Downtime

Even in this amazing, wonderful lifestyle, everybody needs a little downtime. We’re soaking up all we can get right here a few miles north of Newberry, somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Truth is, we’ve been busy! It’s all “good busy”, of course. We’ve been blessed with lots of play dates with friends and family and beautiful sights to see. And, we love it all!! That said, our calendar has been full since...let’s see...May 1st! No wonder we’re tired!

We were a bit apprehensive about this campground. Our first choice for a chill out spot, right on the shore of Lake Superior, was booked. So were all of the surrounding parks. Seems this is the week everyone from the Lower P heads to the UP for a last blast of Summer. When this campground -- a bit farther from the sights we want to see up here -- had an opening, I grabbed it. Then, I read the reviews. (Yes, that is a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has already run away!) Laurie and Odel gave it a “neutral”. The recent reviews on rvparkreviews.com were mixed, but had a consistent theme: The place has a reputation for having some funky rules. We lowered our expectations and hit the road to Newberry.

Turns out, the place does have some weird rules. But, it’s quiet and peaceful. Well, at least we thought so. This morning, as we were enjoying some serious downtime, there was a knock at our door. Paul went to the door and was greeted by three little neighbor kids. They wanted to tell us one of our cats was looking at them. (Don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing, but apparently it’s knock-worthy.) They were also looking for somebody to ride bikes with them. Paul gave them a “maybe later” and came back in. Fifteen minutes passed. Apparently, that’s “later” to a kid. They knocked again.

“Are you ready?” asked the urchin at the bottom of our steps. Paul explained that he was busy and couldn’t play right now. They offered to help him complete his chores. He thanked them for their offer to help, but turned them down and sent them off. Over the next hour they stopped by several times. Finally, Paul asked them not to knock on our door anymore. These insistent playmates have obviously not yet mastered the fine art of downtime.

We, on the other hand, are seriously working on it!

Wirelessless

During a brief moment while I was connected to the internet this morning I read the latest rumor about Verizon coming to IPhone.

Can’t happen soon enough.

We hate AT&T. I know, hate is a strong word. But, that pretty much sums up our feelings for our wireless provider. With AT&T, we are wirelessless much of the time.

AT&T’s 3G network is a joke. We last connected to it in Idaho Falls. For the last two months we’ve been thrilled to catch The Edge, the slower than snot network. No, it’s not fast. And, it might be better than nothing. The jury is still out on that.

When we’re on “the edge”, our IPhones will usually connect. Our AT&T air card, though, is a crap shoot. And, when the air card is out the two of us use our IPhones like the little computers they are, surfing as fast as our thumbs will allow.

Such was the case last month in Forest City. With 1200 Winnies on the grounds, the rally wifi was pushed beyond its limits. And, while at Camp Winnebago, Paul and I sat outside the front door to the service center sharing the company wifi with a woman nearby who launched a video stream that disconnected Paul...while he was paying bills. She, of course, was oblivious to the whole thing. Some people will never learn that public wifi is a shared resource. But, I digress.

Needless to say, we relied on the IPhones as our primary source of data during our stay in Winnie City. While the air card has a limit, the IPhones can suck up all the data we want. With the little menu bar at the top of the screen reading three or four bars, the AT&T logo and the E for edge, we were surfing on a slow boat to Wireless Land.

Toward the end of our stay, I received an email from AT&T informing me that I had used four times the allotted “off network” data usage in a month.

Say what?

Off network? No way! I see the AT&T logo and the E! And, what allotment? Our plan has unlimited data usage!

I placed a call to see what was up.

Turns out that AT&T customers are allowed something like 24mb of off-network data usage per month. Of course, AT&T customers have no way of knowing when they are off-network because AT&T displays its network logo on screen even when a customer is off network. This helps customers believe the crap that AT&T spews out about having a network that covers 98% of all Americans. Uh huh.

Now that I have crossed the unknown 24mb line, AT&T has changed my phone and it now shows when I’m off network. I’m here to tell you, in these parts, that’s most of the time!

Yep. I’ve had my hand slapped by AT&T. (Ouch!) If I do it again, they say they’ll “restrict” my account.

We’re counting down the days until our contract expires on the air card. That’ll be a quick and easy switch to Verizon. But, you see, we love our IPhones. With eight months to go before our contract expires on those, we’re hoping there’s something to these Verizon-IPhone rumors.

Until then, we’ll remain wirelessless.

General Direction

Have I mentioned this before? I love Google Maps! It turns trip planning into a game for me. I can easily spend hours routing us from one part of the country to the other. It's lots of fun.

Really!

Our travel plans for this fall have been a bit cryptic. We have a commitment here and another there, and a couple of things we'd like to do along the way. Then, of course, we have to be back in Forest City before we head to Kansas City for a month and then south to Texas. Our wifi was smokin' today, so I decided to take a stab at creating a framework for the next three months.

Framework is the operative word. This isn't a plan. I'm not married to it. We can change it in the blink of an eye and I'm AOK with that. It's a plan in the very loosest sense. Like I said, it's a game for me. And, yes, I am easily entertained.

I snapped this screen shot of our oh-so-tentative route, which will take us across the UP of Michigan with a planned stop at Mackinaw Island, where we once had hopes of honeymooning nearly 25 years ago but our new house construction got in the way. Then, we're hoping to meet up with Winnie friends in Michigan's "thumb" and fellow fulltimers somewhere north of Ann Arbor. We'll scoot into Ontario to make our way to Niagara Falls. Then, we're planning to roam around Pennsylvania for a few weeks and visit my sister, the only family member we've yet to see on our fulltiming journey. Our next date is at Camp Freightliner in Gaffney, SC, where we're looking forward to getting our first billion-quart oil change and radiator cleaning, then spending a couple of days really getting to know our chassis. Then, we'll finally head to the Smokey Mountains. Our plans to go there last fall were dashed when we detoured to buy a new coach. We'll join a gathering of RVing friends in the hills of Tennessee and then make a mad dash to Forest City.

As it stands, we'll cover nearly 4,000 miles in three months.

Yep. We'll be moving. But, we'll spend the next three months after these three in two spots. We'll slow down then. For now, we're excited to be on the move.

Back to our framework. Moments after I grabbed this screenshot, I visited the blog of fellow fulltimers Laurie and Odel, who are cruising through the UP. It sounds like they really enjoyed a particularly picturesque spot along the shores of Lake Superior. So, I've already adjusted our route.

See! It's not really a plan. It's a general direction! If it looks like we're headed your way, or a place where you'll be, please let us know. We look forward to meeting up.

Happy trails!

Correction

We took a closer look at our GVW and did the math one more time. Actually, we're 1,500 pounds under the maximum. (We thought 3,000 sounded like a lot!) Even when you cut the margin in half, it's still healthy. So, we're happy.

Actually, we're getting a bit lighter every day. We attended an "Organize Your RV" seminar in Forest City and we've been inspired ever since. Even though we've been living on the road for more than a year, we aren't exactly the most organized fulltimers out there. Our first moose was actually much more neat and tidy. Then, we moved into this big beast. We had so much more space we just spread everything out. And, so it remains.

We turned inspiration into action today. Instead of venturing out in Wisconsin Dells, we made a trip to Walmart and Home Depot. We picked up a couple of handy storage items and went to work on reorganizing our front cabinets and those in the back half of our newly re-roofed slide. Besides shuffling things from here to there, we purged a bunch. Paul just took out a hefty trash bag that he estimates lightened our load by 15 pounds.

So, make that 1,515 pounds to spare! More to come, soon.

Weighed

We're celebrating the end of a long, hot, humid, three-state day. A very late start to our 250-mile travel day made for a late arrival in the Wisconsin Dells area. After three weeks of near boondocking, we were looking forward to kicking back in a cozy spot with 50-amp full hookups, cable and smokin' hot wifi. When we checked in late this 90-degree-plus afternoon, our campground was suffering from a brown out. The full hookups were dark, so we opted for water and electric. There's no cable here and we're parked under a tree. With satellite out of the picture, we're settling for a handful of channels over the air that look pretty darn good with our new "jack" antenna. And, wifi is far from smokin, so we're relying on our barely connected air card.

It's good to be back in civilization, or close to it.

On our way out of Thompson late this morning, we took care of a nagging to do. We stopped by the local grain elevator and put our moose on the scales. The task took just a moment or two, but provided us with some critical information. Knowing how much our coach weighs will help us keep the tires properly inflated, maintain a balanced load and give us some welcome peace of mind. After the moose had passed over the scales we stepped inside to get the essential numbers and the good news.

We have 3,000 pounds to spare!

We weren't able to get readings for each wheel, but our load was properly distributed between the front and rear axle. We'll look for a chance to get a more detailed reading down the road. But, for now, we're pleased to know we're rolling down the road with one lean, mean moose.

Yee haw!

Leaving Forest City

FINALLY!

After nearly three weeks, we are outta here! We're heading back to see our friends in Thompson. But, this time, we're bringing our moose. Tomorrow, we'll be on our way to Wisconsin, God willing.

Of course, we'll be back in Forest City in October to finish the job.

We can't wait.

Back at Home

We are no longer homeless! Yippee!

The call came from Winnebago Friday morning. The moose would be good to go later that afternoon. Just about everything on our list was taken care of. The big exception is our ceiling panel that needs to be replaced. That will require another three to five night stay here in Forest City, without our coach, of course. Since that is a cosmetic procedure, we decided to make a return trip for that in late October. Hopefully, it will be much cooler!

Back at the factory that afternoon, we did a walk through with our service tech and admired his fine work. We have just a couple of things to take care of first thing Monday morning, so we decided to partake of a weekend of free camping here at Camp Winnebago. It took just a few minutes to back into our spot and unload the Jeep.

We were soooooo happy to be home again. After three nights away from our moose we were surprised how much we missed it. (And, by the way they acted, the cats did, too!) This little house on wheels has definitely become our home. No doubt about it. We settled in for a relaxing night of cocktails, steak dinner and mindless television. Way before the hour we usually call bedtime, we were sawing some serious z’s in the comfort of our own bed.

Yes, it’s good to be home again.