4 October 2023 Claremore OK to Mansfield TX

 When we got up in the morning, we rushed to get the Wanderer ready for the road. We have a 380 mile drive ahead of us with storms moving in from the west. So, it was going to be a race to Oklahoma City. While checking under the Wanderer for any damage from the blown tire, David noticed the tire forward from the tire that blew had chunks missing from the tread. There was no way we were hitting the highway with that tire. A frustrating half hour of calling around trying to find someone who carried the specific tire, we finally located a Goodyear dealer in Tulsa. After checking in with the KOA office, we got the Wanderer all packed up, tilted it and pulled the bad tire, put it in the back of the Behemoth along with the blown tire and headed for Tulsa. We got two new tires ($990) and rushed back to the Wanderer. Mounted the new tire, aired up the spare, and hooked up. We pulled out of the KOA just after noon and headed for Oklahoma City. The storms were moving in fast from the west, but we made it through Oklahoma City before the really bad storms hit. We raced down I-35 to stay ahead of the storms. We caught some rain showers and heavy winds but stayed ahead of the really bad stuff. We crossed the Red River and breathed a sigh of relief to be back in Texas. After a short stop at Buc-ees to get fuel (Under $4.00 per gallon ($3.88) for the first time since March!) and BBQ sandwiches for dinner we continued on. We pulled into the Texas RV Ranch ($42 per night, no discount) after dark and after the office was closed. But our late arrival package was waiting for us and we pulled into our site, disconnected the Wanderer and did a quick set up. Thirty minutes later the heavy storms hit. A possible tornado occurred about 5 miles east of us. A little hail, lots of wind and rain. But we were happy to have finally made it. 

Welcome back to Texas

Texan RV Site

3 October 2023 St. Charles MO to Claremore OK

 We headed out early, not looking forward to the 377 miles to Claremore. The roads in Missouri were good. At the Oklahoma border, I-44 turns into a toll road. We stopped at the first service center to get some fuel and stretch our legs. While doing our walk around, Leslie pointed at one of the tires on the passenger side and asked if it was ok. There were a few flat spots on the tire from the scrubbing in turns, but nothing extreme. So, we headed on down the road. We were about a mile and a half from our exit from the toll road when there was a loud KBANG. David quickly checked the mirrors and kicked out the cruise control. He could see pieces of rubber flying out behind us. We had obviously blown a tire. The trailer was handling normally, so we decided to continue to the exit so we could pull over away from the 75mph traffic. Sure enough, the tire Leslie had pointed out had blown (she jinxed it). The other two tires on that side were handling the load. We called the Good Sam club to get roadside assistance to come help changing the tire. While on the phone with them, we decided to exit to a gas station at the end of the ramp so we could be out of traffic. GSC sent a roadside support contractor to help us change the tire, but it took him an hour to get to us. We have a full-size spare, so it was just a matter of using the trailer levels to tilt the trailer up so we could pull the tire and put the spare on. Then we continued on to the East Claremore KOA ($42.50 with KOA Discount) only to arrive after dark and 5 minutes after the office closed. We were surprised to find that there was not an after-hours arrival package. With no one to talk to, we decided to grab and open pull through and get with the office in the morning. The travel gods had caught up with us today. 

Entering Oklahoma along I-44/Route 66

Shredded tire

Blown tire

Chunks missing

More chunks missing

2 October 2023 Visiting with friends

 We took the opportunity to sleep in late and rest up for what will be a rough couple of days on the road. Our friends Janette and Jerry rearranged their plans to meet us for dinner so we could catch up since our last visit here in 2020. . It had been almost three years since we last came through St. Louis so we had a lot to catch up on. One of the best parts of our life style is reconnecting with friends while we are on the road.

 

1 October 2023 East Charleston OH to St. Charles MO

 This was the longest drive of the year. Four states, 394 miles in 7.5 hours (3 stops to get out and walk around). We hopped on I-70 west and just drove west. I-70 in Indiana was in horrible shape and we got beaten to near death! The road was fine in Ohio and Illinois, but crazy bad in Indiana. We pulled into St. Charles at 5pm. We are staying at the Sundermeier RV Park ($55 per night with GSC). We stayed here a couple of years ago and liked it. We're only here two nights and then have a long drive to Tulsa. 

26 - 30 September 2023 Jason and Michelle’s wedding

 The first several days we did what we could to help Michelle and Jason prepare their house for the wedding. We took them out to the Pine Club on Tuesday night for an AWESOME steak dinner. David was promoted to be Jason’s best man after Jason’s sons had to back out for reasons still unclear. So, he went to get fitted for his outfit along with Jason and Michelle’s son in law. We had a chance to get to know Michelle, her mom (Mena), two daughters (Maya and Erika) and her son-in-law (Adrian).We pitched in where we could and stayed out of the way when needed. Saturday morning we learned that Jason's father, Rod, would be able to attend the wedding. He had to have supplemental oxygen but otherwise was able to get around. For all the problems, the wedding came together just fine and Jason and Michelle had a wonderful ceremony. We were so happy we could attend and support them!

Late in the week, we learned we had to cancel our plans to attend the New Horizon Ambassador’s week and reroute to DFW as quickly as possible to make a 5 October appointment. 

Jason and his Dad

Michelle starting down the aisle

The wedding party

Michelle and her daughters Mia (on left) and Erika (On right)

The cake/cupcakes

Jason and Michelle with his dad Rod and her mom Lena

25 September 2023 East Sparta to East Charleston Ohio

 We reluctantly hit the road for East Charleston. We are staying at the Tomorrow Stars RV Resort ($67 per night, no discount) near Springfield Ohio. We're here for our nephew, Jason, wedding on the 30^th. Since we came into Canton on US30 and experienced how beat up the road was, we decided to take the slightly longer route down I-77 to I-70 and I-70 across to South Charleston. We stayed at this RV Resort a couple of years ago, so we knew our way around the area. It's an easy on/off to the interstate and only a 20 minute drive into Dayton. The resort is featuring Halloween Nights so many of the sites were decorated for Halloween!

Tomorrows Stars RV Park Site

Spooky stuff in the RV Park

9-24 September 2023 Ohio Family Visit

 We spent as much time as possible with Veronica. We went over to the house to see it all cleaned up and ready to hit the market now that the auction is complete. We stopped by and picked up the auction items that we had bought. We took Veronica out to eat as much as we could stand since she has lost too much weight because she does not like the food at the retirement home. During the two weeks we ran down to Bergholz twice to visit with Aunt Joyce and once down to visit Veronica’s sister Katy. Joyce is looking very good. We took the opportunity to go up to the cemetery to put flowers on family graves. Katy looks great and is very active. We got to visit several times with Cousin Amy. One day we drove up to Hartsville to meet up with the jeweler that Leslie was having modify some jewelry she bought in Veronica’s auction. We were surprised to find that there was a festival going on as well, so we took the time to walk around the festival and the market area of Hartsville. The Goodyear blimp even flew overhead!. We took Veronica and Cheryl to Veronica’s Favorite restaurant (Twisted Olive) for a final dinner. We managed to exhaust everyone in two weeks in Canton, including ourselves. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone.

Amy and Veronica

Gotcha Aunt Jo!

The old apple tree in Bergholz

8 September 2023 Archbold to East Sparta OH

 We decided to take the route less traveled and took state highways down through Defiance, Ottawa and Cairo to US30. We have traveled US30 in so many states and have visited the easter and western most ends of the Lincoln Highway and much of the parts in between. We picked up US30 at Cairo and took it east to Canton. We are staying at our favorite RV park in this area, the East Sparta Beer Creek KOA ($98 per night with KOA discount). This time we got one of the pull through deluxe sites with a nice patio. But more importantly, it’s not on the side of the hill that has given us so many problems before. We're here to visit with family as much as possible. 

East Sparta KOA Site

5 September 2023 Mackinaw City MI to Archbold OH

 We followed the same route we took in 2018 but did not see the low bridge that gave us such a scare that time. We are staying at the Sauder Village RV Park ($40 per night) where we have stayed several times before. There only FHU sites are back ins which are a bit narrow. It would be nice if they would upgrade their pull throughs to FHUs. The campground is mostly open since the Village is closed for the season. 

Sauder Village Site

4 September 2023 World Famous Mighty Mack Walk

 When we checked in to the RV Park, they asked if we were here for the bridge walk. We had heard of the Mackinac Bridge Walk from our previous visit to the area in 2018 but had not thought about it when arranging our itinerary for this year. By pure chance, we are here for the walk. They started the bridge walk in 1959. In 2018 they changed the format and no longer offered transportation back from the other end of the bridge for free. We checked into options for walking the entire bridge then getting a ferry back, but it was an expensive option. We got up early and took a shuttle ($5 per person each way) from the RV Park to downtown Mackinaw City. The shuttle dropped us off a half mile from the start of the bridge walk. It is a beautiful morning, cool and sunny with just a light breeze. We arrived just before 8am. They were just starting to allow walkers on to the bridge (after the runners had cleared the west side of the bridge) when we arrived at the starting area. There were a lot of folks doing this walk. There were generational families that had done the walk for decades as a family, babies in strollers, elderly folks with walkers or wheel chairs, kids in wagons, dogs, etc.  It was an interesting mix. They kept trying to keep the crowd in one lane, but it kept pushing into the second lane. As we got onto the section of the bridge that was suspended, we could feel the bridge swaying under our feet from the thousands of people walking in sync. By the time we got toward the center of the suspension bridge, the swaying was much more pronounced. Our walking became almost a staggering from the swaying. Folks were stumbling and falling. The engineer in David was getting a bit worried by the amount of sway. We definitely did not feel any swaying when driving across it. We turned around at the halfway point and staggered back toward land. We decided this was good practice for the cruise next year! We finished up about 10am, crossing the finish line and collecting our certificates. We really started to feel it as we walked the half mile back to the shuttle. We walked almost 6 miles in two hours and 15 minutes and burned 1186 calories. We can now say we have walked the Mighty Mack!

Heading out

Getting on the bridge

Approaching the first pillar

Approaching the halfway point

Looking through the grates to Lake Superior

Heading Back to the first pillar

heading down hill!

The finish line!

1 September 2023 Michigan Wine Tasting

 We made the last of the RV Park Reservations for New Zealand next year and firmed up our plans for the fall of this year. We then found a winery in downtown Mackinaw City that featured wines from Mackinac Island Winery. Michigan is the 23rd state we have tasted local wines in. After sampling the few dry wines that they featured, we ended up getting glasses of beer to follow up. The beers were better than the wines.

29 August 2023 Ontonagon to Mackinaw City

 The drive across the Upper Peninsula (284 miles) put us on two lane roads the majority of the time. We drove across the Mackinaw Bridge for the second time. The first time back in 2018, we had to stay on the inside lane where the metal grid road surface kept grabbing and the Wanderer’s tires and shifting it around making for a scary drive. This time, we were able to stay in the outside paved lane, but the winds were high, so we had to keep our speed at 25mph. But it was a lot less scary this time. We are staying at the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground ($94.16 per night). While checking in, they asked if we were there for the Mackinaw Bridge Walk. We had heard of the bridge walk before, but had not associated it with the Labor Day weekend. So, we may do the walk just for the experience. Our site is a large back in site that we had no trouble backing into (it wasn’t until the next day that we noticed we had backed into the wrong site, but they moved things around so we could stay in the site we backed into). This is a huge RV park on the Lake Huron Shoreline. Our primary reason to stay here is to get through the holiday weekend.

23-27 August 2023 Isle Royale National Park

 Our final park in the lower 48 States to visit for the first time, Isle Royale National Park, seemed like a distant dream 6 years ago. We have been looking forward to this excursion all year. We left the Wanderer parked in Ontonagon and drove up to Copper Harbor, near the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, the day before our ferry ride. The trip started out on a fun note. When we punched in the address for the motel in Copper Harbor, the Behemoths navigation system gave us some route options. We chose a route that looked like it would keep us near the coast for possible views of the lake. About ten miles into the route, the road turned into a gravel road, then into dirt roads, and finally it tried to take us down an over grown logging road! So we reprogrammed it to get us to the nearest pavement! The route went down to a couple of ruts before it finally ran into a larger dirt road. We came up behind another vehicle which was slowly muzzling along the dirt road for a few miles with nowhere to pass. We followed along and it eventually pulled off to the side to let us pass which is when we found out it was a game warden on patrol! Were sure she was wondering why these crazy Texans were on these back country dirt roads in Michigan! We pulled into Copper Harbor about 5Pm. We stayed at the Minnetonka Resort. We don’t think the “resort” has been renovated since the 1960s. We had dinner at the Harbor Haus, which bills itself as a German Restaurant. It did not live up to its reputation, but did have beautiful views of the lake. Next morning, we were up early to park the Behemoth and board the Isle Royale Queen 4 for the ride out to the Island. We were both tired as the bed and pillows were very uncomfortable. One reason why we wanted to have our RV was we did not want to drive around the country and stay in hotels because hotel beds SUCK!

The cruise over was a long 3.5 hours and we were in fog and mist almost all the way across. We lost cell phone signals about an hour into the cruise and did not get them back until an hour out on the way back. We arrived at Rock Harbor around 11:30. The hotel picked up our bag at the boat and took it up to the hotel (and later to our room). We were lucky, and our room was ready when we checked in. After dropping our packs, we stepped out on the deck behind our room to find a gorgeous view of the lake and islands (we would spend many hours sitting on the deck and taking in that view!). We headed back to the front office to see if the line for check ins had finally gone down so we could check on booking boat tours. We were in luck and they were ready to book tours. So, we booked the boat tour for that afternoon out to Rock Harbor Light House and a Sunset Cruise for the next day ($31 per person for each). We then headed over to check out the dining options. There are two restaurants on the island, both run by Aramark. One is the Lighthouse Restaurant and Greenstone Grill. The Lighthouse is only open for breakfast and dinner. So, we ate lunch at the Greenstone Grill. The food was very bland which set the tone for dining during our stay, subpar. We went back to the room and changed before heading for The Sandy, our tour boat. While we waited to board the Sandy, a black fox with a white tipped tail darted out of the woods and ran down the trail before disappearing into the woods on the other side of the restaurants. Captain Joe and his first mate Chris, took us down Rock Harbor to the Edisen Fishery. There we docked and were met by a Park Volunteer who told us about the fishery and explained our hiking options. We first headed up to the Rock Harbor Lighthouse. The Lighthouse was built in 1855 to guided copper ore ships. The light was extinguished in 1859 after the copper mines on the isles closed.  Then relite in 1874 when copper prices went up and the mines on the islands reopened. Just to be shut down again in 1879, never to be relite. After the Lighthouse tour, we went over to the headquarters of the Wolf and Moose Research Study since 1960. There we met the two researchers, now in their 70s, that have been coming out to this remote camp every summer since 1960 to study the interaction and health of the moose (over 900 on the islands) and wolves (between 30 and 40) populations of the islands. There are over 400 islands (not including rock isles) in Isle Royal National Park. It was fun to talk with the two researchers, the Petersons, and learn about the moose and wolfs. We then went back to the fishery to explore the buildings and talk with the park Volunteer. She and her husband have been volunteering at this remote location every summer for the past 13 years. From late May to late September, they take care of the fishery and greet guests. We then hooped on the slow boat back to the lodge as clouds and fog moved back in. Our second day on the islands, we woke to drizzle and fog. Not wanting to risk slipping on wet rocks or getting drenched, we hung out on our deck and enjoyed the view. Later in the morning, the clouds cleared out and the sun came out. We thought about going for a hike, but decided to go to the Ranger station after lunch. We checked on the weather and saw there was an increased chance of rain, so we got our passport stamp, bought our park cup, hat, and post cards before heading back to our room. Sure enough, the clouds rolled in and the island got drenched by heavy down pours for a couple of hours, then again cleared out. It looked promising for our sunset tour. The island runs Northeast to Southwest, so to see the sunset, we have to go out around the furthest point to the Northeast to be able to see west and the sunset over Canada. As the Sandy slowly chugged out of the harbor and to the point, we could see clouds building to the north and west. When we came around the point, the waves picked up and we could see the rain and clouds on the western horizon. Captain Joe hung around as long as he could, but the clouds to the west toward Sleeping Giant Mountain in Canada did not break up, so we would not get to see the sunset. Meantime a wall cloud headed toward us out of the north so Captain joe headed us back to the lodge with fog and rain chasing us the whole way. We managed to get back to our room before the skies opened up. As we were pulling up to the dock, First Mate Chris was warning everyone to watch out for moose as they liked to walk the trails between buildings and campsites at night. Saturday the sun was out and the temperatures were in the 60s. Perfect for our hike out to Scoville Point via Stoll trail (5 Miles, 187 feet of elevation gain, 1608 calories burned). We had seen the point from the Sandy when we went out on the sunset cruise and were happy to see it from land. The trail broke out of the trees frequently on the Rock Harbor side leaving nice views of the islands and lake. The trail back along the Tobin Harbor side was back in the forest so we did not get to see a lot. But we kept our eyes open for Moose! The next morning, we packed our bag for the bell hop to pick up and headed out on Tobin Harbor Trail (we made a slight detour to the Sea Plane harbor). We only hiked 3.2 miles (177 feet of elevation gain, 987 calories burned) of the trail to be back in plenty of time to catch the ferry. We ran into one lady who said she saw a wolf dart off the trail in front of her. We only saw a few squirrels. The tour boat ride back was long and boring. We arrived back at Copper Harbor, loaded up the Behemoth and headed back to the Wanderer (100 mile drive). Along the way, we stopped at a McDonalds to pick up some dinner, which turned out to be the best meal of the trip! Our only regret was that we did not get to see a moose. You would think with over 900 of the things on a contained island, we would have seen at least one! But everyone we talked to said the same thing, none of them had seen a moose. Talking with folks in the restaurants, boats and tours, there were a lot of couples about our age that were in the high 50s or just at 60 national parks visited. This was our 57^th. 

Isle Royal Entrance Sign at Rock Harbor

Isle Royal Queen IV

View from our deck

Rock Harbor

Black Fox

Moose Antler Collection at Research Station

Rock Harbor Lighthouse

Sunset Cruise

Sunset at Rock Harbor

Almost back to the mainland