Never Never Land

I have been accused of hanging around with Peter Pan and Captain Hook in Never Never Land.  Well, Peter Pan I'm not.  We've just been having a great time and the longer you don't post, the harder it is to start back.  For awhile we were traveling every couple of days and seeing things every day with great friends.  It is tiring to say the least, but currently we are in St Ignace, MI until the 15th and are relaxing and seeing the sights.  I'll try to recap what we've done as best I can.

We went to Red Bay to get our stove fixed.  That is an important thing to me, but Carolyn for some reason could care less. :)  The sealed knob switch was sticking and was hard to light and the igniter would stay on.  After finally getting it out, (I had to help) the tech scratched his head and said he didn't have a clue about what to do?????  His suggestion was to spray contact cleaner on it and that would free it up.  It did and we put it back in. I was soaking wet after all that and I'm the customer. I was helping because the helper was putting my awning back together. It was practically rebuilt and a wonder it hadn't fallen off. My 3 hour express bay turned into all day and barely got through.

We left heading toward B'ham for some Dr appointments.  The stove would not light much less stay igniting. A return to Red Bay was in the plan.

The 4th we headed to Crossville, TN and stayed at the Bean Pot Campground.  Not a bad park, but was heavily wooded.  My request for a sat site gave me a shaded site with a hole in the trees to my front.  Perfect. We had a family reunion on the 7th and we had a great time and visit with family in the area.  Our boys came with their families and we had some grand kid time which is always good.

We then went back to Red Bay, but not to Tiffin.  Didn't want to get into the wait in line stuff.  We just called Brannon at Custom RV and he worked us in.  1 hr after our arrival I had a replaced stove and another minor thing fixed.  The stove was one he had taken out of a new RV and replaced with an electric or induction stove.  It still had the new labels on it. :)  Wonderful.  Now I'm in business, Carolyn is still not impressed, although this one does work great.

The best thing about the last Red Bay visit is I had my 32" LCD TV replaced with a 40" Samsung LED and sound bar.  It is sweet and the sound is great for watching action movies and things.  Now the LCD was a good picture especially after running everything through the HDMI plug, but this LED is wonderful.  It actually makes some shows look computer generated they're so clear and sharp.

We then dropped the old TV off at my folks house and headed north.  Met a guy at Tiffin that talked up the Michigan and the Upper Peninsula so that sold it for me.  We needed to get out of these 90+ deg days.  We landed in Cave City, KY overnight and went to Camp Atterbury, IN (Mil Fam Camp) for 2 nights.  It wasn't far off the Interstate and only $20/night.  It was pretty hot and we popped the breaker on the pole 5-6 times.  We just ran the generator until the sun went down.  The next morning they got maintenance to replace the breaker as the other one would be hot when touched.  There were no problems the next day and for my troubles didn't charge for the second night.  I'm all for that.

We had friends, Steve and Debbie, coming through Michigan and were in Sawyer, MI staying at Kamp Across From The Dunes RV Park. We stopped in to see them for two nights.  Friends Dennis and Deena were in northern IN and as we drove by a sign that mentioned the town they were in, I sent them an email saying we were headed to Sawyer, MI.  The next day as they were headed north Deena finally red the email and came to a screeching halt just 10 miles from us.  A few calls later they were snugged into the same park as us and the good times proceeded.  The park is across from Warren Dunes State Park and gave some beautiful sunsets.

The next day we all said our goodbyes and we followed Deena and Dennis to Indigo Bluffs in Empire, MI.  They were going to see friends they met this spring.  Indigo Bluffs is a park where you buy your lots and they rent the owner pool and unsold lots.  It was a beautiful park and the surrounding area is stunning to say the least.

While there we ate extremely well :) and had a great time.  The county has a zoning ordinance that keeps out the big box stores like hotels, fast food, and grocery stores.  They are all available about 30 min away in Traverse City.  The result is a low key laid back atmosphere where local stores can continue to do business without major competition from people that can buy in bulk.  Much different from most other places where the small business is all but run out of business because he cannot get his material as cheap.

We then went to Mancelano, MI to Whispering Pines RV park to kick back and see Carolyn's niece which she hasn't seen in a long time.  The cool days, 60's and low 70's, are continuing.  From here we can drive to the coastal areas and see the sights.

There are a lot of different boats up here.

More later. Stay tuned.  And we ARE having a great time.