Saturday August 29, 2009 Happy Birthday Mark

Happy Birthday Mark

Took off early this a.m. and went into Marquette.
We went to Target and bought a toaster oven for Rosie
drove to Menards
 read the instructions its is not going to work.
 back to Target took it back.

Shopped ate lunch and than  out to Presque Isle
 ole Lake Superior was really on a roll.
she must have been mad at something.
But boy oh boy was she beautiful.

We drove on up along 28 going into Munising which was beautiful.
 This is such a beautiful drive in both directions.
 Stopped at Deerton
took a nap
barely made it home in time for 5:30 church.
It was a great day...

God is good..................all the time

Sunday Aug 23, 2009 A Great Day Of Rest

Sunday a day of rest
       Sunday breakfast:
                   raisin toast and scrambled eggs and juice.
                                   And on the road to home.

It was a very good trip
.
I think Rosie loves the rain...
                                       cause everytime we go in her it rains....

Sat Aug 22, 2009 First Breakfast in Roadtrek

Sat first breakfast in Rosie
        Saturday am.
                                 Got up and was kind of cranky..
                                                 I know that is so hard to believe.. :)
I was cooking my first meal in Rosie.
                   We were having pancakes and eggs and bacon.
                               and guests..................
Well the micro wave does not work
                could not find everything I wanted in the kitchen.
.                                     but after much searching I found the syrup.

Martins came over about 9 (first guests for breakfast)
              we fig out how to set four people around our table.
                                      It was cold outside and still raining  (of course)
.                                                      The table worked out pretty good.
 actually better than when we had them over in the Honey our class C....

Maybe this B is going to work out very nicely.
To cold to eat at the picnic table.
         afterter reorganizing everything in the kitchen we finally got breakfast done.
 It was very good. Had to put eggs on the bed though

Martins left camp soon after breakfast
       we were going to the dump station our first dump...
                               boy that sounds weird... :)
We had not dumped yet since we started back to the UP.
                       All it all it went pretty good.
                                I pulled some levers on one side and lj put the hose in the other.
Next time it will be much easier.
                              we then decided to go on to Marquette to look for a shelf to attach to the closet door.
For much needed counter space.........eggs on the bed do not work for me..
On to Marquette to Menards and LJ bought a shelf to make me a counter.

On the way home...Carol called and wanted lj to come and watch the preseason
Chicago Bears game and spend the night in Martins campground..
although very tired we thought that would be fun.
after a quick dinner at a roadsidepark  a Frisbee game for Nyla we were on our way...
we watched half the game
no one could keep there eyes open......but bears were wining at half time...........
go bears...
we went to bed.........snore snore...............

Birthday Weekend..

Friday, August 21, 2009


we left at 10 and it was raining. surprise surprise........
We met the martins at the corner in chatham.
arrived in Newberry
 we did not have wifi from our site and martins did not have cable like it said.
Carol was not to happy.
Although it rained all day and I didnt take many pictures we had a blast.

We drove up to whitehouse point then to whitefish point Marina you could walk out on this real cool pier and we looked at all the fishing boats.
 I only saw one I would ever go on....YIKES    the rest looked pretty scary to me...

We looked up and off to the west and wooooooooooooooo there was a big rain storm coming
          we ran as fast as we could to try and beat the rain... the rain won
 on into Paradise and to the blueberry festive.
 To bad the weather was so nasty.
everyone there was real friendly and  having a real good time.
Going on down the road we saw a big sign that said free dinner on the day of your birthday.
 today is my birthday so we stopped.. it was ran by native Americans and was a fish restaurant.
 I could get anything I wanted off the menu.
It was the best perch dinner I think I ever  have had...... I didn't think I could even eat it all.
                                   And much to everyone disappointment ..
.                                                                             .I did... yum yum...
  They  surprised me buy bringing  out a birthday cake and sang.
 It was great. We were all to full to eat cake so we brought it with us. .

We got back to the camp everyone came over to Rosie to have cake.
 It was good
        so in spite of the rain
                                  a good time was had by all

. One of the best birthdays I have ever had.

Hello and My name is Ben

August 18, 2009

One week old today happy birthday Rosie...

we had so much fun coming on home.
 We stopped at the bridge and it was so neat to go into the gift house and be under the bridge. It was a beautiful day.
We stopped places we had not stopped for the last 37 years of making this trip.
We turned down a dead end road
A beautiful view of lake Michigan we decided to relax for a bit.
Just ready to take an afternoon snooze  a knock on the door
A person stranded wanting to know if we knew anything about cars.

We met Ben
He was a very nice polite guy who was on his way to Northern Michigan University for orientation he really needed to be there the next day.
After looking at his car.  We told him we would take him.
So we unloaded all Ben's things and threw them in Rosie and headed to Marquette. Along with Ben;'s dog.
We may never see him again...
but all things work the way they are supposed to
 we were ment to go down that road and find him.

God is the blessed controller of all things. )

Aug 17 2009 Going Home

Day Six Going back to da UP

Sleep like a baby . this mattress is amazing... lj sleep good also.

It is raining and the sound of it on the roof is great.

Maybe go half way home today and half way tomorrow.
 Not sure yet where we will stay.
Picking up some sweet corn and some peaches today. Yum yum..

the sound on the roof is getting louder. Wow... is it raining. Starting to leak by the back door and in the sun roof.
 It has rained over 4 inches in one hour in some spots down here.

That is a lot of rain...

we took off in the very hard rain about 10
we decided to mozy on up to the UP a way we have not been in years. It was wonderful although the rain did follow us.

We stopped most of the leaks with good ole duck tape.. :)

thank God for the man who invented duck tape.
We went up through Newaygo and went to Mesick. Decide to check out a few state parks by fife lake. To our surprise there was no one there.

Lj wanted to go a bit further so we decided to cut over to 131 and hit Gaylord. We found a walmart and picked up a few supplies.
We decided to spend the night and check out Jays in the am. After a supper of fresh sweetcorn and fried rice we went in an ask if it was ok to park here. They said no problem.


well now we have six or seven neighbors. It looks like maybe even another RT trekie... we have not seen another one old or new since we bought rosie.

Aug 16, 2009

Sunday, August 16, 2009


Day Five Back in Michigan at the kids


It was a great day...spent it with Mike and Pam
 in the afternoon Rick and Karen came over and Mark Heather and the boys.

 Fabulous food. It was great

. LJ fig out a solution for the air conditioner.
He added a little piece of metal out the back and it kept the water away from the back of the window.

 It rained real hard this afternoon and Rosie looks pretty good. She enjoyed the bath...LOL It was a much needed rain for here.

We are heading home tomorrow. LJ has a few changes in mind and is kind of excited to get home to do them.
 We didnt bring our big inverter not enough room coming down.
We were going to take a little more time going back but grandson is graduating from Police academy on Wednesday so we will be back for tat.

In Indiana Whatever Where ever

Saturday, August 15, 2009   Very hot out
 today we woke up and decided we would do
 whatever and where ever ..
no special plans but thought we would hit a few garage sales.

The only good problem is that rosie da trekie is so awesome she does not need much.
We picked up a couple of hanger thingies to hang stack clothes
A few baskets and we were all set.
 We had a blast.

OK now came the long awaited time for the first gas since we bought her. Lj went in to pay and told me to fig the gas mileage.
 Are you ready?
                  He came back and I very excitedly told him 40
she is getting 40 miles to the gallon..
He started laughing and looking at my fig. I had us going 345 miles when it should have been 145 miles.
 Well after the math whiz fig it out it came in at 18.9 which made us both smile.
Great Job Rosie we are loving ya even more.

We went to church that night with the kids to Granger community church.
Which is one awesome church. I thought we were at a rock concert at first.
They have five services every weekend. It was very nice and very very big. They do amazing service for the community in this hard depressed economical times. It is a church that really goes out and helps the community
I love a church that works like what I have in my mind of what the church should be.
 Loving and helping mankind.
Thank you Jesus for this great mission they have taken on.

Well we were exhausted when we got back and went off to bed which to my amazement was wet....very. very,very wet.
We left the air on for our dog while we were gone and the air-condition leaked all on my side of the bed...of course it had to be my side..:)

Learning some things

I am an early riser LJ is not...
the privacy doors on Rosie are great.
I can shut them both and he can keep on sleeping while I can be in the kitchen or in our dining area.
The captains chairs in the front swivel and there are two lounge chairs for the passenger’s seat. And a small round table.
for right now we have decided to have the back bed down all the time.
It is so nice having a back bedroom. love it love it love it……

Soon we will start the great test
what kind of gas mileage will we get?
Gas so far down here is a little bit cheaper than the UP coming in at 2.59...

Today we will go into Indiana and see what it is down there.
It usually is cheaper around the Elkhart area.
We  also need to get some propane there is a small amount in here so we checked out the gas stove and it works great. smile smile smile.
There is also has a small micro wave which we will not use but it will be good storage
We like boondocking. So electric is not always going to be in the picture.

Well I need to soon go make coffee.
We have not bleached out the tank yet so need to make a trip to the house to get some water.

I think it is going to be a great day....

God is good .......all the time...

Downstate

Friday, August 14, 2009
We got up pretty early and showered at Rick and Karens.
.. We then proceeded to go out on our very first adventure.
 we kinda like the little table that is in the front and we left up all the time.
 we are going to Elkhart Indiana the mobile home capital of the US  we thought this would be a good place to look around.
It was very hot outside.
then we drove on over to our son's place of work.
They had a few custom vans outside ready to roll
.  they were awesome.
Our son is a painter there.
They were doing custom golf vans for the team of Ole Missip
it was one awesome van. Wish I would have taken some pictures of it.
Than back to and Evening of jibber jabber with Rick and Karen
It was so fun..

Day One like Christmas Day

Thursday, August 13, 2009


Day One Explore.....



Day One:

It is like Christmas for LJ day, he keeps finding hidden treasure. and We did find the truck manual which the RV salesman didn't think there was one. Thank you Jesus. Cause it would have taken a long time to fig out where everything was. We were not sure everything was working but so far so good. We are having a problem with the fridge. I think it is just fussy but sure praying we do not have to buy a new one right away.

Today is day One exploratory

and boy is it hot outside here.

.after plugging into the electric we found the following.

The air is running

.the fridge is kinda... running so far so good. We feel blessed and thankful for finding this little jewel.

This is just what lj wanted. I have to say I did love our Honey. but seven to nine miles a gallon was not going to get us to far.

Rose is small enough to park in a McDonald,S. parking lot. a real plus..

. LJ really likes driving her. We are not sure on the gas mileage yet.

We are going to the kids and spend a few days and than maybe wander on home Monday morning. LJ wants to go up lake Michigan side so we will just take our time and go.. all our plans are subject to change. We already decided not to make long range plans.

We are already loving this. LJ has worked hard today getting the awing up. It is perfect and so cute.

There were so many wasp nests in all the nooks and crannies outside he had to bomb them with some wasp spray. This Unit has a rear bed which we both love and sleeps wonderful. I will post pictures very soon.

We were going south 6 years ago for the winter months and we were gone for one month we only made it to Indiana....

The kids thought it was pretty funny and they don't think we are going far this winter.

LJ didn't think he wanted to travel. But already I heard him say we wont need snow tires so maybe he is thinking of going to FL to see brother. It would be a great trip.

But defiantly after hurricane season. Rose (the Treker) rig came from FL so she probe would be glad to go back for a visit.

I need to take pictures of Lj doing his thing he gets so excited when he find a buried treasure it is like Christmas for him.

Well night two in Rose and she is amazing. What a wonderful bed. God is so good to allow us to have the means to buy this jewel. We found out today everything works. WE we not to sure about the fridge but LJ did it. He thinks maybe we were not level enough to get it to work on the Electric. The battery should be charged up pretty good today. WE our on our first adventure to Aunties and then on to another Aunts for her 81 birthday.  LJ is talking putting in 2 15watt solar panels

Wednesday Aug 12, 2009 Welcome Rosie

Wednesday, August 12, 2009


Going to Meet Rosie
We left early in the am on the following Wednesday and made the 8 hour trip.

we had talked to the salesmen many times

there were 25 pictures off her on the net.
And she seemed to be saying her name was Rose. We are weird like that we always name out autos...



We had a ford tractor once and LJ named him Gerald...
The salesman parked her in front so when we arrived we spied her.

It was so hot there and it must have been a hundred or even hotter inside the RV she was parked in full sun and on black hot pavement .
It was hot to even stay in and go through it. My first thought when we walked in the very small opening was kind of shock. My thoughts were It is so small after our Honey.
I loved Honey.
We struggled for the next few hours looking it over and coming up with a deal.
He came back with a deal that was just to much money.We sat and prayed

Would she be ours? We decided this was not in our price range
they wanted to much
we made a counter offer which LJ took back inside
they accepted it.
WE felt so excited she was to go home
back to the UP.and become a Yooper



Thank you Lord.
We started out journey on down to our good friends house in Jones and spent the night.
After a very tiring day. And a inside bath for Rose. We retired early wonder how this bed is going to sleep. I tucked in a sleeping bag and quilt just in case we did work it out and it looks like its a good thing..... I think the rose may be like fine wine and just be coming into her prime.

we had not left the RV place even 20 min. when LJ looked out the review mirror and saw the red flashing lights pulling us over. Yet were stopped by the police. A real nice policeman was behind us and ran our plates. He stopped us and told us that our vehicle did not look like an S10 pickup. We told him that We just transferred our plates and it had not went through to the state yet. We just bought Rose. He was curious as to why we drove 500 miles to get a van. After a discussion We found out he was a Yooper he was a real nice guy. He missed the UP but his girlfriend did not want to move up there. Poor girl does she not like 260 inches of snow or more. what is wrong with her????

The Search Is On

I searched and searched on the internet
LJ wanted a camper van
I wanted a vintage pull behind...
maybe a canned ham camper.

I had heard about Roadtrek but knew they were way way out of our price line...

All of them were way out of our price range.

Then we spied Rosie.
 We first saw Rosie on the internet for sale in Coldwater Mi.
After very little discussion...We decided to go take a peak
We wanted to leave soon but not in a great hurry cause we knew if she was to be ours she would be there
Just about a 500 miles trip.
Mmmm and about an hour away from the downstate kids... maybe a visit also??????

Aug 11 Bye Honey......

WE sold the Honey on Tues. and I cried a tear
cause I loved the Honey.

She was a 1988 Older much loved mini Class C 24 feet long and was just perfect.
Honey had one big downfall.....
.Honey had a horrendous appetite ....
(nine miles gas on a good day) They told us when we bought her that she would get 11-13

Dennis a fellow RV said one thing about Rverr
they all lie... :) when it come to gas mileage.
Honey loved Gas....
she could drink and drink and drink..

LJ wanted to sell her
I was not that sure. So we prayed and put her for sale and ask if it did not sell by the 15 of Aug. we would keep her. We must have showed her 20-30 times. Many people  loved her and two couples we thought were coming back but no show.
I was getting excited. I circled the 15 of Aug. on my calendar and wrote in big letters with hearts around it that the honey was mine.
One week to go...
and then the  day the phone rang. OH No they want the honey and are going to pick her up next Tuesday.
OK I said get it together.....You prayed now be thankful there is something else in store.
I must confess going out to say good bye was hard.
She was cleaned out and sparkling when she left.
LJ said she had a smile on her face but I didn't see it.
                                            NOW WHAT.......