Everything is ok now!

We were able to get out nice and early as we had planned. Had a nice drive all the way up into Canada and no trouble crossing the boarder. We did have an incident early, we stopped at the rest area in Owego to tighten the car shield and discovered that we had run over a piece of steel and it had kicked up into one of the outside compartment doors going through the gasket and tearing the insulation inside. Fortunately there is no visible outside damage.

That was apparently an omen. When we turned on the heat pump at our first camp ground in Ontario, Canada, it sounded like a garbage disposal with a spoon in it. Turned it off and used the propane heater. We decided to wait until we crossed the boarder back into the US before calling for help to get it repaired.

Crossing the border back into the US was no problem again. A few questions, the guard had a sense of humor, and on we went.

We made a call to Coach Net, like AAA, and started the process to find someone to check the heat pump. It seems that many of the RV repair places are gearing up for the start of the season, and weren't interested in repairing anything. "Maybe in a week or so" The two agents in CoachNet really worked hard to find a place. They finally found a person in Manton, MI. So we headed to Cadillac, MI for the night.

However,,,,,, before we could stop for the night, other things started going wrong. First, something on the dashboard blew a fuse, and we lost the radio, communications with the breaking system in the car and the Garmin. Then with a loud beeping, the Jack Indicator lightwent off, telling us that a jack was down! Yes, at that point, we were wondering why we were doing this! Jim messed around with the jack, gave it some time, and it was okay. Then he found a fuse that looked bad, so that problems were on their way to being solved.

We got up early the next morning, and found the RV repair place. A little town, and the RV repair was also a refigerator repair and feed store. But the mechanic knew what he was doing, and with a stop at WalMart for fuses, we were on the road within a couple of hours.

We decided to come to Travers City, (Cherry City) and stop there for two nights. We needed a break!

There is a peninsula that sticks out into Grand Traverse Bay called Old Mission. Very pretty. There were groves of cherry trees in bloom. Even though it was overcast, it was still pretty. And guess what! The climate is also great for vineyards! Who knew! And of course we were able to squeeze in two stops for wine tasting. Pretty good stuff.

On Thursday, we headed out to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It is very impressive, a combination of sandy, windswept dunes, and woodlands. We did the scenic loop, two of the hikes, and climbed a Dune. It reminded us of France!

In the woods, the spring flowers are in bloom. The Trillium are huge, and in places, cover the forest floor. We stopped at one spot on a climb to the top of the trail because a young lady was taking a picture of a bird. Jim got some good pictures of it too. Seemed to be posing with it's best side!

Today we are off to the Mackinac Bridge, and are going to visit Mackinac Island tomorrow. Then it will be a big push to get to Montana in the middle of next week. (Aarrgghhh!)

Jim and Sue

Note: We are still trying to figure out how to place pictures.