12 Sep - Home Again, Home Again, Diggity Dog

12 Sep

We departed Indiana Dunes State Park at 8:36 this morning and arrived home about 3:30 pm.  As mentioned yesterday, we decided to push on through to home rather than staying over night in the middle of Illinois as originally planned.  That made for a long day of towing a fifth wheel, but we are glad to be home.

As we approached the house from the street behind, Doreen said, "That looks like Daniel!"  Indeed it was!  Ashley brought the kids down from Ankeny to greet us as we drove in!  It was really great to see them.

Now, to "unscrew" this thing.  Reversing the process of going on a 146 day camping trip is a bit complicated.  We really shut down the house before we left, so we had to turn the water and natural gas back on, relight the water heater pilot light, bleed the air from the water lines, shut down the alarm system, etc.  We contacted the insurance company to turn the insurance back on for our Chrysler 200 that was stored in the garage.  Of course it had not been started in five months and the battery was dead.  And the list goes on.

From the standpoint of unloading the RV, we can only partially unload it as we are camping with the Iowa Jayco group this weekend at Winterset Iowa, about 20 mils from here.  We also plan to camp with some Air Force friends as they travel through here at the end of September.  I will give it a thorough washing this week as well as the truck.  I also need to get the truck in for an oil change.

This trip was absolutely fantastic!  The best part of the trip from my standpoint was having the opportunity to reconnect with so many friends and relatives.  The historical sites we visited were great!  I could go on and on about this but we will save that for another time.  We are looking forward to planning next years adventure, probably Northwest.

Doreen and I hope you enjoyed traveling along with us as we hit the road.  The blog was a whole lot more work that I had thought it would be, but it is obvious there were quite a few folks "tuned in".  It will be fun for us to go back through it and review where we have been.

Here are a few final stats:

28 campgrounds visited
5506 miles point to point (miles on the RV and truck between campgrounds)
  - 204 point to point miles average on travel days
  - 4:38 average travel time on travel days
7286 vicinity miles (miles on the truck while touring)
  - 291 vicinity miles average
12,792 total miles traveled

13.17 miles/gal average fuel economy
53 fuels stops
$2250.29 diesel fuel purchased
971.469 gals diesel fuel purchased
$2.31 average diesel fuel cost/gal
$42.47 @ 18.330 gal average diesel fuel per fill
$1.969 cheapest fuel at Saddlebrook MO on 26 Apr
$2.709 most expensive fuel at Wayne PA on 21 Jun

15 gal DEF used
13 gal propane used
$4299.01 camping fees total entire trip

11 Sep - Rememberance. St Joseph MI Lighthouse, Visit to Jennifer's, Packing it up at Indiana Dunes

11 Sep
Today we remember 9-11-2001, along with the rest of the world, and we feel so fortunate to live in these great United States and enjoy the freedoms we have.

We are taking the grand kids back home today to daughter Jennifer's and son-in-law James, so we will visit a lighthouse at St Joseph MI on the way.  The St Joseph North Pier Lighthouse is also located on a breakwater and easily accessible. The City took ownership in 2013 and have been working the past three years to renovate it and the catwalk to how it looked in 1932

The lighthouse from a distance

The lighthouse and catwalk from the breakwater

Lucas and Lindsey 

This is all the further we could go

 After visiting the lighthouse we headed to Kalamazoo to meet Jennifer and James at Red Robin for lunch.  We then drove to the house they are currently renting and then drove to the house they are in the midst of buying.  After a short stay Doreen and I hit the road back to the RV so we could pack up in preparation for departure tomorrow.

We had made reservations at a campground in the middle of Illinois for tomorrow night, but after discussing it, we decided to drive on home tomorrow.  So, tonight is our last night for this trip.  We intended to have the Michigan grand kids place the Michigan stickers on our map, but we got busy and it never happened, so we took care of that tonight.

Doreen placed the Michigan sticker.

I added the Upper Peninsula portion of Michigan

As it stands today!  We have covered a lot of ground!

We will add another post hopefully tomorrow night with the final stats on this trip.  Next post from Norwalk Iowa!!

10 Sep - Michigan City East Lighthouse, Raining, Indiana Dunes Beach, Campfire

10 Sep
This morning we waited for the rain to stop and played some cards in the RV.

We then headed to Michigan City to see a lighthouse on the end of a breakwater there and a lighthouse museum.  The Michigan City East Lighthouse is closed to the public but it is easily accessible by walking from a nearby parking lot down a long sidewalk and then out on a breakwater,

 It was built in 1904 along with the catwalk used by the lightkeepers.  From 1982 to 1996 the planned demolition was stopped, the lighthouse and catwalk renovated and the light was turned back on.

A nearby power plant visible from the breakwater

A local mariner

Walking the beach looking for "sea glass"

Some locals leveraging the wind for kite surfing

The museum did not open until 1 pm and we could not wait 1-1/2 hrs

 After visiting the lighthouse we returned to the RV to have some lunch and wait out the rain.  The sun finally appeared so we headed to the beach again so the grandkids could dip their toes.

The wind was really whipping and the waves crashing in

One of the dunes and the grand kids really enjoyed it

The seagulls pursuing Lindsey after she fed then a piece of bread

Enjoying the beach!

Later we grilled some pork chops and had a nice camp fire, waiting for the Iowa-Iowa State Football game on the Big 10 Network.

Boiling water in a paper cup

Having fun at the campground.

Lucas toasting some marshmallows for a smore!

Tomorrow we will take the grandkids home to Plainwell MI and see Jennifer's house they have purchased.

9 Sep - Walked beach, Groceries, New Buffalo Dinner and Grankids

9 Sep
Today we headed for the Indiana Dunes State Park beach and found it to be closed to swimming due to no life guards.  It is a beautiful beach with endless fine sand.

The concession facility appears to be very old and it is also closed for the season.  They basically roll up the sidewalks here after Labor Day.

We had a nice walk along the beach and then headed into town to pick up some groceries.  We had lunch there and then went back to the RV for a while.  The plan is to meet Jennifer, james and the grandkids in New Buffalo MI for dinner.  We met them at a restaurant called the Stray Dog about 6:30 and after dinner we brought Lindsey and Lucas back to the RV for the weekend.  We spent the evening getting settled and listening to the rain hitting the roof.  We all turned in early,

8 Sep - Arrived at Indiana Dune State Park

8 Sep

Woke up to a muggy one today.  We got the RV all prepped to leave and then drove over to the Civilian Marksmanship Program store to look at some M1 Garand rifles.  I could have spent a lot of money in there but decided to postpone the purchase in favor of a few upgrades to the RV to better support our future journeys.

We headed out of Camp Perry at 08:55 Eastern time. The drive was uneventful except a bit of rain, but nothing much.

We arrived at Indiana Dunes State Park at 12:52 Central time and got checked right into our camp site.  They are nice back-in sites, paved with a paved spot to park the truck.  They are electric only but we are equipped with sufficient water on-board and sewer capacity as well.

We are only here over the weekend, but tomorrow will head west to meet Jennifer and James.  They will bring our grandchildren Lucas and Lindsey so they can spend some time with us here.  We plan to visit the dunes beach and other sites around here.

Iowa is drawing near.  We will be home next Tuesday.  Wow, where has the summer gone?

7 Sep - Lighthouses and Ferry Ride, Packing it up at Camp Perry

7 Sep
This morning we got after it fairly early and headed towards downtown Port Clinton.  The Port Clinton Lighthouse has a lengthy history, but the condensed version is that it became the property of the local marina and it deteriorated badly.  In 2011 the Marina donated the lighthouse to Port Clinton.  A conservancy was formed, the lighthouse was restored and it was moved to it's permanent  site in Port Clinton.  When we got there this morning, construction workers were they getting ready to pour concrete.  The signs said it will be dedicated September 26th and it will be fully open Spring 2017.

After we left the Port Clinton Lighthouse, we headed to Marblehead Lighthouse which is located at the far east end of Marble State Park.  Like many other things here, the museum and lighthouse is closed after Labor Day, but we were able to battle the black flies and see the outside.

The keeper's house.  Beautiful!

In the distance you can see Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky OH

We returned to the RV for lunch and to tend to the dog, then we headed out again towards Catawba Island to catch the ferry to South Bass Island.  The ferry ride was reasonably priced and only took about 20 minutes.

The M/W Wm Market ferry boat

Passing a small island in route to South Bass Island

Not many vehicles on this ride

 

South Bass Island in the distance

We chose to leave our truck behind and rent a golf cart when we arrived at Put-in-Bay.  The first stop was South Bass Island Lighthouse.  It, too, was closed but we could walk around the outside and take pictures.

A view of the lighthouse as our ferry boat approached the island.

Mr. Sea Gull with a keen eye for anything edible.

The oil house

The lighthouse is integral with the keepers residence.

A communications tower on the site.

We continued around South Bass Island in our golf cart, and arrived at the Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial.  This memorial was established to honor Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and those who fought in the Battle of Lake Erie, during the War of 1812, and to celebrate the long-lasting peace among Britain, Canada and the U.S. The Memorial rises 352 feet over Lake Erie.  

The memorial is a massive column.  You climb 37 steps and then take an elevator to the top.

We continued to tour the island, stopping by Put-in-Bay for a cold beverage as today the temps are in the mid-90's.  We then headed back just in time to turn in our golf cart and catch the ferry back.  

We spent the rest of the day cooling down and packing to depart tomorrow for Indiana Dunes State Park near Chesterton IN.