Smithsonian article on 100 years of RVing

Click here to read this Smithsonian article.  I’m still on travel–right now I’m on Beaver Island with gorgeous weather on a lovely island and great people–but read about this article on one of my favorite RVing blogs, Travels with Miranda, and thought I’d pass it on.

New Great Laker pets

Shirley and Denise sent photos of their two new babies!  Too cute!  Check them out on Pets page, too.

Yours truly is heading to Beaver Island for a long weekend with a bunch of top journalists.  Will go to several of the ten islands of the Beaver Archipelago in the middle of Lake Michigan.  So blog will probably be quiet until I return Sept. 2nd.

Red Cross to the rescue!

It took the Red Cross to get the kidnapped jar of pickled beets back to Nancy!

The beets came with this note stuck to their jar with duct tape:

Nancy fed us scrambled eggs, sausages, toast, and English muffins anyway

Peaches was unimpressed by the whole affair.  Guess she doesn’t care for pickled beets.

Sunday morning at Silver Lake RV Resort was gorgeous!  An amazingly quiet campground.

Someone was getting school supplies ready.  Must be for the Jolly Green Giant’s children.

As I wrote a few days ago, we just had a really good time being together.  Here is a little evening conversation after dinner on Saturday.

Most of my time was spent figuring out how things worked and fixing things in my rig.  So I only have this photo of my rig rather than of the fun things others did like dune buggy ride and swimming in lakes Michigan and Silver.  This was only my third time out and the first time with my dog, Henry.  Thanks to Great Lakers Gayle, Joy, Skye, and Susan, I got hooked up to and unhooked from the sewer, opened and even washed the large awning,  and had hot-water pump bypassed due to faulty relief valve.  Interestingly, after a lifetime of conserving energy, I learned that when the heat index is over 100 and there is no shade in sight I would have to turn the thermostat way down and set fan on high to be comfortable.  Hmmm.

Here’s to next time!  And check out the new photos on our “Pets” page!  (Note that the two cats are Susan’s, but I didn’t catch their names so will add that later.  And I didn’t get a photo of Nancy’s cat so will have to add that later, too.)

Kidnap of Nancy’s pickled beets!

As you know, Saturday night the Great Lakers went to dinner at Walker’s in Hart.  On the salad bar were these delicious little round pickled beets.  While many of us enjoyed them, Nancy Wurm went a little crazy ’cause she loves pickled beets.  Nancy swore they were homemade, but at first the waitress said no.  So Nancy asked to at least find out what brand they were because she liked them so much and wanted to buy some.  The waitress came back and confessed that indeed they were homemade and arranged for Nancy to purchase some.  But before Nancy got the beets into her trailer’s refrigerator, the beets were kidnapped on the way back and she got the ransom note in the photo.  Tune in tomorrow to see if Nancy complied with the terms of the ransom note and got her pickled beets back!

First photo from Silver Creek RV Resort gathering

Laughter was the rule of the day during this weekend’s RVW Great Lakers’ rally at Silver Creek RV Resort in Mears, Michigan.  We had ten women, 4 dogs, 3 cats, and 5 guests on this sunny hot humid long weekend in the Silver Lake sand dune area of Lake Michigan.  Here we are having dinner Saturday night at Walker’s Restaurant in Hart, Michigan.  Joy suggested this homey place that is known for its perch and prime rib.  More photos and stories to follow after I finish working today, but did put new photos on our “Pets” page above.

Packed and ready for Mears ?

I am not yet packed, but I am ready.  Looking  forward to seeing everyone who is able to enjoy this weekend’s Great Laker rally in Mears, MI, near the magnificent Lake Michigan and world-class dunes.  I understand several will be arriving on Thursday.  I’ll arrive sometime Friday.

Hope this doesn’t get me in trouble, but I hear a rumor that Nancy is going to make everyone pancakes for breakfast one morning.  So pack up some jams; fresh strawberries, peaches, and blueberries; bacon; sausage;  syrup; butter;  powered sugar and whatever else you might enjoy sharing with others that taste good with pancakes.  Oh, I almost forgot to add Nutella to that list!

And here comes Tip #4

Rachel sent a new tip today (inserted below and on Tips page).  So nice to have our tip list grow!

Tip #4: This morning I noticed the screen in my Fantastic Fan had collected lots of dust and dirt since I left home in June. Here’s what I used to clean the screen in a flash:  Clean Screens by Ettore (25 wipes, 8″ x 10″). These little wipes are incredibly strong and don’t disintegrate against the screen.  I couldn’t find them in stock anywhere in the Ypsilanti area, so last year my local hardware store decided to order a case because of the convenience of the product.  I also use the wipes to clean the screen in my condo. It’s handy to be able to do this without removing the screens!

New Tip Added Today

Tip #3 courtesy of Grace H. added today.  Check it out above.

For those of you on pins and needles about the status of my rig, ECOVSN is now tucked nicely into my backyard ready to be packed and outfitted for this weekend’s rally in Mears.  Hard to believe, but she is back from all the various expert mechanics and is now road ready.  Henry Boy has already hopped up onto his seat and just doesn’t know what we don’t just take off.  I do have an issue with the refrigerator panel not staying up, but I’ll tackle that with duct tape if need be.  One of my handy RVW “sisters” might even help make it right in Mears.

Great Lakers’ upcoming events

This weekend is our Mears, MI, rally (see details under 2010 events above).  My rig should be ready (getting it today if all goes well) and I look forward to seeing everyone on Friday.

Just learned that you cannot bring you own horse to our Belding, MI, event in September, but need to use theirs.  Let Gayle or Shirley know if you want a rally that would allow you to bring your own horse and if there is enough interest they will try to plan one for 2011.

Enjoy any of 100 National Parks for Free August 14 – 15

For those of you not already enjoying a lifetime pass, here are the National Parks participating in the fee-free days August 14 and 15, 2010:

http://www.nps.gov/findapark/feefreeparksbystate.htm

In Michigan, Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore and Isle Royale are participating.  Boy, it doesn’t get better than either of these.  Whenever my mother, Dorothea, comes back to Michigan, she asks to go to Sleeping Bear.  Even in her 80s. she wants to walk Empire Bluffs trail up and down the dunes for a mile through the beech-maple forest to the big lake.  We find it a spiritual place that brings such joy and sense of peace.