Remember the Raisin

We made a short run across the border into Michigan and ended up at Sterling State Park which is Michigan's only park right on Lake Erie. There are lots of sites here but I think the campground attendant must have liked me because I got the most bestest site in the whole park. Nobody could park between me and the beach.

View Out the Back of the RV

View out the Front

Well, ok - maybe the smoke stakes aren't all that great but I did really like this park.  Well, except for the fact that they nickel and dime you - it cost me $25 in additional fees besides the campsite cost.  Urg!!!

View From The Beach

200 of my closest neighbors

I think I am really liking the Great Lakes. They are just like being on the ocean – you have sand, you have waves but you don't have salt. It just seems more civilized.

I have come to this area for the River Raisin National Battlefield in Monroe Michigan. This was a battle that took place during the War of 1812. For some reason, I thought the War of 1812 was a war that mostly took place in the seas off of New England. I don't think I thought that Ohio/Indiana/Michigan had much more at that time then a few fur trappers. Wrong I was. There were many towns and villages that had already been settled by this time.

In brief, in this particular battle – Americans won, Americans lost, Native Americans swooped down and massacred the American wounded which lead to the battle cry “Remember the Raisin”. In the Native American defense, they had already been through several different massacres of their own people at the hands of the Americans previous to this particular encounter. There were several notable names involved in or around this battle (William Henry Harrison, Tecumseh, James Winchester). I lucked out again in that this particular national site is not heavily visited, in fact it had not even become a National site until 2011 so Ranger Wes was ready and willing to spend a great deal of time with me chitchatting about the battle, the time in history and also what is involved with being a National Park Ranger.

Right beyond this sidewalk, they found quite a few human remains from the battle in the year 2000.  Yes, I said 2000.

On a happier note: Michigan sunset over Lake Erie

Shipshewana

Greetings from Shipshewana, Indiana.

Shipshewana – what a lovely name to say. We are at the top of Indiana, right dab smack in the middle of Amish Country. I am staying in one of those dreaded RV parks(Shipshewana South Campground)  where the rigs are piled right on top of one another. The park isn't all that bad and it is fun to watch all the Amish buggies going by. In fact, this park is just down the road from the local grocery store, so we are sort of on an Amish super highway, horses and buggies all lines up outside the grocery store.

Why am I here you ask? Because I am here for a meeting of my fellow Peeps, the people who have the same type of RV as I have. I have a Jayco Precept and one of the other owners decided that we should have an informal get-together. There aren't that many Precepts in the world – they are a fairly new model so finding a bunch of us in one place is rather unique. There are about 18 of us here and I have the distinction of having the oldest Precept here. There are a couple of brand new 2017 models and it is fun to see the changes that have been made in the last few years. What sweetened the pie for me is the fact that we get to do a tour of the Jayco factory and actually see how they are built. I am a sucker for factory tours.

Precepts all lined up in a row

The tour was really fascinating. When you walk in, you get one of those orange vests that construction workers wear and some safety glasses. They also gave us some transmitters that we put in our ears so we could actually hear our guide talk. That was nice because the inside of the factory was really loud and with thirty some folks all strung out, it made it possible to actually hear what was being said.

Jayco gives it's employees a quota that they have to meet every day. As soon as that employee meets that quota, they can go home. It doesn't matter if they meet it at 2:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. They get to go home. I don't know if I have ever seen people move so fast. Up and down ladders, jumping through different parts of the chassis – these people are a blur. Somebody asked the guide about quality control and the guide said that each employee is their own quality control agent which might explain the plethora of issues that crop up with these RVs. Don't get me wrong, I think Jayco, overall, is a quality product compared to other RVs but I think they could do a lot better. Anyway, we saw the whole build process from soup to nuts as they say. I wish we could have spent a little more time there in certain areas, but an hour or so was all we had.

Jayco is always interested in hearing from it's customers what works and does not work with their RVs.  A few years back, one of our people asked Jayco why the front of the RV always looks like it is frowning.  They must have taken that to heart because the new 2017s are now smiling.

Frowning

Smiling

The interesting thing about all of us Precept owners getting together is that we could compare notes and help each other out. I learned some new things that will make my life easier on the road. It also made me really appreciate my rig after hearing some of the stories. It was nice meeting people who I had only known online and actually putting faces on the screen names. All in all, they were lovely people and I was really happy to meet them all. Is this where I mention the fact that I have a missing hubcap and although Bob thought that with all these Precepts here, one might magically appear on my rig one night, it never quite happened.

Fellow Travelers

Photo credit: Tinman

I also had a free day and decided to spend it in two spots. One was the Menno-Hof Center. A while back, a Mennonite preacher got tired of answering the same questions that the tourists were always asking about the Amish/Hutterites/Mennonites also known as Anabaptists. Anabaptist means to rebaptise (voluntary adult baptism after a declaration of faith). So the three religious groups got together and built a center where all of these questions could be answered. It is appropriately located in northern Indiana because this is where one of the largest Anabaptist groups in the world exists. This was a fascinating place – they dealt with the history of the Anabaptists all the way thru current day policies and culture. They also had a Tornado room where you sat and watched on a video a tornado approaching while being pelted with wind and the floor actually shaking. The actual purpose of this room was to talk about how the Mennonites try to serve their communities in times of stress.

The other place I visited was the Guggisberg Deutsch Kase Haus Cheese Factory. Besides having about 30 different types of cheese which you could sample, they also had jams, homemade candies, beef sticks – it was a stomach's little slice of heaven. I bought a cheese called Swiss on Rye, which was a soft cheese with caraway seeds. I wish I had bought a lot more of that cheese. I wonder if they do mail order

Indiana Sunset

   

Into the Depths of Indiana

It is Fall 2016 Trip Time. YAY!!!! Lovely day for a drive – sunny, not too windy. My destination for the day is the Walmart in Rochelle Illinois. Not too long of a drive – a mere 5 hours. Easy, Peasy.

Eight hours later, I finally roll into the Walmart parking lot. I am beat. I am fried. From Mauston Wisconsin, just a little bit north of Madison to the Wisconsin border I averaged maybe about 10-15 miles an hour. Don't know if it was Labor Day traffic or just plain old road construction. All I know is that when you have planned ahead as far as rest stops and you are moving along the road at a snail's pace, the urge to find a rest room becomes rather unbearable. The good thing about going so slow is that at this point the wind had picked up quite a bit and if I had been going freeway speeds, I would have been blown all over the road. At 10 miles per hour, not a problem. This would be my longest drive of this trip – I think if I follow my planned route (no guarantees), I have a couple of three hour drives and everything else is less than three hours.

I've stayed at this Walmart last March and it was not a particular restful night back then because of all the semis staying there also. Semis tend to let their diesel engines run all night long. Since March, there are all sorts of signs posted saying No Semis. I ended up being the only RV in the lot and all was good.

Next up is the dreaded drive through Chicago. I purposely traveled south so I could miss the brunt of the Chicago traffic but I was still very worried. Don't know what I was worried about – at 10:00 a.m., it was a piece of cake. At this point, I would like to nominate Atlanta as the worst possible place to drive through. Chicago ain't got nothing on Atlanta.

I arrived at Indiana Dunes State Park in Chesterfield, Indiana. This state park is surrounded by the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, so tomorrow will be an opportunity add another notch to my Junior Ranger belt. I have a pretty nice site, except the tree right next to the RV has all of these creepy cobweby things in them. I learn that these are Fall Webworms. They build this web structures and then come out at night to feed. As I said, creepy. I have electricity which is important today with it being so hot.

My Site

Fall Webworm Nest

So, let's see:

105 degree heat index

carry no water

forget the bug spray

Yup, I think I'm ready to hit the trails.

The trail I've chosen is listed as moderate and only .75 miles. I can do that in my sleep. It starts out fairly level and shaded, for maybe a few hundred feet. Then we start to climb and climb and climb. We aren't talking little dunes like you see along the ocean. My clue should have been when I noticed on the map that they name the dunes. Names like Mt. Holden or Mt. Jackson. Mt – short for mountain. Onward we go, Miko dragging me ever upward. We finally got to the top and then it is all downhill to Lake Michigan. Sand is funny – when you are climbing up, you take a step and your foot slides a little backwards – when you go down, it is almost like being on a kid's slide – you go skidding down. It doesn't help that Miko has heard waves and as we all know – she is a wave hound – she is now in a full run – nothing is going to stop her from wave chasing.

Start of the trail

Steps going up the dune

Finally...Lake Michigan - it's all downhill from here

Wave Hunter Extraordinaire

It is a lovely beach, lots of white sand and Lake Michigan is very cool and refreshing. I let Miko chase waves for quite a bit mostly because I was dreading the long climb back. I had taken my shoes off to wade in the water and because my feet were all sandy I did not put them back on. I'm here to tell you that white sand that has been baking in the sun gets hot, hot, hot.

For those keeping score – the dune I climbed was Mt. Tom – elevation 902 feet which doesn't sound like much, 902 feet almost straight up is impressive. Well, at least I'm impressed.

Ran into a couple of guys who were tent camping. I felt rather bad for them with it being so hot until they told me they had a portable air conditioner with them. They just hooked it up to the electricity, put it in their tent and it keep it pretty cool. Now that is taking glamping to a whole other level.

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore – I walk up to the information counter and say “I'm here for the Junior Ranger Program” The excitement level on the Ranger's part is palpable. This Junior Ranger program involved going to three different sites to complete the booklet. It took me most of the afternoon to visit all the sites and to also do the necessary hikes. The hike starts down at the beach on Lake Michigan and then you climb thru the dunes noticing how Mother Nature works to convert all this sand into a forest. Lots of steps and a couple of boardwalks.

The Bailey Homestead

The Succession Trail which wandered thru the dunes 

Another stairway to heaven - notice the little person and the big stairway

I scored big time in the Junior Ranger program. Evidently there are many different types of Junior Ranger They gave me five booklets for different aspects of Junior Ranger. They did not have the badges for them all but I am now not only a Junior Ranger for Indiana Dunes BUT also a National Park Centennial Junior Ranger AND a Historic Preservation Junior Ranger. I will be mailing in a couple of books to the NPS and they will send me badges for being a Wildland Fire Junior Ranger and a Night Sky Junior Ranger. Does life get any better?

L to R: Indiana Dunes National Seashore; Centennial, Historic Preservation

Hanging In The Backyard

It is time for Tony and me to do our annual get-away. Neither of us had much time or inclination to travel far distances, so we thought we might head up to Duluth. I've never spent much time there even though it is only a few hours away from where I live. I guess it is time to maybe start exploring my own back yard rather than always be looking to the horizon for the next best place.

Of course I am such a commitment phobe that I waited until the last minute to try to find a camping place. Bad idea – Minnesota has such a limited camping season that everybody tries to take advantage of the few days we have by going camping. My preferred campgrounds are the state parks – more rustic, more scenic, generally speaking and you aren't on top of your neighbors. No luck there, even in the middle of the week. So, I guess I am stuck going to a private RV park. Yuck. But wait, faithful readers – I lucked out. We ended up in Indian Point Campground, just a few miles west of Duluth on a point jutting into the St. Louis River. Yes, we were very close to our neighbors, but we had greenery and if you peeked through some of the greenery, you actually could see the river. There was also a great walking trail that went along the edge of the river so Miko could be happy also. It was an expensive campground at $41 for water and electricity but non-planners cannot be choosy.

Indian Point Campground - the river is right behind the trees in back of our site

First on our list of touristy things to do was to tour the Glensheen(also known as the Congdon) mansion which I had never been to. It is right on Lake Superior and has 39 rooms. This house was built in 1908 and is built in the Jacobean architectural tradition, inspired by the Beaux-Arts styles of the era. It is a nice example of how the other half lived around the turn of the last century.

The back of the house overlooking the Formal Gardens

Tony tempting the waves at Glensheen's boat dock

Every time I go to Duluth, I have to drive by the Crosby mansion. It is the house that my great-grandfather built in 1904. It is sort of like passing by my family's old homestead although I have never ever lived in a house this grand. It is not as big and ostentatious as Glensheen but it is a mansion complete with a buzzer under the dining room table that would call the butler in the butler's pantry if you needed anything. As it happens, there had been a big wind storm that came through Duluth several weeks earlier and Duluth lost many many trees. This was true on the Crosby property and as we drove by, there was a woman in the front yard trying to get some of the branches off the lawn and flower beds. I stopped the car and introduced myself as a Crosby great-grandaughter. Jean was so gracious and asked me if I would like to come inside and see the house. Would I ever!!!! I have not been in this house since I was little in the sixties. This was absolutely thrilling.

Front of the House - you can see all the trees down on the front lawn

The Library

The Music Room

The ceiling on the third floor stairway going to the ballroom

Leaded glass in the dining room

More leaded glass

Went to visit my people in the cemetery - this is the Crosby stone - trees down everyplace

We also went waterfall hunting but it was sort of a gloomy day and since I now drive a stick shift car, let's just say the hills of Duluth pretty much did me in. So even though we only got to one creek to check out waterfalls, well, let's just say I am now pretty much an expert on manual shifting on very steep hills. I wonder how these Duluthians survive winter in this city with such steep hills.

Miko really does not like her picture taken

One of the waterfalls on Miller Creek

One of the highlights for me on this trip was going out to Park Point. It is a little spit of sand that you have to cross the Duluth Lift Bridge to get to. Most of it is only wide enough for one of two houses on each side of the road. It sort of has the feel of a beach community. When you get out to the end of the point, it is just like being on the ocean with giant waves but there is no salt.

Mighty Lake Superior

Hot To Be Home

Well, the last blog post was going to be my last post, but circumstances intervened and here I am again.

 

I am coming north on 494, just south of the 94 interchange. I am so close to where I store my RV, I can taste it. Almost there. Last stop before I actually get home. It is a beautiful sunny day, a little windy but nothing that this road warrior can't handle. I mean I've been here, I've been there, I've been everywhere, man.

Traffic is getting backed up – there is an accident ahead. I switch lanes – I'm cruising along. I feel a thump, sort of a drag on the RV. I don't know what it could be, but everything seems to be good, so I'm moving on.

Then somebody passes me on the right – the driver is gesticulating – telling me to move over. Well, I'm going a little slow because traffic is bad – I'll move over to the right lane when I'm good and ready. Not when some yahoo is upset because I'm going too slow.

Then somebody passes me on the left. There is a lady hanging out the passenger side window wildly motioning me to pull over and pointing at the RV. Ok, something is up. I ease over to the very small shoulder, put my flashers on and get out to see what is happening.

Holy cow – the front of my car is smoking. I run inside the RV and grab Miko – I've seen too many movies where cars blow up and I didn't want her to be in harm's way. I go up the embankment, away from the vehicles and call 911.

“911 – what is your emergency?”

“Umm – I think my car is on fire”

After getting all my particulars, we wait for emergency personnel to show up. I start with a state patrol guy and a fire chief guy. The car is really smoking now – big billowy clouds of noxious brown smoke. They try to unhook the car from the RV but everything is jammed up and they can't get it unhooked.

Then all of a sudden the whole hood of the car goes up in flames. The flames are really high and huge. About this time, the fire truck shows up. They are sort of casual about the whole thing – no running around, just going about doing their business. It takes them about five minutes to douse the flames. At this point, I'm pretty detached from the whole thing – it was sort of like - “oh well – nobody is hurt – it is amazing watching these people in action”

After it was all done – the fire inspector took down my info and a tow truck was called. My car was jam packed with personal possessions – I had unloaded most of the RV into the car in anticipation of bringing it all home. The fire fighters and sheriffs all helped unload the car and put this stuff into the RV. None of my stuff was ruined except for a smoke smell and some of the papers in the glove compartment. How lucky is that?

The tow truck arrived and Miko and I drove the remaining 10 minutes back to the RV storage place. Tony came and picked us up and brought us home. Poor Tony – in the aftermath I am a little on edge – talk about micro-managing his driving. 

I'm home, everybody is ok – the insurance company has been called. I don't know what would cause the fire, I'm sure that it will become apparent once all the adjusters have figured it out. In my laywoman opinion, the car is totaled. I don't see how it could not be.

Tony said – Well, you certainly know how to make an entrance, don't you?

 

Dousing the flames

Finishing Up

My Poor Car

 

 

The Fried Engine

The End of The Tour

It is Friday – I have to leave Starved Rock because the dreaded weekenders are coming in and weekenders tend to plan ahead, unlike me, and reserve state park sites. The park is full and again, I am siteless. I plan on going up to Maquoketa State Park which is where I spent a night back a couple of years ago. Back then, it was early April and I was the only one in the park – it was a little spooky. I thought I would spend some time hiking some of the trails there. Again, the weekenders have foiled my plans. No room at the inn. I end up spending a night in a little city park in Maquoketa. It was an ok place and I figured on Saturday I could motor over to the State Park and do some hiking.

I have been pretty lucky weather wise – there have only been a couple of days with rain. I was pretty far south and east when the bad weather came through Texas and Mississippi. Then I move north and was farther north than the bad weather that came through Oklahoma and Kansas. I have lead a pretty charmed weather life this trip. Well, Saturday, the skies opened up. I decided that I would move on, since it was raining so hard, hiking would have been sort of miserable. I drove 2 ½ hours north, through the driving rain and wind gusts that blew me around the road a bit. Yes, I've finally made it to Pike's Peak – who woulda thought. Actually, I've landed in Pike's Peak State Park in McGregor, Iowa. Zebulon Pike of Pike's Peak fame was here in this area way before he was putting his name on some peak out west.   I don't know if it was the crummy weather or the fact that this park is way over on the very edge of Iowa, but there are very few weekenders here. There are just a few trailers, a couple of tent campers and some mini trailers. I really felt sorry for the tent campers – it could not have been all that pleasant with the nasty wind and rain.

 

Every time I looked, there was another one of these RV pup tents showing up

This is really a nice park – it is perched on the bluffs overlooking where the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers collide.

 

Wisconsin River is directly ahead


 

 

Same Place - different day - fog, fog, fog

 

Off in the distance you can hear a mournful train whistle and the views are wonderful. And even better – my site is nice and level and I have great HD OTA TV!!! I must admit – I did some binge watching – an old James Bond movie, lots of shows from the sixties like Outer Limits. I almost feel guilty for spending so much time watching these old shows. Key word: almost.

I found a website that has the Ultimate Waterfall Tour of Iowa. So, I decided I should do a portion of it. Cause waterfalls are my thing nowadays. First up was Bridal Falls Waterfall which was in the Pike's Peak Park. Can we say underwhelming? Made me rethink this whole Ultimate Waterfall Tour.



See?  Underwhelming
 

But I persevered and went on to Beulah Springs Waterfall. It was a lovely waterfall. I couldn't really take any good pictures because some young thing was taking her senior pictures and I really felt like I might be intruding.

 

A much nicer waterfall - actually coming out of a hole in the hillside

She was wearing rubber boots under that pretty dress.  It was freezing out. 

 

 

I spent another couple of days at Pike's Peak. Every morning, Miko and I would walk down to the  river and see how the day was going to shape up. I don't know why I found it so fascinating, seeing all the different feels of the river. It was also nice to just hang out and not do too much of anything.

We did go to Effigy Mounds National Monument which I went to a couple of years ago. Bunch of mounds that First Nation people had created. I only went back because I am obsessed with this Junior Ranger thing. We did walk a few of the trails that we hadn't done the first time we were here, so there was some new stuff.

Next stop.......Home – I'm going home.

Wildcat Canyon

Starved Rock is a most excellent park. I love the trails here – they are well marked and very very scenic. Today, we walked up to Lover's Leap and Eagle's Nest up on the bluff and then wandered over to Wildcat Canyon. Wildcat Canyon had the best waterfall yet. I don't know if it was because we really worked to get to the canyon – can you say fifty million steps all at once, going up – or perhaps it was because I actually stopped, sat on a log, contemplated the universe for a bit and really got a chance to feel the surroundings and appreciate what I was seeing. So many times when you are on the road, you go to a site, do the obligatory see-all and then move on. All too seldom do I really get to spend the time to really “see” what I am seeing. I know when I would go to a cathedral in Europe, I found that if I just sat in a pew, took the time to feel and absorb what I was seeing – it made for a much deeper experience. That was Wildcat Canyon for me.

View of the Mighty Illinois

View from Eagle's Nest - It is an optical allusion - the left side of the dam is lower than the right side

Wildcat Canyon Waterfall

Miko really does not like her picture taken - ' Gee Mom - just cut out this foolishness'

Looking at the falls from after climbing the fifty million steps

Funny thing is that we never climbed up to the namesake Starved Rock - where a band of First Nation people starved to death.  We could see it from Lover's Leap which was good enough for me.