Log and Photos -- Week 1

Week 2: Sun 28 July 02 --- Sun 04 Aug 02

Crashed and burned early last night. Hoping to get going today... or tomorrow.

After our walk with Maddy up our road, we finished packing all our stuff and headed out. We stopped in Indianapolis for a late lunch at Shapiro's and then went north on I65.

As is our custom, on the first day out, we didn't go very far, just up to Lafayette, Indiana, about 50 miles (80K) north of Indianapolis. We are at the Lafayette AOK campground, and, though it is crowded, and it took them 3 tries to get us a campsite that was a) supplied with 30A of power for the AC and b) level, it is actually kind of nice.

The sunshine icon there doesn't quite say it, as far as the weather goes. It is HOT! 98F (37C) and humid, as well. Emergency dangerous sort of heat.

The AC is working great (thank goodness!) The fridge is holding its own, but we are putting all our perishables in the ice in the cooler, just to be safe.

After we got set up in our site, we went swimming in the campground's beautiful brand new pool. Then Michael drank Bud Lites and made BBQ chicken breasts on the grill; I made broccoli cheese rice (in the MW. what do you think? I cooked?); and Maddy sniffed around our campsite. Does it get any better than this?

Hi of 98

Cooler

We had some things that we needed to buy, like a PCMCIA card for the computer. (It is the thing into which we put the compact flash card from the camera, so that our pics go into the puter. We had forgotten to bring it and that is why we didn't upload till today.

We found a sale at Finish Line and i bought some walking clothes too. Then we went to Barnes & Noble to see if my book is in yet (it's not) and then had a drive around the town. I found the apartment where i lived 25 yrs ago and we drove downtown and around.

It was really dangerously hot today with a heat index of over 100. It felt like a July day in Tucson, and we have been there in July! (The difference is that in Tucson it cools down below 80 at night!)

Hi about 80

Cool & Breezy

We drove just up the road to a nice Lafayette neighborhood and walked all around there for our 30 mins. It was really pleasant, as you can tell by the smiles on our faces here!

After breakfast, then, we unhooked and made our way north. We decided to go to Elkhart area and have a look around at some RV's. On the way to Elkhart, we stopped at a McDonald's for lunch. I ran Maddy around the huge parking lot and Michael snapped a few photos.

We arrived in time for the tour at Gulf Stream and saw all around the factory. The guy showed us all around the place, and we were quite impressed with all that goes into putting these things together. See the GulfStream site for a look at the factory. (They did not permit me to take any pics.) We're still not ready to put the $$$ into a new one yet, though.

We went out to the Olive Garden for a yummy dinner tonight!

Hi about 80

Cool & Breezy 50 degrees when we awoke

I took these 4 photos during our walk. The lawn one.. we awarded this one the "Vern Award" for its fabulous green carpet of lawn. I like the flower photos too. :)

This morning, after our walk, Maddy experienced her first "goony attack" in the RV. During one of these, she runs, completely uncontrolled, wherever she is. From the front of the RV to the back, jumping over the cooler.. then up onto the couch.. then back .. This picture of her on the torn-up couch is the result. :)

We found a rest stop and ate lunch at this picnic site. Beautiful and cool. And i have to ask you: Is she a Photoshop goddess or what? We were not both sitting together at that table.)

We drove till mid-afternoon, when we parked for the night at a really nice park at Durand Michigan, near Flint. This place is HUGE, we found out, over 600 sites, 3 or 4 lakes.. It is mostly summer cottages, park-model trailer homes, with well-tended lawns and decks which connect to docks where they tied up their rowboats. Really beautiful.

Supper was delicious leftovers from Olive Garden. After supper, I worked on editing another chapter for the new Photoshop book. I think this is done now.

Hi about 72

cool at night

After Michael and Maddy got up, we went for a beautiful walk around Holiday Shores park and its lovely lakes. What a nice place this is! And what a beautiful morning they gave us!

A quick breakfast and we unhooked and headed down the road again... for awhile. We were looking for gas and i pulled into a gas station that looked good. Well, that is, until we found out that they were closed. Then on the way out of there, we bottomed out.

We didn't know right away that anything was wrong, but it didn't take us long to find out that we had sheared the wire supplying electricity to the toad car. This made the turn signals inoperative. We found a Walmart and Michael fixed the wire.. and the fuse! One might think that a fuse repair is no biggie, but this fuse was inside the distribution box under the hood. He had all the tools and parts that he needed for this whole repair. Ok... ok.. i take back what i said about having taken along "all that junk." <g>

I know that you are looking at our photos and wondering what the tire bit has to do with a wire and a fuse, right? Well.. we didn't discover THAT till we got into our campsite at Port Huron KOA. Tire was flat. Michael pulled the spare and changed that. We have an appointment with Tony at Belle Tire tomorrow morning, to see what's wrong with the tire. These were 4 brand NEW tires.

This campground is really great. There is so much for kids to do that it is really obscene. I'll try to list them: 2 swimming pools, batting cages, bankshot basketball, tennis courts, horse shoes, shuffleboard, pinball, train rides, mini golf, arcade, ice cream stand, hayrides, rental low-rider bikes & surrey bikes, bike trails & walking paths, playgrounds all over the place, ... and i'm probably missing something. Though i'm not famous for my love of little kids, I love to see kids happy and having fun! This is one of those places where kids just run around and have fun. Happy kids! Yay! :)

We unhooked the car and drove all over the town of Port Huron. We really liked it, but were looking for someplace to eat. Finally we found Wadham's Country Kitchen. GREAT food but the place was a real smokehole. We so rarely ever eat anywhere where people smoke, but .. well this food was almost good enough to make up for the asthma attack that i had during the night. I had stuffed green peppers and Michael had the chicken and gravy over biscuits.

Hi about 80

Cool at night

We had our walk, a lovely walk all around the periphery of the park on their great trails. We went for 40 minutes, didn't see the same thing twice, and probably didn't see half of the park!

Then we went to Belle's Tire to find out what was wrong with the tire that Michael had changed ydy and have it switched back so that the better tire was on the vehicle and the other was back on the spare. Well, Tony and Norman and the other guys at Belle Tire took really good care of us. We thought that it was the frayed tire extender that was the problem, and so i took this picture. :) 

But it was actually that the tire valve stem had loosened. The same thing was about to happen to the inside tire. Tony tightened these and checked all the others, replaced the tire stems for the two that needed it, he switched the tires, and checked the one out really well. The bill? Guess.. Then hover over the last picture here for the answer. :P~

After going through customs at Port Huron/Sarnia, we had lunch at the Canada welcome stop. Michael had salami and I had my cereal. Then we drove to London, Ontario where we are staying at a nice KOA. I did the upload on the outside payphone. Low-tech high-tech, eh?

When we were at our campsite, Michael struck up a conversation with the people in the next site. Michael asked him where he was from, and he said, "a little town in Illinois, near Peoria." Well, since Michael is also from a little town in Illinois near Peoria, he pressed on. We found out that, not only did they live in the same town where Michael was born and grew up, but Michael's father Joe was their family doctor! They introduced themselves: Mark and Carol Kemper. Then they related a story about how their daughter cut her head on Christmas day and Dr. Joe met them at the office to sew her up!

We had a nice talk with them before coming back to the RV for supper. We had delicious leftovers: stuffed green pepper from Wadham's in Port Huron.

Hi about 80

Cool at night

We didn't go anywhere today. Well, I mean we didn't take the RV anywhere today. Actually WE took the car into London, for some sightseeing and good ol' tourist fun!

London is a city of about 325,000 people, big enough to have some cool things to do, but not unmanageable to get around in. We chose to go to the Museum London, which has art galleries and an exhibition of the history of the London area. They wouldn't let us photograph inside, but there were some things that i really wanted to take pics of. We did pose by the rhino which was posing out front.

After that, we went and explored the Covent Garden Market. We really liked this place. They have fruits & vegetables, meats, meals, breads, amazing desserts, cafes and delis, candle shops, and fresh flowers. The second floor is an art collective, with artsy clothing, books, and even a theatre for kids.We had a great lunch at Al Fredo's Italian deli. We shared a chicken panini with cheese and tomatoes. On the side was pasta: rigatoni with a delicious alfredo sauce. Mmmm!

We walked from there up to the Galleria, a downtown mall. It used to be packed with trendy shops and shoppers, but now is largely closed. There were a few stores still open and we did enjoy having a walk around in there. Michael took the pics of me up on the balcony in there. On the way there, we passed by this beautiful painted sign for an antiques store.

We returned then to the Market, where we procured a 1/2 chicken (see them on the rotisserie?) and some sweets for supper (baklava, cookies, and, the specialist treat... Rainier cherries!

On the way back here to the KOA, we stopped at the A&P for some salad makings, water, and some of our favorite Canadian foods. Then we had to stop at The Beer Store for Michael to get some LaBatts Blue. :) Guess what we had for supper! Ok.. that's it for week one of this vacation! Click on Next Week for the rest of it!