Some Background

We want to start this post by saying, 

we hope everyone 
who reads this had a

Very Special Christmas!

When Tom and I got married back in December of 1969 one of things we had not discussed about our life ahead was camping. Growing up my parents had a rustic cabin on the lake, (Pump for water, gas lights, and outhouse), but it was a log cabin and we slept on beds. The only time I had ever slept on the ground in a tent was a couple of nights at Girl Scout camp and out in our back yard as a young child. Tom on the other hand had camped in a tent many, many times and was anxious to take me out on this adventure. 

Our equipment was mostly what he had used over the years and to this we added a sleeping bag, tent, and a small grill. Memorial Weekend 1971 was our first adventure. When we left the sun was shining and by the time we arrived at Corner Lake, a Hiawatha National Forest Campground, it was raining. Since, the campground was filled I suggested we turn around and go home. He said just wait a site will open up. Sure enough more then one group of campers packed up and left, after all as I mentioned it was raining. So we set up the tent, which is where the cat and I spent most of the next two rainy days, in what Tom called a prime lake site. Then on the third day the sun came out and that night Tom built a campfire. As we sat there on the ground looking up through the trees at the inky black sky filled with twinkling stars I was hooked.  Over the next several years we spent many nights sleeping in that tent. We explored most of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, visited the Black Hills of South Dakota, and saw Niagara Falls. 

Then we moved up to a pop-up camper and we no longer were sleeping on the ground. We visited Toronto, Montreal, and Lake Placid with the pop-up following us. We also spent more then one Oktoberfest in the Door Peninsula, one of our favorite destinations. 

Then for a few years we did very little camping and with the arrival of our son we went back to tenting, only now with an air mattress. Then our daughter arrived and we used our tent to take them out to the Black Hills.

The next step was a travel trailer that had belonged to my parents. They could no longer use it for health reasons and we purchased it. Not only were we no longer sleeping on the ground but we had running warm water and a bathroom. That travel trailer took us into Ontario where we visited the Shrine of the Martyrs, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and a few other places I cannot remember the names of. It also took us to Yogi Bear Parks, which our children loved, and camping in the UP. Then our children became more and more involved in school and summer activities and camping went by the wayside.

Many times over the years we had the...when we retire talk...and those talks always were about traveling in a motor home and seeing this great country of ours.  As the time came to fulfill that dream we decided maybe a 5th wheel would be a better choice and soon after Tom retired we made the purchase. A 36-foot Crusader Prime Time 5th wheel and a three-quarter ton Chevrolet Silverado to tow it. We became snowbirds in 2014 and fell in love with the lifestyle. We loved our Crusader but after two years of snowbirding we knew our original plan of a motor home would have been a better choice for the way we like to travel.

That brings us to our next post. 

"If nothing ever changed, 

there'd be no butterfllies."

~unknown