Addison Oaks County Park

Sunday, May 28th. What a week! Let's go back to last Monday when we left Findlay, Ohio. We headed into Michigan. We tried to dodge rainstorms.....and didn't quite make it. By the time we were driving in downtown Detroit we had the rains come like our tropical rainstorms in Florida. By the time we arrived at the Eight Mile road underpass onI75, the notatrious drainage problems for that underpasses were prevalent. Thank goodness we were in the motorhome. 12 inches of water on the road were no problem for an RV. Cars were stalled, but we were in the lane with all the semis and big wheeled trucks. When we finally arrived here at Addison Oaks the dirt roads we had to take made both the

motorhome and car filthy!!!

Monday evening, Maggie had a softball game which we were able to watch. She had 3 singles and scored 2 times. She was really ticked off when she got stranded on 3rd once.
Tuesday another rainy day....doesn't Michigan ever get sunshine? A day of rest for us. Well that just means we did't go anywhere significant. We did take the Cadillac into the dealership to have the left turn signal repaired. Got a loaner, came back to rearrange the cupboards on board. That was an all day project.

Wednesday. When the Cadillac dealer called to say the car was finished we left to pick it up and then grocery shopped for a few items. With nothing else to do we stopped by Jeff and Amy's....got to meet Miss Abigail the girls nanny. Then back home for dinner.
Thursday just another veg day. That evening Charley was to be seen by the vet, but the vet had to cancel. Charley has a few spots which we have since taken to be bug bites, but we wanted her to be checked out.

Friday we were going to take Maggie to the local girls softball varsity game. Call came through that the opposing team could not make it, but we were invited to dinner with the kids, so we went.

That evening we had Katie (7 years) come back to the motorhome and spend the night.

What fun! She is a real character.

Saturday...May 28th. Maggie turned 9!!!!! She had quite the party. Both of my sisters, Marti & Mimi came. Amy's two sisters, Barbie & Sue, her other grandparents, Sharon & Richard and a couple of Jeff's cousins, Becky & Marge. Then of course Nanny, Miss Abgail and her hubby, Jason. Lots of fun. Maggie's cake was fantastic and she received lots of nice gifts. A couple of her gifts sent her sisters into shock. Lindsay was jealous of the pandora bracelet Maggie received from her Aunt Barbie, and Katie got upset about the iPhone she received from her parents. But all in all a great time for all of u

Addison Oaks Campground

Hello we are in Michigan. We have been on the road for a week and are finally in one spot for the next two weeks. Let me recap the past weeks time for you all. We left Estero on Tuesday the 17th. Of May. Our first day of travel we put lots of miles under our belt like 500 so our first night we spent in S.C. From there it was a short drive (200 miles) to our destination of Gaffney, SC. yes,we needed to get a jump on the car and no we do not understand why the battery keeps dying on us.
We were all ready for our first day at Camp Freightliner. What a day that turned out to be.

Our Instructor, Mike had a class of 14 persons. Typical class, I guess,....a couple of clowns (made things interesting) and a couple of people who did not smile much. By the end of class the second day....we had brain overload!!! But the class was well worth it, we learned a lot about care and maintenance of our coach, plus some helpful driving tips. Mike actually is a very rotund person who almost never got out of his desk chair. He just rolled that chair around to his various displays and parts examples. He picked us up at the KOA camp in the morning and drove us back in the evening, too.

Saturday morning we thought we should get out of Dodge....so we packed up and headed north. Driving to N.C and then Virginia and on into West Virginia. We spent Saturday evening in Milton, W.V. Guess it sounded nice. We unhooked and yup true to our experiences we needed a jump. After getting the car started we left for a dinner out. This is the year for minor mishaps......a lady hit the front of the auto, no damage to our vehicle, just a bent part on the tow bar!!! S---! What do we do? We can't tow the car.....so on Sunday we both got to drive. Good thing having friends all over the U.S. We drove to Vanlue, Ohio...... Jacquie and Tim to the rescue. We meet them at a friends....he has an acetylene torch and a BIG crescent wrench....we managed to fix the tow bar so we were back T in the tow business. Tom bought a set of magnetic trailering lights so the car wouldn't be taxing its battery and go dead again.

Monday we hit the road again hoping to dodge rainstorms and head for Michigan. Tom drove the RV and Nancy drove the car. Somewhere East of Portsmouth, OH, the rear view cameras on the RV quit. To add insult to injury, the video cable under the dash fell down and lassoed Tom's right foot to the accelerator. He didn't know about the lasso job until he tried to apply the brakes in the middle of the bridge crossing the flooding Ohio River with his right foot unable to get to the brake. Left footed braking a 30,000 lb RV when you're not used to it is a real trick to say the least!!!! We arrive early in the day, set up for the next two weeks time, here at Addison Oaks County Park. Happy to be visiting everybody from this base for a couple of weeks. The car didn't go dead this time, but we only towed it for a couple of hours this time!!

Estero, Florida

Sunday morning....May 15th. What a lousy start to the day! Rain, high winds and we needed to retrieve the motorhome from storage. Our thoughts were if we wait, maybe the rain will let up and it will probably be easier driving. Finally the weather maps looked like we might have a nice day ahead of us. We store our motorhome about 30 miles away. It is an easy trip in nice weather....but the tropical force winds we were having, well let's just say it is much nicer to drive a big rig when the sky's are clear and there is no rain. We finally got the motorhome to our home address so we could start loading. We pluged the motorhome into electrical power and we started cooling the fridge down and got the a/c on. From here on out.....it requires many trips into the home and back to the motorhome. But the skies have turned blue and we have our famous severe weather...severe clear that is.

Monday morning we finally got the last of our items loaded. Remember we will be gone at least three months, maybe longer. It does require some advanced planning. Our community here in Florida only allows us to have the motorhome at our residence for two consecutive nights, so we try and minimize our packing ahead of time. We are finally getting anxious for our trip...tomorrow we leave for Gafney, S.C. Will blog later.