Trouble on the road

We started the morning with a nice long walk by the breezy cool lake shore.   

We rolled away from the Great Lakes Naval Station at 11am, just 20 minutes down the road, we were stuck in a traffic jam close to O'Hare Airport for almost two hours.

While driving in the rain this afternoon one of our windshield wipers stopped working.  We were very lucky that there was a truck rest area that we were able to pull in to.  We called for mobile service and it took about two hours for the tech to arrive.  He was good and had the wiper working in 10 minutes.  Since the sun set and it already had been a long day , we decided to sleep at the rest area tonight.  I made flatbread pizza for dinner and we curled up and watched a movie.

Jelly Belly

This campground provides only electricity, no water connections.  We started today with typical  RV chores, we drove the rig to the marina to fill up the propane tank and fresh water tank and dumped the other tanks. Then it was back to the site to setup again. 

We were planning to go to Chicago today but we are scheduled to return here in a week and we will have much more time to see Chicago.  So we switched things up and went to the Jelly Belly plant tour; it was a delicious tour.  

For dinner, we enjoyed fish and chips at Chancery Pub.

Tomorrow we roll out to get setup at Spartan for their one week class.

Lake Michigan

Very cold rainy day, 40 degrees, we drove into Chicago but did not stay long. The weather report says tomorrow will be a much better (dryer) day. We enjoy the view from our RV of Lake Michigan's waves crashing on the rocks.

Lake Michigan with lot of white caps - the view from our RV lot.

Great Lakes Naval Station, IL

Today was very cold for our moving day to Great Lakes Naval Station, just north of Chicago.  Before we left Middlebury, we had no power to appliances, even though it has not happened before we immediately thought the inverter popped (if that is the name of it.  I will most likely know the technical terms for this stuff after we attend the Spartan class next week).  Our inverter box is attached to the big long beam that runs the length of our coach. To get to this box we removed many items out of the basement.  John crawled in and found the popped button on the box, pushed it back in and everything was back up and running.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, a nice smooth drive to Great Lakes.  We are in Lot #: 14,  it is a fabulous lake front site!  Beautiful!  After we were all setup, it started it rain, the wind picked up and whipped around, but we were toasty warm with heated tile floors.

Last full day in Middlebury, IN

We started the day with a bike ride and then it was off to Rise n Roll for an apple fritter fix.  

Later in the day,  we visited an Amish deli to pickup some ham and cheese for lunch on the road tomorrow.  Last week Tommy had recommended the Blue Gate Restaurant in Shipshewana, we went there tonight for dinner; very good home-style food, yum!  

Tomorrow we head out to Great Lakes Naval Station.

Golfing!!!

John and I have been driving by a great looking golf course, Meadow View, for over two weeks and today we stopped to play; beautiful fairways and smooth greens. It has been a while since we have used our clubs, it felt great to play again!   

We got our release papers from the Entegra warranty shop, everything was completed to our satisfaction.  These talented guys worked hard to ensure our RV is optimized and in peak performance for our 'Big Alaska Trip".

We have one week before our Spartan class is in session, so we decided to go to the Chicago area, but when we called the RV park they told us they were full; we can get a site on Wednesday afternoon.  So we will spend an extra day here and that will not be a problem for us.  We have become friends with many of the locals, we have grown to love this area and the people who live here.

Sunday in Middlebury

Today Bonnie and Alan said good-bye to us to continued their journey to Boston and Nova Scotia.  We had a fun week with them, so nice to catch-up with good friends out on the road.  

John and I visited the local parks and farmlands in Middlebury, here are some photos we took.