We finally left southern Michigan for northern Michigan, the site of the royal wedding. We had a campground booked up near the wedding venue, about 45 minutes north of where Jamie’s dad lives but decided we wanted to be able to spend time with them. So we ended up parking the rv in Jamie’s dad’s driveway. Luckily has has a very large driveway. He even has a 30amp hookup for us! This turned out to be a great decision. We…
We did make one fun trip in July, we certainly can’t go a month without some sort of play trip. We went to Marathon Key for the fourth of July weekend to visit our friends Tiff and Lori who recently purchased a house there. There was also two other couples that we hadn’t seen in a while and it was really great to catch up. As always, we had an amazing time and they are alot of fun to be…
After a few days at Fleetwood Jim left to meet Jamie in Michigan, about 45 minutes northwest of Detroit. This is where much of her family lives. We found a nice little campground right on a lake and not a nice end spot. One person that was very excited we were standing a month there was Cadence, our older granddaughter. She loves staying in the motor home with us. And this campground is very kid friendly with the lake, a…
While Jamie was in Napa Jim returned to Great Lakes. He spent a few days there playing golf with our friend and Jacksonville tenant, Nate, at Butler National Country Club where Nate is a member. What a beautiful course. It used to host the US Open but they had to give it up as they don’t allow women members. Jim finally left Illinois and drove to the Fleetwood factory in Decatur, IN to have some minor repairs done that had…
After Chicago we both had a busy couple of weeks. Jim did a work trip, followed by a week in New Hampshire to stay with his mom while Sue and Dan went on vacation. Jamie did a couple of work trips and flew to Michigan to help Ashley out with the wedding. June 13 we headed out to California to meet or friends Jessica and Gunther to attend the US Open in Pebble Beach. Jamie found an Airbnb nearby in…
The next day we signed up for the Architecture boat tour along the Chicago River. It was basically a boat ride along the river with a tour guide that gives you an explanation of many of the buildings along with information on the architects that created them. Chicago goes way back and many of the buildings that were built there were designed by architects from all over the world. It was a beautiful day for a boat ride and our…
We got back from our trips and God forbid I give Jamie a chance to rest. Nope, we headed straight to Chicago to stay in a hotel there for 3 nights to explore the city. Can’t believe she hasn’t shot me yet. She’s such a trooper. Anyway, the first day we just walked around and explored the area we were staying in, which was a perfect location right downtown. We walked to a shopping district called the Magnificent Mile and…
We were heading home Thursday morning when we passed the Miller brewery. We had no plans on going there but when we drove by it looked like kind of a neat place so we decided to stop in. While Jamie was browsing the gift shop, big surprise, I looked into the tours and discovered there was one leaving shortly. We really had nowhere to be so we decided to do it. Frederick Miller started the company in 1855. Some unique…
The next day we had some museums to hit. I’m breaking this day into two posts because there are quite a few pictures. The first stop was the Pabst mansion. Home of Frederick Pabst, original owner of the Pabst brewing company, and his family. The home was built in 1893 and the family lived there until 1908, just a few years after his death. His wife died not long after and his children were all established in their own homes…
We left St. Louis for Chicago and Great Lakes Naval air station, which is about 45 minutes north of Chicago. Amazingly that campground was about as close to Chicago as we could find. Once again we found ourselves in the front row right on Lake Michigan. And once again it’s been raining. Not as bad as Missouri but we are still getting flood warnings. This time, though, I’m not concerned about the lake reaching our site. There’s a nice rock…
The next day we went to visit the arch and zoo. Jim had obviously been in the arch but it was Jamie’s first time. It can be a little scary because you cram into a little car that carries you to the top but Jamie had no problem with it. It’s a beautiful view from the top and an engineering marvel so we enjoyed that. It was built to remember the people that traveled west for new opportunities so they…
We had a beautiful week in Kauai while the lousy weather continued in Missouri. We got back on May 9 and 2 days later we were out of there having had enough of rain and tornadoes. Next stop was St. Louis. There really isn’t a whole lot to do there except for the arch, which is kind of neat, but Jim did go to college there so it was a trip down memory lane for him. Unfortunately, the campus Jim…
The afternoon was spent at the Top of the Rock museum. Apparently, Johnny Morris, the owner of Bass Pro and owner of this property is very big into collecting bits of history and he’s taken this to a level that rivals any big museum with virtually unlimited funds. He’s also into preserving the land and native American history. He even has lockets of hair from presidents Washington and Lincoln! Most of the pictures require some explanation so I either took…
May 1 turned out to be an interesting day. I’m breaking this day into two posts because the second half of the day was so unique I have too many pictures to include it with our morning pictures. I’ll get to what made the day so interesting in the second post. We spent the entire day at Top of the Rock golf resort exploring the many other things the resort had to offer. We started with what they call their…
The next day we went to a Chinese acrobat show and a Johnny Cash impersonator. The acrobat show started off really slow and I started regretting going to this one but about a third of the way into it they really picked it up and it was pretty impressive. It went for about 2 hours or so with an intermission so they really worked hard. Pictures don’t give it justice so I have a couple of pictures but mostly videos….
Thursday was a rainy day so we chose some indoor activities. First we went to a museum dedicated to the Titanic. This was very interesting as they had all kinds of facts about anything you could want to know about the Titanic including the names of everyone on board, their fate, and even a history on many of the passengers. They also had many original artifacts from the ship and it’s passengers. Unfortunately, they don’t allow any picture taking at…
As it turned out the town was also hosting a legends of golf tournament that week. And to top it off military and veterans get in free! So Jim went Wednesday and Saturday and we both went Sunday. It was a senior pga tournament with all the top seniors and they also had an exhibition pairing legends Jack Niklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player, and Jerry Pate with celebrities Justin Timberlake, Kid Rock, Mark Walberg and Larry the cable guy. That was…
Nine days in Arkansas was about all the excitement we could take so after we got back from Hot Springs we left for Branson, Missouri. Missouri would be our final state west of the Mississippi. Again, we found a campsite right on the water with a great view from our front row spot. We were also a 10 minute walk to the Branson landing, a waterfront area loaded with restaurants, shops, and bars. For anyone that doesn’t know about Branson…
With not much more to see in Little Rock we hit the road in our jeep for Hot Springs, Arkansas for an over night trip. The town of Hot Springs was established in the early 1800’s when white men discovered the hot springs that Indian’s had been using for centuries. In the mid 1800’s it became home to major league baseball spring training, illegal gambling, gangsters and the bath houses. We started at the Hot Springs mountain tower, a 216′…
We finally said goodbye to Memphis in April 13 and hit the road for Little Rock, Arkansas. We found a campground right on the Arkansas river and got a front row spot with a great view. We were right across the river and within walking distance from the downtown area with a foot bridge right next to the campground. We both had to work the following day so our first day there was spent settling in and getting ready for…