Self induced Stress (09-20-12)

   Even before we arrived in the Novi area of Michigan, Paul and I had a list of things to get done, and several appointments already set- from doctors to haircuts. We set all of those appointments for our first week here, just in case there were any issues that needed to be addressed before we leave again. There were other things that were “time critical” to get done in the first week, such as bringing my sapphire ring to a jewelers to get it fixed and finally framing the cross stitch that I was supposed to have finished.  Oops.  Well, since I didn’t quite get it done, I guess we don’t have to worry about getting it framed quite yet, although I am determined to get it done soon!



"the kids" start right in with their bickering



   Our daughter has a new  full time job, and hasn’t left her old job yet, so between work and school, she hasn’t had much time available to visit with us, but we are spending as much time as possible with her.  She does have next weekend off finally, so we might get a whole day together!

We have done our “fall” clean out of our trailer, taking out things that we have decided we don’t want to keep anymore and either putting them in storage, or giving them to Good Will. 

       There are many ways of “fulltime” RVing.  Some people sell absolutely everything, and only keep what they can fit in their rig, some sell most things and give mementos to a family member to keep, some keep a home or a cottage as a base, and travel most of the year, and some, like us, keep a storage unit filled with things they might want some day.   Many people have questioned us as to whether it is worth keeping all the “stuff” we have in storage- after all, we are paying a fee every month, and it does add up over time.  But, yes, to us, it’s worth the price, at least at this point.  We both agree that we will want to settle down again someday, even though that day seems to drift further and further into the future, and we’ll want at least some of our stuff.  Paul builds furniture, so many of our best pieces were built by him, and we’ll want them when we stop moving.  He also has all the tools to build more furniture, so we don’t want to get rid of those either.  That being said, there definitely are some things we can weed out and we’ve spent some time over the last few days doing that.  On the Upside, I got to go “shopping” in our storage unit.  I grabbed some “new” clothes, figuring that they’ve already sat there for 3 years- so what I don’t want now I am giving away (mostly).

In addition to all of the above, Paul is spending some time working on Jess’s car, as well as the truck.  He has been very unhappy with the chips in the fenders of the truck, caused by flying rocks, and took the truck to the dealer to get it looked at.  He came away much happier, as he discovered that there is a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) on it, so we’ll be getting a new paint job on the fenders, in addition to new, larger, mud flaps, courtesy of Ford Motor Company.  He also ordered new shocks and airbags for the truck, and has already installed the new shocks.  The F450 does an amazing job of towing our trailer, but the front of the trailer, the part that “sits” over the truck is very heavy (pin weight).  It causes the rear of our truck to sag a bit, and the ride to be rougher than we would like.  The new shocks and airbags will help smooth out the ride, and keep the rear end from sagging.



Gary and Leeann

      We are also trying to squeeze in some visits with friends, but honestly, we’ve been so busy getting things done, we haven’t had much free time.  We did finally meet Gary and Leeann, who are also fulltimers who used to live in Michigan.  We've read their blog and chatted with them on forums, and it was nice to meet them in person!

Moving right along… (09-09-12)

Not that I am an expert, but I would have to say that I really thought the “Suites” rally in MI was quite good.  There were 17 Suites 5th wheels in attendance. 

Some people have fancier set ups than others. 

The schedule was loosely planned, leaving plenty of time for simple visiting or other activities.  Paul and I played our version of tennis for the first time in a year.  Our version consists of trying to see how many times in a row we can hit the ball to each other.  Our record volley is 23 times and we didn’t come close the other day.  More practice required.


 
  We had one pot luck dinner, and one group dinner at a restaurant while attending the rally.  We also had breakfast cooked for us on two of the mornings. 

For the most part the weather was great, but the night of the pot luck it was chilly and rainy, so we used one of the barn type buildings. 

  We had several campfires and lots of “tours” of rigs. Its always great to get ideas from other people about what customizations can be done to the rig to make life easier, or more fun.

We lit up several “Chinese Lanterns”- miniature hot air balloons that you light, then let go.  They float way up into the air and we could watch them for a few minutes before they burned out.

 

Once we left the rally, we headed to Indiana to get some warranty work done on the trailer.  There weren’t too many issues but we wanted to get them fixed, since our full warranty is up now. DRV is great to work with and helped us get things fixed up to our (Paul’s) satisfaction. While there, we met up with some of our new friends from the rally, who were also getting their rigs worked on, and we all went out to dinner at Maria’s Mexican Restaurant, which has some of the best Margaritas and Mexican food we’ve had in a long time (or, did the great Margaritas make us think the food was good??) 

In any case, we had a great time, but getting work done on the trailer is always stressful. First of all, they start work at 6 am, which means getting up at 5:00, eating, and pulling the slides in by 6 am. Then you get to sit around all day, and in my case, worry about the cat, who is sitting on the kitchen table, in his carrier, all day.  When they are done working, we set up for the night, just to do it all over again the next day.  We thought (hahaha) we only had one day’s work to be done, but its been 3 already, and we have one last thing to do- check the alignment on the trailer axles.  Hopefully it’s ok and we can make our run up to Michigan tonight.
    The alignment is done at a different shop, and the trip getting to it was a lovely (that’s sarcasm, Sheldon) adventure.  Indiana doesn’t do detours.  They just close roads.  So we get to an intersection that has a sign that says “road closed”.  Fine.  We take a left, so we can loop back around and find another way there. Nope.  “NO OUTLET”.  Lovely.  We tried 5 roads before we found one that took us around the road construction.  Since the project is long term ( there is no asphalt at all) you would think they could take two minutes to post some detour signs. It wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t dragging a 38ft trailer behind us.  With the trailer attached, there are many roads we can’t use, either because they aren’t wide enough, can’t handle our weight, or don’t have the trees trimmed high enough to clear the top of our trailer.

MN and MI (09-05-12)

We are now on our way to a Mobile Suites Rally in Michigan. It’s quite a drive from where we are to where we’re going, so some of our days are spent in the truck for hours at a time, trying to put some serious miles behind us. Of course, everything is relative- we don’t like traveling more than 200 miles in a day, so 275 miles sure seems like a lot!  Just ask the cat! We did stop in Duluth for two nights, partly because we couldn't fathom when we would ever come back this way again, so we figured we'd better check it out now!  We actually thought the town was really nice and had a lot to offer, and we packed a lot of adventure into the one day we had there. We started by driving down to the waterfront. Situated on Lake Superior, Duluth is the most inland seaport in the U.S.   Many freighters still come through this way, picking up raw materials.
 

We enjoyed watching the lift bridge open for the sailboats and freighters to go underneath, and were impressed that as the freighter cruised through, someone over a PA system explained to the watching crowds how the lift bridge works and gave the history of the ship that was currently coming through. 

The crew of each vessel gives one long and two short blasts of their massive horn,  as a courtesy salute to the bridge tender.  The bridge tender then blasts his horn in response,  tooting the same message.  Paul grinned as he said that as impressive as they were, he didn't have horn envy (well, actually, we both thought the freighter horn sounded really cool!).

Along the waterfront there are the usual shops, hotels, boat excursions, and a museum of the Army Corp of Engineers.  We headed to that (free) museum to read about the local history of the COE.  This is where I love modern technology.  After the first 20 minutes, I started playing on my cell phone while Paul took his time exploring the exhibits.  


a walking boardwalk right next to the bike path!



Duluth also has several bike trails so we got out the bikes and realized it had been almost a year since we'd ridden them!  That will have to change, although to be fair, it was partly  because of my broken wrist.   After riding the 12 mile round trip trail that follows along Lake Superior for a while we decided that was enough for our first day back at it.

               

On the way back to the trailer, we drove up the local scenic drive, Skyline Drive which gave us a great view of the seaport, then stopped at Walmart to pick up some diesel oil.  Paul chatted with someone the other day who changes his own oil on his F350, so Paul has decided to change ours from now on too.  We'll save about $150-250 a year by doing it ourselves, plus he'll change  the fuel filter too, which will save us even more.