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.