It was not meant to be!

We were going to stay another day at St. Ignace to go see Mackinaw Island, but we woke up on Thursday morning and the weather was still miserable. So we decided to move on going westward on Route 2. The road was not to bad and most of the time we had a nice view of Lake Michigan as we were driving along it. The weather started clearing up as we went further west and we are in Harris, MI at a nice casino RV park right now. We will stay here for the weekend and move on again on Monday.

I was finally able to reach somebody at Master Tech on Friday and we received an e-mail from the owner Friday night asking us if we can go to Walker, MN for repairs. The town is 430 miles from here and not to far from Route 2, which we were going to follow to the west coast anyway. We will keep our repair appointment in Clara City for right now and I will keep you guys posted on what happens next. Wish us luck!

Soo Locks

Sault St. Marie is known for the Soo Locks, so we decided to check it out. Now I have never seen how these locks work up close, just on TV. We got there just in time to have a beautiful demonstration of how this works. When we arrived the lower lock was closed and the water inside the waterway was a lot higher then on the other side.

Just as we got there, two boats came into the canal and then the show started. The upper locks slowly closed and the water level was at 52'.


As the water slowly lowered inside the canal, we could see it rushing out on the other side of the lower lock. By the time it was all done, they had lowered the water level by 20'



Now the lower lock opened and the boats went on their merry way. As they left the canal another boat was coming up the lake and the whole procedure started the other way around. I felt like a kid in the candy store. I have a new found respect for the Corp of Engineers who built and maintains these canals. There is actually four canals, but they were using only the first one when we were there. It was a totally cool experience to see live how this works.

All in all we had a great day and were looking forward to going to Mackinaw Island the next day.

Whitefish Point

We continued our travels north on Tuesday driving 200 miles to St. Ignace. Driving over that huge bridge was an adventure, specially since it is under construction, and we only had one lane with trucks coming towards us in what is supposed to be our left lane. Doug did a great job getting the rig across. I was a little bit nervous in my car and did not get to see to much of the humongous lake that we were crossing, but it was also grey and foggy when we got there.

I was not to worried, since I thought that Wednesday was supposed to be a nice day to go to Mackinaw Island and would admire the bridge then. We got settled in at the Lakeshore Campground and the rain started. It pretty much rained all night and was still raining in the morning. There was no sense in going on a boat to go to the island in that weather, and therefore you will not see any pictures of the big bridge, since I never got to see it without drizzling rain and fog.

So we decided to outran the rain and went north to Whitefish Point Lighthouse. Driving through the UP is just awesome. It is hard to explain, but it is just such a beautiful area to drive through. Donna and Grant told us that it would be worth it to go see the Whitefish Point Lighthouse and they were absolutely correct.


We both like lighthouses and have spent a lot of time on the east coast checking them out. This one is pretty cool too. It has so much history of all these boats that sank around this area and the huge glass lens in the museum was totally cool.


We went onto the beach to check out Lake Superior. We have reached a milestone! We have now seen all five of the great lakes and they are all huge.

It was still early enough in the day to drive over to Sault St. Marie. We took the scenic route and Doug found this little beach area along the drive. Lake Superior is huge.

Moving On

We have decided to continue with our original plan of going in to the UP. The owner of Master Tech still has not called us back, but I can't let that stop us from our travel plans. Doug has contacted the dealer where we bought our rig and made an appointment for June 8th in Clara City, MN. We will have to abandon some of our Route 2 travels to get there, but at least we will go through the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.

Our next stop will be Saint Ignace and I am not sure how good our Internet connection will be. I am looking forward to checking out Mackinaw Island and will post pictures whenever we have good Internet again. Our time in Michigan has been a good one (not counting our plumbing problems) and it is a beautiful and green state. Saturday we went to Cadillac to check out the artist festival, which was inside various stores downtown. It was different from what we expected, but we found this really good German restaurant and had a great lunch. Traveling is about making the best of any situation and we will not let this mishap stop us. Till next time, travel safe and enjoy every day!

Here we go again!!!

I was in such a good mood when I posted last. That all changed within the next two hours. We went back in the shop to see how the installation of the "Big Foot" leveling system was going and it was going great. However, our slides were not doing so well. Every time they moved one in, another would move out and there was no real logic to why it was happening. After about 2 1/2 hours of checking things out we were asked if it was okay for us to stay inside their shop for the night and they would work on it first thing in the morning. We have experience with spending the night inside a building by now, so we agreed and hoped for the best for the next morning.

They came back at 7 am and started working on our rig right away. To make a long story short, they had removed one to many valves and the loop therefore did not close correctly. The problem was fixed within a couple of hours and we were on our way. Hooray! We traveled north to Manistee, MI and other than that Highway 131 was closed by Shelbysville, the trip went fairly smooth and we arrived at Manistee around 2 pm. This is a really nice campground at the Little River Casino and they said it would fill up by the weekend. When we arrived there was maybe 10 other rigs here.

Wednesday we went to Walmart to stock up on some stuff and get a prescription for Doug filled. Ludington is a small town right by the lake and we drove to the beach to have a look.


It was really windy and a little bit cold, but I just love the water. It has a calming effect on me and after all we had been through in the last two weeks, my nerves deserved a rest. We went back to the rig and had a nice dinner and relaxed for the evening. Got up on Thursday, made breakfast and decided to straighten out the belly again, since the guys at Quadra put things back a little bit disorderly.

That is when we noticed that there was water under the rig again and the underbelly was wet.

We called Master Tech in Elkhart right away at 11 am and waited for a return call. In the meantime, the whole belly was emptied and a lot of our stuff had to be wiped down, since there was transmission fluid on a lot of our stuff. I guess when they reinstalled the valve on Tuesday our stuff was in already and transmission fluid must have squirted out during the install of the valve. I'm just glad that Clorox wipes clean that stuff up pretty good. We got the belly nicely organized again and were still waiting for a phone call back from Master Tech to see what the plan would be. I really don't want to go back to Elkhart, but we need the problem solved and fixed.

To make a long story short, it is now Friday afternoon, we called three times yesterday and once today and still have not gotten a phone call back from Tim (the owner) on how he plans to fix this problem. In the meantime, I have been able to do dishes last night and the underbelly was dry. So this morning we took a shower and we will see if the underbelly stays dry. At this point we are thinking that it might be the plumbing from the bathroom sink. We will keep eliminating things and decide what to do next. If it is the bathroom sink, we can travel and will get it repaired where we bought the rig in Minnesota, but trust me, I am not done with Master Tech yet. My level of frustration is rising by the minute. The holiday weekend is coming up and there is no solution.

In the meantime, the RV park is really starting to fill up today and we will try to make the best out of our weekend.

Out of the Repair Shop!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

It has been two frustrating weeks, but we are finally out of Elkhart. The metal arrived last Tuesday, but of course they forgot to bend the bottom and it had to go to another shop to have that done. Not to worry, it will be still done on Tuesday!. Well, to make a long story short the metal did not leave the shop till Wednesday and came back on Thursday. So they finally started working on our rig again. We had to be in White Pigeon on Monday, so we decided to pull out of the service hall on Friday, after the metal was all reattached and come back on Monday afternoon for painting. It seems that things sure change fast there, or the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. They installed the metal and started painting Friday late afternoon. It was pouring rain, the dock doors were closed and we made the mistake of opening the door for a minute while they were painting. We could not get the paint smell back out of the rig and it was difficult sleeping Friday night. They buffed the metal and sealed all the seams on Saturday morning and the owner finished tying up the sewer pipe early Saturday afternoon.

We finally pulled out of the shop about 4 pm on Saturday afternoon and Doug was ready to get out of Elkhart. We checked out a campground in Bristol (about 20 miles east) to make sure they had room and had a big enough spot, got the rig and pulled into the campground around 6 pm. This campground is beautiful; a little bit pricey, but beautiful. I started the laundry right away and washed till 11 pm. It was so nice to be able to eat on normal plates and use silverware. I am so much more appreciative of freely flowing water now. :-) I finished my fourth load on Sunday morning and by noon time Larry and Linda pulled in next to us. It was so good to see friends again after all that has happened.

Everybody inspected the repairs and decided that they did do a good job. Pictures of our fixed rig are to follow. Right now we are sitting in the lounge of Quadra Manufacturing and waiting for our "Big Foot" installation to get done. We pulled in here yesterday afternoon and had a nice dinner with Larry and Linda in White Pigeon, MI. When getting out of the rig this morning at 6:45 am (we had a 7 am appointment) we had a rude awakening to iced up windshields on the truck and the car. It is freezing up here. My blood is just to thin from living in Texas to long to appreciate these cold temperatures up here. We are supposed to get done this afternoon and will go back to Eby's Pine Campground tonight for one more night.

I just got of the phone with the Little River Casino Campground in Manistee, MI and secured us the last full service spot for the Memorial Day Weekend. Things are finally starting to fall back into place and I am starting to get excited again about traveling. And to top it all off, we spent our first night sleeping in Michigan last night, since we camped out behind the Quarda building and I need to change our state map. It will be done when we have better Internet.

Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum

Since we are stuck in Elkhart for a while, we decided to get out for the day and Doug was very much impressed with this car museum in Auburn, when he saw it a long time ago. I am not much of a car person, but I always like a nice drive in the country. It was cold and rainy on Saturday morning, so it seemed like the perfect day to go to a museum.

The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum just blew me away. Check out my new dream car.

Now this is a sharp looking car! Apparently, I will never be able to afford, but luckily dreams are still for free. We have been in a few "car museum", which normally means a lot of old clunkers in an old building, but this was totally different. These cars are in mint condition and you are not even allowed to touch them. I was so impressed with all these awesome looking cars, I would definitely recommend coming here, if you are in the area. Here are some more cool looking cars.



On they way home we drove by Shipshewana, but unfortunately everything closed at 5 pm. We will go back there tomorrow when the flea market is open. We have seen Amish buggy's in Pennsylvania, but never so many on the road at one time. There had to be an event going on somewhere, since there were buggy's all over the place. We will investigate tomorrow.

Still in Elkhart!

Well, it has been a week since we arrived here. We are still inside their building and it took a mental adjustment for me to get back into a good routine. Since we had problems with the grey tank, we had been going out for meals all the time. I knew getting on the scale last Wednesday was not a good idea, but we are tracking our progress every week. After seeing that we both gained weight back, I had to do something.

Well, I am cooking again and dishes are done twice a day in the sink of the ladies bathroom. They have a big box of plastic cups in there, which works perfect as a drying table. I refuse to take pictures of this, but it does work and cooking surely helps our pocket book too. We are taking showers in their facilities and improved our quality of living tremendously Friday.

You don't realize how much TV you watch, until you don't have it anymore. Our satellite does not work in here (since we are under a metal roof) and the antenna only received a few channels in somewhat poor quality. Did you every notice how well the religious channels come in no matter where you are. Well, on Friday somebody opened a door that is right next to our rig and I had an idea. We used to have a small portable dish when we owned the Excel, and we are still carrying that dish, in case we are parked under a lot of trees and our roof satellite does not work. I took a look at Doug and asked him, if we have enough cable to take portable dish outside. Guess what, we do have enough cable and luckily the dish had to be turned away from the building to get a signal. We have all our normal channels since Friday and it has made living in here a lot more comfortable.

We are true creature of habit and TV does play a role in our life. The shop starts working at 8 am and we have a concert of various noises from drills to generators and motors throughout the day and early evening (they don't stop until around 8 pm some days), but having our TV on helps. Ladies feel for me! I actually had to go to a laundromat on Friday, since we were starting to run out of clean clothes. It is amazing how you can adapt, when there are not to many options available to you. And then, life just goes on!! :-)

The metal that we are waiting for is supposed to arrive today and work should continue tomorrow. We have had the metal promised to us twice before last week, so we are not holding our breath, but keeping our fingers crossed.

RV/MH Hall of Fame

Since we are stuck in Elkhart, we decided to make the best out of it and go see the RV museum. It is amazing what they used to call a RV.


We definitely could have not fulltimed in these rigs. Makes you wonder just how spoiled we are!!

At the Repair Shop

The people at the repair shop are really nice. We were a little bit concerned in the beginning, since there are some employees leaving, new ones coming int, but they have taking care of us well. Monday morning was spend with looking at the metal damage and getting an estimate for fixing that. Around noon time it dawned on the new guy that we could not use any water and they pulled the rig into their shop to start taking the belly apart.

It took the technician about an hour to find a break in an elbow pipe and it got fixed pretty quick. We had to let the glue dry, so no testing the tank until Tuesday. Spending the night in our rig inside a big repair hall is the weirdest experience.

There is a small 5th wheel parked behind us and a bigger one across from us. We are actually able to receive some channels on the TV, which really surprised me.

Tuesday morning was the water test. I ran a rinse cycle in the washer, they put water through the kitchen sink and shower and everything held up well. The gray tank is OK. That was a really big relief. The afternoon was spend taking off the metal damage from the kitchen slide.


We are only replacing the piece that really got damaged and will see if they can't buff out some of the other scratches. I know it is only cosmetic damage, but it still looks horrifying to me. The new piece of metal was supposed to arrive yesterday, but the vendor did not come through. Now we are being told that the metal piece should arrive today. We will see what happens.

It is gray outside and is supposed to rain later. We will not be able to tell, since we are still sitting inside the repair hall. Elkhart hosted a Holiday Rambler rally last weekend and RV Master Tech participated in it. By yesterday afternoon four Class A's came in and by this morning they have pulled three of them inside the hall. There is no way that they could pull us outside right now, but then we are still waiting for parts, so we will stay in here until the repairs have been finished. We really can't complain; they have restrooms and a shower in here, so we are saving our gray tank for emergencies. Yesterday, we went to the RV Museum and I will post pictures about that later. We are trying to stay busy and keep up our spirits.

On the way to Elkhart

We were able to outrun the rain fairly soon and were on our way to Elkhart. We wanted to spend time in Kentucky, but at this point, we just wanted to get up to Elkhart. We found a really nice campground in Columbus, IN. I would highly recommend Woods-N-Waters RV park to anybody. It is close to the highway 65 and the owners were just great. Their shower facilities were so clean, it was a pleasure to take a long hot shower. Even though the campground is near the highway, there are a lot of trees to dampen the noise, but they really have pull throughs for big rigs. We never heard the highway at all.

Sunday's drive was pretty uneventful and we pulled into RV Master Tech around 3 pm. They offer free electric and water, which is pretty nice. We could not use the water, but it was nice to have electric.

Nashville - Never Again!!

I have been debating about this post for a few days, but I guess it is time to start writing again. Let me start in the beginning. We went through Tennessee in the fall of 2007 and had problems finding a campground that suited us. Well, the drive from Memphis to Nashville last Thursday really was not bad, traffic was a little bit heavy through Nashville, but we got to the campground okay.

We explained that we have a 40 foot 5th wheel and they said it would not be a problem. Well, next time we will walk to the spot that they want us to fit in first, before we drive in. We got to the spot and found out that it was not big enough. So we went back to the office. By the time we got there Doug was upset and said that the sewer cap had been hit. After some closer investigation we found that we did not hit only the sewer pipe, which was leaking, we also hit a fence, which put a 12 foot rip in the kitchen slide.


We found another spot to pull into so we could investigate how bad the damage was. The bad weather was also coming in fast, so time was of the essence. We were in a grass spot, so it was not that easy to get underneath the rig. Undoing the insulation around the sewer pipe was difficult, but we got it done. We could not find the leak. Next we took of the panel where the shut off valve is. It was wet, but still we could not see where the break was. All we knew at this point was that we could not run any water. It was coming straight back out of the panel opening. The rain started and we went inside. I was so upset, since we did not know if we cracked the gray tank or not. At least the black tank was holding. It rained hard that night and Doug started to check out RV repair services in Elkhart on the Internet the next morning and made some phone calls.

He found a shop with a lot of goods reviews and made an appointment for Monday morning. The plan now was to leave Nashville on Sunday and try to drive the 450 miles to Elkhart in one day. It rained all day Friday and after a thunderstorm in the early evening the campground lost power and we set in the rig with just our 12 Volt lights for about three hours. At least the batteries are working fine. If there was a silver lining to this accident, it really could have been worse. If we would have tagged the fence higher, it could have damaged the water heater and the electric lines that are higher up.

Well, Saturday morning came around and there was a two hour break in the rain. More heavy storms were expected in the afternoon all the way through Sunday. Our rig was sitting in at least 2 inches of water already. We looked at each other and started packing up all our stuff. Since a lot of people had left the campground already, we were able to pull through some open spots to get back to the main road and out of the campground.

We found out later that the storms had been worse south of Nashville and a Teton Home 5th wheel had been turned on his roof during strong winds. I guess we should count our blessings.