Thursday, October 3, 2019

Beginning our Fall Travels


At the end of our family vacation in Michigan, the kids returned to their busy lives – Bryce getting fully engaged in his SENIOR year at Michigan State --



making art for the walls of his apartment, tailgating, and working on his graduate school plans for the next two years.


Nicolas got back to Virginia just in time to go out on his ship ahead of Hurricane Dorian making landfall just south of Virginia in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.














It was a quick trip for them – just a couple of days – and then they returned to the pier for an even quicker stopover before leaving again for their scheduled underway.


For Tom and I, it was time to begin our fall travels and eventual arrival at our winter destination of Florida.

Our first stop was in the familiar area of Elkhart & Shipshewana, Indiana.



We had some appointment scheduled to get some warranty and maintenance work done on the motorhome.  Our first stop was at Elkhart Sales & Service,















where we had several miscellaneous items looked at – adjusting a slide, replacing one of our motorized shades, checking a slide motor, and other odds and ends.

From there, we moved about 1/2 mile down the road to Marv & Tom’s,



where we got our annual engine/chassis maintenance and had the coolant flushed.

















With that work accomplished, we spent the weekend shopping in some of our favorite spots.  We met some of my family over in Shipshewana on Saturday to do some shopping and enjoy a delicious dinner at Das Dutchman Essenhaus – YUM!








It was a nice day, and we were glad we got to see everybody one more time before we got back into full travel mode!

Our last stop in Elkhart was at Coach Glass,














where our new windshield from last winter needed to be re-sealed.

We arrived on Monday for our Tuesday appointment, and had the whole parking lot to ourselves, but it soon filled up! 



The guys at the shop basically removed and replaced the entire seal and rain gutter on our windshield, and it looks so much better now – and no leaks!



With all our work complete, we officially got back on the road!  We were headed for Door County, Wisconsin, but we had to get around Chicago first . . . we had no intention of going through the Windy City, so we stayed far south and went far west before turning north and ending up in Rockford, IL.  It made for a longer drive, but well worth it to avoid the big city.  The road wasn’t much better, though – US30 in Indiana and Illinois was pretty awful!




We spent the next couple of days in a little campground on the river in Rockford, IL – resting up and planning our visit to Door County.



It was a nice little park, not much of a beach, though . . .



We were close to a Camping World, so we took a drive to check out a motorhome they had on consignment . . .



LOL!  No, that’s not the one we looked at!  We were reminded of why we don’t deal with Camping World, though . . . oh well, moving on.

We had a big rainstorm the night before we left, and the main road out of the park got pretty washed out – luckily the campground owner was out there first thing in the morning with his tractor filling the ruts with stone!



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We made it out just fine, and waited to hook the Jeep up until we had climbed the steep hill out of the park.  Then we were ready to hit the road.









We made our way north, and in just a short few minutes we had crossed into Wisconsin.













Shameful as it is, this was our first visit to our neighboring state to the west . . . and brings us to 48 of 50 states visited!



We made our way almost to the tip of Door County – to the little community of Bailey’s Harbor on the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula – to the Beantown Campground, one of the few that had FHU sites and could accommodate big rigs.



It was a very nice park, and we had a lovely visit in Door County . . . more to come on our adventures!


2 comments:

  1. Nice to get everything taken care of before heading South for the winter. From your Map I only see one more state to fill in. Maybe you could do that before reaching Florida.
    Be Safe and Enjoy the cooler temperatures.

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It seemed logical to me, especially when you see where we traveled to, but Tom wasn't agreeable!

    ReplyDelete

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