The last person we say goodby to this morning as we leave is John. Again he is helping us shlep our stuff to the RV. John is Mr. Hillsdale College during our stay – a new friend.
Canadian Lakes, Michigan is our destination for a visit with my friend from LBMMC, Bev Vanderwal at her beautiful “lake house”. As we head towards Canadian Lakes I see cows & corn fields & wild day lilies along the roadside. It is still spring and it is beautiful.
The first glitch on our trip occurred as Doug was trying to park in a campsite there. This is a large and very old campground that was built long before 40 foot coaches. The grass was sparse and there was a lot of soft sand…our bus got stuck. I am so glad that Doug is always up for a challenge although I did hear him curse – a bit. This episode was a real potential disaster. A couple of folks showed up to help dig us out – so typical for the folks at RV and campsites.
Doug here. So Bonny has asked me to explain what happened. She has it right. This RV spot has grass but towards the back where my rear wheels needed to be was SOFT sand – covered by some very sparse grass. Anyway, as I backed in the wheels began to spin and quickly dug a 6-7 inch trough around the drive wheels. My first and only attempt to “rock” out” of this made it another 4 inches deeper. Enough of that. No tow truck that could move our 36,000 lb. bus could approach this place because of surrounding RV’s and trailers. it was late in the day and we only had a few hours of daylight left. We tried to relocate the sand blocking the front of the tires but that wasn’t working well. Then I remembered that I had hydraulic jacks that could lift this coach off the ground and we could but boards and gravel under the drive tires and drive it out! Well that worked perfectly and we used the jacks supported on picnic table tops to just lift the rig in the air and but more boards under the tires and the crisis was DONE. Whew! We moved to a MUCH better spot. Open a beer and kick back now!
Then the next day Doug was soaped up and showering when the water pump just stoped – NO flow. He was “gleeful” to have another puzzle to solve. I left for Bev’s and a hot shower (Bonny just left me and went to find a functioning shower?). Bev and I spent the days working our jaws. At 10 am it was pouring rain and by 3 pm it was bright and sunny. Her lake house has been so sweetly decorated and is a gem to visit. Best of all it is only a 70 minute drive from her home in Grand Rapids. The drive itself is beautiful traversing Amish farms. Doug fixed the electrical circuit to the water pump and finally got his shower while we shopped. Thats what we call a division of labor. Doug fixes something and I shop – not bad.