All Caught UP (Atlanta, GA)

 

We left Marquette, MI and headed south over the Mackinaw Bridge.  We stayed in Grand Rapids, MI for a couple of days and down to Elkhart, IN.  After two weeks stay in Elkhart getting things done on the camper.  We headed to the Amana Colonies in Iowa.  You can read the history of the Amana Colonies here.

Since we are on the Rally Committee we arrived early to help set up.  There were 3 other couples on the committee who arrived early.  We did some shopping at Costco and Walmart with Judy and Bob.  Judy, I will not mention how long it took to do ALL of the shopping.

Before the main Rally started several of us celebrated Ann’s birthday.

Surprise !!!!

At the start of the rally after the BBQ, we had another birthday cake.  It was a special birthday with great friends.

 

At the Amana Colonies we took a guided tour which included Tom Metz’s house, the local tin smith.  His shop was in the basement and the first floor was set up as it was in the 1920s.

We then toured the different colonies.

That’s a Amana Radar Range.  The Amana Colonies is where Amana Appliances started.

This is proof that “Life IS good on the Roan Road….”

Still Catching UP (Atlanta, GA)

 

First, Happy, Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife Ann.  Soon I will be as young as you are now.

Summery,  We left the UP of Michigan and headed to Elkhart, Indiana to have some work done on the camper.  We stayed in Elkhart for two weeks.  During the two weeks we went to Big Foot, to have the  hydraulic levelers checked.   No charge.  Then to Mor/ryde to have the suspension and alignment checked.  They found two of the springs were bad.   Also the springs that were installed were not stiff enough and they suggested replacing all six with stiffer springs.   No charge for that, but the two Tee shirts we received cost $1545.  The rest of the time we just hung around with friends Lynn and Ed.  We then headed for the Amana Colonies in Iowa for the New Horizon Owners Group (NHOG) rally. 

I guess we are still covering the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan from the last blog.  After staying at Ste. Ignace at the foot of the Mackinaw bridge, we headed north to Sault Ste. Marie and the Soo Locks.

We stayed at a campsite right on the river, Aune-Osborn Campground, where we could sit and watch the ships going into and out of the locks.  We visited the viewing platform at the Locks.   I took some timelapes pictures of a ship going through the lock.

Timelapse of Soo Locks

While staying at Sault Ste. Marie we took a side trip to Tahquamenon Falls. 

 

We then headed west to stay at Marquette.  We stayed at a nice town park and used it as our base.  From there we went to Pictured Rock National Lakeshore.  In the morning we drove up the coast of the park.  In the afternoon we took a boat ride along the shore for a completely different view of the park.

Driving Pictured Rock National Lakeshore.

Boat tour of Pictured Rock National Lakeshore.

The next day we headed back up the coast to the Au Sable Light House.

That afternoon we took a glass bottom boat tour of ship wrecks in the area.  Pictures do not show much, but the tour was very interesting.

Main cargo hatch

Bow of the ship

Almost caught up. 

BTW, Evelyn turned 4 months old on Ann’s Birthday!  Also, Happy Birthday to Jonathan, Scherrie and Ethan.

Also, we hope that Caroline & Andrew and Maryann & Santi celebrated their anniversaries in style!

We want to wish all of our family and friends a Happy and Healthy New Year,

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

More Catch-UP (Amana, IA)

 

We are now in The Amana Colonies in Iowa.  We are here for a New Horizons Rally.

While in Detroit we went to the DIA (Detroit Institute of Art).  Now Ann’s second favorite museum.  The politicians of Detroit tried to make the DIA sell its art to settle the debt they ran up.  Thankfully they failed.

Below is the famous Diego Rivera painting commissioned by Ford.

But first I need to catch up on our trip up the Michigan west coast along Lake Michigan.  Our first stop was Manistee, Michigan.  We used this point to go up and down the coast about 50 miles in each direction.  We visited light houses and small towns.

Further up the coast is Sleeping Bear Dunes NP.

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Going up the state we crossed the Mackinaw Bridge and onto the Upper Peninsula.

Just over the bridge we stayed in Ste. Ignace.  The Tiki RV Park.

From Ste. Ignace we took the ferry to Mackinac Island.   

On the ferry ride to the island we took a diversion and passed under the Mackinaw Bridge.

		Ferry to Mackinaw Island VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Mackinaw Island is still kept as close to the 19th century as possible.  Mackinac Island does not allow any cars on the island, so all transportation is horse drawn or bicycles, even the garbage collection.  The main street is quaint and interesting, if you can ignore all the fudge shops, restaurants and tee shirt shops. We decided to walk around the back streets instead of taking the horse drawn carriages.

More on our trip through the UP of Michigan to come.

Life is Super on the Roan Road…