Days 2 & 3 - Canadian Maritimes - Remote Forest Boondocking and Visit to a Repair Shop-

As we drove on out of Sault Ste Marie, the lovely landscape changed a bit more. We were driving along a route filled with beautiful rock formations on each side. The terrain was changing as well as some of the trees. Gone were the Wisconsin and Michigan landscapes that we were used to. Things were getting more and more beautiful as we drove along.

We have driven this way a number of times, so it wasn't brand new to us. But it sure was nice seeing something a little different. We headed east and worked our way towards the area of Sudbury.  

We did find a link to a place up near Elliott Lake that had a dispersed camping site for at least some kind of a campground on a lake? We drove up there and it really wasn't anything to speak about. Looked kind of run down. We changed our mind and turned around and headed back down to Highway 17.

As we headed back down we found another little spot that someone had shared with us. It was on a little gravel road that led down to a boat landing at McCarthy Lake. As we first turned onto the gravel road it was really washboard and bumpy! Then there was a wide open space--- a kind of a parking area that might have been at one time a gravel pit? But the sign on the road said "boat landing". We know there must be more... After that we kept driving down towards the lake and there were three other dispersed camping spots. All three were occupied by RVs. So we kept on driving. 

It got more rugged and the road was very narrow. There were a lot of washout areas. If you watch the video that will be linked below in a day or two, you will see it was quite rugged to get back in there. We were almost looking for a spot to turn around. There weren't any. So we kept going. 

Lo and behold about halfway to the lake, I would say about a mile in, we found the most beautiful serene quiet camping spot overlooking a wide open marshy bog. It was totally quiet and vacant and all for us. 

We pulled in and got settled. This was going to be nice....

We were surrounded by tall trees but there was just enough of a blue sky above us to get a Starlink signal. All around was breathtaking wilderness. It smelled so fresh and clean. The woodsy mossy smell after maybe a rain? It was one of those times where you step out the door, and take a deep breath. Relax.

There was a little fire pit made with rocks, there was a little wood platform pounded into two trees. I think it was a spot to clean fish or to set a camping grill. There was a little barricade made of wood, maybe to keep down wind? I'm not sure. It was not any type of established campground. It was just dispersed camping in the woods that people keep coming back to and they have made a few little changes each time.

Steve got out our chairs and set up camp. We just recently were in the local hardware store last week and purchased these two folding umbrella bag chairs. What we liked is that they set up higher on the back as well as the seat. They have nice sturdy wooden arms and the seat portion is flat, not sagging down like some of the bag chairs do. We picked them up on a 50% off end of the year clearance. Then I found some little matching ottomans at Menards. We still like our big zero gravity relaxing recliners, but these are nice to take out or just sitting in closer to a campfire. Those recliners are too big to get up close to a fire ring. 

Steve set us up while I started to get out things for dinner.

We set our little Coleman grill on that horizontal wooden table top. Still not sure what that upright wooden board portion is, but it was something evidently that somebody needed to make. Any ideas?

Steve grilled up some chicken and I got sweet corn and some veggies ready for our meal. As usual, food always taste so much better when cooked outside. I had him cook up a double batch of chicken so we could throw some in the freezer for another meal down the road. We had picked up fresh chicken once we crossed the border into Canada. You are not allowed to take fresh chicken or eggs or fresh produce over the border.  So one of our first stops was a grocery store to pick up a few more things, including chicken and eggs. 

After dinner, we sat out in our chairs and totally enjoyed this view. We were looking down with binoculars and watched some Canadian geese flopping around that beaver lodge halfway across the bog. I kept hoping a moose would wander out into view. That would have been just the icing on the cake. But it really didn't matter, the view was spectacular as it was.

We sat out in our chairs in total peace and quiet. The sun was going down to the West and we watched it flicker its way through the trees. 

There was not a sound to be heard and nobody around. Not even a vehicle going by down to the boat landing. We looked on the map and further down there might have been one or two more spots. But that's okay, this dispersed spot was perfect for us.

Nick was at peace, relaxed between our feet. He looked around every now and then at a rustle or a movement made by the wind.  We also had our bear spray nearby within reach, as well as a can of wasp spray. Did you know a 20 ft stream of wasp spray into the mouth of a predator would make them stop and gagging, long enough for you to make an escape? It's a pretty handy defensive tool when you are in Canada and cannot have any other type of weapons. Just a good hint. 

We curled up in bed and turned on our mattress pad heaters to warm things up. Then we turn them off once we were warm.  But we did turn on the propane furnace for overnight. Now with our big lithium battery we never have to worry about the fan blower portion running down so much. And boy oh boy did it get cold! I think it was actually a degree or two colder than this before I snapped this screen grab:

The sun came out and it was warming up quickly. We sure enjoyed our morning, Steve cooked up a big breakfast. Sipping coffee in the woods is such a delicious treat. Finally about 9:00 a.m., one vehicle, one lone vehicle, drove by down to the boat landing. That's the only person we saw all the while.

By about 9:30 we were ready to pack up and head out. It doesn't take us long, and we were ready to tackle that rough and rugged road getting back out. 

It definitely was "White Knuckle" at times as we worked our way nimbly through the rocks and the ruts. Lots of potholes. We were dipping and swaying and rocking and rolling at very slow speeds.  I think it was worse crawling up and out than when we descended down into it.  We were quite a ways from the main road, and crawling so slow made it seem like an eternity to get out.

Finally we saw the pavement ahead! That was the most rugged washboard portion of the road was the entry. I think that was from people trying to get out and accelerate while pulling their boats or their campers. It spits up the gravel and creates even more of a washboard. We made it through and got back onto the pavement. As we started driving though, we noticed warning lights on our dash!!

Rut roh!!!

We don't know if it was caused by the rough and tumble driving we were doing, or if it was just coincidence. But our left front wheel ABS sensor was flashing up codes at us. We pulled over to a spot in the road that was safe, and Steve hooked up our OBD code reader unit to the plug under the dash. 

We hoped maybe just clearing the codes would make it go away. There were 3 different ones to clear. We did some research and some of the RVs with our Sprinter chassis on their motor home had experienced the same thing after heavy winds rocking and rolling. So we were hoping it was the same for us. 

We drove a head again about another 20 miles and the warning codes came back. This time it was even more severe because now it removes your ability to use the cruise control and removes your traction control capabilities. Now the next message flashing on our dash was "visit workshop" with a wrench symbol!!!! 

Oh my! Way out here in the middle of the woods in Canada???

Good thing for our Starlink. We are able to get online no matter where we are. Also we are able to do Wi-Fi calling. Because otherwise, of course, it's absolutely no cell signal where we are. 

I was able to call ahead about 1 hour away into Sudbury. They have a Mercedes-Benz dealership that will actually work on the Sprinter chassis!!! Not all Mercedes-Benz repair shops work on the Sprinters. They are few and far between, that is for sure. We talked to a wonderful girl name Vanessa who assured us she could get us worked in if we could get there in an hour. Imagine that, on a busy Friday afternoon. 

We pulled in at 2:17. Within 15 minutes they had us figured out and arranged to remove the cargo trailer out of the way. Two workers came out to help Steve push it into a spot in the parking lot. Then they asked Steve to drive the motor home up onto their hoist rack. Not a worker, but Steve actually got to drive our motor home in himself and put on the sections that would raise the motorhome up flat into the air!!!

They got out their diagnostic equipment, and got all the same readings (same ones that we had gotten).

(We think also at the same time, the guy did some research and updates to some of the settings in our engine computer. Afterwards, we noticed that the motorhome runs better, and seems to kick in the turbo better and no hesitation and more responsive shifting of the transmission! We will see after our next fill up if it improved our fuel mileage too. So that was an added bonus after the repair)

They came ahead with the estimate, we know that the front wheel sensor for a Mercedes, original equipment, is about $240 US dollars. We know they're aftermarket ones available but again, do they last any longer or is original equipment better? To top it off, this is a known warranty issue and Winnebago has been known to honor the replacement of all four wheel sensors as an ongoing warranty extension for rigs of our year. So when we get back home, we have to save this paperwork and see about having the other three changed. Another good reason to do original equipment parts, rather than an aftermarket part ourselves.

We know Steve could change this part himself. It means jacking up the motorhome and taking off the tire. Then taking off the wheel well liner.  Then removing carefully the ABS sensor part and grinding away any residue or rust or corrosion. Then cleaning all the surfaces. And then carefully installing the new part back on. And putting everything back together. Maybe about an hour's worth of work if we were doing it ourselves. 

So when she came back with the estimate it wasn't too bad. Their labor, plus the ease of having the motorhome up on their hoist instead of us having to jack it up and remove the tire ourselves. So we decided to go ahead with the repair because she assured us it could be done within the next hour. Imagine that, again, getting immediate service work done within an hour of arriving on a rig on a Friday afternoon. 

The two workers that spoke with Steve were very courteous and talked to him throughout the process and kept tabs with us while it was getting work done.  We could stand nearby and watch. 

It is still very, very hard for Steve to hand over the reins to somebody else and let a stranget do the work for him. He is the type of guy that likes to do all of his own repairs. That way he is sure everything is done correctly and he has a chance to look at anything else in the area for future maintenance.

He stood there for a long time, watching over it like a mom would be watching over a baby at their first time at the doctor. Can you see how nervous he looks?

I asked him to pop out one of our lawn chairs for Nick and myself to relax in the parking lot. We could have went inside to the waiting room. There was actually a nice breeze and the temperature was in the low 70s. I settled in next to the FedEx truck and proceeded to watch the progress of our repair.

It was all done, as promised, within the hour. The workman backed it out and took it for a test drive. Wowzers, that was really hard to watch our motorhome drive away from us. Leaving us alone in the parking lot together --- it was gone! We just got held our breath the entire time until it came back. The repairman had smiles all around and said that everything was done. They were also teasing Steve that they changed over the odometer from miles to kilometers!!! (They were giving Steve a hard time, they really didn't).

Vanessa came out to double-check that everything was done correctly. The workers wanted to help Steve hook up the trailer, but instead we went inside to take care of the paperwork and paying the final bill. We told them we could hook up the trailer oueselves.

Yes, the bill is what we expected. Around $250 something for the diagnostic, and $300 and something for the part, and then the labor and the fees etc etc etc so we walked away $832 poorer. That's in Canadian money. Then our American Express converts that over to US dollars to just about $600. 

Considering that the alternative would have been to try and find the part available at some local parts shop, most likely being an aftermarket brand. Then finding a spot where we could jack it up and do the work ourselves. We knew the tire rim would come off pretty easily because we had it off last year when we had new tires put on. But it's still a struggle to pull it off and rip things apart just to change a sensor. So I guess, in the long run, it was worth it to pay somebody else to do it. At least we got to watch. Plus they torqed the lug nuts bolts correctly too.

We came back out after paying the bill, and there were the two workers, still smiling, standing next to our cargo trailer. They had waited all that while until we came back out to assist with hooking it back up. Wasn't that nice? What an end to a busy work week for them on a Friday to stand there and wait for some crazy American tourists to come back out just to walk up there a little cargo trailer!!!

We pulled on out of Sudbury at 4:30p.m. and made our way through the crazy rush hour traffic. Not only was it the end-of-the-day traffic was also Friday "let's get going for the weekend" traffic.

We knew of a little place that we read about that we were going to head out of town about half an hour or so.  It was a very small town called Verner. They had what was called the Department of Ministries located there. It's kind of like our Department of Transportation highway shop buildings. We were told there are 10 vacant RV slots to pull into overnight. They even have electrical hookups. That's located behind the building. They ask that you don't stay longer than 120 hours. That is 5 days!!! 

We only saw one photo of it, so we weren't quite sure what to expect. Well, we pulled in and went back behind the buildings. There was a beautiful row of pine trees and a farm off in the distance. Surrounded on two sides was a gorgeous golf course!!! So we were going to camp next to a beautifully meticulously maintained golf course surrounded by pine trees and looking at a farm with the setting sun. I guess we can't complain for a free campsite when it's in the parking lot of a highway shop?

This was our view out the front windshield. On the other side of those pines is all green golf course.

Behind us you can see the big buildings used to store road salt and sand. They also acted as a buffer between us and the road so we really didn't hear much highway noise at all.

Steve got out with Nick and walked around. Nick felt that he needed to go out onto the golf course to do his business on the nice green grass instead of over on our side by the pine trees. Of course, we said no! We told Niklckydoodle that he had to be a perfect gentleman and a good guest of our Canadian hosts.

The sun was setting as we were making dinner. Out over across the golf course was a farm that was illuminated by the golden sunshine. This was really going to be another peaceful evening.

And again, totally free. 

We'll catch up with you on the next blog about the next day. But here we were, safe and sound in our rig. Newly repaired with a not too bad repair bill. And we are happy. Can't you tell?

Miles today - 142

Miles so far - 546

Day 1- Canadian Maritimes - Hitting the Road to Sault Ste Marie

 It's time! 

Actually, time runs out so fast, it's good to get going while we can. To heck with the diesel prices, we will do more boondocking and less campgrounds. But we are still going to go!! As long as Canada lets us in, that is.

We are in our 60s and it's time to see more of this beautiful world before we run out of steam. Having the smaller motorhome now makes it much easier to travel, and less expensive for sure. With the bigger Safari motorhome we were averaging 8 or 9 miles to the gallon. With this one we're doing usually 13 or 14.

It's time to smile, and enjoy what we are setting out to do for the next month or two.

In my last blog, I posted a tentative map of some of the places we're going to go. These are merely places that we're going to drive through to get somewhere. There are no real destinations of any towns in particular. But what we like seeing are the beautiful natural areas. It's just that we have to get past big towns to get to some of them. 

If you have any suggestions of beautiful areas to visit along our way, please drop them in the comments below. 

One of the last few things we had to do at the house was to pick all of the apples on our trees. The branches were hanging way down as it was, but we also needed to get the apples off and stored in a cool dry place. When we get home, we will work on canning applesauce and pie filling and maybe freezing some of them in slices for baking.

Steve started picking them on our very last evening at home.  We ended up with six boxes of them. We didn't want to pile them up too high so they didn't bruise on each other just from the weight. This is a huge crop from such small trees, and we gave some away to the neighbors already.

We have been packing items on and off for a week. I went over my lists and crossing things off as they got put into the motorhome. I actually have two different pages... One is for the things we commonly take, and the other is for special items that we need for a long trip. We had a granddaughter over for the weekend and she helped with a lot of the back and forth and loading up stuff.

Nickydoodle was getting increasingly worried each time we went out of the house with another load of stuff. He made sure to bring along his little stuffed reindeer, his most favorite toy. It's on the love seat right next to him. He carries this around like a baby. 

We had a visit on Tuesday with my brother, and then finished up a couple other last minute obligations early Wednesday morning. Then it was time to hit the road. With smiles on our faces, it was time to back out of the driveway and hit the road pointed North.

So we had Nick's favorite toy packed, and his ball, his rope, and all of his food and medicines. He's been dealing with high liver numbers and we are trying various medications to bring them down. He's due for another blood work up in 6 weeks. He feels fine looks fine and acts fine. The numbers just aren't fine.

Heading north is really no big thing for us. We are traveling familiar roads all the way up into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We go up this way often, so it really wasn't anything new to see. We stopped at Thompson Roadside Park between Escanaba and Manistique on US2. We usually try to stop here cuz it's such a beautiful beach, easy access, and a nice break to make lunch after a couple hours of driving.

We drove further east towards Sault Ste Marie. These ominous clouds rolled up over head and we were worried we were in for a big storm. It was getting a little windy and we were getting a few splatterings of raindrops on the windshield.

Fortunately, our route took a turn to the North and those clouds rolled on further to the South and the East. We were able to avoid the storm completely and soon the sky was a beautiful blue and speckled puffy white clouds instead taking their place. That was fine with us...

We rolled into Sault Ste Marie just about supper time. We stayed on the Michigan side and didn't cross the border yet into Canada. We wanted to rest and take a break and watch some of the ships coming in through the canal into the locks. 

We were thinking of staying at Aune Osborne Campground, which is right on the river to watch the boats.  They only have two empty sites available and they were right next to the busy noisy road. So instead, we pulled into the boat landing next door and found a nice wide open spot. The winds were blasting and increasing up to 30 miles an hour. We would go out and look at the water a little bit and come right back inside. We cooked supper and watched some of the boats go by.

There's this great website called Marinetraffic.com that you can click on in your area. It shows you all of the boats coming and going.  It tells you where they are from, where they are headed, who is the captain, how long, wide, etc. and what they are hauling. It's really interesting. Nautical boat fanatics take pictures and post them on the website as the boat goes through their area.

We watched the John Boland go through and then the Sunda. It was so neat to see them churning against the wind and the waves headed towards the locks.  We saw a smaller boat with waves crashing right up over the top of it it was so windy and rough.

It was a great spot to park with a front row view of the waterway. We watched some birds flying around and relaxed while we ate our dinner.  There was nobody else in the parking lot nor were there any fishermen out at the boat landing. With those type of waves, there wouldn't be anybody going out fishing... 

We probably could have parked right there in the lot, but we didn't see any signs that said no overnight parking. Instead we decided to get out of the wind and move over to the local Walmart a couple miles away. 

As we pulled into the Walmart, the parking lot was almost empty? On a busy Wednesday evening? The employees were all gathered at each of the doors, waving customers away. They just said they were closed. No other explanation. So we drove on to the far end of the lot where there were a couple other motorhomes. RV overnight parking is allowed at this Walmart. So we found a very level spot in a very quiet area and settled in for the night.

More of those ominous clouds gathered overhead, even making long tubes of dark formations. It was really very strange.

We had a restful sleep, the lot was pretty quiet. We only heard one truck come in but it was over at the other side during the night. There was nobody else parked around us and we enjoyed the peace and quiet. We had a grassy area right next to us for Nick to use, and of course we always clean things up afterwards. 

In the morning, we went inside to grab a few last minute items. We forgot to ask why they were closed yesterday, what had happened? Oh well, they were open in the morning and we were able to check out and say thank you for letting us stay overnight at the service desk. It's always good to let them know we appreciate the service they offer to traveling RVs.

Now it was time to get ready and cross the border into Canada! We follow all the rules and do not carry over fresh produce, fresh chicken or eggs. Dog foods is in it's original container, any of the meat in the freezer is printed with the store brand label and country of origin. You cannot have meats that you repackage into Ziploc bags or vacuum sealed on your own. 

We had our passports ready and Nick's rabies vaccination paper. We had our can of bear spray accessible to be examined if they ask. We've done this before, and we know the routine. 

We paid our toll of $10.65 to cross the bridge, in the middle is where we passed from the United States into Canada. See you USA in about 6 weeks!!!

We passed over the St Mary's River on the big bridge and queued up at the almost open slot at the customs building. There was a guy ahead of us just leaving and we slid right in behind him when the time was right. There was one of their car waiting to the left of us. That was it. Three cars and us. No long lines.

As per routine, one must turn off their engine, take off their sun glasses, and roll down all windows on the driver's side so they can see into the backseat. 

We were asked the very basic questions quickly, handed over our passports, and we were wished a safe journey and we were on our way! 

WELCOME 

TO 

CANADA!!!!

Just wait till you see on the next blog where we found to camp overnight. It sure beats Walmart! 

261 mi so far

Coming Back for A Big Adventure

Sorry folks, we kinda took off most of the summer here. But we are back! 

I am sure some of the readership numbers have fallen off because we haven't been posting regularly. Hopefully this will increase now that people will see we are back and starting out on a brand new adventure. 

This week, we are gearing up and ready to leave the country. We are going to scrape together our pennies, forget about the high cost of diesel, and enjoy ourselves. After facing a few health issues, it's better to get out and do what we want to do before it's too late, right? 

We are heading up through the Upper Peninsula and Sault Ste Marie to cross into Canada. From there, we are going to work our way across to the Canadian Maritime Provinces!

We are thinking about being gone for about a month or two. Basically, return when it starts getting colder, maybe??

Our tentative route is going to be somewhat random. We only picked a few of these destination numbers to get mileage ideas and distances between different provinces.  Nothing is set in stone, and we haven't made any reservations for anything. Probably about 4,000 mi round trip.

Any suggestions on interesting things to see would be greatly appreciated.

I've been checking my lists, yes even twice, and we are just about fully packed. It doesn't take us very long, just that we like to pack along our favorite things that maybe we can't find along the way. Compared to planning for our trip to Alaska, at least this trip we know there are stores along the way and more access to interesting local foods. On our way to Alaska, stops for refueling were few far between.  We really had to plan ahead for fuel, groceries, and comfort items like fresh water or dumping our holding tanks.

One of the things that we will be doing this week before we leave is harvesting our five apple trees in the backyard. They are just hanging so heavily with fruit that we've had to prop up some of the branches with boards!

These four trees were given to us as a gift from Steve's father before he passed away. They have grown immensely fast over the last 5 years and are bearing tons of fruit. We are going to pick what we can and store them in dark cardboard boxes in a cool dry area of the garage. When we come home, we will process them into canned apple pie filling or frozen apple filling. Two trees are honeycrisp, and two are mutsu. The fifth one was a gift from our children when we first moved here and that is a Granny Smith.

I've been working on some quilts this summer, and I will be taking along my little Singer Featherweight machine and a quilt project to work on while we travel.  Steve just made me a cute little table top for sewing inside of the rig in a limited space. We will see what we have time for. It's a great way to pass time on a rainy day.

We've been spending time this summer with the grandkids. Our oldest grandson Jameson graduated from high school! I can't believe that little guy is that old already??? It seems like not too long ago I held him in my arms. 

The grandkids have been picking a lot of raspberries in their yard. They came over to work on jam at my house. They said it's much more fun doing jam here because "I have all the stuff"! 

Even 14 year old Clayton got into the hot water bath and timing of batches and helping out with our processing.

Chelsea is the Queen Jam Maker. I think we processed up about two and a half gallons of jam. She likes putting them in these little jars that are perfect for gift giving. Last year at school, she even gave jars to her teachers.

Claire is the little pest in the kitchen, but she does help with picking the berries. She's a little too young to be manning the splattering hot bubbling jam pots, but she did help with washing the jars and playing with the soap suds. 

We did some upgrades to some of our camping equipment this year. Since there have been so many fire bans on and prohibitions on transferring firewood due to diseases, it was time to pick up a propane fire pit. The pluses are that we don't stink like campfire smoke when we go to bed at night, and it's easier to turn off and cool down in a relatively short span of time. I know, it's not the same as a real fire. Many times when out in the desert or boondocking, firewood is not readily available. So having a propane fire pit kind of makes sense. It rides nicely up in the front tip of the cargo trailer, tucked away when it's not needed 

We did get away for a couple little camping trips. One of them was to check out some of the dispersed camping sites within an hour's drive of our home. This one happens to be a favorite. It's along McCaslin Brook and it is all by itself in a beautiful serene setting. Yes, the brook really babbles... 

We did enjoy the peaceful setting in the woods, and found it good to get away for 4 days of relaxing comfort, just to unwind.

We've been trying to catch up some things around the house. Some stuff got put aside last year while we spent the whole summer in Alaska. Then in the Fall we were busy with projects and replacing the roof and dealing with contractors. The year just really seemed to get away from us. But it's great when the grandkids come over and help us. Here Clayton is giving Grandpa a hand moving the fences into a wider circumference around the apple trees.  The deer are really hungrily going after them, and we have to keep them far enough away to not damage the branches or destroy the fruit.

The tomato growth this year was rather disappointing. I had bought indeterminate tomatoes, Early Girl and Better Boy. They are supposed to produce all summer right up to the end of the season.  As the tomatoes started growing they were smaller and more pointy, much more like a roma tomato. We only really got one batch of flowers and fruit. And now they aren't producing anything else for the rest of the season. Very disappointing. They are not the big beefy slicing tomatoes that we were waiting for. I think somebody changed the little tags around at the nursery racks and they were all mislabeled. Maybe it was somebody's idea of a joke? These are really growing like determinant varieties. One blooming, one batch, and then done. We ate some and only had enough to can up a few jars!

Our other big upgrade to the motorhome we just finished up. These were the two Trojan wet cell deep cycle batteries we had on board under the steps. They worked fine, but we would really like to consume a lot more power. Unless there was enough sunshine, solar just wasn't cutting it. We knew it was time for an upgrade...

We invested in a Vatrer lithium battery of 300 amp hours. That, in combination with our Bluetti ac200L power station, will now give us more than triple of the battery power that we had before. 

Our Bluetti power station rides in a side compartment of the motorhome. We have a DC to DC charger hooked to it from the engine's alternator system. It charges up while we drive and in turn it can also charge our new lithium battery under the steps.

The best part is, we snaked a 30 amp extension cord through the interior portion of the motorhome from the rear power bay up to the Bluetti. It plugs into the 30 amp outlet. This allows our motorhome to function the same as if we were plugged into an outside power post. We no longer need to use an inverter, and this is now clean pure sine power throughout the coach. (Our original inverter was only a thousand watts and modified sine wave).

This will be a big improvement to our power system, plus we have our additional solar panels or the option of running the onboard propane generator to recharge things as needed. 

Also, we did a couple other silly little upgrades too. The kitchen faucet was fine the way it was, but I really like the idea of having a pull-down sprayer and a pause button. It will help conserve water when we are boondocking.

There's a recent video of the swap over on our YouTube channel, the link is down below at the bottom of this blog post. We liked this faucet so much, we also changed over the one for in the bathroom with one similar of the same brand.

This summer was also a difficult one for our family members that were down in Menasha, Wisconsin where the tornadoes touched down. We helped where we could, and Steve lent our Bluetti, our solar panels, a generator and extension cords as well as refillable water containers and assisted with tree removal and debris. Our supplies helped keep his brother and sister-in-law functioning within their house. They now had their refrigerator running and they were able to have hot water which was a lot more than most people had. They had five holes in their roof and a lot of damage to the yard and surroundings. Others lost their entire homes. It was devastating and the area is just slowly gaining back a month later for some of the residents.

Others were not so lucky. Miraculously, there was not one single death or serious injury!

On a happier note, we spent quite a bit of time this summer transporting our granddaughter back and forth to her summer job. She worked 4 days a week from 10:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. She never missed a single day of work and was never late. We also spent a lot of time with her getting in her required driving practice hours behind the wheel. We had her drive us all over the place, even in busy areas of Green Bay and through roundabouts and to shopping centers and parking lots. Successfully, she passed her driver's test and now has her license! Congrats Chelsea!!!

We did manage one other getaway during the very hot and humid and horrible weather that we had this summer. We escaped up to the shores of Lake Superior. We were able to go to Ontonagon Township Park and secure a site for a week.  The sunsets were absolutely spectacular!

The first night we had to stay in one of the wooded campsites across the road. But by the next morning we were able to move up to site closer to the beach. We were right across from the beach access and it was absolutely beautiful. The breezes were calm, the temperatures were great, and we only had rain one day.

The waves lapping on the shore gave us visions of the seaside, and it was a good time to unwind and relax. 

The camping was a little close together, closer than we prefer. But to be right near the Lakeshore was worth it. This was our view right out of our campsite:

The sites were sandy, and we had to vacuum out a bunch of sand from the motorhome when we were done. But it felt like our own little beach house perched on the shore.

The other thing that happened this summer is that I was dancing and prancing my way out of a quilt shop, and I happened to suddenly step on uneven ground between the pavement and the gravel. My knee gave out underneath me and I could not walk! Steve had to help me off the ground and scooch up my butt back into the motorhome. He drove me straight to the emergency room. After x-rays and some pain pills, they sent me home to my own doctor. 

From there, seeing an orthoscopic surgeon, getting braced up and on crutches, and subsequent MRI showed that I totally tore free my meniscus! At this point I am slowly healing and off the crutches. We are going through therapy treatments and low impact exercises like walking in the swimming pool and slowly riding my bike. No high impact activity. I'm finally able to walk about half a mile. But at the store, I have been regalated to driving the hilarious motorized shopping cart!

Those things are not easy to drive, and they jerk and lurch and they do not ease on and off with a throttle. Now I see why people are so dangerously careening around the store in them things...

So that's about it to catch things up around here. It's been quite a summer. We are looking forward to wearing flannel shirts, wool socks, sipping spiced apple cider and checking out the colored leaves as they change in the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

Please join us? 

In the meantime, you can check out the last five or six videos on our YouTube channel of what we've been doing this summer: 

You Tube channel: 

RVing:What-A-View You Tube Channel