Tag Archives: US-23

2014/09/07 (N) Findlay Hamfest

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I set alarms on my phone and iPad last night to make sure I got up at 5:00 AM.  My natural tendency is to stay up a little later each night, something I am now able to do as I do not usually have to get up by any certain time in the morning.  Usually.  Today, however, was the annual Hamfest put on by the Findlay, Ohio Amateur Radio Club and I needed to be at Mike’s (W8XH) QTH in time for a 6 AM departure.  We picked up Steve (N8AR) at the Park-n-Ride lot at Lee Road and US-23 around 6:15 AM and drove non-stop to Findlay, Ohio, arriving at the county fairground at 8:15 AM.  We had a good chat on the way down, which is as much of a reason for going as the bargain hunting once we got there.  I have included a couple of photos in this post.  For more photos, visit:

http://wp36test1.slaarc.com/gallery-2/hamfests/2014-09-findlay/

We each paid our $7 admission fee and got our ticket with a tear-off stub for the hourly and grand prize drawings.  We got parked and set our Kenwood TH-F6 handheld radios to 146.475 MHz (simplex).  We filled out our raffle ticket stubs, dropped them off, and started working our way up and down the rows of outside tables.  The outside sales area was essentially a flea market, sometimes referred to as “trunk sales” because people back their cars up to the road and sell stuff from their trunks.  The spots are cheaper to rent for the day, but you take a chance that the weather will be nice.

Outside vendors (trunk sales) at the Findaly ARC Hamfest in Findlay, OH.

Outside vendors (trunk sales) at the Findaly ARC Hamfest in Findlay, OH.

We worked the flea market first while the temperatures were cool and the sun wasn’t overhead but also because almost everything offered for sale was used equipment at negotiable prices.  These are often one-of-kind items and the bargains tend to disappear quickly.  By mid-morning I had purchased a good sized NEMA enclosure (steel box with weather tight gasketed door) and a Harris 22.2 telephone butt handset (tester).  I plan to use the NEMA box to create a cable entrance box with lightning protection for RF transmission lines, AC power lines, and control lines.  I got the telephone test set because it will allow me to hook up to the phone line the same way the AT&T technicians do, and because it is not the sort of thing most folks have in their home.

Bruce (W8RA) gave a short shopping list to Steve (N8AR) yesterday at breakfast.  Mike (W8XH) spotted a matched three-piece set of vintage Heathkit gear, one piece of which was on Bruce’s list.  Steve looked at it and they got Bruce on the phone.  Apparently it was close enough to what Bruce wanted that Steve bought the whole set for him as the seller was not willing to sell them separately.

We then moved to the inside vendors, most of whom were selling new merchandise at fixed prices.  There was some used equipment, however, and I bought an Icom CI-V interface set.  This device will allow me to interface our Icom IC-7000 and/or IC-706 to, and control them from, a computer using something like Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) software.

I also got to meet and talk to Norm, from Norm’s Fabrication in Adrian, and his wife, who is president of the Adrian Amateur Radio Club.  Norm is a welder, and his side business is fabricating tower parts out of steel and aluminum for fellow hams.  If I cannot get what I need from Heights Tower Systems, Norm may hold the key to getting our used tower erected.

A very classy portable ham radio station (go box).

A very classy portable ham radio station (go box).

A number of other hams from the South Lyon, Novi, Livingston, and SEMDXA radio clubs were there.  I brought my camera and tried to get photos of our club members for the club website.  None of us won anything from the hourly drawings (must be present to win) and we left shortly after noon to meet up at the local Steak-n-Shake for lunch.  I had not eaten breakfast so I enjoyed my garden salad and French fries.  I had a good chat with Dave (K8ESQ), the current president of SEMDXA, and Don (N8CAK) from SLAARC.

We had a good chat on the drive back, stopping briefly at the Michigan Welcome Center on US-23 northbound shortly after entering Michigan from Ohio.  We dropped Steve off at the Lee Road Park-n-Ride and helped him unload the Heathkit equipment.  When we got back to Mike’s I moved my purchases and personal gear to my car and then spent some time examining his Heights tower, especially the fold-over mount.  After studying the parts and the geometry of the design I had a much better understanding of how it works and what we need to get our tower erected and fully operational.

On the way back to my house I got a call from Darryll letting me know he would be out in the morning as long as someone would be home.  Back home I unloaded everything and moved Linda’s car to the side parking pad to make space for Darryll’s truck in the morning.  It was nice to have a day away from our house and property projects.

I spent a little time checking e-mail and websites and off-loading digital photos until Linda called me to dinner.  We had leftover kale salad, quinoa with pineapple and nuts, fresh steamed broccoli, and corn-on-the-cob.  After dinner I recorded the events of the last few days in rough drafts of separate blog posts.  By 10:15 PM the early start and long day finally caught up with me and I turned the lights out and drifted off to sleep.

 

2014/09/06 (S) Deliveries

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We were up early and off to our SLAARC ham radio club breakfast in South Lyon.  There was a good turnout and good conversation, some of which had to do with our future tower project.  Mike (W8XH) was driving to the Findlay (Ohio) Hamfest tomorrow morning and had room for one more in his car so I decided to go.

Back home we broke down cardboard, loaded it into my car with the rest of our recyclables, and headed over to Recycle Livingston.  Afterwards we stopped at the Howell Bank of America branch so I could get some cash for the Findlay OH Amateur Radio Club Hamfest tomorrow.  A little farther up the road we stopped at Lowe’s for grass seed and bought three plastic tubs to replace the cardboard boxes we have been using on the floor of the kitchen pantry for recyclables.  Lowe’s is at Latson Road and Grand River Road so we hopped on I-96 East over to US-23 and headed south towards Ann Arbor to drop off the window air-conditioner and visit with our son, daughter-in-law, and grand-daughter.

When we exited US-23 at Washtenaw Avenue the traffic was worse than usual, and it is usually pretty bad.  Ann Arbor got hit a lot harder by the storms last night than we did and two of the three traffic signals between the highway and Stadium Boulevard were not working.  Drivers were being courteous, and everyone was taking turns, but the traffic volume through this stretch of road exceeds its capacity even when the signals are working.

We got the window air-conditioner unloaded and moved to the second floor of the garage.  We had a nice visit that included reading stories to Madeline.

Madeline and Grandma Linda read a favorite story.

Madeline and Grandma Linda read a favorite story.

We were going to stop at the Whole Foods Market on our way home but decided to avoid the traffic jam and worked our way through a subdivision up to Geddes Road and back to US-23.  Back home we had a light/late lunch of leftover rice seitan and mashed cauliflower and then worked for a couple of hours getting things out of the storage pod and organized in the garage.  We moved the shelves away from the northeast wall so Darryll could work on the gas pipe when he returns.  We knew when we put the shelves there that we were taking a small gamble that we might have to move them.  Fortunately they slid easily without being unloaded.  We must have the storage container empty by the time we go to bed on Thursday evening as it is scheduled for pickup on Friday.

For dinner we had a nice salad, roasted Brussels sprouts, and sautéed potatoes with onions, garlic, and bell peppers. We finished the no-bake (frozen) double-chocolate torte for dessert. After dinner Linda played Scrabble and Words With Friends while I researched Acme screws, nuts, and related components that we need to get the ham radio tower fold-over mount operational.

I turned in earlier than usual as I needed to be up at 5 AM in order to be at Mike’s (W8XH) QTH by 6 AM to leave for the Findlay Hamfest.

2013/12/19 (R) Snowbirds Take Flight

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Why do people snowbird?  I don’t know about anyone else, but as we have gotten older we have become less tolerant of the cold and the work involved in clearing snow from our driveway.  We are also not winter sports people, so the main charm of winter for us is looking at the snow.  True, now that we are both retired we no longer have to drive to/from work every day, regardless of how ridiculously dangerous the weather and road conditions are, but that does not equate to a particularly active lifestyle.  And with the change in the way we eat—to a whole-foods plant-based approach —we are both healthier than we been in decades; so part of the decision to become snowbirds was the desire to be in a place where we could be much more physically active during the winter months.

As I have described in some previous post(s), we decided to try Florida for our first snowbird experience primarily because of the Arcadia (Bus’in) Rally held in Arcadia, Florida between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.  Although we would have liked to be headed south around November 1st, family, business, and personal commitments did not make that possible.  Early entry for the Arcadia Rally, however, was December 26th.  We often try to take advantage of early entry dates when they are offered and we wanted to arrive on the 26th and get set up.

Our original plan was to leave on the 20th, drive to Berea, Kentucky and stay two nights.  We would then drive to Cartersville, Georgia on the 22nd and again stay two nights.  The 24th would find us driving to somewhere in Florida and again staying for two nights.  The morning of the 26th we would then drive to Arcadia, Florida.  That was the plan, before the weather forecast strongly suggested a different itinerary.

Based on the national weather forecasts it appeared that if we left Michigan on the morning of the 20th there was a high likelihood we could have mixed precipitation on the first part of our drive.  Me, the bus, and ice don’t mix.  Further, there was a strong cold front pushing south which had the potential for us to drive through heavy rain and experience below freezing overnight lows for much of our trip south.  Leaving on Thursday the 19th offered the opportunity to get somewhat ahead of the rain and avoid below-freezing overnight lows for the entire trip.  Either way it looked like we were going to drive in rain.

As I mentioned in the previous post we had determined that the Lakewood Village RV Resort in Wapakoneta, Ohio was far enough south to assure overnight low temperatures above freezing.  We decided to aim for a Thursday noon departure which, barring any traffic situations, would put us at the RV resort before 4 PM with plenty of daylight left for getting parked and hooked up.  From there we would continue on to Berea, Kentucky and Cartersville, Georgia as planned, but only stay one night in each place, ending up at Williston Crossings RV Resort in Williston, Florida where we would stay for four nights before driving to the Arcadia Rally.

We were up early Thursday morning, had our usual breakfast, and then got right to work loading the bus.  We packed more “stuff” than we did for our summer trip out west.  Our western trip was only two months with mostly summer climate so we only needed summer clothes.  This trip will be closer to four months by the time we get back with temperatures ranging for below-freezing lows to highs in the 80’s, requiring a more extensive selection of clothes.

Although we had 8+ inches of snow on the ground and temperatures in the 20’s when we got up, there was some sunshine and temperatures rose through the morning to just above freezing.  The driveway was already cleared as we hired a snow-removal service for the winter and I had spent several hours the previous day removing a couple of additional inches that fell after the snow removal service was there.  As we did not expect to have overnight lows below freezing we decided to load fresh water on board which would allow us to use the bathroom and then fully de-winterize the rig once we got parked without having to hook up to an external water supply.

By noon the bus and car were ready.  We rounded up the cats, put them on board, and then finished prepping the house.  We checked the light timers, stopped the grandfather clock, set the thermostats at 55 deg F (we can monitor and control the main one via the Internet), winterized the toilets and sink traps so they would not evaporate (and just in case), opened cabinets with water lines to aid in keeping them at room temperature, turned off the well pump, closed the water valves, and shutdown the water conditioning equipment.  We locked the doors and pulled out of the driveway at 12:30 PM.

Our site at C2C Lakewood Village RV Resort in Wapakoneta, OH.

Our site at C2C Lakewood Village RV Resort in Wapakoneta, OH.

We drove about four miles to get to Grand River Avenue, picked up I-96 eastbound for about four miles and then headed south on US-23.  It took about 90 minutes to reach the Ohio state line and another 30 minutes to swing around the west and south sides of Toledo, Ohio to reach I-75 in Perrysburg, Ohio.  We had an easy run south from there to exit 111 at Wapakoneta, and just another half-mile to get to Lakewood Village RV Resort.  We arrived at 4 PM, having traveled 166 miles in 3.5 hours.  But it was almost due south of our starting point and got us out of freezing temperatures.

Why there aren’t more RV’s here?

Why aren’t there more RV’s here?

The resort was open for business but mostly snow-covered with very few guests.  The resort roads and parking lots, however, were clear of snow.  We were allowed to pick our spot and found a nice pull-though that just accommodated our motorcoach/car combination and would provide for an easy exit the following morning.  We had an early dinner and turned in for the night at 8 PM.

 

2013_10_22 (T) A Good Day’s Drive

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Today was the final leg of our 12-day trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and back by way of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and the mountains of West Virginia.  We had 276 miles to travel and figured it would take us 5.5 hours as our planned route was mostly US highways with some Interstate highway legs and a little bit of surface roads.  We planned to leave around 10 AM and arrive home between 3:30 and 4:00 PM.  We actually left at 11:19 AM and arrived home at 5:00 PM.  Although we were approaching Ann Arbor from the south around 4:15 PM and encountered increasingly heavy traffic, we slowed down to the posted truck speed of 60 MPH and sailed right around.

The drive from Chillicothe, OH to Columbus, OH on US-23 was very pleasant.  The highway was 4-lane divided most of the way, and often limited access.  The terrain was still gently rolling and was very pretty with fall colors under nice sunlight.  Lunch hour traffic around the outskirts of Columbus on I-270 was moderate but not congested, even in the construction zones.  We exited I-270 at the northwest corner of the Columbus area onto US-33 headed northwest.  Again, an excellent multi-lane divided US highway that rolls through some lovely countryside and passes just next to the highest point in Ohio.

We stayed on US-33 until it intersected I-75N at Wapakoneta, OH.  From there it was 90 miles to Toledo, OH but we exited before reaching Toledo, heading west on I-475/US-23 which turned north towards Sylvania, effectively bypassing Toledo.  Crossing the border into Michigan it always feels like we are almost home, but we are not.  The shortest distance to a border from our house is about 60 miles, which gets us to the bridge or tunnel from Detroit to Windsor, Canada.  But the shortest route to a bordering state is US-23 to Ohio which is straight north/south shot to our community.  Even so, it was 70 miles and another 80 minutes of driving, or about 25% of our trip today.

While it is always nice to return home, it is often the worst part of the trip in terms of roads.  Many of Michigan’s roads are not in the best shape, and US-23 from Ohio to Ann Arbor is one of those roads.  It’s not only annoying (our tax dollars not at work), it’s embarrassing.

We pulled into the driveway around 5:00 PM, plugged in the electrical shoreline and unloaded much of our stuff.  I got a load of laundry started while Linda put groceries away.  We still had some daylight, so we grabbed our box of yellow plastic stakes and a 100 foot tape measure and marked the approximate location of the proposed bus barn and driveway.  While Linda fixed dinner (black beans and rice from leftovers) I called Phil at Precision Grading to let him know he could stop by at his convenience to measure the layout for estimating purposes.

On balance it was a good 12-day outing.  We learned quite a bit about using our digital SLR camera in conjunction with powerful but free image editing software.  We were in scenic parts of the country at an ideal time of year for photography.  We got to do some sight-seeing, hiking, and captured some nice photographic images.  We got to spend time with new friends and with family.  And the coach ran well.

2013_10_21 (M) I-64, Do U?

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We had decided yesterday that we would try to return home from the Lexington, Virginia area via I-64W across West Virginia to US-35 N into Ohio, branching off on US-23 N towards Columbus, Ohio and eventually getting on I-75 N and following US-23 N through Sylvania, Ohio (by-passing Toledo, Ohio), into Michigan, and home.

We needed a place to stay this evening, and I needed to order some parts for the coach from Prevost Car, Inc. so Linda researched campgrounds while I looked up part numbers on the Prevost CatBase Viewer.  I got the parts ordered and she identified two possible fairgrounds: the Gallia County Junior Fairgrounds near Gallipolis, Ohio and the county fairgrounds near Chillicothe, Ohio.  She called the phone number for the Chillicothe fairgrounds but never got an answer.  A woman answered when she called the Gallia Country Junior Fairgrounds and said they had 50A full hookup sites and we were welcome to stay there for $20.  Deal!  Gallipolis is only a few miles into Ohio on US-35N and the fairgrounds were only a mile or so off of the highway with good access from a major road.  She also found a listing for a Good Sam RV Park near Chillicothe, but the listing said their season ended on October 15.

L-to-R, me, Linda, Marilyn, Mary, and Ron.

L-to-R, me, Linda, Marilyn, Mary, and Ron.

After a light breakfast we prepared the coach for travel and helped Marilyn gather and move all of her stuff back to Ron and Mary’s mini-van as they got their A-liner ready to travel.  Checkout time was 11 AM, and we had both planned 5 hour travel days, so we were in no hurry to leave.  We were all packed by 10:30 AM, so we took a few group pictures, had our goodbye hugs, and made our exits just before 11 AM.

Welcome to West Virginia!

Welcome to West Virginia!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was perfect today, with clear blue skies and temperatures climbing into the 60’s.  I-64 through Virginia and West Virginia is a designated scenic route, and it should be.  On the trip through western Virginia and into W. Virginia we often had the highway to ourselves.  This is mountain country and the road is rarely straight or level.  We had numerous long grades (up and down) and several that were marked 7% for up to 5 miles.  Reminiscent of our travels through the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, I was downshifting manually a lot, and on one long uphill had to drop into 2nd gear to keep the RPMs around 2000.  Unlike the trip over the Bighorns, I knew better how to drive mountains and the engine coolant temperature never climbed above 198 and the exhaust pyrometers stayed below 1000 degrees, typically 900 degrees or less.

I-64 joins up with I-77 in central W. Virginia and becomes the West Virginia Turnpike.  Traffic got noticeably heavier from here on.  We paid two tolls of $3.25 for a motorhome towing a car.  The WVT has toll booths staffed by real people, no tickets to take, no machines to feed money into.  Nice.  We tend to avoid toll roads not so much because of the cost, although that can be excessive, as the unattended mechanisms make it very difficult for us to pay tolls.

Welcome to Ohio! (The bridge over the Ohio River was being resurfaced and down to one lane in each direction.)

Welcome to Ohio! (The bridge over the Ohio River was being resurfaced and down to one lane in each direction.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found the Gallia County Junior Fairgrounds easily and pulled in around 3:40 PM.  The place was deserted except for one car and a “campground” was not obvious.  Linda called the phone number she had used in the morning and did not get an answer.  We both walked around, peered in windows, knocked on doors, but nothing.  She eventually found signs with trailers and arrows and followed those to what might have been a campground, but no evidence of 50 A full hookups as we had been told.

The stop gave us a chance to rest and nibble, but after about 45 minutes we decided we needed to make other plans.  Remember, a true traveler has no fixed plan…  In looking at our (out-of-date) Trailer Life Directory (2010) we returned to the listing for Sun Valley RV Park near Chillicothe, OH (a Good Sam Park).  It said they closed October 15, but we called anyway.  They were still open!  And they had space!  And they were only another hour up the road!  And that was the direction we needed to go anyway!

Sun Valley RV Park near Chillicothe, OH as seen from the driver’s position in the coach. Our site was ahead to the left but we had to circle around to the right get lined up so we could back in.

Sun Valley RV Park near Chillicothe, OH as seen from the driver’s position in the coach. Our site was ahead to the left but we had to circle around to the right get lined up so we could back in.

So that’s where we went.  It was less than 2 miles from an exit off of US-23 which was only 4.5 miles from the junction of US-35 and US-23, so it was not out of our way to come here.  We arrived around 5:45 PM.  Although the sun had disappeared behind a thickening cloud cover it was still daylight.  We opted for a back-in full hookup 50A site as the pull-through sites did not have sewer connections and getting to the dump station from those sites the next morning would be more difficult than we wanted to deal with.

We unhooked the car in front of the office where the road was widened for large RV to pull over while they registered.  I walked the route from the office to our site to check for adequate turning radii and an absence of encroaching tree limbs.  It all looked good, and we were got parked and leveled easily.  After hooking up the electricity and sewer line and making the interior ready for use we went for a walk around the park, as we often do.  Sun Valley is mostly seasonal trailers and park models, but it was in nice shape (which is not always the case).

We had leftovers for dinner, but really, Linda’s leftover meals are still a treat.  She was very tired and went to bed early while I stayed up and worked on photographic image post-processing, redoing the picture of our coach on our website home page, and catching up on writing blog entries.  I also had a long conversation with Joe Cannarozzi, our mobile mechanic, who will be working on the coach starting on Wednesday.

2013_10_11 (F) Fulton Farms

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Our plan was to be almost completely packed yesterday with only a few things to load this morning.  It’s good to have a plan as long as you don’t take it too seriously.  Lao Tzu supposedly said that “A true traveler has no fixed plan, and it not intent on arriving.”  I love that sentiment, but I think most people interpret this as “the journey is more important than the destination.”  Or perhaps that “one should not have a plan”, but I don’t think it says that.  I think the emphasis is on not having a fixed plan.  At any given moment you need to have some idea of where you want to go next, or you would just sit in one place and never move.  And having decided to head there, you should have some idea of how you might get there.  But once the planning is done it’s time for the trip.  And it is a certainty that you will have opportunities along the way that you did not plan for and could not even have anticipated.  Whether you experience those will depend on whether you are flexible with regards to your plan.  You may not even make to your original (planned) destination, but if not, it will be the result of a thousand small decisions made along the way, not because you are lost.  As another quote goes “all who wander are not lost.”  I like that one too.

In other words, we woke up this morning with a plan to be on the road by noon but with lots still to do.  We were not in a panic about it, but got at it right away and it was a busy morning.  It helped that Linda had kept a running list yesterday of stuff we needed to load on the bus, and things we needed to do around the house, just before departure.  Although the morning was a bit more intense than I would have like, we pulled out about quarter past noon, so it all worked out OK.

We decided yesterday to divide up the trip to Townsend, Tennessee into three roughly equal segments of about 200 miles each and spent part of the afternoon researching places to stop for the night.  Given that we needed to be at the Tremont RV Resort in Townsend on Sunday, our route choices were basically determined; I-96 E to US-23 S into Ohio and onto I-75 S all the way to Knoxville, and then Tennessee highways from there into Townsend.  Our first leg would ideally put us somewhere just north of Dayton.   We are still learning to “boondock” (camp for the night without hookups and without paying for a site) so we looked for opportunities to do that.  A Walmart is often a possibility, but we always look for Coast-to-Coast resorts, where we can stay for $10/night, and Harvest Host locations where we can stay for free.

Exterior of Fulton Farms Market.

Exterior of Fulton Farms Market.

There is a Coast-to-Coast resort in Wapakoneta, OH, but it would have made our first leg about 150 miles.  We decided to head for the Fulton Farms Market instead.  They are located southeast of Troy, Ohio on Highway 202 about 6 miles from I-75 and 20 miles north of Dayton.  The market was still open when we arrived around 4:30 PM, having made a rest stop and a fuel stop along the way, and there were still plenty of customers there even though they close at 5 PM.

Linda talking to Joyce Fulton.

Linda talking to Joyce Fulton.

Fulton Farms Market is owned by Bill and Joyce Fulton and is a host location in the Harvest Hosts program that we belong to.  We went inside to let them know we had arrived and bought some apples and a blackberry pie (after reading the ingredients label very carefully).  We also got to meet Joyce and had a nice chat with her.  She was very gracious and glad we had stopped as they have not had very Harvest Hosts visitors in the time they have been a host location.

 

Interior of Fulton Farms Market.

Interior of Fulton Farms Market.

 

 

 

The Fulton Farm Market is a very nice place with a large, level, paved parking lot that easily accommodated our bus.  I recommend it to anyone passing through the Troy, OH area with or without an RV.  This is the third Harvest Hosts location where we have stopped.  The second one was the Forestedge Winery near Laporte, Minnesota which I wrote about previously.  Same thing; great place, great people, great products, and we were the first Harvest Hosts members who had ever stopped there.  HH is a great program, but I worry that host locations will drop out after a time if no one ever stops, and who could blame them?

We are headed for another Harvest Hosts location tomorrow in Kentucky, but that’s another story for another day.  Our main concern on this end will be repositioning the coach in the morning, without unhooking the car, so we are able to exit the premises after customers start showing up in their cars around 10 AM.  Our drive tomorrow is only about 180 miles and should only take about 4 hours, so we don’t want to leave here too early and Joyce made it clear that we welcome to stick around in the morning.

2013_08_27-28 Babysitting And Our First RV Visitors

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Linda has signed up to babysit our youngest grand-daughter, Madeline, on Mondays so our son and daughter-in-law can attend to their professorial duties at the University of Michigan.  (Our step-grand-daughter, Katie, is 16 and does not need a sitter.)  However, Linda sat on Saturday the 17th.  This week she sat on Tuesday because of our Monday dental appointments.  Next week she is going to sit on Tuesday because Monday is Labor Day.  Like I said, she is babysitting on Mondays.

We both left the house early, Linda for Ann Arbor in rush hour traffic and me for Dearborn in rush hour traffic.  As retired people we are not supposed to be in rush hour traffic; it tends to spoil that special, relaxed mood that is the hallmark of the happily retired.  Morning rush hour traffic headed south on US-23 into Ann Arbor is always bad.  Morning rush hour traffic headed into the northwest suburbs of Detroit on I-96 is always worse.  I was late for my 9 AM dental appointment, but only about 10 minutes.  I won’t be making any more 9 AM appointments in that part of town.

When I was done at the dentist in west Dearborn I headed for Ann Arbor, looking forward to spending some quality time with my grand-daughter.  As I was nearing Ann Arbor I got a call from W. W. Williams in, where else, east Dearborn, letting me know that my special order part was in.  Life really is all about timing.  I continued my journey to babyland.  When I walked in the front door, Madeline was sitting up in the middle of the living room playing with Grandma Linda.  She turned, looked at me, and started crying.  You can’t take anything an 8-month old does personally, but it wasn’t quite the reception I was hoping for.  She got herself all worked up.  Linda tried feeding her, but she was not to be consoled, so we took her for a walk in her very spiffy stroller.

We peeled back the sunshade so she could turn her head and look up at me, which she did frequently.  She stayed calm for the whole ride, and even babbled for a while, apparently satisfied that I was at least doing something useful.  Or perhaps I am less scary when viewed upside down?  As soon as we got back to the house, however, she got herself all upset again.  Having no other plans for the afternoon, I made my exit and drove back to Dearborn to get the special order part for our bus.  Linda told me later that Madeline settled down as soon as I left and had a nice lunch.  It won’t always be that way, of course, and it’s not a contest to see who wins.  Eight month olds are spontaneous, irrational beings, and you just have to accept that and work with it as best you can.  That’s why she has parents, aunts, and grandmothers.

By the time Phil was done working on the driveway on Monday evening he had mixed 14 tons (yes, that’s 30,800 pounds) of sandy silt into and on top of the 6 inches of 21AA road gravel that forms the top layer of the pull-through driveway.  What we really needed at that point was a good, soaking rain and starting late Tuesday evening and overnight into Wednesday we got our wish.  The rain helps the fine particles work their way down into the gravel and lock it together to form a dense mass that will not spread out when driven on, even by a heavy vehicle.  At least that’s the theory.  I drove on it again with the car Wednesday morning and it seemed to be packed pretty hard.

The first test of the pull-through driveway came when the UPS truck showed up with our Centramatic dynamic wheel balancers for the bus.  He pulled the truck right up on the pull-through driveway and backed it out with no difficulty.  That was a good omen.  The next test came when Ed & Betty arrived around 1:30 PM in their Tiffin Phaeton motorhome.  They unhooked their car just after pulling onto our street as I needed them to be able to maneuver the RV to get it parked.  They were also going to have to back out when they left and you cannot do that with a car attached to the rear end of the rig.  I met them at the end of the street, led them to our house, and got them positioned to turn into the pull-through driveway.  Betty drove their car and parked it in our regular driveway.  Ed gave me one of their walkie-talkies and I guided him in to the pull-through driveway with voice and hand signals.  Their motorhome tires did not even leave visible tracks!  Finally, success.  Their rig has 6 tires and weights about 33,000 pounds, so the weight on each tire that is similar to our bus, except that our front tires carry a couple of extra thousand pounds each.  Once they were parked and settled they came inside and we quartered a small, round watermelon and had that as a light lunch/snack.

We had the pull-through driveway built for our own use as a convenient place to park the coach while we load/unload it.  We installed an electrical outlet so that we could also run the refrigerator and maintain the batteries while it was parked there.  We plan to eventually have a “bus barn” to store it in, but for now the pull-through drive is where it will live when we are home.  That meant that we might also want to run the air conditioners while it was parked, so we installed a full “50A” RV electrical service since that is what our coach is designed for.  We also had in mind, however, that it would be nice to have RV friends be able to come for a visit and have a level place to park with some nice shade and decent electrical service.  We also have water available, but we do not currently have a way for folks to dump their holding tanks.  We eventually hope to be able to dump ours using a macerator pump connected by a garden hose (reserved for that use only) to a fitting on the first septic tank.  We can’t use a normal gravity drain hose because we have to pump the tank contents uphill to the septic tank lid.  If we get this to work, guests could do the same as long as their rig is equipped with a macerator pump.

Some of the RV clubs we belong to allow members to list their home or place of business as available for no-cost overnight stays.  FMCA calls these “Stop’in Spots” and the SKPs include them in a list of free and low-cost camping.  There is also a program called “Boondockers Welcome” that our friends Butch and Fonda joined.  We are members of Harvest Hosts, but can’t be a host site as we are a residence not a business.

Ed and Betty originally planned to stay two nights, but they are on their way to some temporary work at the Middleton Berry Farm, a pick your own (PYO) operation east of Ortonville, Michigan.  They have worked summers there for some years, usually during the strawberry season.  At one time they owned a strawberry farm in upstate New York and were the secretaries of the National Strawberry Growers Association.  Ed has a PhD in plant pathology and has done extensive extension service work as a plant pathologist.  The owners of Middleton Berry Farm needed Ed & Betty’s assistance ASAP as the raspberries have come in very well this year.

We did our usual first time visit thing and gave them a complete tour of the house, yard, and bus.  We got to see their motorhome as well, and spent some time trying to tune in over-the-air TV stations with their roof antenna.  The only station we could get was FOX out of Detroit, so Ed turned the system off and put the antenna back down.

Ed and Betty are pretty avid cyclists and have a pair of very interesting tricycles.  They are Spike models made by Trident Trikes and purchased from Craig and Linda Current of http://www.boomersbentsandbikes.com in Florida.  It’s a two front, one rear wheel design with disc brakes all around.  The two front wheels steer and the central structural member is hinged to allow the rear wheel to fold up between the two front ones for storage.  They got the 24-speed gearing option.  I test drove Ed’s and Linda test drove Betty’s and we both found them very comfortable.  Linda can’t ride a bicycle because of occasional balance problems related to her loss of hearing in her left ear, so a tricycle or quadcycle is her only viable option.  At this point in my life, I would just as soon have the stability of a 3-wheeler as well.  Another alternative for us would be a side-by-side 2-seater, which might be a lot of fun, but would probably preclude either of us going for a solo ride.

We sat and talked like old friends and enjoyed a bottle of Pinot Grigio.  Eventually Linda and Betty set about making dinner.  Betty had prepared a “vegan cheese” out of cashew nuts and served it on Saltine crackers.  It was very good, and it reminded Linda that she had purchased a vegan cheese book on our last Holistic Holiday At Sea cruise, but had not yet used any of the recipes.  Linda prepared a nice green salad.  The main course was quinoa with mushrooms and Swiss chard.  She served it with a side of fresh corn, cut off the cob.  We opened at bottle of the 2009 Egri Merlot to go with dinner.  This wine is a little sweet for red wine aficionados, but it is one of the few red wines I will drink.  It lacks any hint of tannin, and is full-bodied enough to stand up to the earthy grain/mushroom/greens dishes that Linda often prepares.  After dinner we sat on the back deck for a while and continued to enjoy our Merlot.  The mosquitoes appeared about the same time we were ready for dessert so we went back inside and enjoyed the last of vegan chocolate cake Linda had made on Monday served with fresh strawberries.  It was still as moist as when she baked it and you would not know it was vegan.  We washed it down with the end of the Merlot, which also goes very well with chocolate cake and strawberries.

The rest of the evening was a free- and far-ranging conversation about life, travels, kids, health, careers, and interests.  We looked at maps and old copies of Wilson’s Free And Low Cost Camping directories and talked about getting large rigs into National Forest campgrounds, which Ed and Betty have done successfully on numerous occasions.  Being full-timers, they are by necessity knowledgeable and skilled when it comes to finding places to park for the night.

 

2013_08_06 (Tue) Back Home (For Now)

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Today was the final leg of our summer 2013 extended RVing trial run.  We had less than 250 miles to travel, all of it in Michigan, so we were in no hurry to leave the Tiki RV Park in St. Ignace.  We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, checked e-mail, visited favorite websites, and eventually prepped the rig for travel; a typical “retired and RVing” kind of morning.  🙂

We dumped the waste tanks and added our usual cleaning solution and some water, and put a ¼ tank of fresh water on board “just in case” we needed it.  We didn’t; there were plenty of rest stops on I-75.  We had spent the last six nights not connected to fresh water or sewers.  We had not been conserving fresh water or minimizing waste water as we had water and sewer available on three of those six nights, but we wanted to see how long we could go to try to gage our ability to boondock.  Water, both fresh and waste, is our limiting factor for boondocking.  Our fresh water tank had just reached empty this morning and our waste tanks were not completely full, so it appears that we could go 7 or 8 nights, possibly 9 or 10 with careful resource management, before having to dump and fill.

The Mackinac Bridge connects Michigan’s two peninsulas.

The Mackinac Bridge connects Michigan’s two peninsulas.

We left Tiki around 11 AM and headed north out of St. Ignace, the same way we had come in.  It’s only a few miles to the I-75 interchange and this approach avoids driving through downtown St. Ignace.  Large profile vehicles can make it through Main Street with no problem, but there is a steady flow of traffic that stops frequently for pedestrians and for vehicles making turns.  About three miles after getting on southbound I-75 we crossed the Mackinac (pronounced “Mac in naw”) Bridge, affectionately known to Michiganders (or Michiganians, depending who you ask) as the “Big Mac.”  I believe it had that nickname long before a certain fast food chain introduced their heart-attack-on-a-bun by the same name.  The bridge is five miles long and spans the Straits of Mackinac.  The speed limit for “loaded trucks” is 20 MPH, and this is one of those times when we chose to consider our bus to be a truck.  It doesn’t sound like anything special, but the bridge crossing took 15 minutes at that speed.  That’s either a long time to enjoy the view, or a long time for the navigator to keep her eyes closed.  😉

The coach in the new pull-through driveway in front of the house.

The coach in the new pull-through driveway in front of the house.

In times past crossing the bridge with a 3-axle motorhome towing a 2-axle car was expensive as they charged by the axle, making the price for the combinaton the same as for an 80,000 lb semi.  As a result, many RVers would disconnect their towed vehicle form their motorhome before crossing the bridge, drive them across separately (if they had two drivers), and reconnect them on the other side.  More recently, the Bridge Authority changed the toll for a 3-axle motorhome to $19.  The normal price for a 2-axle car is $4, and they now charge $23 for the combination, eliminating any reason to disconnect the toad.

Ahhh, electrical power. The bus likes to be plugged in.

Ahhh, electrical power. The bus likes to be plugged in.

The day was cloudy to overcast with a threat of rain that never materialized.  It was cool when we left St. Ignace, and afternoon high temperatures climbed into the mid-to-upper 70’s as we traveled south.  There were several construction zones along the way, but we were able to travel through most of them at 60 MPH, which is the speed we like to travel even when the speed limit is higher.  All-in-all it made for another pleasant travel day, with the added anticipation of returning to our house.  The largest construction zone was over and past the Zilwaukee Bridge near Saginaw where the southbound lanes are closed and southbound traffic is being re-routed to the northbound lanes.  The southbound road south of the bridge is gone and being completely rebuilt for several miles.  The northbound traffic is being re-routed onto I-675 through Saginaw, a relatively short detour.

The coach in front of the house, waiting for its next trip.

The coach in front of the house, waiting for its next trip.

AT the southeast corner of Flint US-23 splits from I-75 and heads due south towards Fenton, Hartland, Brighton, Ann Arbor, Milan, and eventually Sylvania, Ohio and on to Naples, Florida.  We took US-23 to the M-59 exit near Hartland and headed west for two miles to Hacker Road.  A short trip south on Hacker and we were back to our street.  The last ¾ mile was slow as our street is dirt and has potholes, but we finally arrived at our house around 3:30 PM.  We stopped in the street to move the barricades that blocked access to the new pull-through driveway and pulled the coach in; the first time it (or any vehicle) had parked on the new driveway since it was finished in early June (just before we left).

We unhooked the car, repositioned the coach slightly, and plugged it in to the 50A power outlet we installed as part of the driveway project.  Ahhh, power.  We unloaded the cats and reminded them of where their litter tray, food, and water were located in the house.  We then started unloading the house portion of the coach, bringing in only those necessities that we did not also have in the house.  With the front door of the coach parked opposite the front door the house and the coach plugged in to electricity, there wasn’t any urgent need to unload it.  As much as we liked our previous house, the easy of arriving and unpacking confirmed that we had made a good decision to move.

The view from our front porch, just the way we like it.

The view from our front porch, just the way we like it.

We had been tracking the weather while traveling, and it appeared that S. E. Michigan was having a cooler, wetter summer than normal.  This was the first time we had seen our new property during the summer, and the trees, plants, and grass were all lush and doing well.  Linda added some Swiss chard, mushroom broth, and garlic to the end of the Farro dish she made some days ago, and while we enjoyed that with the end of our bottle of Yellowstone Howlin’ Pear wine three young deer chased each other back and forth through our backyard.