Currently in Almond WI (Low 50 Cloudy with Storms Later High 76)
After a couple nights at Bob and Carol's place we departed with them yesterday and headed to Fountain Lake RV Park near Almond also in Wisconsin. Bob and Carol have 2 lots in this park and graciously offered 1 of their lots to use over the Labor Day weekend.
Here we are on our site for a few days with their RV to the right.
This is the route we took from their place, approximately 150 miles, one of our longer trips this year.
After we got settled in and had a supper of T-Bone steaks and baked potatoes we had our first fire.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Conover WI (Low 50 A Morning Shower then Partly Cloudy High 62)
After 6 great weeks in Houghton Michigan we departed yesterday for Conover Wisconsin near Eagle River. We are moochdocking at our friends Bob and Carol's place. They fed us a great meal of meatloaf, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy and coleslaw. Followed by strawberry shortcake. Here we are backed in next to their house with 50amp electrical and water hookups.
It was approximately 100 miles, this is the route we took.
We will be here a couple nights and then head further south to Fountain Lake RV Park near Almond Wisconsin with Bob and Carol.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 52 Currently Light Rain then Clearing 54)
Heading to Eagle River WI (Currently 63 Cooler; A Shower or Two; Not as Warm High 70)
We have had so many greats sunsets during our 6 week stay here. Here are some of them.
The last week or so we have been hitting our favorite places one last time, including probably the best chocolate cake we have had.
We depart today for Wisconsin after it stops raining to meet up with our friends Bob and Carol, who we spent a couple of weeks with earlier this year at The Soo.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 52 Mostly Cloudy High 72)
On our travels this year so far we recently found some more of our favorite things, food by item. When we add the item we are also adding the restaurant list in our favorite things by city and state. Both lists are available on the left column on our blog.
We start out with 'The Keg Chicken' in Sioux Falls SD since it has added 2 items to our list; fried chicken and the most unique baked beans we have ever had. The baked beans are navy beans with a brown sugar sauce and are incredible.
Not to be outdone 'Wendt's on the Lake' in Van Dyne WI also adds 2 items to our list; fried lake perch and fried smelt.
Also not to be outdone 'Serving Spoon' in Menominee MI adds 2 sweet items to our list; caramel apple pie and lemon meringue pie (to us more of a Key Lemon pie with a thin topping of meringue).
Finally, 'Star Family Restaurant' in Murdo SD for the best rhubarb pie.
While in Colorado City we had the best blueberry pie we have ever had at Three Sisters Tavern. We guess this has been the year of the pie.
We just had the best wild blueberry pie that we got at a farmers market in Lake Linden Michigan so truly the year of the pie.
As we add restaurants to either list we will periodically let you know, but you can always check the blog for the most up to date lists.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 52 Partly Sunny; Warmer High 75)
We took advantage of $5 Movie Tuesdays yesterday at Rogers Cinema in Houghton and saw "Mission Impossible - Fallout".
Another Mission Impossible (MI) movie means another threat to the safety of the world that only Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise) and the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team (Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg) can prevent. Nuclear weapons go missing so Ethan and his crew find themselves in a race against time to prevent them falling into the wrong hands. A MI movie means lots of action and this one did not disappoint, including the scene where Tom Cruise got injured delaying the movie.
We honestly have mixed emotions about this movie. Most of the acting, especially the IMF Team, was really good but some of the support cast was just going through the motions, especially Alec Baldwin. This is the 6th installment of the MI franchise and it seems like they felt like they had to make the action more and more unbelievable and a couple of times we actually chuckled at the almost absurdity of the action. Although we enjoyed it this will probably be our last MI movie.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 59 Times of Sun and Clouds High 81)
Long time readers will remember that the Upper Peninsula of Michigan does birthdays very well with a lot of places offering a free meal on your birthday with proper ID. There have been only a couple of places to get breakfast and one of those no longer offers the free meals and the other one only has breakfast on Sundays.
Since Bob's birthday this year was on a Saturday we had an early lunch, then a lupper mid afternoon and finally a late supper. We were joined by our good friends visiting from Missouri who wanted to see first hand 'a whole lotta eatin' goin on'. Lunch was at the Loading Zone II in nearby Lake Linden Michigan.
For his free meal, showing here, Bob had a 1/2 rack of very good ribs, a baked potato, and a can of Diet Mountain Dew.
Also included was a salad and a cookie. We walked around a farmers market in Lake Linden then went back to the park to rest. While there we saw the Ranger heading to the Lift Bridge out our back window.
Lupper was at the Waterfront Restaurant in the Ramada across the river from Houghton in Hancock Michigan.
For his free meal Bob got chicken florentine (grilled chicken covered in cheese with spinach and a marina sauce over linguine) with salad and a diet coke.
We then back to the park to rest again between meals. By now beached whale syndrome is starting to set in but we forged onward to a late supper at Gemignani's also in Hancock Michigan.
For his last free meal of the day Bob got smoked salmon linguine and tomato basil soup.
On the way back to the park a float plane that had just landed on the river and was headed to the Lift Bridge.
Thankfully we didn't eat all of every meal but brought a lot of leftovers home to enjoy later. There isn't a lot of chain restaurants in the area so Bob missed out on a number of birthday offers but this extravaganza more than made up for it.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 55 Mostly Sunny; Pleasant After Morning Clouds High 77)
Somewhat continuing our discussion on fulltime living in an RV. A couple of the challenges of fulltiming while traveling is getting mobile service when the mechanical issues happen and mail/package delivery.
Our first thought when it comes to mechanical issues is to get the work performed by a mobile service. For the most part that has worked well for us in almost 9 years of fulltiming. There has only be a couple of times where we have needed to get a hotel room while the coach was being worked on. Scheduling a mobile service while at our winter location for a few months is fairly easy but scheduling when you are traveling every few days is challenging. The good mobile service companies are busy, sometimes scheduled a couple of weeks out.
Our tip is to schedule the mobile service for a future stop. We ask at our planned RV parks for advice on mobile service, we check 'RV Service Reviews' and check 'RV Good Guys Guide' from the Gypsy Journal. This is the same technique we use for getting our Escapees mail forwarding and packages from Amazon, we call ahead to the parks to make sure that they accept mail.
Sometimes it takes a little effort to live this lifestyle but the rewards are certainly worth it. Here are some examples of the great places we have been.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI Low 67 Intervals of Clouds and Sun with a Thundershower High 77)
Yesterday we visited the Bishop Baraga Shrine in nearby Baraga with our good friends from Missouri after a great lunch at Baraga Lakeside Inn, but even a better view.
The Shrine of the Snowshoe Priest is very scenic.
Frederic Baraga came from Slovenia and was a Missionary Priest and First Bishop of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
When he first arrived he had to use an interpreter but he soon mastered the languages so in 1832 his first Indian Prayer Book was published. Snowshoes permitted Father Baraga to travel despite heavy snowfall. He was known to travel 700 miles during a winter. Here is a closeup of the snowshoes on the statue, which are 26 feet long.
In 1853 Father Baraga became the first Bishop on the Upper Peninsula. In 1974 private funding was raised for this statue which rises 6 stories above the Red Rocks Bluff commanding a breathtaking view of Keweenaw Bay. He is holding a cross that is 7 feet long and the aforementioned snowshoes. The hand-wrought brass statue weighs four tons and floats on a cloud of stainless steel supported by five laminated wooden beams which represents the five major missions he established.
The view at the top of Red Rocks Bluffs is gorgeous.
Walking around the shrine and learning more about the 'Snowshoe Priest' was inspirational.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 63 Dimmed Sunshine; Smoky High 81)
We recently went on a day trip with some good friends on the Keweenaw Peninsula. We drove up to Copper Harbor, about 50 miles through the forest, and had lunch and then did some sightseeing. We drove to the beginning of US-41, which starts here and 1990 miles later ends up in Miami Florida.
We then toured Fort Wilkins State Park, a restored 1844 military outpost. The gift shop had fresh made waffle cones so of course we had to try them and they were good.
Nice thing about being on a peninsula is that there is a lot of water around turning this into a very scenic drive on the way back.
We stopped at Jampot and got some jam and goodies made by the monks.
A nice relaxing day trip on the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 46 Clouds Giving Way to Some Sun High 64)
Catching up on our recent stay in Munising Michigan where we took a boat tour of the Pictured Rocks. It took some time to go through the over 200 photos we took. This will mostly be a pictures blog entry. Here is the boat we were taking for the tour.
Some of our favorite photos.
This tree lost part of the rock supporting it but hangs on. If you look closely you can see the root to the mainland that used to be supported by the rock now gone.
We took the tour that went to Spray Falls.
We saw the East Channel Lighthouse on Grand Island on the way back.
A beautiful day to see the very scenic Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
