Tana on the road, Van Buren State Park, Michigan

Yesterday AM marked the end of our stay in Elkhart Indiana. It was a good week, weather was sunny, dry, bordering on hot, wonderful. Tana got her Spendide fixed, and Moi did a LOT of laundry testing the fix. But, it was time to move on, packed up in 85 plus degree heat, one thermometer read 92 when we pulled out. Headed north on 19, and in minutes we were back in Michigan on the way to Van Buren State Park, Michigan.

This is a new park to us, Man picked the largest campsite available, and we even have 50 AMP. Site is plenty wide, is sorta flat, but there is this trench where rain water has dug in. Thankfully the trench is off to the side of site, we can park Big Butt there, and Tana fits nice right down the middle. Man did a spectacular job of moving Tana to her parking spot, nailed it the first time!

We wandered down to Lake Michigan beach here, got one photo before it started to rain.


This AM campers on both sides and behind us left, it is like we are here alone, am I in heaven? I made a big breakfast, we booked back to back RV Rallies, I spent some time catching up with the WO's via email, Man is taking a nap with the yorks on the futon. Not hard to take. This is the view out my desk window.


We are here till Friday AM, do believe I will find it hard to do any family research while I am here, unless it rains, which is ok, with that view out my rear view window. (Hope no one has booked into the site right behind us. There are much better sites, so - - - - - - - - )

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American Countryside Farmers Market, revisited

Well, Man and I could not help ourselves, we had to have a revisit to the American Countryside Farmers Market . This time we took photos!

Man huggin one of those huge timbers, this one looks larger than 16" by 16", doesn't it??


A view of the inside:


The pegs:


Spotted on upper level, finial, look at the craftsmanship.

*Sadly, this market has now closed.

Tana delights - - Another great eatery & friends to enjoy it with

Want to thank Nick over at Nick's Blog, for a great referral for a local eatery. I have just started following Nick and reading his RV blog, and in the first 36 hours he provided information that delighted Man, Moi and friends. (So happens that Nick and his Miss Terry are currently parked in same campground as Man and Moi.)

Last night, WO friends Mark and Karen ended up just a few miles away and on the spur of the moment we decided to have dinner. I had just read Nick's blog discussing Heinnies Back Barn.  (October 2018, update, link no longer functions.) I clicked on the link provided, had a lookie see, suggested same to M & K, and the plan was set.

We called ahead, left our name, reduced our wait from 45 minutes to about 20. Waitress was great, she had a great sense of humor. Always appreciated. Response time to a few "extra" requests was good, also always appreciated.

Food was great. I had chili cheeseburger. MMMMM, good. Man thought the fries were a bit greasy, but we still ate them! They had a chocolate something or other cheesecake last night for desert. Man and Moi shared. OOO, my. M & K also shared same, they enjoyed it as well.

Our total bill for Man & Moi last night, with burgers, "to die for" desert and 3 beers was under $30.00.

Thanks Nick for the lead. Thanks Mark & Karen for dropping by. A nice evening with good friends and good food.

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Travel delights, 2 eateries, one destination stop

We tend to eat out a bit more when we travel, especially when we are at Rallys and with friends. It is one of our delights, discovering new, charming, and wonderful places to feast. Here are two that Moi missed discussing when we visited them.

1.) Preseau Family Fish Market, on the north side of Cheybogan Michigan. Some of us would describe this as a hole in the wall. It was brightly painted on the outside, and humble on the inside. They sold pasties (infamous all round northern Michigan) and fish dinners. We chose to dine in. Man had whitefish, I went for the yellow lake perch. Sides were good, fish was very good, served up in no time at all. Yes, we would go back!

2.) Darrow's Family Restaurant, Mackinaw Michigan. Much larger operation, lines outside, worth the wait. Believe Man had the whitefish again, and, yes, I had the perch. I would not have believed it could be better than Preseau, but, it was. Oh, my! Deserts were great too. Yes, we would go back!

Now for what I am gonna call a destination stop. American Countryside Farmers Market, Elkhart, Indiana. We visited yesterday and had a very pleasant afternoon of it. They have several mini restaurants, good eats. Had our lunch there. (May I suggest you sample the apple fritters, made fresh while you wait, served hot.)

Then we started the shopping and wandering. Vendors were pleasant to visit with, a great variety of goods to be previewed. Meats, candy, bakery, rugs, furniture, candles, fresh vegies and more. I found sugar free caramel liquid to add to my coffee, me thinks with a extra bit of hot milk, I can emulate, but not duplicate a latte. I am gonna try! Man got some homegrown tomatos, a mellon (so yummy, had for breakfast) and some tangerines. Easy to get to, LOADS of parking (even parking for RV's) and spectacular barn (largest woodpeg barn in the world, 3 stories, longer than football field, some of the largest timbers - from Idaho - are 16" by 16" and over 40 FOOT long - WOW), we enjoyed our visit and look forward to visits in the future.

* American Countryside no longer has a web site, and believe it has gone out of business. October 2018

Tana on the road, Mukwanago Wisconsin to Elkhart Indiana

OK, if you Facebook, you might recognize some of this blog. As we were running from Mukwanago to Elkhart, I was Facebooking (is that a word??). As I thought about writing this blog, I decided that I liked the Facebook stuff, so, would transfer here. OKKK, too lazy to write it again! So, thanks to Facebook, here are some of my posts from yesterday:

1. Pray for us, we are going to go round Chicago on the 90/94, something we said we would avoid, I hate saying NEVER, cause it comes back to bite ya!. SIGHHHHH

2. I 90 round Chicago, TOLL road, booo hooo, and it is NOT smooth riding. Pay to bounce, hmmmmm, something wrong with that???

3. Oh, crap, just ran a toll booth, stupid signage, we are not gonna get off where it says I 80 to Iowa. DUHHHH. Signage counts people!!

4. Well, I 80 in Indiana is 5 lanes, and heavy traffic and we go fast and slow and fast and slow. Big Butt is getting nervous about all the almost cut offs/hits. Geeesh people, ya could allow a few more feet before you pull into our lane.

5. They are NOT done with I 80, and traffic is heavy, still moving, sometimes very slow, but moving. Last trip this route took us 4 hours, so far this time, 2 hours 10 minutes. Last trip sat for long stretches of time and did not move. This is better. Somewhat.

6. Jumped on I 94 for a few miles, then will skip back to I 80. 94 is smooth here!

7. Just got a call from Sharon & Dennis, they are RIGHT behind us!!

End of Facebook entries.

After re-reading the entries, even I remember why we avoided going around Chicago with Big Butt and Tana for so many years. LOL

Sharon & Dennis were at Mukwanago with us, left a bit after us, drove same route, cept they went right thru downtown Chicago, past Wrigley Field. Dennis said, yes, indeedy, they were playing a game!

Arrived Elkhart, Sharon and Dennis are parked right beside us, the Rally continues??

My cell phone was stuck on Central time for over 18 hours since arrival here. OKKKK, maybe my cell phone wanted to go to Iowa??

*If you are wondering how I Facebook while running: Inverter plugged into cigarette lighter fixture in Big Butt, to run router. Router has air card inserted. 12 volt power cord (plugged into another cigarette lighter type fixture) to run the computer. Computer connects to the air card signal via wifi. Tada, and Moi is Facebooking. Ohh, air card does not fit the newer computer, that is why I must run the router too. Did you follow all that?? LOL

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