Category: Uncategorized

Getting Ready to Go.

End of October, 2014.

When you think about being gone for a long time – for us this upcoming adventure will be about four months – you might think there is lots to think about.  There is. What clothes, what food and so on.  Actually it is much more about things to make life easier on the road and esier to be away from home.  Clothes aren’t too hard, something warm, some t-shirts, some pants, some shorts.  If we don’t have it we will get it. We take less food to start than we would for a long weekend.

House
We have folks watching over the house. Helpers to call if needed. The snow is being plowed. The mail is being forwarded. Monitors watch temperature and power in the house.  We have flooding detectors too.  These will alert us if there is water on the floor.  We have remote cameras watching that detect motion and send us emails when that happens.  We can remotely access those cameras for a look-see of our own.  Pretty much good to go on that front.

Coach
The coach has had all the needed and scheduled service done, systems checked and all is thumbs up there.

We put in a new refrigerator in September and gave that a test trip.  It works fine but we pulled it out and redid the exterior access hatch to improve insulation and reduce air infiltration.  I also rewired the circuit that powers the refrigerator so that the outlet that the refrigerator plugs into is now behind one of the kitchen drawers.  For whatever reason this refrigerator does not have an on/off switch. So I wired the outlet to a new switch on the front end of the kitchen cabinets and while I was at it added another 110v outlet next to the switch.  This lets us turn off the refrigerator without cutting power to that circuit.


Lighting
We have just about completed our conversion to all LED lighting.  The last to get done are the insides of the inside cabinets and closets.  Just a couple left to do now but this makes a big difference.  They are on switched 12 volt circuits and have sensors in the doors so when the door is open the light is on and when you close the door the light goes off.  It really makes it easier to see what is in there and find stuff.  
I have also been adding LED lighting in the basement storage bays. These are areas that needs all the light they can get.  I am even adding lights to interior equipment bays, the engine compartment and the generator bay.  All of this makes working with the coach easier.
DirecTV
We were able to get TV reception in many areas in the SE US but we are pretty sure that won’t be the case out west.  So after a lot of debate we decided to add a DirecTV dish and receiver. If you want this at home you just call and they provide everything and hook it all up.  If you want this on your motorhome you buy all the parts and get someone to install it and set it up at your expense or you do it yourself. I of course chose to do it myself.
The dish is mounted on the roof.  It folds down while traveling. There are control boxes and inside wiring as well.  When you deploy the dish from the storage position shown, it rises up, unfolds and starts rotating and tilting and automatically finds the correct position to receive data from three satellites simultaneously.  It takes about 5 minutes.  
There is a Genie DVR receiver in the coach.  It can record and watch five different programs at once.  I also added new over-the-air antenna signal strength displays and amplifiers and lighting.  We still have the Bose surround sound system, cd player and blu-ray player as well.  We also have about 40 blu-ray discs with us too. And way too many remote controls.  We can be well entertained when needed.

I added new drawers under the dinette for more organized longer term storage for supplies.

We also upgraded the coach’s wifi network and 4G access to the internet.
And then we unloaded everything that was in the coach, sorted, removed, added, organized, repacked and reloaded what was left.  We ended up with more space
So all of that done we winterized the coach, put it in the barn and started our departure countdown about 8 weeks away.
More next time.
Roger and Susan

Tettegouche State Park, North Shore, September 2014

Red Green’s Special Stuff

After our last trip ended with a bit of crunching I figured I better update progress. A repair estimate came from Xtreme Paint and Graphics which went to the insurance company, who went back to Xtreme to negotiate a bit. That’s where it sits. The insurabce company is contacting the witnesses to see what they have to say about the speeding, red light running, talking on her cell phone while smoking crazy person who ran into us.  

In the mean time we applied the Handy Man’s secret weapon over some metal mending plates, secured the headlights, put in a new turn signal bulb and we were good to go.
Chilling
The original LP gas refrigerator was still working fine but is is 13 years old.  These are the number one cause of fires in motorhomes. From what we see the newer ones are worse than the old ones. At this time in their lives they are commonly being replaced with ordinary residential refrigerators. We gave it some thought and when a very nice Samsung went on sale (for about 1/3 of the cost of a new LP gas refrigerator) we went for it. Got it delivered and set upmin the shop to make sure it worked well and got busy removing the old refrigerator and making adjustment to cabinets, electrical wiring, plumbing, vents and building a new platform for the refrigerator and a new skinny cabinet to go along side of it.

Out with the old one.
Recruited some Habitat friends and others to do the swap.  Thanks!

Right through the window. Mtaking the window out and replacing it took longer thn the old refrigerator out and new one in.

After a couple (Susan says four) test fits it is in and trimmed out. The new side cabinet is quite nice.

Sold the old refrigerator to a young couple for their cabin.  Good for them and us.
Tettegouche State Park.
On the way to Tettegouche we stopped for one night on the lake at Two Harbors, MN.  They have a nice city campground, Burlington Bay. Lots of sites right on the lake.  And you can walk into Two Harbors.

Late sun.
Tettegouche State Park is a great park for hiking.  It has lots of moderate to difficult triails that follow the Baptism River or lead into the backcountry. The definition of moderate has changed over the years.  Susan and I were first here in the early 80’s and the trail on the North side of the Baptism River to the High Falls was a rough, tree root and rocky covered trek up and down hills, through bogs and across several small streams.  Today the steep up and down climbs are wooden stairways and boardwalks get you through the boggy areas without getting your feet wet.  It is still a significant cardiovascular event.
It is also a great park for camping.  The main campground is about a mile from the lake and up the hill. There are lots of campsites for tents and RVs many with electric connections.  There are also 6 cart-in camp sites.  You park your car and haul your stuff into the camp site with a garden cart.  These vary from maybe a 50 yards to a half mile.  The up-the-hill campground is away from the highwy traffic and noise and light.  It is one of the darkest State Park campgrounds on the North Shore. A late night walk yields a spectacular stary night view. We saw some of the best views of the Milky Way in a long time. Even out in Hastings there is still a lot of extra light that makes seeing this difficult.

Late in the day.

There are also a dozen or so cart-in camp sites down by the lake.  They are also closer to Highway 61.
This used to be the Baptism River State Park and was much smaller. In 1910 a group of business men from Duluth bought 1000 acres around Tettegouche Lake to use as a hunting and recreation camp.  They built several log cabins and called it Tettegouche Camp.  They bought the land from a logging company based in the NE USA.  The logging company named the lake Tettegouche from Algonquin word for retreat. Several other lakes and rivers nearby have Algonquin names as well. The logging company had cut most of the trees but left many mature white pine around the lake.  These trees now are over 200 years old and stand well over 100 ft tall. The business men ran their Camp with a strong conservation ethic. They ran out of money in 1929 and sold the land to one of the business man who did not.  He ran it as an upscale camp open to the public adding a lodge and many more buildings. He sold it to another prominent Duluth family in 1971 who sold it to the Nature Conservancy who sold it to the State in 1979. I imagine there was a lot of manuevering for tax purposes in those 8 years.  By 1979 the original 1000 acres had been expanded to 3400 acres. This land along with Tettegouche Camp was merged ith the Baptism River land and the park was renamed Tettegouche State Park.
The park now has some of the most unique forest habitat anywhere long the North Shore. One of the most interesting is a significant stand of mature oak trees. Thee trees drop acorns and are a favorite food of the black bears in the area.  They have tagged bears that travel more than 20 miles for this fall treat. 
There is a major trailhead near the campground.  Most of these trails head into the interior of the park. The campground is on the south side of the Baptism River.  A trail from the campground leads upstream along the high bluff to the High Falls.
The High Falls is one of the highest falls in the state.  An old cable suspension bridge crosses the river above the falls.
They have added lots of stiffeners since the first time we were there. It still has a load limit of just a few backpackers and their gear at a time. It is part of the Superior Hiking Trail as it passes theough the park. 
Once cross you can continue upstream or follow the Superior Trail or head downstream on the top of the north edge of the river gorge.  Just a short way on there are steps down to the bottom of the High Falls.  About 120 steps!
Time for a rest.
Two years ago when we were here there was a Conservation Corp crew (part of Americorps that work with state Parks) (sort of like Peace Corps at home) working on these steps.  They were rebuilding the bottom 30 or so steps and the landing at the bottom. Much of this hard been damaged in the same storm where flood wters damaged Duluth and Jay Cooke State Park. They had to carry in all of the timbers and tools by hand.  Very hard work but the crew leader told me that there was hardly a better way to spend a summer.  We ran into them later in the campground.  They didn’t go off and stay in some place with beds, they stayed in the campground in tents!
Anothe mile or so down stream there was a branch trail running down to the base of Two Step Falls. Not two stps down but more than 210.  Another cardio experience.
This was a nice lower pool, probably great for a swim in mid summer. About 50° today.
210 steps back up and then down towards the lake and the new Visitors Center where we had a nice lunch.

And then with a light mist coming on we hiked back up the hill to the campground.  A hot chocolate helped make the cool uphill trek end comfortably.
The hike (walk) out to Shovel Point is not very far and the trail is pretty good.  I’d like to have the lumber contract for the DNR. They build a lot of stairways and boardwalks. On this pretty rugged terrain they make the trails more accessable. 
So its a couple mile round trip with lots of up and down.  This part of the North Shore as is most of it, is ancient lava flows. It is a particular type of lava which as it cools gets big vertical cracks. It ends up making cliff faces look like they are made of narrow vertical columns.  This is much different from the lava flows at Gooseberry State Park for example only 20 miles South East.
Shovel Point cliff face.
Wind, waves and mostly ice freezing in cracks make some spectacular rock formations. The trees on top give some idea how big this solitary rock outcrop is. 

Very high and very steep cliffs along the trail to Shovel Point.  Probably 200′ of more to the bottom. There were steel anchor points bolts to the rock at the cliff top. We wondered what they were for.  Someone else suggested they were for the bird banders who monitored Perigrine Falcon nests.  Sounded good to us.  Later we discovered that Tettegouche is one of two parks where they have rock climbing as a regular activity.  We found one other cliff location with the same anchors.

Finally all the way to the point and a small,bay to the north.

The mouth of the Baptism River. There were two more rock beaches to explre and hunt for agates.

Just up the shore from Tettegouche is George Crosby Manitou State Park. Although it crosses Highway 61 and goes down to the Lake there is no access from 61.  You have to go to Finland (Minnesota). It is a backpacking park, moderate to difficult on the State Park scale. But there is a lake only a short way from the parking area.  Several camp site are around the lake and there is a boardwalk trail all the way around. It is a bit swampy, probably keeps the erosion down.

The colors were starting to change.  On the way back we had a great lunch at “Our Place” in Finland. The back roads five or six miles away from the lake were beautiful.

We had a great time on the North Shore as we always do. Tettegouche has camping away from the highway and is loaded with great hiking.  Temperance River has many very nice camp sites overlooking the Lake or on the beach.  Good hiking and easy to get to beaches to explore.  Gooseberry is a long time favorite too.
Lots to like on the North Shore.
So we are home again.  We are finishing up some coach projects and a long list of get ready for winter stuff.  Winterizing the coach soon.
We will be heading for Texas and Arizona and New Mexico about January 7, 2015.
Lots more later.
Roger and Susan

Wwewe

Jay Cooke State Park, August 2014

We headed North again, this time to Jay Cooke State Park.  We were here last year after the really huge flood of 2012.  

2012 Flood 
The park and infrastructure inside the park suffered more than $150 million in damages. The famous Swinging Bridge was severly damaged. That’s it from above at the peak of the flood.  This is the fourth bridge here.  All have been damaged or destroyed by floods since the park was opened 99 years ago.

At the height of the flood following about 10″ of rain in the St Louis River watershed over a 24 hour period more than 350,000 cubic feet per second was flowing through this section.  The bridge span was under water.  The water level was almost 25′ above normal.  The normal water flow is only about 3,000 cu ft per second.

All 50 miles of hiking trails were damaged.  The highway into and through the park was washed away in three places including a bridge and more than 300 ft of the hill side.  This all happened because the Forbay Lake retaining wall failed and 3/4 of a billion gallons of water flooded down hill in less than 15 minutes.  The view from the new bridge is now one of the best in the park.

The bridge was being rebuilt last year when we were here and it is now done and the trails across the river are now open.

The Forbay canal and lake held water that feeds the largest hydroelectric plant in the state about three miles down stream from the Swinging Bridge.  In addition to the canal and lake damage the six generators in the hydro plant were flooded and damaged.  All are being rebuilt as is the canal and lake with new emergency spillway and flood gates.
A New Bridge
The Swinging Bridge is on the Register of Historic Sites so it has been rebuilt to as close as possibleto its  configuration when listed (plus engineering improvements). It doesn’t swing as much nor does itsqueak  and creak as much as the old one.  When it was reopened in late October, 2013, 4,000 people came to the park on the first weekend just to cross the bridge.  The first to cross was a family with young kids who had never been across the bridge.  Soon after a senior swinging bridge veteran crossed.  This was the fifth of these bridges he had crossed and was hoping this one would outlast him.
Good Hiking

Sort of foggy, humid and drizzly while we were there.  Rained at night but daytimes were OK.

This is a great place for hiking.  Lots of nice trails of varying challenges including for aome just getting over the bridge. Less swinging for this one was a good thing.

Most of the trails are also used for skiing in the winter so they are wide and smooth.  Some are narrow, rocky and full,of tree roots.  Our hiking poles help.

This was a tree growing on a tree with exposed roots intertwined.
Wednesday we hiked about 4-5 miles through the woods on the other side of the river.  There are amazing stands of white pine and giant Birch trees.  Some of the Birch were close to three ft in diameter. It is hard to estimate height but they had to be at least 60 ft tall.  There is a sharp ridge between the river and the area south of the park.  These trails followed along the ridge with very steep slopes on either side.
This area is all ancient seabed.  Most of the rock is shale, graywacke and tompsonite compressed over billions of years from the sea floor and heated by deep volcanic action that formed most of the Lake Superior basin and then folded and thrust upward.  It makes for some rugged terrain.

Thursday was an 80% chance of rain day. So we went on a 6-7 mile hike along the trails in the park that commect to the Munger Bike Trail and then into Carlton and back.  The Munger bike trail goes from Duluth south to Hinkley, maybe 90 miles.  Easy hiking on the paved trail except for some off trail excursions.
It never rained.  The Munger trail crosses the St Louis rIver on an old railroad bridge just down stream from the Highway 210 bridge and the Thompson Dam.  This part of the river is a favorite of whitewater kayakers.

They can kayak several miles down past the Swinging Bridge.

Dinner in Duluth
We met our friends Bob and Ani for supper at the Duluth Grill.  Very nice menu, very good food.  We also checked out a new cooking stuff store at Fitzgers and the new Duluth Trading Co store on Suerior St.  I bought something at the cooking store, nothing at Duluth Trading.  Guess where my priorities are.
Coach Work
We have a new Samsung French Door refrigerator for the coach.  It is in the shop.  Works well, quiet.  It will go in as soon as I can line up some lifters for the removal of the old refrig and loading of the new refrig.  It goes in through a window. Hoping for Labor Day week.
We have a January time slot scheduled at Xtreme Paint and Graphics in Nacogdoches, TX to get the original headlights replaced with high intensity LED lighting (a very popular modification).  They are also going to replace the original outside single step with a double step that is deeper and comes out further (safer). They are also going to add new LED lights in the rear (better visibility over the towed Jeep).  They do some amazing work on coaches.  A fabulous paint job would be nice too. Maybe someday.
Ouch!
The headlight redo means they are going to cut off and replace the left and right front corners.  Probably a good thing since just before we got home, a driver who was certainly speeding and probably ran a red light sideswiped the left front corner of the coach as we were making a right turn.  We heard it, a terrible sound, but never felt anything.  We probably weight 10 times what the offending vehicle did. Almost all of this was coming off anyway.  Nothing else on the side or front seems to have been damaged. 1/4″-3/8″ of fiberglass is pretty tough.
 
The good thing is that the entire right side of her speeding, red light running, probably cell phone and smoking distracted-while-being-driven SUV from front to back was trashed.  She tried to claim that I ran into her.  Not so according to the two eye witnesses who spoke to the police office.
A little of the handy man’s secret weapon, duck tape, and we will be OK till we get to TX.
Rats!
More later,
Roger and Susan

Duluth 7/27

Duluth

Well breakfast at the Delta Diner was pretty spectacular.  I had aMexican Omelet.  Susan had a blueberry and marscipone stuffed french toast.  We camped at a small county campground on Scenic Drive about a mile away.  Our site was at the bottom of a hill right at the beach on Delta Lake.  We went swimming in the lake.  Warm and weedy.
We drove over to Duluth.  We were going to meet our friends Bob and Ani for supper.  They were on a bike trip and got home late so that didn’t work out.  We stayed at the marina campground on Park Point.  We had to drive through Canal Park and across the lift bridge.

The campground was not much more than a parking lot but it was only two blocks to the bridge and the. Canal Park.

So we walked to the bridge.  Susan wasn’t too sure about crossing the bridge but she did!

For all the times we have been in Duluth, we had not spent any time on the other side of the ship canal. It is a different perspective.

There were two mounted police officers.  Big horses. 
We had a nice visit.  Went to Grandma’s in the morning to get a take out order of Cajun Chicken Fettucini. One order is plenty for the two of us for dinner when we got home.  An easy drive home getting home before rush hour on Monday.  
One day off on Tuesday and then five weekdays in a row at Habitat.  Now only two weeks till we are off again.
Busy thinking and planning long winter and summer 2015 trips.  
More later.
Roger and Susan

Munising, MI

Munising
Another three hours or so East of Ontanogan lies Munising, Michigan.  It is the gateway to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to the East and just off shore to the Grand Island National Recreation Area.  And as we found on our trusty travel tools a very nice Munising Tourist Campground with 80 sites.  It is located right on Lake Superior.  About 1/3 of the sites are right on the lake.  Ours put the Lake about 30 ft from our front window.  Put the chairs out there and enjoyed the beach and the warm afternoon sun.
Grand Island
Grand island is off in the distance, a short pontoon boat ride away.  The island is about the size of Manhattan.  It is owned almost entirely by the National Forest Service.  There are a few lake side cottages still privately owned as long as their owners are still alive. You can take your bikes with and there are many miles of bike trails ranging from a 24 mile leisurely trail around the island to extreme mountain bike trails.  The island is crisscrossed with back country hiking trails as well with regular backpack campsites scattered all over or the opportunity to just camp where you find a likely spot.  This is a place you could spend just one or several days.  We didn’t even know it was here.  Next visit we will be going over on the pontoon ferry ($).
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
The PRNLS extends from Munising to Grand Marais, MI about 40 miles or more along the Lake (55 miles to drive).  It encompasses about 20 miles of enormous sandstone cliffs, most over 200 ft high, miles of sand beaches and about 10 miles of sand dunes that come right up out of the lake to a height of 300 ft or more!
Lots of ways to see the sights.  There are boat rides, kayak rentals, pontoon boat rentals and other adventure sort of things.  We chose the tour boat ride.  At the breakneck speed of 13 mph and a narrated 34 miles cruise we got to see a lot and start to understand why it was there.  The Western end of the PRNLS is all upthrust sandstone . The exposed face of the many layers of sandstone have been eroded by the lake since the last ice age.  There are sea caves, natural arches and other amazing features.  And since this is an ongoing process it is always changing.  Ground water seeps through the layers and water runs over the upper edges and then down the face of the cliffs.  Depending on what sort of dissolved minerals in the water the sandstone is stained different colors.  White is from calcium, greens from copper, reds and browns from iron and I don’r remember the rest.

The boat snuck into a little cove where we were surrounded by rock cliffs.

Pretty amazing views.  All along the route there were kayakers  and pontoon boaters.  We went by water falls, big beaches where boaters were having picnics and hikers along the shore.  Just like the North Shore there is a lake side trail from Munising to Grand Marais, about 50 miles.

Grand Marais, MI
We drove up to Grand Marais, a small town at the other end of the PRNLS.  It is another example of a once thriving logging and fishing towns now down to a few hundred folks depnding on tourists.

A nice, safe harbor beach and playground.  There was a bakery that had strawberry rhubarb pie.  One ended up in our Jeep.  

There is another campground in Grand Marais that we checked out.  It was close quarters with lots of trees and obstacles.  Probably not a good place for us.  

Grand Sable Dunes
On the way back we stopped at the Grand Sable Sand dunes.  These are the renmants of the glaciers pushing up sand and gravel at this end of the PRNLS.  Huge sand dunes going right down into Lake Superior.  The wind continues to blow sand up the face and over the top of the dunes cusing them to grow higher and further back from the lake.

The dunes are more than 300 ft high and the distance along the face of the dune from the top to the lake is more than 500 ft.  This is the site of a log slide from the early 1900s just to the right of where were standing.  The logs slid down a wooden ramp to the lake below to be tied together in huge rafts and floated to the nearby mills.  The signs at the top of the dune said that it would take only a few minutes to get to the lake but at least an hour to climb back up through the sand to the top.  Lots of warnings about not trying it if you had health issues.  We looked.  Nope.  On to our next adventure.

The Lost and The Found
On the way back to Munising we took a side road, off road to be exact for four wheel drive only as the map said, to an overlook.  The road was just bumpy, not much of a challenge.  At the end was an overlook of an inlnd lake.  There we found about 20 weary looking young teens and a couple of camp counselors who had been on a four day backpack trip and were waiting for their bus (on this road?) which was several hours overdue.  No cell phone service here so we took their info and a contact phone number.  We drove out and down the road to a small store where we could maybe make a call. And there was the bus and a bus driver who had no idea where he was supposed to pick up his YMCA camp hikers.  We showed him on the map where they were and saved the day.

Miner’s Falls

On we went to another hike, a mile and a half, to Miner’s Falls.  Easy in, all down hill.

That means the return was all up hill. Oh well.  There are many falls in the area, this was one of the nicer ones.

New Friends
When we got settled in the Munising Tourist Campground we went for a walk around the campground as we do in most places. It is just for some moving around after driving but also to see what it looks like, what the campsites are like and what other camping setups we see.  Lots of tent trailers, tents, conventional travel trailers, many fifth wheel trailers, motorhomes and motor coaches.

On this walk we happened on a classic Foretravel, the same brand that we have.

No one was home. The Motorcade number on the front of the coach and the “Hayfever  Express” name on the front gave me some clues.  It took me about 10 minutes for find out whose coach it was, where they were from and how to get in touch.  Don and Trudy from Texas called a while later.  We swapped cookies and stories one evening at thier coach, a 1992 36ft GranVilla.  It was in great shape. Don and Trudy travel several months a year since they retired about 8 years ago.  They have been to the Maritimes in Canada and to Alaska in their coach.  Tough, capable, durable.  That describes a Foretravel pretty well.  The next evening they stopped by to our coach and we shared the pie we found.  What nice folks to run into in such an unexpected way.  
Off next toward Delta, Wi.  Why Delta?  It is the home of the Delta Diner.  And then on to Duluth and then home.


Don’t pass it up!

More later.

Roger and Susan

Ontanogan, Michigan. Porcupine Mountains

We were here once in the distant past, mid 70’s as I recall.  It is all a bit fuzzy, hazy, indistinct.  Nothing seemed familiar but then nothing is the same now as then.  For those of you that remember the 70’s or  are struggling to, you understand.
But we returned.  We stayed just outside of the Porcupine Mountains State Wilderness Park.  There is one “modern” campground which was pretty much full and three more drive in “primitive” camps mostly suitable for cars and tents.  There are many cabins that you can stay at, 1-4 mile hike in to each and dozens of back country campgrounds and camp sites accessible only by way of one of the 90 miles of backpacking trails. 
 A few miles away in the small village of Ontanogan there was a township sponsored campground right on the lake (Superior) with nice RV accomodations.
It was very nice looking out over the lake.  Eastern Time though which really goofed up our clocks.sunset at 10:30 PM!  But we were at the beach.  There is a lot of long sand beaches on the south shore of Lake Superior.
We were hoping to escape the heat and humidity but no.  It was upper 80’s both temp and humidity our first day there.  Oh well.  Of to explore the Porkies.  Visitor’s Center first where we learned a bit about the geology, the history and the lore of the Porkies.  Susan’s early relatives came from England to work in the copper mines of the UP so there is a lot to take in.  Then on to check out the Union Bay Modern Campground.  It is OK but not right on the lake, pretty close together and almost all of the sites were in the open with full sun all day.  The Township campground was pretty basic but on the lake and in the shade.  It worked for us.
We drove up to the parking area near Lake of the Clouds and walked up the trail to the overlook.  There are large upthrust rock layers that form an escarpment between the Lake of the Clouds and Lake Superior to the North.  The escarpment cliffs were as amazing as the lake.
It was several hundred feet down to the lake.  Remember the heat and humidity?  Both going up!
Then we went to the trailhead for the Union Mine Interpretive Trail.  Loaded up with water and out hiking poles and off we went into the woods.  The tree cover gave us some shelter from the sun but not from the insect life.  This trail follows part of the Union River and some of the earliest exploratory digging and early mines in search of copper.  It is hard rock country and the work must have been backbreaking, all done by hand.  Once in a while they would blast something but not often as the hard rock was also prone to collapse.  This was all pre civil war.  They were big fellows.  Chack out the shovel.
I thought this was a flower but it was a quarter sized mushroom, poisonous, I’m sure.
We saw several old mine shfts, mostly collapsed or filled in.  At one point on the trail there were eight shafts going down as much as 80 ft with four horizontal tunnels between them.  These were working, just barely making money, very dangerous places to be up until the mines finally cloased about 1900.
It was very hot and humid.  I mentioned that didn’t I.  We were soaking wet down to the skivies after that hike but went for one more.  When we got there and relized it was a half mile with a 300+ ft elevation increase we admired the picture on the infomation board of the view and went in search of ice cream.
We found some. It was good. And we didn’t have to walk far.
That night the wind and rain came howling across the lake with thunder, lightning stuff blowing every which way.  At least that is what it appeared to have happened in the morning.  We mostly slept through it.  The folks next to us had three tents set up.  They were all sitting in their cars and the tents were off in the woods.  They were not prepared and were gone by noon.  By then the sun was out, the temps much more Lake Superior like and the humidity had taken it’s own hike.
We headed for Ontonagon to discover what it had to offer.  The lady ar the visitor’s center was quite chatty.  She told us all about the town’s successes and demise as the mining, logging and paper industries surged and then waned.  Just next door was the local Historical Society.  These are place we seek out.  They are always interesting and the people are full of oral history and insight.  This one was no exception.  Susan found a newspaper article about a mining executive who retired and went to Duluth where he opened a hotel.  In that same hotel, Susan’s Uncle Jack lived to a ripe old age.
Then we went to where the old bridge used to be.  From there one could see the old lighthouse.

It guided ships into the mouth of the Ontanogan River.  There really is no harbor there.  There is a huge building right down on the lake where a company built some small ships for the Navy.  That business dried up and the building stands empty and unused.  Too bad.
Then we went to the Nonesuch Shop.  Edna had been there four fourteen years.  Most of the amazing

Edna’s quilts we beautiful.  We hung around chatting for maybe a half hour.  What an interesting person.


Up the street was a bakery selling pasties.  Since the UP is famous for them we had to get a couple to try out. The ones we make are better.

A quiet and cooler evening coming up and then East to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

More later.

Roger and Susan.

What’s New?

We skipped any travel in May and June to get stuff done at home and in the coach.  It was odd not going anywhere.
Stairway
We got the stairway railing done and installed and the stairway carpeted.  A significant accomplishment and a fair amount of work. It looks nice, the carpet is soft and makes the stairs quieter.
Coach
We are now almost 100% LED lights inside.  Not only did we replace all of the flourscent and halogen lights with LEDs we added more.  The new LEDs are at least 50% more lumens and use about 1/3 of the energy of the replaced bulbs.  The living room and bedroom LEDs are on dimmers.  
More light in the kitchen too.

And the bathroom.

And the bedroom.

And lights in the cupboards.

Makes stuff easier to find.


And we took out the front window shades and put in a motorized roll up/down sun shade and night shade.  Very nice.

And I am adding speed controls to the heater fans in the living room, put in a switch to turn off the dash blower motor when the heat comes on (quieter for watching TV), put in a new pair of USB charging ports in the dash, added a signal light to let me know when the brakes are activated on the Jeep while towing it, rewired the Jeep tow wiring harness and put in new connection sockets on both the Jeep and the coach, added a new map light next to the passengers seat and still more to do.  Whew!  Oh, and I replaced the two air pressure gauges in the dash.

I have magnetic proximity switches that I am adding so the interior cabinet lights will come on when the door is opened.  I am replacing lighting in the basement storage bays with LED lights.  And I have a couple more projects to finish before next winter.

Sounds like a lot but most of these got done in four or five days spread over few weeks.  Most of what is hard is deciding what to do and then finding the parts to make it happen.  Actually doing the work goes pretty fast.

And Susan came up with a real winner.  Where to put the paper towel roll?  No matter where it seems to be in the way.  So with a piece of silicon oven shelf liner (the black stuff) in a small space over the microwave to help the roll unwind easily and the paper towel fed under the edge of the door we have a great solution.

Hall of Fame idea.

So now that this pile of stuff is done we are off to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
More to come.

Roger and Susan



Moline, Illinois and Moscow, Iowa

We had a normal service stop scheduled at Moscow, Iowa for Monday, 4/28. So looking about we found an Army Corps of Engineers Campground on the Mississippi River near Moiline, IL.  Our experience with these campgrounds has been very good, clean, with good services, bathrooms and showers. And they are usually pretty inexpensive.  With our Senior Pass this spot was $8/night.

In Hastings we live just upstream from Lock and Dam #2.  This campground is just upstream from Lock and Dam #14.  Only 8 miles downstream is Lock and Dam #15. The water is high and fast flowing and very turbulent.

 

There is always something to see everywhere and this area is no different.
The John Deere Pavilion contains historical exhibits about what else, the John Deere company.  It started out making horse and ox drawn plows. Today it builds agricultural equipment for almost every situation in countries all over the world.  In India, they make a simple affordable multi-fueled tractor for that market and for export to other markets. In Germany they build very sophisticated tractors with digital everything. Also for the European market and for export. In China they build specialized rice harvesting equipment for smaller hillside rice paddys.
It also builds construction equipment.  Again all over the world specialized for local markets.  And they are the world’s largest manufacturer of logging equipment. 

An early tractor.

And a bulldozer.

And a farm harvester.

And a farm tractor for kids to try out.

Pretty cool!  All electronic.

And a bug-like walking logging machine!
Green overload!
And then on to the the Rock Island Arsenal.  
This was established shortly after the Civil War not only as an arsenal to store weapons and ammunition but a manufacturing and testing center. It is huge, dozens of giant buildings, many private engineering and production partners.  They specialize in rapid response manufacturing. When HumVees were found to be under armored in Iraq and Afganistan against improvised explosive devises, the Rock Island Arsenal designed, tested and built add on armor in a very short time.  Their mission is supporting troops in the field.  Rows and rows of old stone building.  An impressive row of officers homes as well.
 
A big museum of course.

More guns than you can shake a stick at. And cannons, rocket launchers, tanks and all sorts of army machines.

Lock and Dam #15 is attached to the island. They had a nice visitor’s center, a barge going through and a Boy Scout Troop of active, noisey youngsters.

And a giant swing bridge that the barge has to go through to get into the lock.

The kids got a big charge out of this.  They had never been here before. We had a good time too. 
We had a small campfire when we returned to the campground.  We toasted the last of our marshmallows and burned a bunch of pine cones that I collected at Hunting Island, SC. A pleasant end to this day as we get closer to home.
Our last stop was Moscow, IA about 60 miles west. In the morning it was windy and the forecast was for higher winds from the east and storms at night.  We set out for Moscow with a 30-40 mph tail wind.  Pretty neat actually. We got 2-3 mpg extra due to the wind.
As we exited the freeway there was a scene RVers never want to see.

SOB (some ither brand) burned to the ground, being loaded on a flatbed trailer. The skid loader ready to clean up all that was left, almost nothing.  Those are the front seat frames stucking up in the front. A wood and aluminum framed coach won’t last long. Ours is welded steel.
The Highway Patrol Officer told me the just retired owner had just bought it used in Arizona and was driving it back to Davenport. 60 miles from home.  Ouch.  Never owned an RV before. Probably had no idea what to look for, what to do, what to check.  Pay money, buy insurance and hope.  Not a good plan.
We drove into the parking lot at the HWH service center, parked with the back end facing the wind and   waited for the storm.  It rained all evening and all night.  Another coach pulled in next to us. We were up early and at the service entrance by 7.  By early afternoon they were done, everything tickety-boo, all present and correct and we debated … A 300 mile run north in the 30-40 mph cross wind or wait it out or get half way and finish in the morning.  Would we make it by dark?
Go for it.  A challenging drive but steady as she goes. Made it home before dark, just barely. Backed into the driveway and 400 ft later with all the lights on right into the barn.  Plugged the coach in, left the refrigerator on, grabbed what we needed, dashed into the house in the rain, turned on the water, the heat, the water heater, the fireplace, got something to eat and went to bed.  Home always feels good.
Warm in the morning, coffee made, house warm, water warm still clean and tidy as we left it.  Lots of room to spread out and get lost in.  A familiar space to get reacquainted with. 
Our adventures continue here. Busy weeks ahead. A list of places to go at the ready. Then where ever we are.
More to come.
Roger and Susan.