Duluth, MN

Wednesday - Today was a shopping day in Duluth, MN, about an hour west of the campground. The fires in Canada made significantly reduced visibility and made for unhealthy air. 

Our first stop was a fabric store and right across the street was a familiar storefront. I  no ended up picking up a few things including replacement zipper pulls for my Roadcrafter R3. I had explained my issue with the zippers and the expert on the Roadcrafters was sitting there and knew immediately what the solution was. She is retiring in three weeks and was working with other staff. It was a cool visit. I now have replacement zipper pulls. No need to replace the zippers. 

The next stop was Duluth Trading Co. It was located right in the downtown area. We picked up several items including some of their very durable jeans. The last stop was Costco. It’s been a while since we last shopped there but with the class C, we don’t pick up a lot of stuff due to weight and space limitations. Plus, there is a Costco at our next stop. 

Amnicon Falls

Tuesday - This morning, we headed west about 20 miles to Amnicon Falls State Park. There were quite a few falls. The water was clear with a red tint. Assuming that to be from all of the iron mines in this part of the country. 

I think there were 7 waterfalls but I only found 5 of them. They all had names but I don’t remember any of them. 

The short trails were just right and being near the water was nice. There were several bridges which gave some nice views. 

This double waterfall is not always flowing but there has been a lot of rain recently. I was told that this was a good time to visit. 

This afternoon, I inflated Bridget’s kayak and took it to the lake. I thought that it was very unstable and I couldn’t even venture 10’ from the shore without flipping. I think that I don’t get along with kayaks. 

Iron River, WI

Sunday - Todays drive was 250 miles across the northern part of the UP into northern Wisconsin. We are about 40 miles to Duluth, MN, at a small, private RV park. 

The park has a lot of trees so StarLink is looking through an opening in the trees. Probably no ham radio testing this week. 

We had dinner at a local restaurant and it was pretty good. They were sold out of some items. We are here with full-timers Kevin & Charla. Bridget and Charla are figuring out what we need to do while here. 

Sculpture Museum

Saturday - This past week has gone by quickly. A huge thank you to Hope and Richard for showing us around between their work camping shifts. The state park is wonderfully quiet and our site was huge. I dumped the tanks this morning as it’ll probably be a long line if I waited until tomorrow morning. Today, we headed about 24 miles west to the Lakenenland Sculpture Museum. 

There were quite a number of metal sculptures all created, I believe, by a single artist. He had them along two loops. One drivable but all outdoors amongst the trees. It really was a nice way to spend the afternoon. 

It was warm today so the generator was run most of the afternoon to have the A/C. The batteries were fully charged way before I wanted to turn off the A/C. Tomorrow is another travel day into Wisconsin. 

Kitch-iti-kipi

Friday - We drove to Big Spring or Kitch-iti-kipi. I’m not sure which is the correct name. The spring had a green tint from dolomite and was adding 10,000 gallons/minute to the river. It had quite a few large trout but they needed to be fed by the state as there was insufficient natural food in the spring. 

The outlet of the spring is a crack 12’ long and you could see the water coming into the pool from the spring. The water temperature is a cold 37°F year around. There is a raft that takes visitors across the spring and this is where the pictures were taken. 

We then headed into Manistique for lunch and to walk out to the lighthouse. It was around a mile out and back and was a nice walk. 

When we arrived back to the RV, I fired up the generator (and A/C) as it was 80°F and the SoC was 65% which is up from 53% this morning. I had forgotten to turn off the converter so it was charging the AGM battery all night. The 630watts of solar is really insufficient even for this RV. 

Munising, MI - SP

Wednesday - The forecast is for overcast today so the generator will definitely be running later today. The batteries were at 68% this morning. I put away our mat as winds are supposed to be up to 25mph this afternoon as some rain is on its way this evening and late tonight. 

I started the generator at 1pm and the SoC was 67%. So not much from solar this morning. I had increased the max current from the generator to 24amps with the Victron software. So we are putting 50amps into the batteries even with the A/C running. It 79° and 75% RH, so the aircon feels good.

The original AGM battery is used to start and run the generator. It was a little low today after running the generator for several hours yesterday. So I have the breaker for the stock converter turned on. The converter charges the AGM battery. 

At 2:30, I turned off the generator, and the SoC is 86%. I’ll probably run the generator again this evening. We are doing some sightseeing, and I don’t like to leave the generator running while we are away from the rig. 

At 4:00, I started the generator again and we were at 90% so the solar did charge some. While preparing dinner, we had the A/C, rice maker, and the microwave running which exceeded the generator output. The screenshot shows 2576watts from the generator and 2948watts to the RV. The difference was made up by the inverter from the batteries. My favorite feature.

At 5:00, the batteries were fully charged, and the weather said that the outside temperature was in the mid-70s.

Thursday - SoC was 70% this morning but by 11am, it has dropped to 62% due to rain and being overcast. 

Munising, MI - SP

Sunday - A short travel day to Munising, MI, on the north coast of the Upper Peninsula (UP) on Lake Superior. The weather is wonderful with a high of 68°F and normal humidity. 

Monday - Our site seems large and pretty flat. This is the first time we will be truly “camping” with no hookups at all. We

will probably need to run the generator on some days. It’s 63% SoC after a couple of days. Even with no shade (but scattered clouds and partial overcast) the batteries only got up to 88% yesterday. 

RichardM set up his wire antenna at our site and we tried it out with my radio. It works pretty well but we only tried receiving on 20M. 

Tuesday - This afternoon, Richard and Hope took us around to look at waterfalls in the area. They were all draining into the Painted Rock area, and it was a wonderful day to take the short hikes to the waterfalls. This was Wagner Falls.

We then drove a short distance to Miner Falls. This one was about 1.2 miles round trip and mostly downhill on the way out, meaning uphill on the way back. But I think it was worth the walk.

After Miner Falls, we drove to Miners Castle Rock for lunch and a short walk to the viewing platforms on the top of the cliff. We had seen this from the boat tour. This time we see it from the top. There was a bunch of switchbacks to go down the cliff but we opted not to go down.

We then stopped for some hand-scooped ice cream before getting back to the RV. The batteries were up to only 75% so I'm running the generator (and A/C!) right now to get them up to 100% for the night.

Sault Sainte Marie

Friday - We drove up to Sault Sainte Marie to have breakfast with RV friends Kevin and Charla at a crepe and coffee place. It was right across the street from the Soo Lock visitor center. An iron ore freighter was leaving the lock into Lake Huron when we arrived. 

Another freighter had just arrived from Lake Superior and was in the process of being lowered. 

Saturday - A reasonably quiet day at the RV campground. Since it’s Saturday, it’s quite crowded with a lot of kids running around.  But it is occasionally raining. 

Saint Ignace, MI

Wednesday - Today is one of our longer travel days at 285 miles up the length of the lower peninsula of Michigan. We crossed the Mackinac Bridge just before arriving. The toll for the RV towing the Jeep was $14. Not too bad. We are here for four nights and have access to a pool and other amenities at a nearby hotel. It’s okay but would’ve been better outside. The indoor setting echos all the kids screaming. There is a hot tub but no jacuzzi. 

The site itself is fine. Full hookups so I will have an opportunity to flush the tanks. I haven’t been able to do that yet as there is no black tank flush built in. 

Thursday - This morning, we took the ferry to Mackinac Island. It had been raining most of the night so it was only 61°F this morning. No pictures on the ferry since the windows were wet from the spray. We signed up for the carriage tour of the island. This is the Grand Hotel, one of the well known landmarks. 

This was the carriage house for the Grand Hotel and was our first stop. There were several displays such as knife making and a butterfly exhibit. 

Lots of carriages on display. 

Next stop, Arch Rock. Supposedly the most photographed location on the island. 

The next stop, and the end of the carriage tour, was Fort Mackinac. Quite a bit of history without a lot of fighting. But it had a great view! We had lunch with the same view.

The yellow and white umbrellas mark our lunch spot. We then caught the ferry Mack to San Ignace. This time it was blue skies and we were able to ride on the upper deck. 

Wixom, MI - SP

Saturday - It was a relatively short travel day (183 miles) but there was a lot of traffic. We are staying at Proud Lake State Park located northeast of Ann Arbor and northwest of Detroit. And, it’s the weekend. The campground is crowded and the sites are all pretty unlevel. Electric only so I needed to dump the tanks and fill up on water before setting up.

I set up the screen tent as this place looks like there will be mosquitoes in the evening. 

We went to a laundromat and I noticed that they have a small refrigerator with complementary bottled water. I guess they can afford this as the washers are $7.50/load!

Sunday - This morning, we met up with VEC friends Simo and Leila at a pastry and coffee place for breakfast. It was delicious! They drove us to Port Huron to the area under the Blue Water Bridge. This crosses over the St. Claire River which connects Lake Huron and Lake Erie with Lake St. Clair enroute. The current through this narrow section is fast with everything from small skiffs to freighters running through here. 

We then ventured south to the town of St. Clair for some ice cream. It was a wonderful day. We enjoyed the scenery and the company. Simo is someone I had gotten to know through the remote ham radio tests I participate in. 

Elkhart, IN

Thursday - We are staying at the RV/MH Hall of Fame & Museums. We have 30amp power as it’s in the upper 80s (°F) today. We had the generator running until after 9pm yesterday and it was still pretty warm and muggy. 

There are only a handful of power outlets available and there is some sort of event scheduled for this weekend so the parking lot could get pretty busy tomorrow. 

This RV is built on a Ford model “T” chassis. They had several including one with small slide outs. 

This 1929 model was described as the first American travel trailer. It’s essentially a covered wagon. The museum was pretty packed with old RVs both towable and drivable. 

Friday - I spent part of the morning wandering through the museum again and it was pouring when I came out. They have a nice seating area with WiFi. Plus, it’s air conditioned! I turned off the RV A/C around 6am but it was back on by 9. Not for the temperature but the humidity. And we did pay a hefty premium for power. 

La Salle, IL - HH

Wednesday - A 250 mile travel day got us to a Harvest Host in La Salle, IL. It is a quilting store and we are parked in the back of their parking lot. It’s a nice, shady spot that still had open sky to the north. This is needed for StarLink to be mostly unobstructed. 

At 9pm, it’s still hot and muggy so the generator and A/C are still running. For almost 5 hours. I’m glad that I figured out the issue with the generator and the Victron Multiplus. The PowerAssist feature has been working great. With the generator, I have it set to 20amps and there hasn’t been a hiccup. The battery has been charging whenever the A/C compressor shuts off. Tomorrow is a shorter travel day into Indiana. 

Warrens, WI

Tuesday - Another travel day to a county park in Warrens, WI. The site is on a hill and the water spigot and power pedestal are nowhere near the level parking location. I needed to use all three of my 25’ water hoses and the 25’ extension cord to get power. Fortunately, I got the power assist feature working on the Victron. It’s a 20amp breaker on the pedestal, so I have the current limited to 18amps. 

We did have the refrigerator running on battery power while driving today. This allowed us to have the propane turned off which is much safer. We arrived with the batteries at 100% SoC between the solar and the DC-DC engine charging. 

We are only here for one night with a 250 mile travel day tomorrow to a HH southwest of Chicago. 

Sauk Rapids, MN

Monday - It was a cool 60°F this morning, making it a good opportunity to install a SoftStart on the A/C unit. Hopefully, this will help it run more reliably when on the generator. The hardest part of the installation was getting the two-piece shroud off. The entire installation took about 15 minutes.

It now needs to run for a while to "learn" how much power the compressor needs to start and run. For some reason, when the A/C was switched on, it tripped the GFCI outlet that the RV is plugged into in the garage. Reset it and so far so good. After the outlet tripped, the A/C was running off of the inverter for a bit until I noticed that the input voltage was zero. But the A/C did stay running.

Yesterday, I started cooking a whole turkey in the sous vide. Actually, not whole as I did break it down into four vacuum bags. I cooked all of the bags for 24 hours at 133°, then removed the breast meat and raised the temperature to 151° for the last 4 hours. It came out great.

Fourth of July

Friday - This afternoon, we went out to one of the many Green Lake locations. We were told that there were at least five lakes in Minnesota with the same name. We got a tour of the lake on the pontoon boat then had dinner. This was with some of Alyssa’s family. 

Saturday - I was dragged into an escape room in St. Cloud. There were eight of us working on this and we finished the game with 16 minutes to spare. It was themed on Raiders of the Lost Ark. it was more enjoyable than expected. 

Sauk Rapids, MN

Wednesday - We are moochdocking just south of St. Cloud, MN. The weather app on the iPhone says that we are in Sauk Rapids. Who am I to argue with Apple? I ran the A/C blower for a while last night just to get the air moving inside the RV, and the battery SoC was down to 52% by morning. 

By the time we arrived, the SoC was up to 80% mostly from the engine charging. I have the shore power limited to 13amps and the A/C turned on. At 6 pm, the SoC is 81%. Solar is negligible. When the compressor shuts off, the batteries charge. It works.

We had lunch with my son, his fiancé, and our grandson. I participated in the last test session before the long holiday break. And relaxed the rest of the day. 

Faribault, MN - HH

Tuesday - Another travel day to a Harvest Host in southern MN. During our lunch stop, I tried my generator “experiment”. I turned down the max current into the Victron to 10amps, started the generator, then turned on the A/C. Everything worked fine. 

I turned up the input current to 15amps and all continued to run. Between the generator, the solar, and DC-DC charger, the battery stayed at 100% for the rest of the drive. 

At the HH location, we continued to run the generator and the A/C. At 5pm, it's still in the 80s and the battery SoC is 99% without the RV engine running. Just the generator and the solar. Later on, I'll slowly ncrease the demand on the generator until it starts to fail. Right now at 5pm, it's up to 18 amps. Enough to run the A/C and charge the battery at about 15 amps. 

Clark Tower, Winterset, IA

Monday - This morning, we did a Costco run after having a delicious breakfast at a local coffee place. Afterwards, we went to this Clark Tower within the city park, about a mile  the campground. Kind of cool, but I don't really know why it's here. There was a dedication sign, but that's about it. There was a nice view from the top level. The pano at the end of the post was from the top level. 

On the way back to the RV park, the rain started again. Fortunately, without any lightning/wind drama. Just rain.