A PUPPY FIX

Houghton MI (Low 46 Warmer with Clouds Breaking High 69)

This one is for Paws with Friends who fulltime with 2 Corgis.

We fulltime with our 3 cats but that doesn't mean that we don't like dogs. One great thing about this lifestyle is that we can get our puppy fix just by walking around the RV Park. Our new friends Rocky and Diane have 6 Cardigan Welsh Corgis, 3 of which were with them on this trip. Cardigan Welsh Corgis have tails which we never knew about until we met these dogs.

Here are the dogs separately

Here they are all together

Now we enjoyed meeting them but here is what they thought of the encounter

Rocky and Diane left here and headed to a dog show in Memphis, we hope they did well.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

INCREDIBLE SUNSET

Houghton MI (Low 54 Colder with Showers High 58)

We cannot believe the weather up here on the Upper Peninsula. Just recently we flirted with temperatures in the 90s. Our high today and for the next couple days will be in the 50s.

A short entry today because we wanted to share a couple photos of one of the most incredible sunsets we have ever seen.

We are so blessed to be able to travel this great country and see beautiful things like this.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

PASTY FEST

Houghton MI (Low 48 Times of Clouds and Sun High 71)

This area sure does like its Festivals that is for sure. We recently went to the 2013 Pasty Fest in nearby Calumet.

We went with our new blogging friends, Bob and Linda from Bob and Linda's RV Travels.

There was a parade before the Pasty Fest began, every parade has a band.

There was also old vehicles in the parade.

Along with an historic fire truck.

We went back to the festival grounds and walked around for awhile. There were food stands and of course jewelry stands to be visited.

We saw the neatest dogs, Alaskan Huskies. Although not a pure breed or recognized by the AKC, these dogs are the result of breeding Siberian Husky and Alaskan Malamutes and other breeds. They are the one of the best sled dogs in the world and these dogs were training for the Copper Dog 150, a sled race that begins in Calumet. Here you can see the blue eyes showing its Siberian Husky background.

The judging for the best Pasty was not until later in the afternoon so the entries were just beginning to show up.

Another great day in the Upper Peninsula, this time with new friends we met because we both blog about our full-timing adventures in a Carriage RV.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

ALMOST A FIRE IN OUR CAMEO

Houghton MI (Low 66 Clouds and Sun Not as Warm High 77)

A week after the flood in our Cameo we had started having some weird electrical issues. The microwave quit working as well as the outlet in the bathroom. We also started smelling a weird odor that we could not agree on; Bob thought it was a chlorine smell and Jo thought it was bug spray since we had just sprayed outside. Bob being adventurous pulled off the breaker panel and this is what he found (sorry it is a little blurry it was kind of hectic).

The white wire on the left that has a lot of exposed copper is on the microwave circuit and the exposed copper on the curly wire on the right is the GFCI circuit which controls the bathroom outlet. The weirdness continues in that other outlets controlled by this breaker were working at the time. Bob turned off the power outside and disconnected the power cord and turned off the breaker at the panel. He loosened the microwave power wire and found that it was just stripped to far, clipped off a little, reinstalled and turned everything back on. Voila, the microwave is working but now all the GFCI outlets are not. So he then works on the curly wire, turns everything off and finds the same thing, not loose just stripped to far, puts everything back together and no power anywhere. Checks with a voltmeter and both legs of our 50amp circuits are dead.

By now it is time to get more help, luckily one of our fellow campers and good friends works on maintenance at a hospital. We had power outside and our cord was OK so we went looking for the transfer switch the most likely culprit. The transfer switch transfers power from the generator or the shore power to the Cameo, whichever one you are using.

Of course it was not easy to find. By now another camper came by to help in the hunt and he was an Electrical Engineer. We kept saying it had to be somewhere easy to get at, well we were wrong. We just about emptied the Cameo trying to find it. It was located behind a panel underneath the stairs. We pulled off the lid and this is what we found.

We won the lottery in fellow campers because not only did they have the expertise but also the copper connectors, tools and tape that we needed. They disconnected the power line and the line to the breaker panel and hardwired them together using copper connectors that they had and then wrapped with electrical tape. Since the transfer switch box is a fire box they put the joined lines in there and closed the lid. The transfer switch was secured back to the floor and the panel was put back up and the air conditioners turned on. We then thanked them and began putting everything back together, it was weird to see just about everything we owned set outside.

We have met the greatest people ever since we began full-timing but none better than these, thanks again guys.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

WE'RE BAAACK! (AND STRAWBERRIES)

Houghton MI (Low 67 Rainy High 79)

Sorry that we have not blogged for awhile but we have had quite a time recently. At one time our laptop and Bob's tablet were both out of commission so that severely limited our blogging, both posting and reading. We are about a week behind in reading and way behind in posting.

We had some flooding problems that caused a whole lot of cleaning, professional and personal, in addition to the laptop and tablet outages. We were just getting settled after the flood then our transfer switch almost caused a fire which we will blog about later. Finally the fan blower on the truck is making a horrible noise so we are getting that fixed. Our effect on weather is also kicking in with highs near 90 when the average is 75. We hope that our troubles, or plagues as we have begun to call them, are over.

But things are looking up, friends have arrived for a month and yesterday we had a fairly normal fulltiming day with them with great food and sightseeing on the Keweenaw Peninsula which we will also blog about later. And more friends are coming up later this month for a week.

Remember we told you it was still basically Spring here awhile ago, well it's true. We are in the peak of fresh strawberry season. Everywhere on the side of the road is kids manning a card table with quarts and quarts of fresh strawberries that are very good. A little on the tart side compared to other parts of the country but fresh picked each morning.

We plan to stay until the end of August and then hightail it back to the Kansas City area for maintenance on the Cameo and for doctor's appointments.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

OOPS

Somehow our rough notes for blogging got published. Those that read these cryptic jottings got quite the treat, probably our best ever :-)

We are having computer problems and our waterlogged laptop (long story for a future entry) is in the shop. With only a phone and small tablet we will only be able to read blogs so no postings from us for awhile.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

STEAM (OR FOG) RISING FROM RIVER

Houghton MI (Low 61 Partly Sunny and Warm High 78)

We have had some rain here lately, we guess it is because it is really still Spring this far north. After a recent downpour the sun came out and we saw steam, or fog, actually rising from the water.

Here are more pictures of the steam rising.

Here is a brave boat headed into the fog.

The bridge is also affected.

We sure have some interesting weather and sunsets that is for sure.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

INDEPENDENCE DAY

Houghton MI (Low 43 Sunny Intervals High 77)

Happy Independence Day!

As we celebrate our independence today remember that we are the land of the free, because of the brave!!

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

CUTE STORY

Houghton MI (Low 40 Sunny High 74)

We saw this card at one of our favorite places to eat in the area, the Kaleva Cafe. Formerly a saloon an eating establishment was located at its current location in 1918. A name was needed and a contest was held and Kaleva was selected, a direct take-off from the "Kalevala", the national Finnish epic poem. The newly named Kaleva Cafe quickly established a reputation for delicious "home-cooked" meals. In July 1936 a couple from Chicago visited and took home a card as a souvenir.

76 years later the card returned. You know that a place is good when it has been open as long as this one has. We are going to eat there this morning so Jo can get her all time favorite french toast, raspberry french toast. We are doing our best to make sure it is open for another 76 years.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

BEGINNING TO BELIEVE IN VOODOO

Houghton MI (Low 41 Partly Sunny High 70)

We believe that someone out there has a Voodoo doll of both of us.

How else do you explain we are walking along the waterfront and Jo has a sudden and sharp pain in her ankle. Got so bad Bob thought he was going to have to go get the truck and pick her up. Trooper that she is she walked it off with no re-occurrence since. Or how do you explain Bob waking up one morning with a sore left shoulder when he did nothing the day before except maybe sleeping wrong? Or how do you explain Jo watching TV and a sudden sharp pain in the arm? And there are a number of other examples. Pain is sharp but goes away.

It certainly cannot be because we are getting older can it? 

Now we just need to figure out who has the dolls :-)

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

HANG LOOSE DAY AND A FUNNY

Houghton MI (Low 48 Sunny and Pleasant High 67)

We learned the term 'hang loose' while we were vacationing in Hawaii and our definition of 'hang loose' is where we don't go anywhere and we don't do anything except eating at home and sitting outside and reading. Sometimes we need a break from the rigors of being on vacation :-)

Here is a shot of our 'hang loose' location.

Here is Bob outside reading.

Here is a view of the Portage Canal towards the Lift Bridge from our chairs.

At the end of our 'hang loose' day we had this great sunset.

Al B from the Bayfield Bunch has a groaners corner in each of his blogs and Kenny and Angela from "RV Life is Good" sometimes has a Wednesday Funny so we normally don't put one in our blog. But this one caught our eye from the Daily Mining Gazette in Houghton.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo