This morning we woke in the Badlands to another rainy overcast day. We debated what to do since we had now been in the rain off and on for days. Most of those days the rain contained itself to the evening and morning, this was going to be an all-day rain, and it was cold. We wanted to see Mount Rushmore so we decided to head to Rapid City and take in another library. We also needed some groceries and a few other misc items…Continue Reading “Mount Rushmore in the rain”
Our night on the edge of the Badland wall was quiet other than noise from the storm – some lightning and rain but little thunder. Still very windy so we opted to buy coffee in Wall before heading back into the Badlands. I drink “Dandy Blend” in the morning so just one coffee and some hot water for me. We also filled the other to-go cups (we have a total of 6 to-go cups and 3 gallon jugs with us) with ice water for later….Continue Reading “Badlands – day 2”
Sun was out and it was finally a nice day. Although we were trying to stay off highways we decided to take I90 into South Dakota. We could not believe that the speed limit was 80, it dropped to 65 or 70 for road work!! I90 turned out to be a good choice as there was very little traffic and there was a lot to see along the way. Windmill farms were everywhere we looked and roadside sculptures which I grabbed a few pictures of….Continue Reading “Corn Palace, Giant Prairie Dog, and the Badlands”
After leaving our campsite we decided to spend some time at a library – get caught up on wifi and charge up all of our devices. We have been doing okay charging things as we drive and running the cooler on the car charger, but the large solar generator doesn’t always get charged completely. The solar generator runs the Coleman 12v cooler when we are not driving, but it will only support it for about 8 hours. We have to choose what 8 hours to…Continue Reading “Library Time and the Jolly Green Giant”
We left our quiet boat launch area in the rain. It rained most of the day but we tried to enjoy the ride anyway passing views of Lake MI along the way. We stopped briefly at a Paul Bunyan statue in Manistique, MI, It seems there are many places that claim the fame of Paul Bunyan! We stopped and had a late breakfast at the Swedish Pantry in Escanaba, MI. We wanted to make our breakfast at the campsite but because of the rain, we…Continue Reading “Paul Bunyan and Swedish Pantry”
Had a great morning at our wild campsite. We decided to just make coffee and pack things up. We were anxious to get to the falls. Today we were headed to Tahquamenon Falls per Jason C.’s recommendation. I had specked out a wild camping site on some dispersement property near the falls so we thought we would check that out first to see if it was a good place for the night. The wild campsite I’d specked out for tonight was in a large open…Continue Reading “Tahquamenon Falls”
We left Bay City Monday morning (Labor Day) around noon and headed up the Michigan’s Upper Penisula. The Mackinaw Bridge was closed until noon for their annual “Labor Day bridge walk”, so we took our time and went up the coast of Lake Huron on Rte 23. It was a really beautiful drive. Once over the Mackinaw Bridge, we meandered through some back roads and headed to our wild campsite. After several turns on dirt roads, we ended up behind a camper van. He let…Continue Reading “Upper Peninsula (MI)”
We had a great stop in Erie for Stew’s birthday, and now we are headed to our friends’, the Sailing Jasons, wedding in Bay City MI. We have been working on how to do things as we travel. Our first stop today for lunch worked out well. We actually pulled into a great Ohio turnpike travel station. They actually had a spot for RVs! They provide free air, water, pump out and for a nominal fee of $20 you can stay the night. We used…Continue Reading “Heading to Bay City”
We did practice sleeping in the car at the cabin but this was going to be the first night we camped in a campground. We had most everything packed and ready to go – the day was a bit dreary, rain was in the forecast so we weren’t in a hurry to head to Cherry Springs State Park to camp. Stew had always wanted to camp at Cherry Springs so we were really looking forward to it – but rain and camping are no fun!…Continue Reading “First night car-camping”
This episode covers some of the basics that we did to build out our Buick Enclave SUV for car camping. The previous blog post shows additional details. If you have any questions – let me know in the comments! Enjoy the episode..