First things first… GO UCONN! What a win over Alabama last night. Unfortunately our campsite neighbors were big Alabama fans – made for a bit of an awkward exchange this morning as we all disconnected our water and electricity this morning. LOL

We woke to frost on the camper today. Did I mention we intentionally set out in this direction to AVOID cold weather. Despite the chilly temps, it was a beautiful morning. For the first time in what feels like forever, we woke to clear blue skies and in the quiet stillness of the campground, we drank hot cups of coffee and watched the local news. (Watching the local news in all the places we travel is one of my favorite things about traveling the country. Every single local station has its characters and I’m here for it!) The eclipse is all over the place. People are HYPED up about this event tomorrow. The amount of news coverage is impressive. Rob is constantly checking the weather for tomorrow’s eclipse. The weather doesn’t look so clear in Shelbyville, IN, where we originally had intended to view it. Cloud coverage is increasing by the hour, so we are considering other places that are not too far out of our route towards Pigeon Forge. On our shortlist are: Evansville, Ferdinand, or Warrenton, IN. In addition to mapping out a route, we need to have a destination in mind. We are 35 feet of fun and can’t back up while towing, so it limits our options. Also, we will be competing with the 35 million other people who are also seeking the best viewing spot to see the Great American Eclipse. I picture us arriving in some remote hamlet with a population of fewer than 314 people with just enough time to hop out of the camper and catch a glimpse of totality. Whatever happens, it will surely be memorable.

Do you know where the best place to view the eclipse is going to be? New England. Are you kidding me? Well, played, Mother Nature.

Not to be dismayed by potentially unfortunate weather, we set out for I-70 heading west with a playlist full of 80s rock: Van Halen, Neil Young, AC/DC, Quiet Riot, Foreigner, Bon Jovi. Somehow you don’t feel quite as badass belting out Wanted Dead or Alive in a giant, rattly moving house on wheels with your flatulent dogs riding shotgun while you eat overnight oats, but this music does send kids back to their respective bunks for a good chunk of the morning. This allows you to continue listening to your music. Follow me for more family-friendly travel tips.

Around 9:48 AM we had our first major event of the day. – a minor tragedy, if you will. It was bound to happen sooner or later and it was completely unavoidable. After over 15,000 miles of travel across this beautiful country without incident, we had our FIRST animal strike today. It was a squirrel. It came out of nowhere across a four-lane highway full of eclipse traffic. When you are traveling in moving traffic and towing a car behind your RV, you cannot, under any circumstances, hit the brakes or swerve. Both of these can be catastrophic and cause extensive damage to your rig or to the traffic around you. After a brief period of outrage, the girls came to terms with the strike, said a little apology to the squirrel and once again, retreated to the solitude of their bunks. Kai slept through the entire ordeal. He is a champion sleeper.

Stopping for gas is always an adventure with Kevin. She is big and bulky and doesn’t take the corners all that easily. Let’s just say that no one has ever accused her of being able to “turn on a dime.” There’s no shortage of huge travel plazas the further west you go. You have your choice of Flying J, Speedway, Loves, Travel America, among many others. However, we had another destination in our sights today. After a Facebook recommendation, we pulled into Sheetz for our FIRST MTO (Made to Order). The consensus among our travel party – 10/10 – would eat here again. From breakfast sandwiches, burgers, milkshakes, and some delicious potato fritters with magical Boom Boom sauce, we were not disappointed. For Pete’s sake, they ground my coffee fresh and brewed it right there. It nearly brought a tear to my eye. It’s the little things.

Traveling across PA through West Virginia, and Ohio, the landscape changes frequently. One minute you’re in a valley surrounded by picturesque hills, and in an hour you are driving through the flattest farmland with barns dotting the countryside and more RV dealerships than the eye can see. Ever wonder where the Monongahela River is? Southwestern PA! We crossed it today. Along with the Ohio River – twice, I’m pretty sure. We drove through both Columbus and Cincinnati, OH. There is just so much to see looking out the windows. America really is incredible and seeing it in an RV can be magical if you have the time and patience to plot and plan and are flexible enough to know when to abandon that plan and do what makes your heart happy.

Today’s ultimate destination was Walton, KY, right over the Ohio border. We just needed a stopover before our eclipse viewing, so we chose a Harvest Host. Harvest Hosts are a network of wineries, breweries/distilleries, farms, or local attractions where RVers can boondock for the night. We bought a year-long membership and we can choose to stay at thousands of locations across the country without additional camping fees. What they want you to do is support the host by purchasing local items during your stay. You can really only stay one night at a time, and the majority which makes them perfect for these one-night stopovers. This is our very FIRST time staying at a Harvest Host and we were really excited since this one is a working farm: Benson’s Family Farm.

This place is awesome. Tell me you wouldn’t love to park your camper in the middle of the Kentucky countryside right next to a pen full of goats and the cutest Highland Cattle calves you’ve ever seen. If you tell me you’d rather take your chances in a Motel 6 or Red Roof Inn, you are lying. We get the most incredible view while enjoying the 60 degree weather and meeting Paco the Donkey and Taco the Llama. Also, we never have to unpack. We made a giant pot of spaghetti, set out our lawn chairs, and read a book in the sun until it got too cool. Now its inside for the night. Winding down. Checking the weather like maniacs, and just being with each other. Two dogs at our feet, three kids laughing, and two tired, but happy adults who know that these long days are the best days.

Tomorrow’s eclipse is going to be epic one way or another. Hopefully it is because we found the perfect viewing spot and not because we drove around in eclipse traffic going out of our minds trying to park Kevin and missed it completely. May the odds be ever in our favor.

We said we were leaving at 8:00 AM and we did (pretty much). We packed last minute toiletries, made coffee, had breakfast, fired up Kevin and pulled out of the driveway at 8:03! We had hitched up the Jeep (the toad) complete with bike rack and literally just had to start the camper and leave.

I may have failed to mention that we decided to take, not one, but BOTH dogs on this trip. So the complete passenger roster for this adventure is: Jenn, Rob, Kai, Alyssa, Marlie, Finn and Lemmy. Amaya has April break from work, but has college classes, so she’s staying behind. She says she’s bummed to miss the trip (wink, wink).

One of the reasons we bought into RV-life was to be able to take our pets on vacation with us. In theory, this is a wonderfully inclusive idea where your tail-wagging pup looks out the window, just happy to be alive. In reality, one of your dogs spends the entire trip like this because he gets carsick:

Moments before this photo was taken, Finn tried to crawl under Rob’s feet and cram himself under the brakes, in Final Destination fashion, causing the both of us to lose our minds as we headed down the hill from our house. After dragging him out to safety on his back, he promptly shot his anal glands, filling the entire camper with that aroma. It was 8:06.

Lemmy, “the goodest camping dog ever,” is the complete opposite of Finn on these rides. He loves a car ride and is an amazing dog to take camping. He loves to swim, hike, run, and drive. He knew we were leaving and he was ready for it. In fact, Lemmy was so excited as we prepared the camper last night that he refused to come into the house at bedtime. He wanted to ensure he was going and had to be coaxed back into the house with a biscuit. He was the first one on board this morning.

At this point, I’d love to tell you about what the kids were doing on this trip, but it wouldn’t add much to the story. It was a very quiet ride with a lot of sleeping. In typical pre-teen/teen fashion, bodies emerged from their bunks at the the first sign of food. The dogs and I had a couple of good opportunities to stretch our legs and explore the finest rest areas between Connecticut and Pittsburgh.

Tonight we relax! We arrived at the KOA Journey in Ruffs Dale, PA around 5:30. After everyone had a stretch and a couple of tacos, we are ready to relax!

The dogs are tired. The people are tired. Time for a little popcorn and UCONN – Let’s Go, Huskies!!!

Join us on the next leg of our trip where we spend the night at a working family farm in Kentucky! Really.

Hello, again, friends! And welcome to another RV season featuring our crazy cast of characters and one clunky, jam-packed RV named Kevin (pronouns she/her/hers). We are back for the 2024 camping season with a few upgrades and an ambitious itinerary that we will surely never keep to. We didn’t have a traditional adventure last year, opting for a week at Fort Wilderness Campground in Disney, instead of a road-trip adventure. Camping at the the Most Magical Place on Earth definitely had its perks, but we didn’t spend a ton of time at the campground. Thank goodness for the low-key accommodations because this whole Genie+ system is B-A-N-A-N-A-S. It’s been a year and it still gives me anxiety thinking about setting my alarm for 6:00 to get ready to e-grapple for Virtual Queues (twitch, twitch). Oh, and then Rob had a stroke during the Father’s Day camping trip in June which sort of put the kibosh on our summer travel. Fortunately, he has made a great recovery and we were able to cap off the 2023 camping season with a late-season, Columbus Day trip to the White Mountains. He has promised not to have another major health crisis this year, so fingers crossed.

Getting ready for that first trip of the season is exciting. With your planned itinerary, you start thinking about music playlists, traveling menus, fun pit stops along the travel route, new games you’ll play in the evenings, all the delicious road-trip snacks! All these very important things are what make these road trips exciting! But then you open the door to the camper, which has been dark for months and it looks like this:

It’s freezing cold. There’s dirt on the floor. There’s a basket of linens. All the beds are stripped. The fridge and freezer are empty. There’s that weird closed-up-for-the-winter camper smell. And you realize the amount of work that has to be done before hopping in on your amazing road trip. Whomp, whomp. This is when you gently close the door, backing out slowly and you return to the coziness of your home and make… THE LIST.

If you know me, you know I love a good list; the more itemized and specific, the better. Then, crossing items off the list absolutely makes my heart soar. Make fun of my lists if you will, but no one is laughing when they ask for tweezers, Scotch tape, or a rain poncho and I pull them out without missing a beat.

This is my camping book for this season.

I will make my lists, jot down notes or memories so I write about them later and tape in fun souvenirs like ticket stubs or stickers that we want to be able to find later. As much fun as it has historically been to shove these items into an empty cupholder and then try to remember where we got them later, I think this system will ultimately prove to be more successful. All these little memories will fill a shadowbox that commemorates this trip on our camping wall of fame.

This is our first big trip of the year and Kevin got the royal treatment. Rob and I cleaned out her bays, removing all the old toys we didn’t need anymore and retiring our camping stove. We upgraded to a Weber grill which is lighter and easier to pack – although I’m not convinced we will be able to make the quantity of pancakes we will need as easily. Time will tell. She also got a bath to remove the algae from her roof, and the mud and grime from her grill and sides. Rob bought a new lithium battery, but didn’t have a chance to install it yet. Also coming soon… SOLAR! We will never have to worry about boondocking ever again! Also, I redid our camper chalkboard for the 2024 season, just in time for our premiere voyage.

If you are new to this blog and expected some sort of survivalist camping adventures, you will undoubtedly be disappointed. Kevin is decked out with all the creature comforts of home packed into a teeny weenie living space. Yes, we have a fridge, a gas range, two televisions, indoor plumbing and shower with HOT water, and a microwave. Let’s face it, I’m a better person when I am clean, fed, caffeinated, and have well-rested. While this is certainly not “roughing it”, it is still a lot of work, especially with kids and pets. I reserve the right to still call this camping.

So, where are we going and what are we doing? As luck would have it, the Great American Solar Eclipse coincides nicely with our April break. So, we are heading down to somewhere around Kentucky/Indiana/Ohio along the path of totality to see the eclipse on Monday, April 8th. Between KOA campgrounds and Harvest Host sites, we will make our way to the general vicinity and plan to follow the sun to where there is the least amount of cloud coverage and the best viewing of this event. From there, we head south to Pigeon Forge to the Smokey Mountains.

Join us on our adventure. We ride at dawn.

July 9, 2022

It was supposed to be a big travel day.

But then we got distracted.

What should have been a ten hour trip will have taken us at least 16 hours by the time we pull into our driveway in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

We aren’t very efficient, but you can’t say we don’t have fun.

It was HARD to get moving this morning.  I mean I could have stayed in bed for another two hours except we didn’t have the air conditioner running and I was HOT.

By the time we packed up, emptied the blackwater tank, ate a quick breakfast, and got on the road, it was after 10:00.  

On the way to Michigan, we were super motivated to get to our destination.  Hanging out in the bunks was a novelty for the kids and we took fewer breaks.  No one really wanted to go home, so we lollygagged.

We successfully uploaded all our documents into the ArriveCan app at the insistence of border patrol on our first crossing and had our documents ready to show.  And then, of course, no one asked for the ArriveCan receipt.  Forty-five minutes well spent.  Thanks, Canada.

First stop in Canada: Canadian McDonald’s.  Let it be known that it is nearly identical to a US. McDonald’s, but you can get real bacon on your Egg McMuffin (which is hilarious since you get Canadian bacon on a U.S. Egg McMuffin).  Incidentally, the milkshake machine was broken, so that also tracks with what happens here in the States.  You will notice that Canadian McDonald’s also boast a tiny maple leaf in the center of their golden arches.  Kids gave Canadian McDonald’s 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Second stop in Canada: The Real Canadian Superstore.  Having stopped into Meijer in Michigan, we thought we’d sample another superstore.  This store is more grocery store and less, all of the other items.  We were charmed by the labels of products in both English and French.  Kai found his favorite flavor of potato chip “All Dressed”.  Of course, we bought a bag!  Kids gave The Real Canadian Superstore 3 out of 5 stars (No cans of lemonade really hurt their standing.).

Third stop in Canada: Niagara Falls (again).  You really can see the falls better from the Canadian side.  The American side of Niagara Falls feels cheap and seedy, but the Canadian side is a vacationland.  Kai and I had been around six years ago, but the falls are so impressive and it’s a really beautiful area to visit.  The Hornblower (Canadian version of Maid of the Mist) wait was over two hours, but we ended up riding the elevators to the top of the Skylon tower, a 246 meter observation tower with a 360 degree view of the area.  Everyone got a Canadian souvenir before we hopped back onto Kevin, warmed up a quick dinner on the highway, and hurtled toward the American border.  A mere six hours behind schedule.  Whoops.

Rob suggested we might want to drive until around 11 and find a place to sleep for the night. I desperately wanted to get home to sleep in my own bed.  I knew the dogs needed to be let out and I just didn’t want to sleep at a truck stop.  You know that feeling when you are so close to home, you just want to push through and be there already?  So, Rob and I took turns driving and sleeping, finally pulling into the driveway at 3:09 AM.  We left the Jeep connected to the car and stumbled off to sleep.

Today we unpacked and rested and came to terms with the fact that we have to go back to work tomorrow.  It will take a few days to get back into the groove.  The chickens need some attention, dogs need to be walked and brushed, and the garden needs to be weeded (pumpkins are taking over EVERYTHING!).  But for now, I’m going to sit down and watch Stranger Things Season 4, Vol. 2.  I’m going to pretend I’m still on vacation time, at least for a few more hours!

July 8, 2022

After five fun filled days at the Lake Leelanau Pines Campground, it was time to pack up Kevin and head towards CT.  Packing up was fairly quick.  Having done this before, we have a system and everything has its place in the camper.  Without some kind of organization, we would never be able to fit all of our equipment, tools, and personal gear in the various storage compartments.  They key is to always put things back in their spaces so you can easily find them.  This is hard when there are five people living in one tiny(ish) space, but we make it work.  Inflatable rafts are stored in a separate bin from lawn games and the flattop grill needs to slide in before the folding tables and lawn chairs can be stacked on top.  Also, if there is one rule you must never violate it is this:  Putt all tools and keys back in their proper spots.  If you lose either one of these items, you are fired.  Don’t put either of these items in your pocket, as you will surely forget and then frantically rip through all the laundry, remove every tote and bin, and drawer until you find the lost item. Not only is this a huge time waster, but it also earns you a look of haughty derision from the other adult in the camper.  Am I speaking from experience? Yes.  Have I been on both sides of this situation?  Also, yes.

While it is always sad to wind down from a great vacation, we knew we had a couple of days of travel and a few more mini-adventures before us.  We set out southeast toward Weidman, MI.  Weidman is in the middle of Michigan farmland.  Small towns pop up along the rural byways.  What is in Weidman, you may be wondering… If you are a fan of The Incredible Dr. Pol (Nat Geo Wild & Disney +), you will recall that Dr. Pol’s veterinarian practice is located in Weidman.  Dr. Pol attends to all animals, large and small out of his office in rural Weidman.  If you watch the show, he and his team attend to critical care cases to farm calls.  The girls have been fans of Dr. Pol for years and since we were so close, we did a drive by.  The office staff at Pol Veterinary Services are protective of their clientele, so out of respect, we just snapped a picture in passing.  

Our next stop came from a recommendation from Roberta K.  Frankenmuth, MI is known as Little Bavaria.  This town of just under 5,000 people is known for its Bavarian-style architechture and family-style chicken dinners  It is also home to Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland, the World’s Largest Christmas Store. This place is a gem.  If you have a chance to stop, you should.

Because it closed earlier than other stores in town, we stopped at Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland first.  (The store also had an ample parking lot for us to park Kevin and detach the toad to zip around town.)  Bronner’s is open 361 days a year – closed New Year’s, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  The building is impressive with two separate entrances – an East and West entrance.  The property is decorated with Christmas figures, giant ornaments, Santa statues, light displays, candy canes and every holiday character you can imagine.  It looks even more impressive at night when it is all lit up!  When you enter the store, you cannot help but feel the Christmas spirit.  Employees dress in holiday attire and Christmas music is piped in overhead while millions of twinkling lights sparkle.  A map of sections is offered to make finding the perfect ornament easy!  If you can dream it, Bronner’s has an ornament for it!  Want a llama from Peru?  They have it.  Are you a parole officer looking for an ornament to celebrate you?  No problem.  Do you like the Mandalorian?  Bronner’s has a wide selection of Grogu with or without a Santa hat.  We picked up a couple of new ornaments for this year’s Christmas tree – a Class C camper and a chicken (by the way, we have chickens now, but that is a post for another time).  If you are looking for a Nativity set, a holiday village, an artificial tree, a tree topper, garland, tinsel, baubles, bells, candles, candies, you will find it!  And then, store artists can customize it for you!  

As much fun as Bronner’s was in July, I shudder to think of what it must be like from October through December.  Based on the size of the parking lot, I would be hyperventilating into a bag if I had to shop with that many people.  I think the crowds would rival the busiest day at the Magic Kingdom. Brutal.

Frankenmuth Visitors’ Center offers a Gnome Hunt that takes you to many of the cultural and retail spots throughout the town.  Recently it has been made virtual, which is super convenient since we arrived in town too late to snag a paper copy of the hunt.  You are given a list of about 40 locations throughout Frankenmuth and when you visit and locate the gnome, you enter the numerical code associated with that particular gnome (each one has a fun name, like Pickalilly or Klaus von Winterstein.  What a great (sneaky) way to encourage kids to explore the city with their families.  

In between finding gnomes, we sat on the Franken Platz, outside the famous Bavarian Inn, for a quick dinner while we listened to live music and watched horse drawn carriages ferry tourists around the town.  The streets were jammed with people eating, drinking, singing karaoke, shopping, and just enjoying themselves.  There are so many boutiques and specialty stores in Frankenmuth.  I wished we had arrived a little earlier so we could have done a little shopping – Marlie also wished this.  That kid is a shopper in her soul!   At 9:00 PM, we were able to watch the glockenspiel perform at the Bavarian Inn.  First, the bells played a few songs and then we were treated to a retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamlin.  A glockenspiel is a large mechanical clock that also has life-sized wooden figures than spin around a platform and tell a story.  No one else was familiar with the story, so I retold it in all its horror.  After the English retelling, it was replayed in German!

All of us agreed that Frankenmuth was a hit and that we definitely need to return on our way to the Upper Peninsula on our next Michigan trip.  We didn’t find nearly enough gnomes! It’s a gingerbread house wonderland and a great way to end a day spent mostly in the RV!

We are spending the night at the Port Huron KOA (Kampground of America) about 30 minutes from the Canadian border.  This time we are ready with all our documentation in ArriveCan for a worry-free border crossing into Ontario.  Maybe we’ll get to see the Canadian falls if we get to Niagara at a decent hour.  Or maybe, we’ll arrive late and get to see the falls lit up at night.  Whatever happens, we will make it work.  We always do.

July 7, 2022

Today’s adventure itinerary was set by me.  This has been my pick from the very beginning of our trip and I didn’t post about it because I didn’t actually believe it was going to happen.  When we set out for these long trips, I usually set my heart on one place that I’d like to visit.  It seems fair.  There are five or six of us and everyone should get their pick, right?  Today was mine.

Mackinac Island.

Rob and II knew that getting the kids up and loaded into the Jeep at an early hour was a next to impossible feat.  To pull off this trip in a day, we needed to leave by 7:00 AM, drive nearly three hours, take the ferry, and get to the island by noon in order to enjoy the best part of the day.  The only solution was to drive Kevin to Mackinaw City and park in the day lot at the ferry rather than take the Jeep.  This gave the thirteen and under set three additional hours of sleep avoiding the agony of an early morning wake-up.  This is when having a self-contained motor home is clutch – move the home, not the children.  Follow me for more pro-tips on avoiding confrontation with your kids on long road trips.

Kids’ bikes loaded on the bike rack, caffeine in hand, and a route mapped out that hugged the Lake Michigan shoreline, we departed Leelanau Pines at 8:00 AM (So an hour behind schedule, but still doable.).  I like the quiet drives with Rob when the kids are still asleep and we get to chat and observe our surroundings.  The scenery grew more picturesque as we headed toward Mackinaw City (Note: Mackinaw and Mackinac are pronounced the same.  The “aw” spelling has been Anglicized, so it reads it phonetically.  Also, if you pronounce it “mac/in/ack/, it is a dead giveaway that you are not from around here.  I definitely did this.)  Along our route, we passed through the lakeside towns of Charlevoix and Petoskey, upscale, yet quaint with both charming cottages and enormous resort hotels.  Folks really love their lake-life water sports around here.  There is no shortage of boats, jet-skis, paddleboards, canoes, and kayaks.  This is lake life at its best.  Interestingly, Petoskey is known for a special kind of fossilized rugose coral called Hexagonia percarinata, colloquially known as a Petoskey stone.  It’s really a rock and a fossil in one, shaped like a pebble and commonly found in the area which was covered by a warm shallow sea over 350 million years ago.

We arrived in Mackinaw City a little before 1:00 PM, parked in the oversized vehicle day lot and roused the children.  Because we literally brought our home with us, everyone had the proper footwear for bike riding and we headed toward the ferry: two adults, three kids, and three bikes (Rob and I had to rent on the island.).  It’s a whole sixteen minute ride to get out to Mackinac Island.  Off to the left of the ferry, we got a glimpse of the Mackinac Bridge which spans the straits of Mackinac that connect Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas (Mackinaw City and St. Ignace).  It is an impressive five miles long!  Overcast skies were beginning to give way to sunshine. 

As the island came into view, what we first noticed was the Grand Hotel.  It’s a mammoth white structure that stretches out atop the bluffs to face the lakeshore.  It immediately takes you back at least 100 years. My mind went to ladies in white strolling the porch with parasols and straw hats.  The rest of the harbor is dotted with charming homes, a white church, and signs for rentals: bikes, kayaks, and horses.  

Yes, you can rent a horse on Mackinac.  In fact, there are a lot of horses on Mackinac, especially since there are absolutely no motorized vehicles of any kind permitted on the island.  The taxis are horse-drawn carriages!  Both the mail and the garbage services are also delivered using horse drawn vehicles.  These jobs are performed by large draught horses working in teams.  However, one can also rent a horse for personal transportation and there are wooded trails for horses that criss-cross the island. While the absence of car exhaust is refreshing, there is that lingering horsey smell that replaces it.

Besides horses, the other principal mode of transportation is the bicycle.  The streets are clogged with them!  Cruiser bikes, multi-speed bikes, recumbent bikes, tandem bikes, bikes with trailers for babies, for pets, for luggage – you name it, there is a bike on Mackinac for every need!  After lunch (and a couple of beers because the service was so dang slow), Rob and I rented cruiser bikes to join the kids on a trip around the island perimeter.  I wanted a tandem bike, but was denied.  I think we would have been good at it, but Rob wholeheartedly disagreed.  No. Fun. At. All. 🙂

By the time we started out on the 8.2 mile loop around the island, the weather was sunny and bright with a light, cool breeze off the water.  This was my absolute favorite part of the day – just cruising along the flat roads, looking out over the crystal blue waters of Lake Michigan with the wind in my hair. We stopped a few times; once to climb up the steps to Arch Rock, a natural limestone arch, and a couple of times to climb over the rocks and walk down to the rocky beach to skip rocks or feel the lake water.  

The ride around the island was easy, not like riding bikes on Block Island, RI.  Once I took Amaya for a day trip with our bikes and we took one of the scenic loops.  It turns out Block Island is hilly in all directions and instead of a fun girls’ getaway day, it turned into a rigorous workout and sweat-fest.  Horrible.  Definitely rent a mo-ped if you go to Block Island. Bike Mackinac – you will not regret it.

While Kai, Marlie, and I surely enjoyed ourselves, not everyone in our pack was so enchanted.  It turns out IPAs and biking aren’t a good mix for everyone and that dune-climbing had hit some of our party particularly hard and sore legs were a challenge.  However, I am proud to say that we all made it – all 8.2 miles around Mackinac Island in relatively good spirits.  Three of us biked it and liked it.  Two of us just biked it.

Souvenir shopping, ice cream, and fudge rounded out our time on Mackinac Island.  Why is it that resort towns always specialize in fudge?  I mean, who doesn’t love a good hunk of fudge?  It puts everyone in a good mood.  It doesn’t melt.  And everyone can get the flavor they like.  We left with Chocolate Espresso, Chocolate Peanut Butter, and the traditional Chocolate fudge. Y-U-M!  

Windswept and a little sunburned, we boarded the ferry for the return sixteen-minute trip, getting a final glimpse at the Mighty Mac as we left the island behind us.

Rob opted for a highway route to get us back to the campground.  It wasn’t much faster, but it felt more efficient to be on the interstate rather than stopping at traffic signals.  We arrived at the campground just as the last of the daylight was swallowed up – around 9:50 PM.  After a quick dinner of cheeseburgers and a round of Quikkle (what a fun and quick dice game!), the kids took to their bunks and Rob and I sat down with a drink to decompress after a very full day!  This will be our last night at Leelanau Pines.  

Tomorrow we will begin the journey home – with a few fun stops along the way. This isn’t over yet.

July 6, 2022

For a midwestern state, Michigan sure has some of the nicest sand I’ve eve seen.  And we saw a LOT of it today.  And now there is a LOT of it in my camper.

Like most days, today started off slowly.  Rob and I were up and at ‘em by 7:00.  I threw my bathng suit on, made five peanut butter and jelly/peanut butter and fluff sanwiches, threw drinks and snacks into the cooler,  packed towels and sunscreen, made steak and eggs and pancakes for breakfast, swept out the camper, and did ten minutes of yoga.

By then, it was 8:00.

I’ll spare you the drama of the next two hours.  Let’s just say that there was a lot of convincing, cajoling, and negotiating to get everyone loaded up and into the Jeep by 10:30.  Since it was Brian’s day off, he planned to meet us at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park, one of the natural wonders of the Traverse City region.

Sleeping Bear National Park offers the only mountains in the area – mountains of sand!  The park includes these amazing sand dunes, 450 foot bluffs that overlook Lake Michngan, beautiful, cool freen forests, and incredible sweeping views of the landscape.  The park stretches about 35 miles along Lake Michigan’s eastern coastline.

Like any good tourist, we began our visit at the Visitor’s Center.  I learned that the true Dune Climb from beginning to end lasted around four hours.  Sure, you hike all the way to Lake Michican and are rewarded with a refreshing swim in clear blue water, but then you have to hike all the way back…on hot sand.   I asked the park ranger if there was a way to experience dune climbing without committing to an all day event, and he kindly slipped me what I will refer to as the “highlights” map.  Perfect.

We snagged our park pass, a big map, and a couple of stickers before hopping back in the Jeep and heading to the Empire Bluff Trail – a 1.5 mile moderate hike that would get us to the top of the bluffs and some incredible vistas.  Of course, no one had brought sneakers on this excursion – this is a flip-flops only kind of crew – except for me.  As a fierce protector of my feet (I hate a blister.), I wore my Columbia sandals which easily go in and out of water and are passable hiking shoes.  Fortunately the hike was not strenuous and the rest of the crew was pretty happy to kick off their shoes and feel the sand between their toes when we reached the bluffs.

As promised, the views from Empire Bluffs were amazing.  I’ll say it again, you would think you were at the ocean if you didn’t know any better – the lake seems to go on forever.  The only thing missing is the smell of salty air. Marlie and Kai went vertical and climbed up another 30 feet or so while Alyssa, Rob, and I walked on the wooden walkway peering out over the water.  I will consider this our warmup hike.

We ate a quick lunch at the car, stopped at the world’s most disgusting “nature toilet” and headed for the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, an 8 mile loop of hiking trails, scenic pull-offs.  Perhaps the most scenic is the observation deck at the Lake Michigan overlook.  It sits about 450 feet above the lake and a very steep bluff leads down to the lake.  It is not recommended (although also not prohibited)  to run down these bluffs as they are incredibly difficult to climb back up.  Also, according to Brian, if tourists do not heed the warnings about the bluffs and need to be rescued, it will be at their own expense.

Sadly, we were not able to stop at this overlook as we could not find a place to park, so we opted for a smaller overlook also with spectacular views!

By now (going on 1:30 PM), the amazing-ness of the dunes had set in and we prepared ourselves for the Dune Climb.  You can climb as much of or as little of the dunes as you want, which makes it accessible for people of all ages and abilities.  Kids and adults alike staggered up the dunes and then ran down them.

Luckily, the day was warm, but not hot and we decided to climb the first big dune.  Of course we did not bring any water with us as we believed we would “be right back.”  I’m usually a lot more practical about these kinds of things, but I wanted to travel as light as possible.  I mean, these dunes are no joke.

It’s quite a workout pushing your way up hot sand.  What do you suppose was at the top of the first big dune?

Did you say another dune?  Well, you were right!  Every section of rolling dune gave way to more dunes!  Once we got a peek at Lake Michigan, we felt we’d climbed enough and headed back towards the Jeep.  Once again, Marlie and Kai scaled some of the taller dunes while I focused on breathing.  It was actually a great climb, but I highly recommend bringing water, even if you think you’re just going to the top of the first dune.

Topping off the Dune Climb, Rob and the kids ran down the last dune.  Legs and arms flailing everywhere, they came rushing down in fits of laughter and screams.  Only Kai wiped out, face-planting around halfway down.  Tht poor kid had sand in places he didn’t even know existed.

Brian met us at the bottom of the dunes.  Our hot and sweaty car voted for a tubing adventure down the Platte River to top off the day, so we all went to Riverside Canoe Trips and booked a short trip down the river.

Adventure may have been an overstatement.  The water was refreshing and clear, but it was SLOOOOOW moving.  Nevertheless, we bobbed along down the Platte for about an hour and left the river feeling rejuvenated and hungry!  It was a great way to cap off the day.

Lazy vacation evenings are the best: dinner, games, a few drinks, Frisbee, Gaga ball.  It stays light here until around 10:00 PM, which makes it really hard to keep track of the time, so we often end up staying up later than we intend to!  But isn’t that what vacation is all about?  Relaxing the rules, making memories, and bringing all the sand in the world into the camper.

June 5, 2022

Some mornings it’s really hard to leave the cocoon of the camper.  It’s toasty and cozy and you can sip your coffee in your pajamas at the dining table and look outside at the gray, damp and your poor neighbors who are tent camping and probably soaked to the bone, and be happy to be inside.

That was this morning.  Last night I had fallen asleep even before did the “truffle shuffle” in the Goonies last night.  My body is demanding rest and it’s an indulgent luxury to be able to give into it while I’m on vacation.  I don’t feel too guilty about sleeping in (until 9:00) since I was still up before any of the children.  

One by one kiddoes emerged from their bunks in various stages of grumpiness, sleepiness, and hunger.  We did what had to be done to get them moving….

Family trip to Walmart.  Honestly, one of my favorite things to do on vacation is check out the local Walmart (although we were told we should have checked our Meijer… missed opportunity).  Usually you can find local goodies and stock up on things you forgot or used up, or just want to have (paper towels, juice boxes, Bayer Back and Body, POP-Its, etc.).  Rob and I have learned that the best way to get kids moving is to lure them out with the promise of retail and then fool them into having fun.  

On the return ride home, we just so happened to take a detour… you know, right through Traverse City.  Before anyone could complain, we were parking on the upper level of the Hardy Parking garage and heading into downtown TC to find food and fun!  We were not disappointed.

There is no shortage of eateries in TC.  From fine Italian dining, to natural and vegan options, BBQ, bakeries, pubs, and good old American fare, restaurants are tucked in among the holistic healing stores, upscale clothing boutiques, souvenir emporiums, and other small eclectic stores selling cherry everything from coffee to barbecue sauce.  There’s literally something for everyone.  We settled on Mackinaw Brewing Company, primarily because it was the one of the first restaurants we came across, and with blood sugars plummeting all around us, we sent up the “may-day” and put in for our party of five.

A 45-minute wait.  Yikes.  Knowing that the city was teeming with tourists, we kept our name on the list and did a little window shopping.  We made it to exactly one store: Rocket Fizz.

If you have ever wanted to visit Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, it wouldn’t be as incredible as this candy store.  Do you remember that candy you loved when you were a kid?  The one you haven’t seen for 35 years, but you can remember the taste like it was yesterday?  Rocket Fizz has it.  Not only do they have shelves of nostalgic American candy: Whatchamacallit, Chuckles, root beer bottles, Necco wafers, Boston Baked Beans, but they also have international favorites from Mexico, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, and so many other countries.  You can also find gourmet treats like moodibars with flavors like “Wake Up” or “Hangover.”  Hammond’s even makes a Pigs N’ Taters chocolate bar with bacon and potato chips inside.  The store boasts an entire section of penny candy and the walls are covered in old fashioned tin signs with funny sayings on them, “Don’t Hog the Bathroom” (picture of a pig), “It’s like mom always said, ‘what the hell is wrong with you?’” or “Don’t trust the dogs and the cat’s shady too.”  Kai marveled at the selection of sodas in Rocket Fizz.  He struggled to make his selection… I mean, how do you choose between Chicken Enchilada soda and S’Mores flavored soda?  He landed on raspberry (womp, womp) and said it was delicious.  One fun find was a whole selection of Avery’s Soda straight from New Britain, CT.  So cool to see Hard Hittin’ New Britain represented all the way out here in TC, Michigan!

Thank goodness our table was ready at Mackinaw Brewing Company or we would likely have spent another hour making bad decisions and purchasing too much candy we didn’t really need.  

Lunch was great!  Standard pub fare, but I didn’t have to make it or clean it up, so it was superb! 

Seemingly everyone was in a good mood and ready to hit the midway at the National Cherry Festival.  The kids had a blast in the Magical Maze, the bumper cars (Rob got in on this one), and one something called O.M.G.  With a name like that, you can imagine the insanity of this particular ride.  I love rides, but I politely declined a turn and took pictures instead.  Marlie and Kai are the daredevils and Alyssa, Rob and I were happy to send them off to this stomach-churning attraction.  

Miraculously, everyone survived and we headed over to the actual Cherry Festival in search of all things cherry (my absolute favorite flavor – I get it from my dad) and also churros.  The fair has a lot of vendors selling cherry food products, potpourri, clothing, soaps, lip balm – you name it, they have it!  The nightly entertainment schedule is packed with headliners including – Sheryl Crow, Tesla, Collective Soul, Nelly, Jim Gaffigan, and Boyz II Men this week.  There is a Cherry Queen that is crowned and plenty of pie eating contests and even a boat parade.  The Cherry Festival is no joke.

While we did not find any churros, the girls did get friend dough (same thing, different shape, right?), and I got a giant cup of fresh cherries (sweet and tart) and split a slice of cherry crumb pie and ice cream with Kai – it was absolutely delicious.  

The Cherry Festival was everything I wanted it to be!  

Seeing the kids enjoy themselves is amazing, especially since they had woken up so grumpy.  We headed back hot and tired to the campground.  What’s up next? A couple of rounds of Gaga ball, a nice campfire and our dinner will be steaks on the grill and potatoes cooked in the fire – probably charred, and s’mores for dessert.

And definitely another glass of wine.  

Happy campers all around!

P.S. Happy Birthday to my Mom!!! Love you!

July 4, 2022

Happy Independence Day, America!

We celebrated American independence by sleeping in, eating a delicious camp breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, fresh fruit, and the most glorious cup of coffee my Keurig mini could provide.  Admittedly, we were running on empty from two long days of travel and the most exciting day of our lives.  I don’t know how Rob stayed awake drinking beers and talking with Brian.  I stumbled off to bed after a quarter of a red Solo cup of rose, leaving them to catch up.  I knew Rob was tired and punchy (from exhaustion, not from the beer) because he was loudly pontificating on the economy and how he was a valuable member of ours, both providing a service to others an an employee, but also as a consumer, purchasing items like our RV (do you know how many people it takes to make something like this?).

Leelanau Pines campground is beautifully situated along Lake Leelanau, about 20 miles outside Traverse City.  It is a small campground with only about 200 sites, but it is well maintained, peaceful, and rustic.  Our site faces the lake, which is small compared to Lake Michigan, but actually covers about 166 acres.  To get to the campground, we passed through the small town of Cedar which looks very quaint and has an ice cream shop that we will definitely be trying.

After breakfast, Rob rented a paddleboard and a two person kayak.  We spent the middle of the day floating in the lake, switching among the kayak, paddleboard, and the inflatable tubes we brought with us from CT.  The water was refreshing and it was time well spent doing nothing except being together.  I love being on the water and floating.  You forget where you are sometimes and it’s a great time to clear your mind – no electronics, no phone, no music, just the splish-splash of children trying to get your attention while you try to pretend you can’t feel the cold droplets on your hot skin for as long as you can.  

After a quick lunch, the weather began to turn breezy and drizzly.  We spent a couple of hours playing board games on the picnic table under the awning while we thought about our next move.  We had big plans to head into Traverse City for the Fourth of July fireworks over West Grand Traverse Bay, but the weather only got worse.  To be honest, no one was truly devastated when we abandoned our trip downtown (although I was a little sad to miss our on the Tesla concert at the Cherry Festival).  The girls fed the camp ducks (renamed Bob and Jeff) and swung on the swings in the rain while Kai, Rob and I hung out inside.  We had a truly patriotic dinner of tacos and fell asleep to the Goonies.  Happy Birthday, America!

In short, we have decided to stay here at Lake Leelanau and use it as our home base for day trips and activities rather than to push onward, hopping from campsite to campsite.  On our trip out to Montana last year, our biggest takeaway was that we needed to be still for longer periods of time to get to know a place deeply rather than jump see as many places as we could.  Sure, we won’t see as much the the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (in fact, there is a good chance we won’t make it there at all), but we will get to know this corner of northwest Michigan pretty well. It’s a relief knowing that we won’t be packing up and changing sites until the end of the week.  Of course, we will be exploring the area, but in a way that actually feels restful and enjoyable.  

So friends, if you were hoping to get to know a ton about UP, sorry to disappoint.  We are sticking around Lake Leelanau.  We do plan to hit the Sleeping Bear Dunes and head into the Cherry Festival, and I have a couple of other ideas floating around my brain, so there’s still a lot to look forward to on this Michigan adventure!

Sunday, July 3, 2022

I have been very proud of myself when it comes to driving Kevin, especially when we tow the Jeep.  My first time driving solo (everyone else asleep) was on I-80 starting in a Scranton Walmart parking lot.  However, given the length of our vehicle, you would most certainly understand that there is always a bit of a learning curve that comes with getting behind the wheel for the very first time after a long hiatus.  While it is true that I did not do the bulk of the driving yesterday, I did drive the graveyard shift – 9:00 – 11:30.  It’s a lonely time to drive when the rest of the camper crew retreats to their bunks.  No one riding shotgun, no one to help you read the GPS or talk to you.  It’s dark and there are a lot of semi-trailers.  Driving    Also, when you’re in Canada, your cellular phone plan has talk and text, but charges you a very high fee for every megabyte consumed.  Translation: if you don’t have any music downloaded, you have to listen to local radio which is a crapshoot.

I didn’t have enough hands to white-knuckle the steering wheel and find acceptable music on local radio, so I suffered through about 40 minutes of 70s soft rock before I felt comfortable enough to search for a better station.  When driving a nine-ton vehicle at night, with the rest of the passengers sleeping, it is very important to be able to sing along. It is also important to have a snack.  

Here are some of the interesting things I observed during my night drive:

• Wineries everywhere: this area is full of wineries – it’s like an Ontario wine trail
• Best name of a winery: Frisky Beaver Winery, off Highway 403 heading toward London, Ontario – I would buy wine from here just to be able to keep the bottle
• Translating kilometers into miles and minutes will make your head spin
• An exit along Highway 401 called Oil Heritage Road – off that exit there is a town called Petrolia (hehe)

We were aiming to stop around 11:40 PM at a Walmart close to the American border in Sarnia, Ontario, but I spied a truck rest area around seven miles before Sarnia and decided it looked safe for the night.  Walmarts are never a sure thing – some do not allow campers and you can never be sure until you pull in, no matter what the online community says.  I parked Kevin in a pull through spot between two tractor trailers.  Rob leveled the camper, put out the slide, and I put up the privacy curtain.  Then, we slept.

After a mere five hours of sleep, we crossed back into the U.S.A. at 6:33.AM.  Hello, Michigan!   Border patrol required all the kids to show their sleepy faces before they could crawl back into bed.

Interestingly, we passed through the border alongside an Eric Church tractor trailer – maybe carrying stage equipment for concerts?  He’s not playing in Michigan until July 22nd, so who knows?

Our goal for the day was to head to the Cherry Festival in Traverse City, where Rob’s high school friend, Brian, lives and flies helicopter tours in the TC area.  More specifically, the Blue Angels were scheduled to headline the airshow and we thought it might be fun to catch them in action.  So, after fueling up and cleaning the bug carnage off Kevin’s windshield and mirrors, we started down I-75 towards Flint/Detroit we drove, listening to Rob’s Michigan playlist: KISS and Kid Rock, clearly the best musicians Michigan has to offer (I know, Motown.  Don’t get me started.)

The route to Traverse City was varied.  We passed Flint, which was gray, industrial, and run down.  We passed signs for Frankenmuth, Michigan’s Little Bavaria, with the famous Bonner’s Christmas store!  (Thanks for the recommendation, Roberta!)  We have already decided we’ll stop there for some gnome hunting on the return trip.  Fields of corn, and mostly flat expanses laid out before us.  Full disclosure, I did close my eyes for nearly an hour. (I had an unfortunate run-in with a mascara wand earlier this week and have a nasty scratch high up inside my eyelid – yikes.)

Approaching Traverse City was like rolling into an affluent beach town with charming chalet-like hotels, neat bungalow, upscale condos, and enormous beachfront homes..  Lake Michigan is an expanse of blue green with no end in sight.  I would have believed it was the ocean if I didn’t know any better.  Jet-skis, pontoon boats, kayaks, paddle-board and any other water sport you could imagine were advertised on myriad businesses lining the main drag leading into the city.  I’ll admit it – I was completely surprised.  This was definitely not what I expected.  It’s beautiful and I can’t wait to explore it more.

We headed straight for Brian’s work, a company called 45 North Aviation located off the Airport Access Road.  We rolled on out of the RV in yesterday’s clothes (at this point, there was nothing I wanted more than a shower and a fresh change of clothes), were escorted right into the luxury lounge of the tour office, and introduced to Mike, Brian’s boss and owner of 45 North Aviation.  No makeup, lopsided ponytail, a wonky eye – I felt GROSS.  And I surely didn’t expect what happened next.  None of us did.

Mike offered to let Brian take us up in his Robinson helicopter for a quick tour of downtown Traverse City.  We would take two short trips to accommodate all of us.  Awesome!  We walked out to the hanger and begin gawking at the collection of aircraft – some are privately owned and some belong to Mike, including a MiG-17, a Soviet subsonic fighter plane that he would be flying in today’s airshow.  All of a sudden, Mike turned on his heel and said, “I have a better idea.”  We hopped on two golf carts and headed to a hanger a couple of hundred yards away.  “How about we all go together in this?” he says… and gestures to a Bell 407 GXP 7 seater helicopter.

Holy mackerel. I’m pretty sure my one good eye was as big as a saucer.  Rob whispered, “If I woke up with my head stapled to the carpet, I wouldn’t be more surprised.”  Best day ever.

I have never ridden in a helicopter before and I am sure this ride has spoiled me for life.  We buckled in, put on our headphones and mics, and Mike took us up.  The ride was smooth and he flew low over the lake, allowing us to get a great view of the Cherry Festival, carnival, downtown area, and all the watercraft that had assembled for the upcoming airshow, including the large ship with the flag which signaled the center of the show.

From our viewpoint, Lake Michigan was crystal clear and parts of it were as turquoise as the Carribean sea.  The Top Gun theme softly played in our ears as we snapped pictures and took videos.  About halfway through the 20-minute trip, I just stopped and absorbed the view.  Sometimes putting down the camera and just being in the moment is all you need.  This was a once in a lifetime opportunity in a multimillion dollar aircraft and I intended to soak it in.

After a quick freshening up, we raced downtown to catch the airshow.  The sky was clear – the perfect day to watch amazing flying with incredible aircraft – and we plopped down in the sand with thousands of other tourists.  With around ten different “acts” in the show, it lasted three hours!  This was my first airshow experience, and man, was it… LOUD!

*NOTE – Yes, this would be much more interesting with video. Know that we are at a campground with exactly one bar of service at all times… I’ll add video when I’m back home with a strong signal! Pictures do not do this event justice.

We watched Mike fly the MiG, lighting up his afterburners.

The Coast Guard performed a demonstration “rescue” with a diver penciling into the water to “rescue” a swimmer and hauling them up onto the hovering Coast Guard chopper.

Probably the most unbelievable aircraft was the Harrier plane – it can take off vertically and hover.  

There were a few stunt-planes that barrell-rolled, flat spun, and looped all around the skies.  So impressive.

We loved seeing the F-16 and the A-10, although Kai was disappointed they didn’t fire any blanks.  That sure would have shaken up the folks watching the show from their kayaks.

The Blue Angels wrapped up the show for 45-minutes of incredible precision flying. In case you you don’t know, the Blue Angels are a U.S. Navy demonstration squadron of pilots who fly F/A -18 Super Hornets (this is what they fly in Top Gun: Maverick. So cool..) There are six pilots: four that fly together, primarily in their signature diamond formation, and two solos, a lead and an opposing, that do a lot of criss-crossing. At times, the planes in the diamond formation are separated by mere inches. They move with such incredible precision, it’s like they are held together with wires. The solos fly belly to belly, wingtip to wingtip, or with one plane inverted. We all sat slack-jawed as the planes roared overhead, making one incredible pass after another.

The big finale was the Delta formation which joined the diamond formation with the two solos.  Chills.  I mean, this was just breathtaking.

I’ve never been a big fan of all things aviation (except for Top Gun… I do love that movie.), but today was an all around A+ day!  What a spectacularly thrilling start to our trip!  

I’m not sure how we are going to top today.  However, I am ready for a little rest and relaxation – maybe a little floating on the lake, a little paddleboarding, a leisurely morning coffee and a walk around the beautiful campgrounds.  I’m happy to report that we are finally at Lelanau Pines Campground, where we will stay until Friday.  

We have set up camp, are relaxing, making a fire and getting ready to grill some cheeseburgers.  And wine,  There will be wine.

Pics to come tomorrow!

Cheers to you all!