Ludington State Park and Beyond....

Our drive from Benzonia to Ludington State Park on September 7th was relatively good until our trusty iPhone map app decided to trim a few miles off the drive. It doesn't realize the Big Brown Bus (BBB) is slightly larger than a normal car, so it took us on some paved, but not very wide local roads where not all the trees were trimmed to a 13 foot clearance. We made it safe and sound, but Dale was irritable and the desire for an RV GPS was growing. Once at the park the next challenge was convincing the desk attendant that the Jeep was our towed vehicle (a single $6.30 charge for the whole stay) and not a second vehicle ($8.40 per day). We failed to get our message across so she called the DNR officer on duty. Thankfully, he was on our side. That's the good news. the bad news was they had no 'towed' passes at the main entrance. We had to drive to park headquarters. The gatekeeper says "No problem. Just take a right, then a left and an immediate right. You'll see a big employee parking lot on the left at the park headquarters where you can turn around." Dale really needs to learn to be more careful about taking advice from people who may have never driven anything larger than a Pinto. We made the recommended turns and, sure enough, ended up in a place we didn't really want to be. Anybody in the headquarters building watching out their windows was surely saying "What is that idiot doing with that bus in here?" The very nice young DNR officer sold us our towed pass and said "Just go around that loop. Delivery trucks do it all the time." Sure, delivery trucks that don't care if the low hanging trees put new stripes down the side of their truck. This is where Dale stopped taking advice.  We unhooked the Jeep and with Lisa's help Dale carefully backed the motorhome into the entrance of the modest (not large) employee parking lot and managed to get out of there unscathed. But it soon appeared we weren't done with tight spots yet. As we got into our campground loop Dale noticed everyone was looking at us. As he looked at the campsites he noticed how small they were with tents, popups, and modest trailers on them The thought occurred to him that he was going to provide entertainment to all as they watched him try to shoehorn this thing into one of these tiny campsites. However, thankfully, our site lived up to the online description and was indeed a very adequate pull thru site with a blacktop pad. There was a slight gully to go through on the left which had Lisa concerned about a rollover, but Dale closed his eyes and all went well. The site turned out to be a great location right at the start of the Big Sable Point Lighthouse trail. We enjoyed a great dinner and great beer that evening at Jamesport Brewing Co. in Ludington. Sunday morning we enjoyed a bike ride out to the lighthouse. Lisa loves lighthouses, but heights not so much. She shakily made it to the top of the lighthouse, but her fear kept her inside talking to one of the volunteer light keepers while Dale enjoyed the outside walkway 92 feet above the ground. She did come out for a couple pictures just to prove she made it and one tentative lap around the walkway. The rest of the day we biked around the rest of the park and hiked the Skyline trail. Nice views! Sunday afternoon they were filming a movie, 'Mickey Matson and The Pirates Code' on the lighthouse trail which shut the trail down for a while. It was fun watching the activity related to the movie. Saw a couple neat Jeeps that will supposedly be in the movie.

Our site at Ludington State Park

Dale looking over the fishermen and fisherwoman

Combat fishing on the Big Sable River

The reward for a well fought battle

First view of the Big Sable Point Lighthouse

Big Sable Point Lighthouse

She made it, but hung on for dear life

The survivor of the climb!

Jeep? from the Mickey Matson movie

Another Jeep from the movie?

Cool bike path

Stairs up to the Skyline Trail

On the Skyline Trail

Chillin' on the beach

Wildlife at Ludington

Our campground loop at Ludington

On Monday, September 9th, we headed to Nappanee, Indiana for our first visit to 'Camp Newmar' for some minor warranty work. We had been forewarned that they start early in Nappanee. Sure enough, shortly after 6:15 Tuesday morning our service advisor showed up at our door. After going over the issues with him we left for breakfast and they took our coach into the service building. At 2:30 that afternoon it was back in a reserved site. This procedure repeated Wednesday and Thursday, only at 6:00 AM sharp. Everyone we dealt with at Newmar was wonderful and totally accommodating, and just reinforced our  belief that we made the right choice of manufacturer for our home on wheels. Thursday afternoon Dale washed the dust off the BBB and we headed back to Michigan. Wow, what a difference! No more wind noise at the passenger side door. Just quiet. That alone make the trip to Nappanee worth every minute spent there.

Camp Newmar - our coach is in front of the red Jeep

Camp Newmar Customer lounge

Thursday night, September 12th, we spent the night in Jackson, MI. Lisa's sister, Kris, who passéd away in 2009 after a nine year battle with Multiple Myeloma lived in Jackson. We met  for dinner with some of Kris' dear friends: Kathy Meister, Kathy Raymond, and Sue and Jamie Dakin. We arrived one day later than planned and, therefore, regrettably missed Beth Shafer and Norma Racey. The dinner was held at Kathy Meister's very posh condo.We then spent the night in her cul-de-sac. It was our first boondocking night. For those unfamiliar with that term, it means we had no hookups of any kind and lived strictly off our house batteries. The generator never even came on. This was a 'Good News' first and was relatively significant because our refrigerator is not an RV type which can run off of propane. It's a full sized residential refrigerator which depends on 120 volts to run. Skeptics warn that the generator will have to run often to keep the batteries charged and supplying adequate voltage to this style refrigerator. So far so good.

Dale, Kathy Raymond, Kathy Meister, Jamie Dakin, Sue Dakin

Our campsite in Kathy's cul-de-sac

Friday the 13th lived up to its reputation. All was going well on our drive from Jackson to our next stay at Addison Oaks County Park north of Rochester, MI. We were enjoying the new quiet ride when Dale heard a small rock hit the windshield on I-275. Lisa didn't even hear it. A quick scan of the windshield while still moving along revealed no visible damage. Breathing a sigh of relief, Dale journeyed on. About a mile and a half rom the campground our lovely iPhone landed us on a dirt road with nowhere to turn around. Two dusty miles later our clean BBB looked like Pigpen again. That's it, the RV GPS is on order. Dale is not a happy camper after arriving at Addison Oaks, but goes about his routine of washing the bugs off the front after the day's drive. His mood turned even more sour when during the windshield cleaning process he found the point of impact of the earlier stray rock. Sure 'nuff a nickel diameter stone chip was sitting just above the lower windshield seal on the driver's side out of his line of sight from the driver's seat. By the time an insurance claim was called in and a repair appointment set the nickel sized damage had grown to at least 10 inches and was no longer repairable. Guess what, we're headed back to Nappanee for our second visit to Camp Newmar, to have the windshield replaced. OUCH!! We did have some fun while camped at Addison Oaks. Saturday morning we golfed with our brother-in-law, Al, and our niece, Lori at Bald Mountain golf course. That afternoon and evening Lori's husband, Bryan, their son, Bradley, and Al's mom, Mickey, got to see the BBB for the first time. Bradley enjoyed roasting marshmallows, but wasn't so thrilled with eating them because they were 'too sticky'. Another first occurred that night, great grandma Mickey had her first S'more ever. And her second. And…..

The blankety blank crack

Bald Mountain Hackers

Bald Mountain Hecklers

Mesmerized by fireplace and TV rising

Precision rock gathering

Systematic rock separation

Rock inspection

Not enough rocks yet

Gamma & Papa with Jer Bear

Jer Bear introducing neighbor's puppy

Great grandma Mickey's first S'more

Expert marshmallow roaster in action

The Addison Oaks gang

Sunday, September 15th, was spent 'in town' at Lisa's sister Nancy's house while the coach stayed out at Addison Oaks. We attended our home church and met later that afternoon with our Bible study group for the last time until the holidays when we anticipate flying home. Monday, the Jeep went to Shumans in Walled Lake for its first warranty repair, replacement of a leaky driver's door seal. Nancy was kind enough to lend us her car for the day while the Jeep was at the dealer. This allowed us to share a very special event with dear friends Kathy and Steve Click. We sat with them at Henry Ford West Bloomfield hospital (more like a resort) for the birth of their first grandchild, Kade Miller Ankerson, a healthy 8 lb and 20 inch baby boy. Megan and Kyle are going to make great parents.

Proud Grammy & Grandpa Click

Wednesday, September 18th, we drove from Addison Oaks to Davisburg, MI to spend the night in Dale's sister Pam's driveway. We boondocked again to test the automatic generator start (AGS) system. It worked!! Thursday morning, 22 hours after shutting off the engine, the AGS started the generator to start charging the batteries which had gotten down to the set point of 12.2 volts. Another successful first! Wednesday evening we watched our nephew, Lance, and his fellow Holly varsity soccer players put up a valiant battle in a losing effort against Clio high school. It was a good place to watch as Lance sent most of the game on our side of the field near our seats.

Lance came away with the ball here

Lance getting his head in the game

Dale, Pam, Kayla, and Mom (Helen)

Dinner after the game

Thursday, September 19th, we said goodbye until the holidays to Dale's mom, and his sister and family, and we headed to Durand, MI. We camped at Holiday Shores, a very nice park we spent a few days at in August, to be near our daughter, Kristy and her husband, Matt. Thursday night after dinner at their apartment we went to see their new house which is a work in progress. They expect it to be ready to move into in early November. It was very exciting to see it nearly complete on the outside. We have reservations for the guest room for the holidays. While in the Lansing area we also visited with our nephew, Jim, and niece, Julie. Jim recently accepted a job at Michigan State University as a journalist and Julie is in her first year of veterinary school at MSU. Congrats to both of them on their respective achievements! The other bit of good news during our stay in Durand is that our Garmin RV 760 LMT gps arrived. No more tight roads, gravel roads, etc. At least we hope. We managed tearless goodbyes on Sunday until the holidays.

Front of Kristy & Matt's house

Rear of Kristy & Matt's house

Insulating the garage

On Monday, September 23rd we drove to Nappanee guided by the Garmin 760, our new best friend on the road. So far it's been great, picking slightly different routes between automobile and RV modes. We'll give it a more rigorous test over the next few weeks as we start to roll up some more significant miles. After arriving Monday afternoon we had the pleasure of meeting one of Dale's 'cyber buddies' from the Newmar forum on the iRV2 website. Phil and Jo Ellen Essman are in Nappanee this week to take factory delivery or their new Dutch Star. Their new baby is one of 14 coaches including us that will meet in Sevierville, TN in the middle of October as part of the inaugural 'Newmar Hoots Looking for a Roost' rally. They're a great couple and we look forward to spending more time with them the next couple days and in Tennessee in October. Our coach went into the hands of the trusty Newmar technicians Tuesday morning. We weren't allowed to stay in the coach Tuesday night as it is in a service garage and could not be moved for at least 24 hours to allow the seal material to set. So we're spending the night at a local B&B called Olde Buffalo Inn. We actually stayed at this same place 4 years ago when we came down for our first factory tour, when full-timing was just a dream. We took a trip to Shipshewana Tuesday to kill some time. Very attractive clean community with a huge flea market.

Phil and Jo Ellen Essman & their new Dutch Star

Horse and buggies at the Shipshewana flea market

Horse and buggy on the way back from Shipshewana

An Amish biker drafting off a horse and buggy in Nappanee

Olde Buffalo Inn

Wish us luck that the window installation goes trouble free. Our goal is to be in Westerville, Ohio Thursday night to visit Lisa's cousin's Jen and Pat Miller. Then we'll continue east to visit Dale's cousins Don & Liisa Morgan, and Dick & Chris Morgan in the DC area.