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By Katrina Kane, on September 3rd, 2007 Like many RVers, I have a map on my door with little stickon states to add as I go through them. The basic rule is you must spend one night in a state or spend a day as a tourist. Of course, this is on the honor system and people can and do make their own rules on when a state can be added.
With this in mind, I decided to make a small detour to spend a week in lower Michigan just so I could add it to my map. As usual, a small detour became a big detour. I found a lovely campground in Monroe, Michigan near Lake Erie. Camp Lord Willing has very friendly staff and owners, solid excellent Wifi, a swimming pond, quaint lighted bridges over the canal that surrounds the campground, and ducks, lots and lots of ducks. The canal and pond are stocked so lots of people were fishing right in their camp spot. You can throw your own boat out there if you wish for fun. Campfires are plentiful as well as nice people to share them with.
   
 
The laundry room was very inexpensive and clean and next to the showers. The showers are amazing in design and cleanliness. They are all tile with a separate large room for each one that includes toilet, sink, lots of hooks, and a walk-in shower with no curb to step over; just walk around the wall. Best showers I have ever seen. It is pretty hard to get me NOT to use the wonderful shower in my trailer but they seduced me into using theirs.
For Labor Day, they had a potluck under the pavilion with a live band. I cooked for the first time for one of these and found my green bean casserole quickly gone. Woohoo! 🙂
I was having a great time in camp as it was but then I found out they are not only super close to Lake Erie and Sterling State Park, but are also within 35 miles of the 2nd best museum in the country, The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village. 1 week quickly turned into 2 weeks and a whirlwind of activity.
To be continued… muwahaha!
By Katrina Kane, on August 21st, 2007 Not a lot of fun here this week. I traveled more of America’s crumbling infrastructure (I80) across Illinois to Elkhart, IN. The toll road cost me $8.70 and was as bumpity bumpy as the other roads.
I stayed at the Elkhart Camprgound this week. Tad more expensive than what I am used to but very nice with lots of grass and trees, excellent swimming pool, a laundry room that is more like a full-size commercial laundromat including the soda pop machine and magazines, long pull-through sites, volleyball, miniature golf, basketball, decent WIFI, and very nice, helpful owners of Indian (as in India) descent. There seems to be a large Indian population here and many of them own businesses. They were very good to me and have many full-timers who return over and over. I can see why with their excellent customer service and close location to an equally excellent RV repair facility and the RV Hall of Fame.
I pulled in here because my RV needed the front skin repaired That bumpy road out there shook the staples right out of it. What better place than the place where 50% of RVs are made? Lots of others in the campground appear to have come for the same reason. A little asking around the campground and I found Chargers on CR6 which is also in the Good Sam book. They were able to fit me into their schedule quickly and the repair looks pretty good and solid.
Chargers also discovered my battery holder on the front was not secured so they screwed that down, changed my battery cover straps, caulked the back window and roof rack to hopefully stop a leak that just started behind my bed last night, and changed the end plug on my main power cable which was looking pretty bad and I had already purchased the new end for at Walmart. The new end has a handle built in for easier pull out and good solid strain relief. Good people and great service. I highly recommend them. $380 bucks later and I’m ready to hit the road again. 🙂
Continue reading Elkhart, IN
By Katrina Kane, on August 10th, 2007 Time for a station break to report more of what I have learned as a full-time RVer.
First, the dang cat is upset about being ignored  and upstaged by George so here she is in all her glory again.
 
Cat mollified.
More of what I have learned:
1. Just because a campground says they have wifi, does not mean it reaches the whole park or is particularly strong.
2. Wifi may mean satellite provided which is slower but useable or may mean DSL or better which is faster. If you work over the Internet, it matters and you must ask, though RV park personnel rarely know what you are talking about or what they have.
3. During the cooler months you can go a long time between tank dumps. Really hot weather though makes it real stinky real fast so you need to dump once a week.
4. Disconnect your towing chains before pulling the car out from under the hitch. Don’t ask…
5. Keep lots of fuses for the power hitch jack on board.
6. If you have South Dakota plates on your car and RV, everyone knows you are a full-timer.
Continue reading More tips for the RVer
By Katrina Kane, on August 10th, 2007 Next stop, Kieler Wisconsin. Why you might ask? Because it is right next to the Iowa state line and as close to Dyersville as I could get to go to the Field of Dreams and still have wifi for my work. In Kieler, I am staying at the Rustic Barn Campground. No sewer hookup here but strong wifi, excellent showers, lovely countryside views of surrounding farms complete with cows and corn, very nice owner, quiet with no trains or freeway noise for a change, good store and laundry, very nice “loafing” room in the barn and front porch with rocking chairs and chair swing. Lots of trees here and many cement patios though I chose a sunnier site for my satellite TV reception. Giving me directions in the first 5 minutes on what to do in case of tornado did make me a little nervous. Give me a good old fashioned earthquake instead anytime!
  
I went through Dubuque to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville yesterday. You have to have some clue where it is and watch closely for the signs since the owners do not want to commercialize it with big gaudy signs. First thing I did was buy a baseball to play with (they don’t supply equipment or organize anything for insurance reasons). I sat on the bleachers and watched fathers having a catch with sons and daughters or pitching to their little sluggers. Lots of giddy people, including myself, went out into the corn in the outfield to meditate which isn’t easy when a group of kids start talking about the movie, “Children of the Corn”. LOL.
   
Continue reading Field of Dreams – Heaven (aka Dyersville, Iowa)
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