Mackinaw City, MI

Today we drove back over the Mackinac Bridge and visited Mackinaw City. 

Check out this cool lunch spot: When a place is called Weinerlicious and has a giant hot dog on the roof of the restaurant, you have to stop by. John and I popped in for a quick lunch before doing some shopping downtown.  Good hot dogs, waffle fries, soda and shakes - a good stop.

 We followed up with shopping at the Mackinaw Crossing shops, our favorite store is the Mackinaw Outfitter.

Before we called it a day, we watched "Somewhere in Time” with Christopher Reeves.  A little homework in preparation for tomorrow, the film's location is Mackinac Island. John had never seen the movie before.

St Ignace, Michigan

Today we explored St Ignace.  We walked up to the top of Castle Rock which provides wonderful views of St Ignace and the shore line. And then we visited the Father Marquette National Memorial and walked the grounds, he was a French missionary and was sent to oversee French territory. He interacted with the local tribes and explored the waterways by canoe.

Then on to Wawatam lighthouse. This lighthouse is not open for climbing, but it is on a wide boardwalk which makes for a lovely stroll. It is located at the end of a nice little park with water fountains and displays a bit of local history.

We had dinner at Mackinac Grille Waterfront Pub and ordered the white fish, which is the go-to-fish-dish in this area. It was delicious. I had it baked on a cedar plank with veggies and John enjoyed the fish & chips version. 

We ended the day with a stop at Bridge View Park, a wonderful location with views of the bridge and the lakes. It was suppose to be a quick stop but it was so nice we stayed for hours just talking while we took in the views.

Spartan Factory in Charlotte, MI

We left Indiana and came to Charlotte, MI for our Spartan chassis service and repairs.  We received excellent service from Spartan.  They found items that had to be replaced and fortunately our coach was still within the three year warranty period.  Wonderful people doing great work.  We also had some tires replaced just to keep the coach safe. 

Jeep with new front cover

That completed all of the service and repairs to our coach and we are now ready to continue our trip to Alaska.

Prior to crossing the border to Canada, today we drove to St Ignace, MI to visit Mackinac Island and surrounding area for the next few days. We parked the RV at the Tiki RV park and got out in the Jeep to explore. We drove to the local casino, Kewadin Shores Casino & Hotel. While we were there we learned that they have an RV park that you can stay three nights for free. We will try that the next time we are in the area.

Entegra Homecoming Rally 2018

From Middlebury we moved to Elkhart, IN to attend the Entegra Homecoming Rally. It was wonderful to see Tommy & Bonnie and Marie & Jerry again. It was a very interesting few days attending information sessions during the day, enjoying delicious meals and catching up with good friends.

John and John at a Ted Talk

We enjoyed some fun partying at night with friends Bonnie & Alan, Vicky & Gary and Ivy & John. Entegra's Event Planner, Stephana and her team did an amazing job, it was another incredible rally.

After the rally, before everyone headed out in different directions, we had the pleasure of dining with Bonnie & Alan, Vicky & Gary and Ivy & John at the Blue Gate Restaurant   in Shipshewana, IN. I love the Amish cooking at Blue Gate! It was a fun way to end a terrific week.

Entegra Coach Factory

We just spent a week at Middlebury, IN to have our coach worked on at the Entegra Coach Factory. We stop here once a year to ensure everything is in tip-top working order before a big trip. As always Entegra was amazing. Our service advisor Stacey was a pleasure to work with, Steve our maintenance technician exceeded our expectations and Chris did a great job on all of our air conditioners and he took a little extra time to help us understand how to care for our AquaHot system.

Blue Beacon Truck Wash

From Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH we drove to Middlebury, IN.  In route we stopped at a Blue Beacon Truck Wash to have our coach washed before we turn it over tomorrow for maintenance at the factory. It usually takes John and I at least three hours to give the coach a good bath, this was less than twenty minutes and we did none of the work. I love this place! 

Aviation Museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH

We enjoyed a few days in the Knox area and then moved on to Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH.  They have the best Aviation Museum we have ever been to.  We spent a couple of days wandering through it.