Indian Powwow, Campfire, TV Fix #2, and Fireworks. End of Mackinac Adventure

August 23 - 24, 2013   

Friday August 23rd we were up at our usual time of 7 AM ready for the day.  Most days start with coffee and reading the news on-line, then Facebook, RV-Dreams forum, and lastly, other peoples Blogs.  We usually take about 2 hours for this.  After all of that I usually write my Blog and sometimes take a Spanish Lesson with Rosetta Stone.

So, this morning I do fix #2 for the TV.  I now have a better and hotter soldering gun of 75W instead of the wimpy 15W iron I used on fix #1.  I also have the knowledge gained from fix #1 of how to take the TV apart.  This time, because my legs hurt on the floor, I decided to upgrade my work surface to the dining room table.  I was set for success!

I decided that I had to solder the coaxial cable directly to the circuit board this time.  Also, I needed to a much better mechanical support for the cable to keep stress from affecting the joint over time.  The 75W gun allowed me to actually melt the existing solder and add new without burning the surrounding circuit board waiting for the slow 15W iron.  
Finally I got very good solder connections with enough cable loop inside the TV frame to insulate the connection mechanically from the cable on the outside of the TV.  In other words, you can move and pull and abuse the cable on the outside and it won’t affect the connection on the inside.  

I put the TV back together, mounted it back to the wall and attached all of the connections.   Now for the proof that my fix #2 was successful, turn on the TV and see if it works.  Damn, it works!  Another RV job successfully completed!

The white cable is what I am adding.

After the successful TV fix that took till noon, we walked to downtown St Ignace to see the Indian demonstration.  This week is history week in St Ignace so there are some events related to the founding of the town.  The French explorer and priest Jacques Marquette founded the St. Ignace Mission on this site in 1671 and was buried there after his death.  It’s amazing to me that Marquette was only 39 years old when he died.  This guy came here from France when he was 30 and built this church within 5 years and then left to explore the Mississippi River in a 3000 mile trip and then on his way back died.  This was all in the mid 1600’s!  Some kids today don’t even leave home until they are late 20’s!

Anyway, the Indian exhibit was very lame for adults.  Just a few people with no or little costumes dancing to a drum beat. There was also just one food vendor.  I really shouldn't be so critical of “free” events, just telling it like it is.  Seemed the kids liked it and maybe that is what counts anyway for this event.

View from the road leading from our campground to Main street in St Ignace.  Lake Huron is in the background.

This was on Main Street St Ignace on the way to the Indian exhibit.  We thought this was an insurance issue waiting to happen.  The place sells fireworks and the front of the place is piled high with hay and straw bales.  There is a no smoking sign that should make up for that....right!

Patty checking out the Indian barn.  One dropped cigarette and woof!

After the downtown Indian exhibit we went back to the RV for dinner.  Patty cooked her very delicious meatloaf.  Yum, Yum, with mashed potatoes!  Then it was to bed after some TV time.

On Saturday the 24th, our last day in St Ignace we were going to go the big Indian Powwow being held at the Jacques Marquette Memorial Park by the Mackinac Bridge.  Not a good day for Patty as she was not feeling good today.  So after waiting until 1 pm to see if Patty would feel better and she didn't, I went to the Powwow by myself.

The Powwow was more realistic than yesterday. That is because it was a real Powwow.  It was just $4 to get in and they had 20-30 vendors selling all stuff Indian including 3 food vendors.  I had a buffalo burger for $5 that was really very good.  I stayed about 2 hours watching the native dances and viewing the stuff for sale that I didn’t buy.  All in all it was a good time at this event but would have been better if Patty was with me.

Making brown sugar from maple syrup.

Drummers are in the grass hut in the center.  The dance happens around the drummers.

Waiting to dance.

On the way back I filled the truck with diesel fuel for our trip tomorrow to Iron River MI.  It should be an easy pull to Iron River as it is mostly just 2 lane highways and flat with very little traffic.

Patty was feeling much better when I arrived back at the RV. We decided to build a campfire and mostly cook outside. The weather was perfect with low humidity and temps around 70. We paid the campground $4 for a load of wood that looked like it was enough for 2 fires.  Ha!  It took all of the wood to just get a decent fire! We really haven’t built fires in a below ground fire ring before so we were not getting the fire to stay lit.  I have built many fires in many different situations and this was the hardest.  I tried 3 different wood assemblies and finally came up with one that worked.  The one that worked took all of the wood we had though.  Basically we built the wood up above the bottom of the fire ring and it took off.  We just couldn't get enough air into the deep ring to support a fire until we got above the ring.

Lots of smoke, but no lasting fire.

Fire, but it wouldn't let me relax.

We had crab legs, cauliflower, and roasted potatoes for dinner.  Then after dinner we took our backpack chairs and headed off to see the fireworks in the marina.  Our campground sits a couple hundred feet above the marina so the view was fabulous! It was a great night.  We sat down to watch the fireworks and a local family came and sat with us to watch.  It just sort of felt like we were neighbors sitting down to watch fireworks together on a summer evening.   The mother we were taking to works on Mackinac Island at one of the resort hotels.  She has been here for 18 years and she still is not a Yooper (Slang for a person from the Upper Peninsula, U.P., of Michigan).  Seems you need to be born here to get that distinction. We were all just trolls from under the bridge!

Patty's new $5 dollar shoes she bought on Mackinac Island.  They came with individual protective bags and smelled like grapes.

That wraps up the Mackinac Island area adventure. Tomorrow we head west to start our adventures driving through the UP and getting closer to Yellowstone.

Stay tuned!