And so it begins

Our first stop was our old home town of Battle Creek. We still have family and friends there so it was good to get together once again before heading south for the winter. We parked the rig at the Turkeyville RV park near Marshall MI. Plenty of room … a relatively new park  and a great restaurant to eat at if you like turkey. I can really recommend the turkey sandwich. Fresh baked turkey is used with all meals. Just like an early Thanksgiving. We had a great meal there with Sharon’s folks and her sister Gay. Even if you don’t have an RV stop there for lunch. You’ll like this place.  We even had a little surprise in seeing my old fishing partner Dave and his wife Carol pull their rig right across from us. We could not have planned it any better.

We got together with our old friends George and Paula and Bill and June at Win Schulers restaurant in Marshall like we to try to do every year that we head south for the winter. As usual the meal was good and the conversation ... as good as it gets.

It didn’t take long down the road before I realized that my driving plan was maybe a little too ambitious. I tired easily and finding a place to rest for a few minutes every 75 miles or so was the answer. So what’s the rush anyway?

Our next stop was Anderson Indiana. As close as we could get to Sharon's sister and brother-in-law's beautiful new home in Carmel. As usual John and Linda made us feel right at home and we truly enjoyed our visit with them. We also managed to locate the local casino knowing that it would be the last gambling fix Sharon would have in a couple of weeks. We left with most of our clothes and maybe even a dollar or two extra.

Breaking News! Our old nemesis … water … has sought us out once again. Seems wherever we go water leaks seek us out and test not only our patience but resourcefulness. Not long after leaving the RV park in Indiana at our first rest stop, we discovered the kitchen floor was all wet. Figuring the refrigerator had sprung a leak I immediately shut off the water supply to it. Whoops … wrong answer.  It was still coming out on our brand new floor! ‘Oh darn!’ (expletive replaced) I said.  I then looked under the kitchen sink and could see that there was the problem. Something wrong with the new faucet. I went outside and found that shutoff valve and returned to help Sharon clean up. You know the phrase …”not a happy camper”? Well she was not happy. There was nothing I could do about it now so we just motored on. Thankfully the bathroom sink was there as it was now our most useful source of running water.

We stopped in a park just west of Cincinnati only to discover that we visitors were kind of expected to care for some of the ‘locals’. We learned in the morning that the ‘locals’ would go from site to site expecting something to eat for their morning breakfast. At first I was a little put-off by the expectations but soon fell in line and provided what was needed. As you can see here the small group had just left our door and were heading to my neighbors across the street for maybe something better.

They managed to eat a half a loaf of our stale bread. Two of the more senior ‘locals’ actually rested their heads on my knee hoping that something might fall their way rather than fight with the youngsters as I tossed out the crumbs.

The coach was running smoothly, the roads were smooth, the weather was great and we're 'still livin' the dream'.

Phil