We are now in Iowa!  Today we came from a small town in Illinois - Joyce's cousin - called Prophetstown.  Just a small little place, but kind of on our way to Dyersville (Joyce's cousin also).  We will be here for a couple of days, then will travel onto Davenport to visit with Joyce's other brother.  It has been fun traveling the back roads to visit relatives.  As a member of a small family (1 sister, 1 uncle), it is a totally different scene when you are talking about a family of 13, all of whom have large families! 

So far, the weather has held.  We have had a little rain and quite a bit of wind, but for the most part, nice blue skies and temperatures that are reasonable.  Night before last, we had rain, had to keep the windows closed on the RV, and the humidity was incredible!  That was a long night with the heat.  Other than that, it has been fine.

Will talk to you all again later.

K

We left Traverse City this morning - late, had a leisurely trip to Au Gres, MI (on Lake Huron).  Tomorrow we leave for Saginaw to see Joyce's brother.  Again, we will make the trip on the back roads as much as we can and stay off the interstates.  Much prettier and we only like to drive 55 mph (speed limit) anyhow!

Weather has been just wonderful.  Not too much color yet, but starting to see some more reds and oranges.  It will be beautiful in a couple of weeks - about the time we get home.  It has still been a wonderful trip.  We will spend a couple of days in Iowa with family, then we aren't sure where we are going.  We will let you know when we know.

K & J

Well, here we are in Traverse City, MI.  We have traveled through a couple of states, spent a couple of days in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, and are now at Joyce's friend's house in Traverse City.  We will be here for a couple of days, taking in the sites and visiting.  When we leave here, we will head to her brother John's house in Saginaw, MI.

After a rough start to the trip, things are going just swimmingly!  The rig has worked like a charm, averaging over 20 MPG, the scenery has been great, although the fall colors are just getting started.  Seems like the 'locals' think peak time will be in 2 - 3 weeks and we will be closer to Montana at that time!  There are some changes, so the pretty colors are getting started now.

I have some wonderful sunset pictures taken our over Lake Superior, but I am on Vicki's computer now and not mine, so you will just have to be patient and wait until I get our computer plugged in again.

We are off to some kind of an adventure today, but I'm not sure what all it encompasses - Great Bear Sand Dunes for one.

Until next time -

Thank goodness for McDonalds - it allows us to come in out of the backlands and meet with civilization again!  Right now we are in Ashland, WI headed for Copper Landing, MI.  Everything has been going just swimmingly - good roads, OK weather, great tail wind - super gas mileage!!  The trees are starting to turn color, but many of them are just brown and stressed as they are at home.  Once in a while, a splotch of red shows up in the middle of a bunch of trees, and that is just beautiful!

I think tonight is supposed to be clear, and folks have been seeing the Northern Lights, so we will make that attempt tonight!

Nothing exciting, like a moose or bear yet, but we are kind of in that country.  Last night, we were the only ones in a small campground, so it was really quiet -and we heard coyotes singing!  that was nice.

Until the next time - K & J

Different Route

Hey there!

Left Medicine Hat about 2:00 today, RV ran like a charm!  We are currently in Shelby, MT and will start east from here in the morning.  We will, for now, plan to take HWY 2 across MT, ND, MN, WI, then up to the UP, Michigan.  We will probably just not go as far east since we are a week behind.  That will be another trip another year.  The UP has pretty trees, so we will go with that for this year.  We will still get to see Joyce's best friend in Traverse City, MI and her brother John in MI also.  Then who knows where we will head!

I really must say that the folks at Southland VW were just wonderful.  We couldn't have picked another place any better if we had tried.  They paid for all 3 nights in the motel, made sure we had everything we needed and gave us coffee mugs and mittens when we left today!

Look to go all the way across the state tomorrow, stopping just short of Williston.  Will check in again then.

Next Adventure Coming Up

Well, we have decided to take a different stab at this eastern vacation.  With any luck at all, we will really get out of Medicine Hat tomorrow afternoon.  That being said, we will head south to Plains, make a quick overnight stop, then head east in the truck.  We can travel a little faster that way, and it is not as likely to have another major problem in the near future.  At least, we don't think it is!  At this rate, who knows????

We will have a revised plan of where we are going, but we still intend to make the east coast, probably not via the Canadian route.  That may have to wait for another trip.  We will still stop to see Joyce's brother and her best friend in Michigan, then her favorite cousin in Iowa on the way home.

Stay tuned - you never know what might happen.  All along this summer, the password has been "Whatever!" and we will just go with the flow.

Well, here we are in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada.  Not quite where we thought we would be at this time, but it is all part of the adventure!  We are fine, healthy, and tired of being in Medicine Hat. 

We started our adventure 9/8 and made it all the way to just north of Great Falls, then started to have some issues with the RV.  Issues like what you might expect to encounter when you are using only 5 of the 6 cylinders.  The wind was blowing quite hard and we thought it might just be a result of having to work hard - wishful thinking.  We did make it to the border, had a no hassle entry there, made it to Milk River for the first night out.  The next day, we limped into Medicine Hat, found a VW car dealership and started the process of finding out what was wrong.  I had guessed fuel injector - good guess!  Of course, to get to the injectors, the engine needed to be taken apart - they are on or near the bottom.  Before they tore into it, they used lots of magical instruments to test stuff and sure enough, one of the injectors indicated no electrical resistance at all - meaning, we were indeed driving on 5 of 6 cylinders!  They also detected a poorly working coil.  We made the decision to replace it as well rather than have another problem down the road.  Parts were ordered and they were to be there the next day (Thur).  Once into that part of the car, they confirmed it was an injector and coil.  So far, so good!  Then when they continued to tear things apart, they found another injector that was going bad.  I looked at it, and sure enough it was!  That meant, of course, another injector had to be ordered and would be in the next morning (Fri).  In the meanwhile, they parked the rig next to the building and an outlet and let us stay in it, plugged into their electricity.  Yesterday, they got everything put back together, and guess what - it wouldn't start.  The new coil didn't work at all!  That means a new order of a part and tearing apart AGAIN!  They will do that Monday morning when the new part comes in.  So, right now, the plan is that it  will be ready to hit the road about 2:00.  Everyone needs to keep their fingers crossed.

We have been really pleased with how nice people have been.  We stayed in their parking lot a couple of nights, they gave us tickets to have dinner (10%) off, and after the disappointment yesterday, have paid for 3 nights at a local motel.  We had been kidding them about when we were serving pasta dinner, and they bought us a bottle of wine to go with it!  Maybe it pays to be 2 old ladies who didn't scream, rant, and rave when things didn't go as we hoped they would.

So, as the adventure proceeds, we will keep you all filled in!