer is much easier to use, plus it saves a copy of the post on my computer, saving me the trouble of copying the post into Word.  I have had two issues though.  One, I don’t always remember to use Live Writer, therefore not all of my posts are saved on my computer (and I am too lazy to copy them after the fact) and I still have issues with pictures, just not with posting them.  Usually I save my pictures in an album on Picasa, and post them into the blog from there.  But eventually, I end up deleting excess pictures, or at least moving them to an album titled “unneeded pictures”.  The problem is, if I move pictures that are posted in the blog, I don’t think they can be seen in the blog post anymore.  I am not sure that happens with the pictures I have posted using Live Writer, but maybe in order to resolve the issue I’ll have to sit down and reorganize how I store my pictures.  If any of my blogger friends have a suggestion, I am open to it!