A couple of weeks at "home" before settling in for the summer

Following our long weekend in Pigeon Forge with Nicolas, it was time for us to make our final drive north for the year.  We were due at our summer destination on May 1st, giving us 12 days to take care of some business back at home.

We settled into our familiar campground,

where family, friends and work were nearby.  

We had a couple dinners with family,

celebrated Grandpa's birthday,

and took care of lots of business -- work business, school business, and doctor business.

One big project that Tom tackled was getting the Jeep set up for towing.  We had picked up a tow bar off craigslist while we were still in Florida, but we needed the mating hardware on the Jeep.  After much research, Tom decided that we should go with an aftermarket bumper, rather than a baseplate.  He found a "Jeep guy" in Toledo who could handle the job, and picked out a bumper.

In his first appointment, he got the bumper installed and the electrical connections made,

but it took a second appointment to get the Jeep adapters installed on the tow bar, and to route the airline to the brake buddy.

Tom and Bryce did a trial run of the brake buddy to make sure it would work before they installed it into the Jeep.

It worked!

















They took some measurements to make sure the tow bar would be level between the motorhome and Jeep, and made a few modifications to the hitch.  They also moved the bike rack to the back of the Jeep.

Another smaller project that they tackled was replacing all of our light bulbs with LEDs.  We had ordered them on eBay and had them delivered to my Mom's house.

They make a huge difference in the RV -- so much brighter!

We went with pure white in the living room and kitchen to get maximum light, but stayed with warm white in the bedroom.  Even those are considerable brighter than the old bulbs, though.

On Saturday, Bryce cut Grandma's front lawn, and we went to a small RV Show with my sister and brother-in-law . . . where Bryce found out that a T@B probably wasn't the best choice for him!

We left Grandma with a couple of reminders of her grandsons,

and Sunday morning after church we got all hitched up and ready to drive across the state to our summer home.

Everything hitched up just fine,

and we were on the road -- 250 miles to the west coast of Michigan and the little town of Silver Lake.  We stopped a few times on the way, just to check all the connections and to make sure the brakes on the Jeep were coming back off properly.  Everything worked great, and we made it to Silver Creek RV Resort, where we will be spending the next 5 months.

We're all set up, and looking forward to a great summer!  If you find yourself in the area, give us a call or stop by for a visit!