Day-1: We began our trip yesterday, which was my mistake as DH and I were exhausted after running the flea market all weekend. In the morning we unloaded the refrigerator and packed it in coolers and loaded the MDX. J.J. our DD #1 was staying over as she was taking our cat home with her. And we took her dog as our vacations overlapped. We took her dog Nutmeg last year for the same reason. So we left without a hitch around 10 AM after packing everything that was last minute stuff and hooking up the MDX to the back. We got as far as Delaware when George pulled into a rest area to take a nap.  I walked the dogs and then we got Starbucks. MIL was happy as the Minis were back! Funny thing is DD #2 texted me that the minis were back almost at the same time. DH slept for about an hour and then we headed on our journey. He bought a new Garmin for the trip and although it knows we are in a high profile vehicle I'd did not know we had HAZMAT as we have propane on board. So with that said we can't go through the Baltimore tunnels. So it reminded me of our trip to St. Louis years ago when the Garmin kept stealing us back to this bridge which was out. We missed the beltway and we're headed for the tunnel, and we got off at an exit just before the tunnel. Recalculating Garmin spouted...and it kept rerouting is to the darn tunnel. So I ended up reprogramming it for Westminster, MD off of I-70 West. We arrived at the Jelly Stone Park RV resort and got a nice big pull through site.
I was keeping my eye to the weather apps. Thunder storms were around us but we didn't get any rain. Campground had a nice big dog park

August 11, 2015

When we woke up, there were two other RV's staying overnight at the Brady's Leap rest stop. Except for stopping for diesel and to let the dogs out several times, we drove straight through. One of those times while George walked the dogs I ran in and bought Starbucks beverages. Coffee one for me and a vanilla bean frappechino for George. While there I bought two croissants to make tuna fish sandwiches in for lunch. Caught up to the storms and had to deal with wet roads and those horrible cattle chutes. It is totally a white knuckle ride. When we arrived back to Sicklerville, NJ the MDX was dead. Even though George checked my work of hooking up the break assist and running through the ritual of the manufacturer's requirements for towing a vehicle on all fours, I imagine that I must have forgotten to turn off the A/C. George set up the portable jumpstart thingy and plugged it in to the RV with the motor running to charge it up in order to jumpstart the MDX. It worked fine.While we were unpacking the RV, I left the MDX running to charge the batteries. It took us two trips we thought to unload the RV, but we noticed that we need a third one as well, as neither one of us remembered to bring home our clean shirts out of the hanging closet.

August 10 - On the way home!

August 10

Storms were in the forecast for Dearborn, MI, however we only ran into a few drops of rain. Today we went to the Henry Ford Museum to tour the Ford Rouge F-150 Pick-Up Truck Plant. Funny thing is George was given the Senior Discount and I wasn't. The tour cost us $30. and it is was a pretty amazing presentation before the actual plant tour. Previously we had toured the Corvette Assembly Plan in Bowling Green, KY which was more of a hands on assembly whereas this plant has a lot more automation. It was cool to see the robotic arms glue in both the moon roofs and the front and back windshields. All of the pick-up truck built at this plant are aluminum. It might have been my imagination but the colors on the trucks really seemed to pop. Afterward we set the GPS for home. We drove out of the parking lot and headed for home. Funny thing is the first night of our trip we stayed on the Ohio turnpike and it began to storm. Tonight we are staying in the turnpike at mile marker 197 at the Travel Plaza named Brady's Leap. The storms from earlier in a the day caught up to us.

August 9 - Belleville, MI

August 9

Travel day from Mackinaw City, MI to Belleville, MI. On the way we stopped at a rest area and George just happened to go back to the car to get his sunglasses when he noticed the cord that connected the lights on our tow vehicle and RV were mangled since they had been apparently dragging for 200 miles. Needless to say we had no lights on our tow vehicle. Fortunately we had a new one that George had accidentally put through the wrong tow arm and couldn't reach the MDX. Every night on the trip he kept saying he had to take it apart and put through the correct arm. So at the rest stop he was forced to do it do we would have lights. Inadvertently he dropped this teeny weeny little screw and by luck he saw it in a completely different place then he thought he dropped it at. I had chosen a campground near Dearborn in Belleville, MI with an odd name- Wayne County Fairgrounds RV Park, which actually is a 4H fairgrounds. While cooking mushrooms, George looked up local eateries. He said that I looked like I didn't want to cook, when in fact, he didn't want to cook since he was supposed to grill pork chops. So we went to the Twisted Rooster and had fish tacos, fried pickles and he had a pulled pork sandwich. We were too stuffed for dessert.

August 8 -Mackinac Island

(A correction from my last post: Instead of the Mackinaw Bridge, it is actually the Mackinac Bridge over the Straits of Mackinac. Once again the Internet access is poor here. I write all of my posts off-line with the hopes of being able to post at a later date or time.)

Today, instead of taking the campground shuttle over to the passenger ferry we decided to take the MDX. Originally we were going to take the dogs but Abby was in a real snit this morning. We could have taken just Nutmeg, but lately she has been slipping her collar. Plus we wouldn't be able to tour Fort Mackinac or go in any other building. So  we went without them. Arriving at the ferry, we noticed that people were taking their bicycles with them. So George asked the ferry rep if the scooters were allowed on Mackinac Island. She wasn't sure so she asked the manager. The consensus was that it was okay. So with that said, it cost us $18. to ferry the scooters round-trip. The ferries   are all hydro jet propelled which are fast. They also have a rooster tail of water that shoots from the stern of the boat. When we arrived to the island we picked up the scooters and walked them out to the street. As we were getting ready to ride them down the street a guy driving a wagon yelled that the scooters were illegal on the island. So George asked a police officer and he said they were okay. We bought carriage tour tickets and then rode our scooters up to the location to pick up the carriage. Parking the scooters across the street in the designated bike parking area along the curb. The place is CRAZY with hundreds of noodle-heads on bicycles. There are Police Assistants plus Police on Bikes patrolling the streets trying to control the craziness. We got on our carriage which turned out to be a wagon with rubber tires. Every cart, wagon or carriage was horse drawn. No horseless carriages are on the island at all. Everyone depends on horses like in the olden days. We saw bread delivered via a flat bed wagon. They use Belgian Draft horses to pull the wagons in a range of colors from palomino to dappled-grays. The wagon or carriage tours gives a lay of the land. When we got back to downtown, neither of us could remember where we had parked the scooters. After searching for them up and down the street three times, we came to the conclusion that they were missing. We thought we had parked them across the street from where the wagon loaded. So we went and told one of the Police assistants (PA) and she told us that they were impounded and were at the Police station, as they were illegal to have on the island. Actually we were relieved that the police had them. The PA walked us up to talk to the head officer on duty and he explained about the fact that there were no motor driven vehicles on the island and even motor assisted bikes needed a special permit to be allowed. Which in reality wasn't totally true since those handicapped carts that people ride are allowed, and are motorized. The police told us they would keep our scooters until we were ready to leave the island. We then stayed around the Police department area as we knew we needed to go back to get the scooters when we were ready to leave. George had asked where a good place to eat middle of the line was and The Seabisciut was suggested. We had lunch and I looked in several of the shops that didn't sell fudge. The downtown area as something in the realm of 20 fudge shops that specialize in just fudge. Some have 10, 20, 30 or 40 flavors of just fudge. I bought myself a Polartec type jacket with Mackinac Island embroidered on it. Then we went back to the police station where our scooters were locked up. George was escorted out of town on his scooter. I had to walk mine to the pier and when I arrived George and the police escort who also happened to be the officer who told George in the first place that the scooters were okay were waiting for me. We walked our scooters to the ferry location and when the boat arrived, they were placed on board. It was chilly riding back so I was glad that I had purchased the jacket. When we arrived back on the mainland George was able to get his money back for the transportation of the scooters. When we were leaving the dock area on Mackinaw, I counted 10 fudge shops. 

August 7

August 7, 2015

Today was what I refer to as a travel day, which is a day when we move from one base camp to another. With that said, George picked up a pamphlet in Munising, MI advertising a cruise through the Soo Locks. Supposed to be famous, although we had never heard of them. Since our travel day was just a short hop, I suggested we take the cruise today on the way to Mackinaw City. George was able to check out the parking situation via Google Earth which loaded one pixel at a time it seemed. There was ample parking at both docks. We arrived at the dock just in the nick of time for the 10:00 cruise. The Soo Lock connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron. One side is Canada and the other is Michigan. This cruise we were able to get seats on the upper deck right near the railing on the Port side. Of course in order to see anything George and I migrated to the bow. It took a lot longer to go North then South. North they had to fill the lock with water, which took about 20 minutes whereas going South the water drained out very fast. It really is an ingenious idea. From there we drove over the famous Mackinaw Bridge. I don't know what I was expecting but it was just painted that industrial green color, nothing fancy. It wasn't as scary as several other bridges we have been on. George claims he saw a giant hotdog on a roof as we were coming off the bridge. When we arrived at the campground and they gave us a map of the site, we got lost in the campground. Their map wasn't very good to say the least. Funny thing is George likes to sit outside and I am fine doing it as long as there are no flying insects buzzing in my ears. The Internet access in the upper peninsula of Michigan has been bad due to limited phone towers. So now that we are under the bridge as the Yoopers say for those south of the Mackinaw Bridge. The Internet access is still poor at the campground. I'm writing this post in the hopes to be able to post it tomorrow while waiting at the terminal for the Mackinaw Island Ferry.

August 5 - Newberry

August 5 - Today we went to Pictured Rock National Lake Shore which if you ask me is a waste of time from the land. I'm glad they made it a National Park to preserve it. The Eastern side of the park has giant sand dunes with a rather fast and steep slide down. It's how the loggers would slide the logs down to the Lake Superior and is called a Log Slide. It has a disclaimer above to keep people with common sense to not try to slide down as getting back up can take an hour or more for those in peak shape. And should you get injured on the way down, rescue will be difficult. We did sand dunes at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore nearly doing George and Acadia in. And of course the super high dunes at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina. We were able to view the slide from a lookout. We met these two young people with kayaks that wanted to know if we knew where the pictured rocks were and we said based on the map there was access to the lake 35 miles away. So at this point we decided to drive the 35 miles to the town of Munising to see if they had any cruises to the Pictured Rocks and they did, only problem is I had to buy the tickets for tomorrow at 10:00 AM. So instead of going to see waterfalls tomorrow we are going to go see the pictured rocks like they should be seen. The upper peninsula is mostly forests and farm land, at least where we have traveled. The only wildlife we have seen is deer, cranes, sea gulls & chipmunks. There are moose and bear around and frankly I hope they stay off the roads. In Maine every mile there is a lookout for moose sign.