Izzy's Last Adventure

We finally took another trip. It was a long time between the June Campout with the Happy Tennessee Travelers and our trip up to the Hershey RV show.

After our last big trip in May, we had pretty much decided that Izzy, our Dynamax Isata 3, just was not big enough for longer trips. She lacked interior as well as exterior storage. Since we also travel with our dog and cat, it was just too uncomfortable, and so the search for a new rig began.

Hershey seemed the logical destination since the annual RV show was approaching, and so we headed out in Izzy.

After 3 days, we arrived in Hershey a couple of days early. It gave us some time to stock up the fridge and pantry, go to Hershey Chocolate World and just prepare ourselves for searching out all the different RVs that interested us.

We actually thought we would end up with a Newmar, because of the quality. Unfortunately, they didn't have a floor plan and storage that would work for us.

We also looked at the Coachmen Mirada. It was nice, but seemed way to big and still that external storage didn't seem to be enough.

The one that grabbed us? The Winnebago Adventurer 27N. It had the accessible exterior storage and floorpan that spoke to us. On Friday, September 20th, we took delivery in Syracuse, New York after a visit with family in the Buffalo area.

Izzy? Izzy was traded in. Bye, Izzy.


You can catch our adventures in our new rig, Wandering Wanda, here

Camping with a Group!

While in Perry, Georgia at the Family Motor Coach Association convention, hubby and I joined an FMCA chapter, specifically, the Happy Tennessee Travelers. It's not a huge group, but it is pack with lots of fun members.

This past weekend, we spent it camping at the Clarksville, Tennessee RV Park. We had so much fun. The food, oh my. Our Saturday evening dinner, hosted by Debra and Glenn Joyner, was a low country boil. I swear, I ate a pound of shrimp along with all the other good things.

Friday night, there were severe thunderstorms, and it took part of a tree down onto the cab of a truck with a 5th wheel. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and Saturday morning, after clearing the limb, the owners were able to drive off in their truck, hauling their fiver!

There are a lot of people who enjoy games. I played two new ones to me - Sequence and Jokers and Pegs. Some people call Jokers and Pegs, the Dirty Board game. Both were games of strategy and I enjoyed both immensely.

Sunday night we spent in our RV dealer's lot, waiting for an early morning service call. The fascia I broke on the slide the first week of ownership, has now been replaced. Clips were installed on a couple of the the screens, to hold them in place, and we now have the return of our little light that shows we are connected to electricity. The drawer under the dining bench seat was repaired, only to have that fail on the way home. They were something I had to have mainly because the interior storage is sadly lacking. I am hoping tips I received from other Dynamax owners will prove effective.

As always, I am glad to be home at the S & B place, mainly to enjoy the pool in the Tennessee heat, and think about the next trip.

The Trip - Part 4 - The Visits

The whole purpose of our trip was to visit with family and friends. First up was our friend, Mike with whom hubby worked with at Ford many years ago. He was nice enough to pick us up and we ate at Rivers Edge microbrew in Milford, Michigan. It was pretty close to where we staying.

Next was one of my sisters, Diane and her hubby Pat. We drove our rental car out to where they live, near a lake. We had dinner at Captain Joe's, if my memory serves me. The food was good and we had a great time with them.

Family

For lunch the next afternoon, we met up with friends from an investment club hubby belonged to when we were first married until 1988 or 1989. We've kept in touch and it was good to see them again. Lunch was at the Block Brewery in Howell.

The following day, we went to Brighton, to the home of one of hubby's cousins. It was so nice to visit with them. Hoping they had as good a time as we did.

On Thursday, we had lunch with friends that I went to high school with. Some of us look a lot older and some still look the same.  That lunch was at Leo's Coney Island.

High school friends.

On Friday, lunch again, this time with hubby's cousins from his mom's side of the family. We discovered Red Robin has really awful coffee.

We met up with The Wild Ones and spouses on Saturday. The Wild Ones are my genealogy friends with whom I have shared many research hours and research trips to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We've been friends a long time and it is always good to see them. Lunch with them was at the Draught Horse Brewery in New Hudson.

Wild Ones

And Spouses

The Trip - Part 3

After the visit with my sister, we headed out the next day to Zeeland, Michigan to visit with my Percival cousins on day 15. It had been a while since we last saw them, and we had a really nice visit. My cousin, Mary, made me these cute potholders and a scrubby for the RV. The first thing I used was the scrubby. I love it. The potholders haven't been used it. I'm looking for a place to hang them. They're really too cute to use.

We started the homeward trek on the 16th. Our intention was to spend two nights on the way home but the most convenient campground had no openings, and we were within reach so we headed home. For most of the trip, our Garmin RV 770 led us true. On the last leg of the trip, it confused us and we made a wrong trip. My reaction was let's turn around and go back and get on the right road. Instead we followed the Garmin. Garmin did not know about a bridge being out and led us through to where we had to follow a detour on country roads. OMG. I was never so glad to get out of Kentucky and back in Tennessee. So it was on the 17th day, we arrived back at home.

The Trip - Part Two

On the 13th day of our trip, we broke camp and headed up to northern Michigan to visit with my older sister and her husband. Unfortunately, my brother-in-law was a bit under the weather, but we did have a great visit with my sister. We had a nice lunch at Burke's on one of the lakes in Cadillac, Michigan. 

We stayed at Camp Cadillac. It really wasn't busy, with the weather still on the coolish side. But we were treated for the two days that we were there to a tree-carving in progress. Apparently the oak tree that the bear was carved from had to be taken down. I'm glad that we saw this work in progress.

The Trip

Hubby and I and dog and cat returned from a 17 day trip up to see friends and family in Michigan. It was quite eye-opening.

First, not all campgrounds are created equal. Our first night stop was interesting. The people were nice. Very nice. But the spots were extremely small and not particularly level. But it was a place to stay after a long day of driving I-65 from mid-Tennessee to Clarksville, Indiana. This place also boasts being a KOA.

The first night it rained. Thus began a wet trip. The next two nights were in Elkhart, Indiana at the Elkhart campground. It was nice, we had a pull through spot, but more rain ensued. We did take one factory tour on Friday, packed up and in the morning, turned in our rental car and headed to Michigan.

As it turns out, we were closer to Michigan than I expected. Still took a few hours to get to our destination, Haas Lake Park RV Campground. We lived in southeast Michigan for years and can't tell you how many times we may have passed the street this campground is on. We had one day where we could put up the awning - the first day. We had about a 30 degree drop in temperature from when we left  Tennessee.  The second photo is our view of one of the lakes.

We were there for nine nights. During that time we visited with friends and family, with something going on every single day. While we hated to leave the campground, the muddy road in and out was awful. Izzy really needed a bath when we got home.

Campout!

We joined an FMCA Chapter while in Perry, Georgia last month. This group, Happy Tennessee Travelers, has campouts every month from April to October. We joined the April Campout which was held in Pikeville, Tennessee.

It was a nice campground with pretty good facilities. Which was good because we had rain every day.  Friday evening we all met for dinner at the pavilion which was bring your own. Saturday, breakfast was potluck, bring your own beverage, although coffee was available. Saturday lunch, you were on your own. Some of the group made their way into town for an auction. Apparently, it was very crowded. We took the opportunity to play pool in the game room.

Saturday evening was again a potluck. There are a lot of great cooks in this group. I haven't really learned to cook in my convection microwave. As you can see I am not even on eye level with the center of the microwave. I'm also leery about using a step stool since I tend to forget I'm standing on one. I do have some great recipes that would lend themselves to convection microwave.

I wish I had taken more photos. I spent my time meeting and trying to remember the names and faces of the other people there.

We had a lot of fun until Saturday night, Sunday morning when we had thunderstorms with a lot of wind. I don't think we've ever camped in that much wind. Hubby is an early riser and made coffee and breakfast for himself. When I got up later and went to make coffee and breakfast for myself, we discovered the power was out. I am very thankful for our propane generator.

We discovered it is not so bad having a rainy weekend with other campers.