July 18, 19, 20, 2011 Charlotte to Elkhart

Well, I have internet for a while – but I’ll tell ya, we have terrible electric here!  We have 30 amp svc and our AC kicks off constantly, and we have the refrigerator on GAS!  Too ridiculous!

Anyway – we did move on Sunday afternoon over to the Eaton County Fairgrounds, where we had GREAT 30 amp service, water and a dump station, once again for $15 per night.  We left Wendy & Wayne’s house about 5 pm, after we had eaten much more steak, chops, mac & cheese, and mango salsa that Wayne made – it was so good buy spicy!  We settled into our site, and out of about 70 sites, only 3 were occupied.  I highly recommend this campground – quiet, almost in town, but lots of squirrels, rabbits, and even a raccoon was seen wandering around! 

Monday was a busy day – we took Cinder in to Petsmart in Lansing to have a bath – it is so hot and humid that she was miserable even though she was not really ‘dirty’…while she was at the salon, we had breakfast at Cracker barrel, then shopped at Lowes, Gander Mtn, and Michaels – by then she was ready and we headed home. 

Wendy stopped over after work because Wayne works until 8:30 on Mon nights, and we made a plan to go to Dark Horse Brewery on Tuesday evening for dinner. 

On Tuesday we got up and headed to Muskegon, where the USS Silversides submarine is open for tours, as well as the US Maritime Submarine museum.  First of all, the museum is a bargain at $6 per person – two stories of memorabilia about subs, including locations of where they were lost, why (if known) and what they were doing there.  It was so interesting that we spent almost 3 hours in there!  We did NOT tour the silversides, since we’ve toured subs before, and it was $15 each, so we skipped that portion!

We left there and stopped by Muskegon beach – what a lovely beach!  Lots and lots of sand, life guards and not crowded at all – and the water was a balmy 68 degrees (brr) but there were a lot of brave souls in there!

When we got home, we had time for a nap, then Wendy and Wayne picked us up and we went to Dark Horse Brewery.  They make LOTS of different beers, and I tried a raspberry ale – it was very nice!  They have fantastic sandwiches, and they make their own ‘spelt’ and ‘pretzel’ rolls – oh man, talk about wonderful!  Very dense, salty & sweet, perfect for the bacon, lettuce, tomato, beef & turkey I had…sorry, did not take any pictures L

Wednesday was our last day in Charlotte, so I went off to get a pedicure & manicure, since the weather has been so hot my feet really took a beating in my ‘flops’…went back to the MH and we had a bite of lunch, napped and then waited for 5 o’clock and our last supper with Wendy N Wayne.  We met them at Eaton Pub & Grille, and once again had a fabulous meal!  Goodbyes are the hardest part of this lifestyle – but then again, if we didn’t live this wonderful lifestyle we most likely would not have been able to visit with them in the first place! 

We got up this morning and got ready to head down the road to Elkhart, IN, the RV Capitol of the US…and wouldn’t you know it, the darned steps would not retract…grrr.  After doing everything we knew how to do, we just headed down the road. 

For those of you that wonder about this type of life, we have a ‘list’ of stuff to get done while here:

a tree limb came out and swatted our cover over the bathroom fan yesterday L

the door does not work right (doesn’t want to open/close),

the step went out yesterday and won’t retract today,

the 30 amp breaker probably needs to be replaced,

the two cockpit windows need to be taken out, cleaned, caulked and replaced – in a rainstorm they leak like crazy

We need to get a front end alignment….

We are at Elkhart Campground and paid for a week $175 ouch! – the place next door said they would do all the work – they’ll call us tomorrow and let us know when to bring in the coach.  We will get an estimate before they do all the work, and since they don’t do the alignment, we’ll get it scheduled for a day they won’t have the coach.  Biggest problem now is what to do with Cinder while they are working on it – too hot to let her in the car, and since she likes to ‘taste’ the servicemen, that would not be good!  We’ll figure something out! 

Tomorrow we’ll…aw, I’ll tell you about it after we do it!