Canada 2011

Canada was a cool trip this year, we did something a little different. Of course we went to Wawa again but we took a different route. First we went to Frankenmuth, Michigan for a Blue Bird Rally where we had 21 Blue Birds and tons of interest from the other campers in the park. After our breaf stay in Frankenmuth we headed to the Canadian Border at Port Huron, MI with John & Nancy Hall fellow birders. John & Nancy own a 1988 PT40 and have owned it for 4 years and have nearly driven the wheels off it, they are like the rollin stones. From Port Huron we went up the Bruce Peninsula and stayed our first night in Canada at Point Farms Provincial Park near Goderich, On. Goderich is a cute little town midway up the peninsula and while we were there at the park a severe tornado storm hit the town and did alot of serious damage. Fran & I were at the beach in the park when we saw the water spouts heading toward the town, we got pelted pretty hard by hail; no damage to us but Goderich got hit hard.

From Goderich the next morning we headed up to Tobermory, Ontario and stayed the night at Land's End RV Park, if we ever do the trip again we'll head to the ferry terminal and spend the night there for free. $62 bucks for a one night stay in a nowhere desitnation is a little steep no matter how cute the place may be. Our trip on the ferry was for only 2 hours but it was an adventure. From the ferry we traveled across Manitoulin Island and up to Canada 17 and headed toward Sault Saint Marie then on to Pancake Bay PP. Our onenight visit and PBPP was what we needed for us to push on to our Northwest Ontario getaway sight northwest of Wawa. Fran & I discovered this little mecca (Wawa) about 12 years ago and have been visiting it if only for a day or two for the last 11 years. Traveling the back roads, fishing, picking blue berries, hunting mushrooms and visiting our Canadian friends is what we do and look forward to it just about every year. This year was special because we got to share our special spot with our friends. Canada 2011 Trip. Click the link to view our photos, sorry for the order but I hope you enjoy our trip through our photos.

Spring & Summer 2011

This year we have been trying to survive the sweltering summer heat so we haven't been out in the bird all that much. We have taken a couple short trips to our local state park, Charlestown State Park. May was fun we went to Berrien Springs, MI for the GLASS Rally and met up with 7 other bird friends and had a good time. We did have a lot of rain but with good company we did not let the rain dampen our sprits. We spent a few nights at the Indiana Dunes State Park just outside Gary Indiana and it was nice. On a clear day we could see Chicago across the lake. After the rally we went up to Grand Haven Michigan and spent a couple nights at their state park. The sunsets over Grand Haven was nice. Back in June we met John & Nancy Hall and went to General Butler State Park, Carrollton, Ky for a few nights and it was warm there. August may not be any better but we will make our annual run to Canada. I'm watching the Canada weather and it looks to be cooler and we are looking forward to being there.

Quartzsite, Arizona

I know it has been awhile since I last posted on the blog and we have taken a few short trips. Fran & I went to Pine Mountain, Georgia back in October for a few days and Hershey, PA for a few and then there were several weekend trips to a local state park, but I went off on a 3 week getaway with my friend Shane Fedeli. Shane & I went to Quartzsite, AZ back in January; it was a 3 week trip. Shane's wife Kelly said last year she had enough of Quartzsite and Fran told me one trip for her was one too many. So Shane & I came up with this bright idea if the wives don't want to go then us men must look upon this as an opportunity to get the hell away. So we did.
Shane departed his house around noon on Jan 16 and drove to Columbus, Ohio, spent the night and drove on down to our house by 11:00 the next morning. I had an auction that morning and I got home by noon, we were off again and on the road at 1 PM. We drove 17 hours from my house to Forth Worth, TX about 900 miles.
The next morning which was about 3 hours later we departed again with our friends Rick & Rosie Archie in their bird and Michael Cain, his dog in his bird and we drove another 700 miles in about 14 hours until we reached the Cattleman’s Steakhouse near Fabens, TX just a few miles east of El Paso, Tx. Spending the night at the Cattleman’s has become a tradition with Birders; anyone and everyone with a Blue Bird Motor Coach traveling through South Texas have stayed at the restaurant overnight. Dinner at the Cattleman’s was great but boy did it get cold, it was spitting snow that morning when we left towards Gila Bend, AZ. Now driving a Blue Bird bus and being with 2 or 3 others one will stop at a Wal-Mart a time or two along the way but with this group of folks I think we hit every damn Wal-Mart in South Texas, New Mexico & Arizona before we made it to Quartzsite. It's a good thing we did because the nearest Wal-Mart from Quartzsite was nearly 40 miles away.
Quartzsite Arizona if one has never heard of it or been well let’s just say it’s a different place. The average population is about 3000, but during the winter months there are about 100,000 recreational vehicles that land there. Once you top the hill heading into Q you can see the reflections off the windshields of RVs for nearly 20 miles in both the north and south of I-10.

Hershey PA Blue Bird Rally

During 6 - 11 October Fran & I went to the Hershey PA Blue Bird Rally. We met up with our friend Bill Pape in Somerset, PA and convoyed to Hershey. What a blast we were there with 30 other Blue Bird Motor Coaches ranging from 1978 to 2003. What a gathering, great food, and great companionship. It is always good to see old friends and equally as good to make new friends. We visited the Hershey factory, toured the Hershey area and learned about the Milton Hershey School. Fran visited the PA Capitol in Harrisburg and was impressed so now I wish I had gone, maybe next time. Our friends Shane & Kelly were the host for the event and they did an exceptional job. We dry camped in a parking lot belonging to the Derry Township, Shane had a time keep squatters off the lot. It seems as a couple tourist passing through the area saw a bunch of motorcoaches and thought it was a free for all and decided to crash our party. What a hoot.
On our return trip home we spent the night at Stonewall Jackson State Park near Roanoke, WV. What a beautiful park, 3.5 miles off the interstate and in between mountains so there was no road noise. This is the first park where we had a newspaper delivered to our bus. I was impressed, and it is in our plans to return. In a few days we're off again to Pine Mountain, Georgia for another working Rally.

We're Home

We travelled 7 US States, 3 Canadian Proveniences, in 19 days, covering 4230 miles and having to replace 2 fuel filters & 2 RACOR filters on the bus and 1 fault breaker on the generator. Not a bad trip!
To see old friends were the highlights of our trip, we couldn’t see them all but we wish we could. There were several places we would have stayed longer if we had the time and I know someday we will return. Custer State Park deserves a week, as does Theodore Roosevelt NP, Nays Provincial Park at Marathon, Ontario, Canada and of course we will be back at Wawa next year.
As always we toted way to much gear; the flag pole was never erected, the canoe was never launched. The fishing gear never saw bait let alone a fish. The griddle never fried a pancake, nor did the charcoal grill see any kabobs. We brought home 3 weeks of dirty laundry, plenty of leftover frozen food & can goods.
So I guess the biggest surprise in all was we bought approximately 550 gallons of fuel on the trip and so you can do the math.
We bought no souvenirs, but we did pick clean and bring home nearly 10 pounds of mushroom; edible of course. Compliments go to our friend Zen of the High Falls Motel & Cabins in Wawa, Ontario. Zen & his wife Anna are Polish emigrants to Canada who has been our friends in Wawa for nearly 4 years, who taught us the art of picking, cleaning and preserving edible mushrooms. So if you’re ever in Wawa, Ontario you will need to stop by & see them, maybe even book one of their nice cabins for a night or two. They are wonderful hosts, and they can tell you places to go & things to see in that area of Ontario. High Falls Motel & CabinsWell it time to get to work, another auction on Tuesday, and several appraisals just waiting for my attention. Fran has a few houses to sell, and list and we both have bus choirs to tend to. Check back later to see where else we have been next.
Hershey, PA & Pine Mountain, GA

Entry into the U.S. & Michigan

Crossing the border at Sault Ste Marie into the United States was about as non intrusive as it has ever been for us crossing there. It took us 20 minutes or less in traffic to get to a patrol booth and once there the guard asked. ”Where you from, when did you go into Canada, & what did you bring back. Have a good day!” That was it. No inspections and no questions about whom all were aboard or did we bring back any fish. It was quick, easy and simple so the next time we come back we’ll get hammered!
My objective on this trip was to see as much of the US & Canada in the time we had with very little time on the Interstate Highway System. A friend of mine, Randy Dupree, told me once he never bought anything off the Interstate Highway except fuel & bad food. Well there is a lot a truth in that statement & I agree. I would also say you really get to see the real people when you travel the back roads, I guess it’s like Charles Kuralt’s On the Road, the byways and the back country roads is where you really see America, on either side of the border.
After we got into Michigan we did have to travel down the I-75 until we crossed the bridge at Mackinaw City, once we crossed the bridge we got on 31S towards Petoskey, where we stayed at Petoskey State Park. Before we got to Petoskey we went down about 25 miles of M119 a tree covered bywa along the Lake Michigan Shoreline, it was a beautiful sight. Wonderful homes and a beautiful sunset could be seen from that route. I would highly recommend this to anyone, the fall would even be more spectacular.
Now I understand the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has to maintain a lot of facilities but I believe their pricing structure is a little unfair. It cost us $14 to get in the park at petoskey then we had to pay an overnight fee to camp. They charged us $8 for the bus & $6 for the tow. I asked if I drove a truck towing a 35’ fifth wheel what would it cost to get in, only $8 for the motor vehicle & nothing for the trailer. I’m not talking a boycott here but I do feel that equal fees for all who enter would be more fair.
Petoskey State Park is a nice park and if we are ever in the area again we will return. One night was not enough. We left traveling down US31 through town and down the Michigan Lake Shoreline then we got on M72 and followed it for awhile. Traveling from one small town to another seeing what were tourist traps and where the real people actually live. Eventually we came to M55 and headed inland until we got to the Manistee National Forest, very large and well appointed for the outdoors person, fishing, snowmobile trails, hiking & camping. Tonight we are at Pine Lake Recreational Area dry camping; it’s nice, and small with only 12 sites in this area. Tomorrow we plan on heading back to US31 to head south. Our next stop will be Warren Dunes State Park near Bridgman, MI. Warren Dunes is a wild sand dunes area in Michigan, the sand gets blown in off Lake Michigan and piles up extremely high along that area of the Michigan shoreline.

Canada

After visiting lower section of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND and the upper park approximately 60 miles north we headed straight north on HW85 to Canada and crossed the border at Fortuna, North Dakota, population 31. Crossing the border into Canada was like trying to break into Fort Knox. The poor guy riffled through our coach like we were smuggling rum into the states during the prohibition. We didn’t complain we just sit there and they eventually let us go on our way. I guess it was hard for the guy to comprehend 2 dumb country bumpkins coming from Southern Indiana to Fortuna, ND to cross the US/Canadian Border.
After the crossing we went on a side journey to Rouleau, Saskatchewan. If you ever saw the Canadian sitcom Dog River, Rouleau was the town used to represent Dog River. Yelp it looked just like it did on TV, police station, grocery, town hall, hotel/bar the whole nine yards with the exception of the diner & gas station which was built for the program. We walked into the bar to buy souvenirs the door was wide open but no one was there. We could have walked out with a table or chair; it was funny in a way. We stopped by the gas station and took a few photos, we could not drive up to the pumps, which were removed and replace with props, because tourist would stop by thinking it was an actual gas station. They even had to put barricades up on the drive way to keep people from pulling in; this was done after the filming had stopped. The grain silo was the same. It was a real hoot.
After our departure from DOG RIVER we set across Saskatchewan heading east, boy is it ever flat. Nothing but wheat and grain for hundreds of miles. We spent the night at Kings RV Park east of Regina on Trans Can 1, a nice stop for a night or two but no destination place. We drove on to Falcon Lake Provincial Park in Manitoba, a real nice park, clean and well appointed and would highly recommend it for anyone crossing Manitoba. Coming east into Ontario we stayed 2 nights in the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park east of Thunder Bay, another cool park. Silver Islet is a neat plce it was reported to be the largest grossing siver mine in the 1800's. This silver vein was discovered by a fisherman while fishing on a rock a few meters off the shoreline. Once it was determined to be silver the miners set pilings around the outcrop of rocks to form an artificial island and set up a large mining operation. The visitor's center at the park has a replica of the mining operation. Really neat. From Sleeping Giant we headed east until we arrived at Neys (NAYS) Provincial Park. Neys Provincial Park, west of Marathon, on Can 17. Neys is right on Lake Superior and during WWII it was a War Prisoner Camp for ranking German Officers. The visitor center host told us after the war 80% of the former prisoners returned to Canada after the war and applied for citizenship. I can understand why it was so peaceful and beautiful on the lake. In this region of Ontario wild Woodland Caribou roam freely, but we did not see any. We did see a skull & a pelt at the visitor's center. While at the center I was put to the challange of identifying animal poop of the region. I was 100% successful, so the host had me do a consulation round where I did 80% not bad for a non-native.
We are now in Wawa, Ontario visiting old friends; Wawa has been our primary vacation spot for 10 years, we love it here. Peaceful, quiet, great fishing, and so much for a photographer’s eye; my wife just has a ball here shooting photos. We’ll be here a day or 2 then we are off down Michigan’s western shoreline making our way back home. As soon as I can get a chance I’ll load up photos of our trip for you to enjoy. Wawa has always been our place for peace & quiet, fishing and mushroom hunting has always been out thing here. This year we did not fish but we did gather about 30 pounds on edibile mushrooms. We brought home about 10 pounds.

A few photos of our trip so far. Please excuse some none related photos because I'm sort of new at this stuff.