Travel to St Ignace MI and TV Repair #1

August 21 - 23, 2013   

Wednesday August 21st the weather was perfect for traveling. We were up and ready to travel for our short 140 miles to St Ignace MI.  We traveled north on I 75 and across the 5 mile Mackinac Bridge from lower Michigan to what is known as the U.P. or Upper Peninsula. The U.P. starts in St Ignace on the great Lake Huron at the foot of the Mackinac Bridge.

Today Patty will take a turn at being the captain of the rig. She hitched the truck to the RV and pulled out of our site in West Branch MI around 11:15am and then towed the 140 miles to St Ignace MI.  She also went over the Mackinac Bridge and parked the RV into our new site at the Tiki RV Park in St Ignace.  In some road construction areas she needed to drive with half of the rig on the road surface and half on the shoulder.  This can be a little scary and gets tiring because if you get off of the pavement and into the gravel on the left it would be easy to lose control.  She did a great job even with the narrow road construction areas.  

This was such a great day traveling.  Some days just seem to be OK and some seem to be great and today was a great day.  Sun was shining, deep blue sky, low traffic, short distance to travel, and great songs on the radio.  We were just commenting to each other how great this was when the song On the Road Again by the band Canned Heat came on. It just doesn't get better than that :) 

Due to high winds we were reduced to just 20 MPH over the bridge.

Getting close to the bridge!

Going out on to the bridge.

Captain Patty a the wheel on the bridge.

Entering the U.P. at the tolls for the bridge.  Cost was $8 for the rig.

Good picture of the rig in front of the Tiki RV Park Office waiting to get our site number.

We arrived at our new site at the Tiki RV Park around 2:30pm and were set up by a little after 3pm.  The Tiki RV Park was at one time an Indian burial ground.  In the 20’s they found 50 some Indian skeletons buried here.  For a while the skeletons were shown as a tourist attraction into the 50s.  Then the skeletons were given back to the Indians who buried them on reservation grounds.  Not long after that this area became the Tiki RV Park.

Our site at the Tiki RV Park.

Another view of our site.  Note the view of Lake Huron in the background.

We love fresh fish and we really like fresh lake fish.  So we decided to try one of the restaurants within walking distance.  By the way, the whole town is within walking distance at about 3 miles long.  We went to The Galley located at the marina.  The restaurant had a very nice view of Lake Huron with Mackinac Island off in the distance.  However, we had mixed feelings about the fish.  I had a sampler plate with lake Trout, White fish (this is the big fish here), and lake Perch.  Patty had the broiled Walleye.  My fish was fine but not great.  Patty’s was dry and no taste and the taste I had sucked.  Anyway, we will try again while we are here for good fresh lake fish.

The marina in St Ignace.  Mackinac Island is the land mass in the background to the left.

Another view of the marina.  Note the beautiful flowers along the road. 

After arriving back at the RV we were going to kick back and watch some TV.  Well, not tonight! I have been having problems with the living room TV lately.  The problem goes back to the way the cables were installed when we purchased the RV.  

The TV is on an arm that allows the TV to be pulled away from the wall to make for better viewing at different angles.  
When we pull out the TV the cables would tighten up putting pressure on the connection to the TV.  I realized this a long time ago and re routed the cables using some strategically placed cable ties.  This worked but the damage to the over-the-air coaxial cable connection to the TV had been done.  As we moved and time went on the connector on the TV became loose inside the TV.  We would need to move it around to get reception.   Tonight the connection finally completely broke and came out of the TV.

This is a simple but time consuming problem to fix.  I now need to take the TV off the wall and take the 20 or more screws out of the back to open it up to attempt a good repair. The original connector is a special-made connector for this TV.  It is a regular male coaxial plug with a metal housing machined into the back that is soldered to a circuit board. The back metal housing had broken off of the coaxial connector that protruded from the TV.  

I decided that I needed to solder a coaxial cable directly into the circuit board.  So from about 9pm until midnight I worked on the TV.  After putting the TV back together, the coaxial became loose due to my cold solder joints. I was using a very low heat soldering iron that just wasn't hot enough to do the job I needed to do.  I needed to get a higher heat iron or maybe a soldering gun. Tomorrow I get to repeat the process all over again.

After the removal of the TV.

Me working on the TV.

 

The round loose part is what broke off of the small metal box on the circuit board behind it.

Tomorrow we are going over to Mackinac Island and plan to ride our bikes around the entire Island.  Maybe we will get a better soldering iron as well :)

Stay Tuned!

Travel to West Branch Michigan

August 19 - 20, 2013   

Monday morning August 19th we got up and decided we would hike one of the 3 trails here at Pontiac Lake Recreation State Park.  The check-out time is not till 1pm so we had plenty of time.  

We took the yellow trail which took us from our campground to Pontiac Lake 2 miles through the woods.  We first walked around the perimeter of the campground and then set off on the trail.  The trail had a lot of steep hills causing us to take much more time than we had planned for the hike.  At 11 am and with only a quarter of a mile left we decided to head back so we could break camp and get on the road.  We also decided that we needed to take showers before we leave too!

About a mile in we needed to climb over this fallen tree.

We managed to leave the campsite on time at 1:00 and after hitting the dump station we were on the road by 1:30.  This was going to be a very easy travel day of just 130 miles up I75 to West Branch MI.  Originally we were going go all the way to St. Ignace, 270 miles, but we decided to split it up into 2 travel days.  We are really trying to slow down!    

As part of our usual routine, Patty had called ahead to the campground after we were on the road to ensure we had an available site.  The woman who answered the phone said she wouldn't be there so we could pick either of 2 offered sites and she would see us in the morning.  A few minutes after Patty hung-up with the campground, the woman called back.  She wanted to give us directions as the GPS location was wrong for this campground.  She was right; the campground was about 5 miles away from the GPS location!

We arrived at the Loragan Pines RV Park just south of West Branch MI at 3:00.  This is a linear campground with about 50 sites in a row between 2 rows of pine trees.  We really liked this campground.  The sites are very large with almost enough room to put 2 big rigs on the same site side by side. There isn't anything between the sites but since the sites are so big and there was 2 sites on each side of empty it felt very private.

That was it for the travel day.  We got settled in and started cocktail hour with a glass of wine and started dinner.  Patty made some pork chops and I made some stuffing and we both made some vegetables for a fine dinner to end the day.

Tuesday the 20th we were visited by the campground owner to get our money for our stay.  At the Passport America rate we were charged just $36 for 2 nights with full 50A hook-ups :-) So far for 2013 we are averaging $21 a night for camping fees.  This is very good since we budgeted $32 a night.  

We decided we would go in to the town of West Branch and do a little shopping.  We really don't need much but we were looking for fresh fish and we wanted to get a dustbuster for the RV.  Wow, that sounds a little funny, fresh fish and a dust buster!  

We found a Wally World for the dust buster but no fresh fish. Across the street from the Wally World there was a butcher shop.  We have been trying to get fresh food whenever possible so we decided to try out the butcher shop for some meat.  We ended up with some pork chops, bacon, and some rib eyes for dinner tonight.  

Patty and I have found that thick steaks taste better than the thin steaks.  However, the thick steaks are way too much for each of to eat.  We bought 2 one pound steaks.  We cooked one of the steaks for dinner and then cut it up in small serving sized that we could both pick from.  The other steak we froze for later.  We don't like to freeze meat but it won't be for long.

We decided to eat at the picnic table tonight and watch the news on the outside TV.  

Then after dinner we took a couple mile walk on a trail that runs behind the campground.  We found out that this trail is mainly used for local deer hunters. It also looks like these hunters are not your usual law abiding hunters either.  The hunting area consists of a quarter mile long by 300 foot wide grassland surrounded by pine trees on all sides.  On one of the long ends was a tree stand complete with propane heat.  Now, for the bad part; along the long side was a large dispenser used for grain as bait to attract the deer.  Just doesn’t seem to be very much sport in that.

The tree stand.

View from the tree stand.

Bait feeder along the left side of the killing field.

Anyway, that was it for us tonight.  We watched some TV and then off to bed.  Tomorrow we leave for St. Ignace 140 miles north.

Stay Tuned!

Golf, saying Goodbye, and, On the Road Again

August 18, 2013   

This will be a short Blog as we didn't take any pictures.  We were having too much fun visiting!

Sunday August 18th we met Kenny and Phyllis at their house around 10:45 am ready to play some golf.  This was my 3rd time playing in the past year and Patty’s first in 3 years.  We played at the club (Atlas Valley Country Club) that Kenny and Phyllis belong to.

I’ll leave out much of the ugly details of mine and Patty’s play; however we warmed up after the first 9 and were better on the back 9.  The course is very nice and has some challenging holes.  The 18th hole has the most sloped green I think I have ever played.  We had a great time and I only lost 3 balls!

After golf we went to a local dairy farm (Cook's) that sells ice cream.  We all had some very fresh ice cream to finish off the golf part of the day.

We went back to Kenny and Phyllis’ house for dinner and cocktails again.  Kim and her kids Emerson and Dawson joined us for dinner in the back yard.  Again, grille master Kenny served up some great Chicken and grilled corn on the cob with lime butter.  Then around 9:30 we said our goodbyes and we headed off for our campsite.

We want to thank Kenny and Phyllis for being such great hosts!  You guys were too good, we may be back! 

This picture was taken a few years ago at Patty's Aunt Carols 75th Birthday.  This a good part of Patty's family in this picture.  This picture was "found" on Kenny and Phyllis' fridge.

This marks the end of our summer family and friends visit. We started this chapter at the end of May with the Grandkids in Disney World and ended here with Uncle Kenny and Aunt Phyllis in Clarkston, MI.  Now, for the next 3 months we will be on another adventure heading through the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North/South Dakota, Montana, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and then to Texas.

We are going to winter this year in south Texas.  We will park and store the rig in Texas at the end of November and fly back to Indiana/New York/New Jersey to visit for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Then back to South Texas for 3 months until it gets warm again up North.

Tomorrow we leave the Pontiac Lake Recreation Park Campground and head north to West Branch MI.  It should be a short and easy haul.

Stay Tuned!

Woodward Dream Cruise and Dinner with the Grille Master Kenny

Saturday August 17th 

Today we went to the Woodward Dream Cruise.   The Cruise is a linear car show in a 30 mile loop (15 miles each way) on Woodward Avenue.  The Cruise draws over 40,000 classic cars from all over the world.  Woodward Avenue was the main drag for GM, Ford and Chrysler back in the day, when drive-in restaurants were scattered up and down its length. Classic cars run along Woodward Avenue through nine communities from Ferndale to Pontiac MI.  We got a place to set up our chairs about mid-point along Woodward Avenue in the community of Birmingham.  

We sat and had lunch watching the cars for about 3 hours.  The weather was absolutely perfect with a few stray clouds and temps in the 70-80 range throughout the day.   In the 3 hours we were there we rarely saw a vehicle twice.  We are not really into cars, but it was impossible not to be thrilled with this many classic vehicles of every variety in one place.   The vehicles were from old to new and ranged from trucks to cars to actual race cars and then the just plain odd cars.  We had such a great time!

After the Dream Cruise we headed back to Kenny and Phyllis’s house for cocktails and dinner with their daughter Kim. We found out that Kenny is a great Grille Master!  Kenny grilled some really great marinated steaks.  I’m not found of marinated anything but these have changed my mind about marinating.  I didn't get the recipe for the marinate, but hopefully I will get it in the future.  

Kenny the grille master wearing his onion glasses.

We wound up the night with the plan to go golfing in the morning at the country club Kenny and Phillis belong to.  

It was a great day!

Stay Tuned!

Travel Through Canada – Grand Island NY to Clarkston Michigan

August 16, 2013  

Friday August 16th we crossed the border into Canada heading for Clarkston Michigan which is Northwest of Detroit.  For us, this was going to be a long pull of 260 miles or about 5 hours.  From the US side we crossed at the Lewiston Bridge just north of Niagara Falls NY.  Then we drove across Canada for about 200 miles and exited at the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia Canada.  Our destination was the Pontiac Lake State Park in Clarkston MI.

We left our site on Grand Island at 10:30 am for the Lewiston Bridge 10 miles north. That is the closest border crossing to us.  This was our first delay.  It took us just over an hour to cross the half mile into Canada.  The US to Canada side had just one lane of traffic and the Canada to US side having 3 lanes.  

Waiting in line on the Lewiston Bridge to get into Canada.

The Niagara River separating the US and Canada.  This is north of the falls.

At the border point on the Lewiston Bridge.

The actual border plate on the Lewiston Bridge.

 The 200 mile trip across Canada was mostly uneventful and went as planned.  The sights going over the Blue Water Bridge at Sarnia were beautiful!  It took us just 15 minutes to go over the bridge, pay the toll and to clear customs.

We had a little scare as the US customs guy warned us that our plant Rosey (Chinese Rose) could be confiscated! Seems Canada doesn't care what plants you bring in but the US does.  They let us keep Rosey but next time she will ride in the RV instead of the truck.

We were now just 50 miles from our destination and it was 4 pm.  We figured we would be in the campsite by 5 pm.  Well, it wasn't to be.  We are now in rush hour traffic and on a secondary road with construction confining the road to just one lane for 30 miles!  It took us 3 hours to travel the 50 miles to our site after we exited the bridge into the US!  We arrived at our site at 7 pm!  That is one of the latest we have ever arrived at a campsite.  Eight and a half hours in the truck is a long time.

Our back-in site is somewhat tight especially at the entrance.  The site opens up once we are in place. The site is very secluded with loads of room and trees between sites.  Patty picked this site online because it is shaded - and is it ever! We can’t see any of our neighbors around us.  This is an electric only site with just 30 amps so we took on 60 gallons of water at the park entrance.  This is our first time just having electric where we are prepared with a full tank of water.   We are only here 3 nights and should have enough water.  We feel that we could probably go a week easily with just electric.

Patty’s Uncle Kenny and his wife Phyllis came over to our site just as we finished setting up.  They brought some appetizers and wine that we munched on while we got caught up.   Kenny and Phyllis live just 20 minutes from our site.  
About 8:30 we headed into the town of Clarkston for dinner.

Clarkston is a small town about 50 miles from Detroit.  The downtown is hopping with activity that surrounds some very nice original bars and restaurants.  They picked a very good place called the Union.  The Union was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri.  One of their specialties is Mac and Cheese which was part of the meal showcased on the show.  Of course I had to have some, however with lobster mixed in.  Yum, Yum!!

Downtown Clarkston MI.

Our appetizer, a cheese fondue with a soft pretzel on top.

Sign hanging in the Union.

Stay Tuned!