The Rest of Our Ride Back to Michigan

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Today started dark and grey with a cold wind. The young man who would be putting our valances up knocked on the door a little after 7:00AM. We were expecting him and had just finishing our second mug of coffee when he knocked. As he started working, we left to get out of his way, and decided on breakfast at the Dutch Village. Afterwards we stopped at a place that had RV Supplies. Tom wanted to check to see if he could buy an extra set of locking bolts that keep the Jeep hooked to the motorhome and he was successful. After one other stop we took a slow ride around the area before heading back to the Stinger "B". When we got there just before noon the young man was finished and we had seven new valances in place.

The way the horse looked my way in the top picture 
I was not sure if he approved of me taking his picture.

They have two water towers. 
Under the horse and buggy this one says: Embrace the pace.
Upper left: the Stinger "B" is waiting for us
at Wood Design RV Interiors.

We will be back here in July to have our Captain's Chairs recovered and that means we will be doing more exploring of this area and there will be more pictures...😎. For now we packed up, paid our bill, and pulled out of their driveway. After a brief stop at Showalter RV to have measurements taken to replace the gaskets around our two slides which we will also have taken care of in July we headed East.

Our new Valances.
They did a wonderful job matching the wood color.
I decided on one above the sink and I am glad I did.

Leaving Nappanee, IN we followed this Horse and Buggy
for a bit on US-6 heading East. The clouds are moving
and the blue sky is beautiful to see.

Sights along our route. US-6 is a two lane highway
that took us through rural America. 

We traveled this route last April after we left Nappanee
with estimates for the work we wanted done.

At some point this afternoon we crossed into Ohio and I missed the sign. Our day ended in the Walmart parking lot in Bryan, Ohio.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Leaving Bryan, Ohio tonight we will sleep in Michigan.

I again tried to get this building with the tower in a picture 
with not luck. The tower is in the upper left. 

It always make me a little nervous when I see these in the 
distance not looking like there is a very high clearance.
As we get closer they look higher.

It is a dreary grey day and 

and the front windshield is very dirty.

Yet the views do capture my attention.

It is hard to tell in the picture but this barn was blue.

Fayette Opera House.
From what I could find out they bring in different musical acts
and rent it our for special occasions. 

Tom saw this and by the time I focused this was what I captured.

"Baby" Trees

We passed by a lot of empty corn fields today. 

As I recall we saw some harvesting as we came
through in October.

Having just gone by the northwest corner of Toledo's traffic
we are now headed north on US-23.

We crossed into Michigan about 2:50PM and our stop for 
tonight is a RV parking area at Cabela's in Dundee, MI.
Tim Horton's for our Canadian friends 
and a flag across the highway.

After 201 days we parked where we were the night before
we left Michigan for our 8th Adventure.

Thursday, April 21, 2022

The day started with rain but soon the sky started to clear. Only 31 miles to our destination, the Wayne County Fairgrounds, so not a big rush this morning. 

Stepping out in the parking lot this is the sky surrounding us.
Beautiful big white fluffy clouds with blue sky.

Goodbye Cabela's; Thank you for your hospitality.

You know you are in Michigan when you start seeing
Bronner signs.

We are settled into our site which will be home for 11 nights as we spend time visiting with our son and his family. Lots of grandbaby hugs coming our way. 

We are glad you stopped by!

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.

Back in Michigan and Going Back in Time

We are Back in Michigan!

We went by this sign around 2:50 PM on Wednesday.

Going back in time to explain how we traveled from a rest area just west of Lebanon, MO. to here.

Thursday, April 14, 2022

This rest area was our planned stop for Wednesday, April 13th, then when the predicted weather for here and ahead turned bad it became our home for another night. On the road this morning under blue skies but with some wind. 

Upper left travel trailer stayed two nights, also.

We are headed east.
Lebanon has a lovely water tower with a bee on it.
Unfortunately, a spot on our windshield is covering it. 

Patsy, Chillin' with Patsy, takes pictures of special water towers
I think she has got me hooked...😉

There he is again! 
We have stopped for diesel and there in front of us is the Hurricane
truck. He has passed us everyday this past week.
Maybe there is more then one...😃

Bourbon, MO could not pass this water tower without a picture.

Passing by St. Clair, MO
Just off of I-44, behind the Von Weise Gear Company and the
St. Clair Die Cast Factory, are two water towers.
One has "HOT" painted in red letters,
and the other has "COLD" in blue lettering.

Eastern Red Bud and White Fringetree

I see a face. Do you? 
Hint: center of picture.

The Gateway Arch in the distance.

One last picture.

Then we went across the Mississippi and are 
officially back in the East.

We have left I-44 and are now on I-70.

We are definitely in the Midwest.

The cross was in Illinois and the flag was in Missouri somehow
they just seemed to go together. I did not see the semi with the
flag on it's trailer until I was going through the pictures.
What a nice surprise.

We ended today's ride in Effingham, IL at the Walmart in the truck parking area. I had called ahead and was told as long as it was for one night we could park there. The sign said different when Tom checked they said two hours. So I called the Flying J just down the road where we had dumped and topped off the diesel and she said no problem. So that is were we spent a quiet night on the opposite side of where the semi's park.

Friday, April 15, 2022

Leaving the Flying J in Effingham, IL we continue our trek East.

I was waiting for the Indiana Welcome sign; had already taken
the Welcome Center sign because by this point I though I had
missed it. Then there it was and by the time I focused what 
I got is in the upper right. 

Dogwoods in Indiana

Bottom left a perfect patch of green surrounding the home.

The one constant as we travel this country are these wonderful trucks delivering what we all need to survive. Today, I decided to take some pictures of some of them doing just that.

Second from the right on the bottom, there is the Hurricane
guy going West. I guessed we would not see him anymore 
and we did not..😞.

It is amazing just how many trucks there are moving goods of all kinds in this country. I also spotted Canadian ones and trucks that mentioned Mexico.  We are grateful for each and everyone of the drivers that drive these trucks to keep us supplied. Thank You!

After going around Indianapolis our route continued north on US-31. We ended our night in a parking lot of what used to be a Kmart in Plymouth, Indiana.

Saturday, April 16, 2022 

Today's ride would be a short one only about 20 miles to the Pla-Mor Campground in Bremen, IN. Today is their opening day of the season and we will spend Easter Weekend here.

We are now on US-6 heading East.

Somedays as the saying goes, are just like that. Today was not one of our best. We started by going down the wrong road for our site. Then the only way to turn back was to go through another site.  As you can see in the pictures below, making the turn out of that site to the road the back tires of the Stinger "B" ended up in soft grass and sunk into the mud. What is not in the picture is the Jeep still attached to the motorhome at a 90 degree angle. There was no way to back up or straighten the Jeep. Yes, it was a "fun" time for Tom but he managed to get the Jeep unhooked using a vice grip, then a hammer and screw driver, plus the help of  the owner of the campground. After that was accomplished the owner was able to tow the Stinger "B" back on solid ground and that is were we stayed for our two nights...lol. All is well that ends well as the saying goes. Plus, amazingly our locking bolts still worked after this "fun".  

Tom talking with the gentleman from
the motorhome a couple sites down from us. 

Middle picture the Stinger "B" is back on solid ground.
The owner filling in the mess we made.

After this I went and picked up a few groceries and lunch, while I was shopping I questioned why I was so hungry. It then dawned on me we had planned on eating when we got to the campground and it was now 3 o'clock and that had not happened. While I did this Tom got us set up for our stay. Just a small bump in the road and meeting people willing to help for just a thank you.

Easter Sunday,  April 17, 2022

Today started for us with Mass at St. Dominic Catholic Church in Bremen, Indiana.

Top picture: the altar is all decorated for Easter.
Bottom left: the Paschal Candle a new one is lit every year
at the Easter Vigil and then used during the Easter Season.
It is then used throughout the year for special occasions
such as baptisms and funeral.
Bottom right:  what is right of the altar.
Bottom middle: sign in front of church.

Bottom picture is the Historic Bremen Depot.

Where we decided to go for an Easter Buffet. They do not take
reservations. All I will say is they should. We waited two hours,
after a certain amount of time it does not make sense to leave.
In the end the the food was okay but not in anyway worth
the wait. Plus, they could not keep up suppling the buffet.  

The upper left is the restaurant. It looks like they have a couple
of shops and buildings to tour. Nothing was open today.
Plus, they do put on plays here.

After the buffet we took a short ride around Nappanee.

These out door sculptures are called "Love is in the Air".

They are done by various artist and can be found at the 
corner of Main Street and Market Street.

Other art displays we saw today.
I just really liked the sign for their parking areas.

Our home for Easter Weekend.
If we would have taken the right road,
top picture, would have been our view.
This campground is mostly seasonal and they do have a pool.

Monday, April 18, 2022

This is what we opened the curtains to this lovely Monday morning. Nothing funny about this at all. Now granted we only had to go about 6 miles down the road to Wood Design RV Interiors, they will be installing new valances in our front living area tomorrow, and yes it did melt still not funny. 

I am going to end here for now. Enough pictures for one blog. I will finish our ride to Michigan in the next blog. 

Still feeling blessed to be Living our Retirement Dream.

We are glad you stopped by!

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.