TOUR AMERICA 2022, JACK PINE LODGE AND CAMPGROUND, MANISTIQUE, MICHIGAN

Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Temperature 70 Degrees, Abundant Sunshine, Clear Blue Skies

Travel Day – Yesterday

It’s always hard to say goodbye to such great friends. So rather than saying goodbye we chose instead to say until we meet again.

The past four days have been absolutely wonderful. We’ve so enjoyed each other’s company. We’ve talked about just about everything under the sun. Why, even Proton was welcomed with open arms into their home and he absolutely loved it. Open the door to our rig and he was out the door and headed to the house in a flash. These past days have underscored what is so precious in life, good friends and family. If you have them, then you are the most blessed person in the world. And right about now that is just how we feel.

Yet, the time had come for us to get back on the road. We’ve been invited back anytime we want to come. So yes, we’re not sure when but the day will come when we will head to Wisconsin once again.

So yesterday we packed up, pulled the slides in, raised the jacks and got back on the road. However, just a few miles down the road Ms. Barbara with a sense of urgency in her voice said, Pull over as soon as you can we left the door awning out. Oops!

Thankfully, that turned out to be the only hiccup in the whole trip. We really didn’t know what to expect in terms of traffic but it turned out why we were going north the whole world was going south. Thus, we had a smooth and uneventful trip from start to finish. Well, sort of, since some of the roads were anything but smooth.

It was, however, as expected a long trip. The total drive time was just close to 5 hours. The surprise came when we realized that we were going back into the eastern time zone. Oh well, add another hour.

A couple of stops for the bathroom and a stop for fuel and in due time

we were in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at our new home, Jack Pine Lodge and Campground.

This is our new home until next Tuesday when we will be back on the road again. We have a back in – yes, that’s right, back in, not pull thru – site that was a bit tight getting into but I made it with no sweat. Our site has a nice, thick, gravel base that is level as can be. All utilities are right at hand. It is also as you can see rather heavily wooded. So where to put Albert? I tried over there, and then over there with no luck. He just could not find the necessary satellites. Then, finally out of desperation I hauled him up unto the roof. That did the trick. He is as happy as could be up there and is working just fine.

Then we got our big surprise. We had absolutely no cell service. We were cut off from the world. No cell service meant no texting, and no cell service meant no internet which in turn meant no email and no blogs. Oh my. However, we learned something new from our campground host. The campground has a strong and reliable internet connection meaning that we could set up our phones up do internet calling. How about that. Moreover, it also meant that we would have a strong and reliable internet connection. Once again all is right with our world.

But there was one thing , unfortunately, he could not help us with. The bugs! Oh yes, we have them as bad as they were up at the Peace Gardens. You don’t dare go outside without spraying yourself with bug spray. And by all means don’t leave the door open more than a couple of seconds.

That, then, is where we are at on The Road of Retirement. We’re settled in and ready to do a whole bunch of sightseeing More about that in the days to come in subsequent blogs. We are definitely living the good life and making the most of every day that the good Lord gives us. We hope you are doing the same.

Thanks again for spending some time with us.  It’s always great to be able to share our story with family and friends. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish every moment of every day that God gives you and live those moments to the fullest.

Our continuing mission remains the same: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before.