With all of the fun things we did while were in Muskegon, Michigan this last week, I never had the time to report on a visit from Gypsy Journal subscribers Paul and Dennise Ziaja, from Weslaco, Texas. Paul and Dennise were staying at the campground at the Elks lodge and when they read in the blog that we were at Fisherman’s Landing, they came over to say hello. We had a very nice visit, and Dennise told Terry about all of the good produce for sale at the Farmer’s Market, which we checked out the next day. It was great to have the time to chat for a while before they had to go run some errands.

I have been busy working on the seminar schedule for our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally, and it is a tough balancing act to get everything to fit. We have a great lineup of seminars, and I have a few new ones to tell you about. The Geeks on Tour, Chris and Jim Guld’s seminars are always popular, and they have offered to present a couple of extra seminars at the rally.

They are going to present both beginner and advanced seminars on writing an RV blog, basic and advanced seminars on managing digital photos with Picasa, a seminar on creating digital slide shows with Photo Story 3, and a seminar on Google Earth. That’s six seminars in all, besides their excellent Computer Boot Camp before the rally starts! When will they ever sleep? When will they ever feed their yappy little French Poodle? Where does it all end? Will they be offering late night computer classes for insomniacs? Stay tuned to find out!

One topic we get asked for all of the time is a seminar on cooking in an RV. Subscriber Vera Andrews is a home economist with 14 years teaching experience, and she has presented seminars at Escapade rallies in the past. Vera will be doing two seminars for us in Celina; Cooking on the Road, and Healthy Eating – The Why and The How. I have not added these new seminars to our Rally Registration Page yet, but check it out and factor these new offerings in and I think you’ll agree that we’ll have something for everyone.

As I said, it’s a juggling act to get everything to fit into the seminar schedule, and when some of our speakers learned that Joe and Vicki Kieva will be presenting their excellent Alaska, The Ultimate RV Adventure and RV Travel and Camping Tips seminars, they begged me not to put them up against these two powerhouse speakers. Either they did not want to compete with such well known speakers, or because they wanted to see the Kievas’ seminars themselves. But I’ll figure it all out, one way or another.

Okay, enough of that and on to other things. Early Tuesday morning a nasty thunderstorm hit Muskegon and lasted for an hour or two. We were wondering what kind of weather we’d have to travel in, but by daylight it had calmed down, though the sky was still heavily overcast.

We pulled out of Fisherman’s Landing campground at 12:30 and had an easy run south, with just one little rain sprinkle that only lasted about ten minutes. Traffic was light and we arrived back at our regular site at Elkhart Campground at 3:30 p.m. They have an Avion rally going on, and there are quite a few of the silver trailers here. I hope to get over and check some of them out today.

We’ll only be here a few days before heading to Bowling Green, Ohio for the FMCA rally, if they can find a vendor booth for us. Then our next stop will be Traverse City, Michigan for Miss Terry’s annual oncologist checkup. We’re having a busy summer!

Thought For The Day – Sometimes happiness comes through doors you didn’t even know you left open. 

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We have enjoyed our week in Muskegon, Michigan but sadly, it’s time to leave and get on down the road. But we sure have had a wonderful time in this friendly lakeside community.

We stayed at Fisherman’s Landing, a city owned marina and campground, where our back-in RV site had a concrete pad with picnic table, water and 30 amp electric, and a dump station, all for $25 a night. Actually two of those nights were only $12.50, with our Passport America discount, which is good for two nights in any 30 day period. The campground has 70 RV sites, and is located on a lake that connects to the Muskegon River. We did not need them in our self-contained bus conversion, but Fisherman’s Landing also has restrooms with showers and flush toilets.

How friendly is Muskegon? When we returned to our bus late last night after spending our last evening with my cousin Berni and her husband Rocky, we found a business card stuck in our door from city commissioner Steven Wisneski, along with a stack of goodies he had left for us that included two folding chairs in cloth bags, and two goodie bags packed with gifts like water bottles, can cozies, and keychain flashlights, along with a big collection of brochures about local attractions. You can bet we’ll be returning to Muskegon again! It’s one of our favorite places to visit, and I can certainly understand why Rocky and Berni chose this area to live in when they stopped fulltiming.

The city and surrounding area have a lot to offer visitors, from fishing and water sports, to neat museums, great restaurants (we ate out six of the seven nights we were in town, at a different  restaurant each time, and never had a bad meal), a wonderful farmer’s market, and some of the nicest people we have met anywhere.

And the fun doesn’t stop at the end of summer! The Muskegon area is a year round playground, with a winter sports complex, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, and ice fishing. At least Rocky tells me so. I hope to be in Key West by the time the first snow falls!

I wrote in yesterday’s blog that we hoped to do some more paddling before we left town, so yesterday after Berni and Rocky got off work we put our kayaks in the Muskegon River and paddled for a couple of hours. This time we were smart and paddled upriver against the current starting out, while we were still fresh, and allowed the current to carry us back to our launch point when we were done.

We poked into a couple of channels that led off the river and up into some small islands. At one point the channel we were paddling wasn’t more than a few feet wide, and the water under us was choked with weeds. Our kayaks did fine, but a regular boat would have had a hard time of it.

I was in the lead, and as I rounded one bend in the waterway a beaver or muskrat swam across and disappeared into the cattails on the bank as I approached, and soon after that I drifted around another curve and startled three great blue heron, who took flight at my intrusion into their little sanctuary.

Now that’s why we love kayaking! You can have your motor boats and jet skis. We much prefer the slower, quiet ride that allows us to get up close and personal with Mother Nature. As much as I love our life on the open road, I have to admit that I am just a little bit jealous of Rocky and Berni for having this wonderful place only a minute or two from their front door.

We’re heading back to Elkhart Campground in Elkhart, Indiana today, and we’ll be there for a few days before we head over to Bowling Green, Ohio for the FMCA rally, if they have an open vendor booth for us. It’s been a fun mini-vacation.

Thought For The Day – Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.

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Yesterday we drove about 40 miles south to Holland, Michigan to tour Windmill Island Gardens, which features a 240 year old working Dutch windmill, shops with a Dutch theme, and beautiful gardens that are bursting with color in the early spring when over 150,000 tulips are in bloom.

Unfortunately, we were a little too late in the year to enjoy the tulips, but the trip was still worth our time. Out first stop was the Posthouse museum, an exact replica of a 14th century Dutch wayside inn. There we watched a short slideshow about windmills and the Netherlands.

The complex includes a beautiful 100 year old carousel that has been carefully restored, and children can ride free. I love carousels, and this one was a real work of art. Just watching one go round and around wakes up my inner child, who is always lurking just under the surface.

The shops offer all kinds of souvenirs, from authentic Delftware porcelain to delicious fudge, and wooden shoes! They even have wooden shoes you can try on, just to experience what they feel like. I’m clumsy enough on my own, so I passed on that opportunity.

The crown jewel of Windmill Island is the impressive windmill, one of a very few original Dutch windmills that exist outside of the Netherlands, where they are considered a national treasure. This one was given to the City of Holland as a gift from its home country.

We took a tour of the windmill, and our tour guide, a young girl in authentic Dutch costume told us about its history and operation. They still grind wheat at the mill, and visitors can purchase a bag of whole wheat graham flour at the souvenir shops.

During our tour, we learned that before World War II, over 10,000 windmills dotted the landscape in the Netherlands. Many were destroyed by the Germans when they realized that the local populace was using them to signal troop movements, and still others fell into disrepair and were torn down. Today less than 1,000 original windmills remain in the country. The windmill at Windmill Island, called  “De Zwaan” (meaning graceful bird, or swan), shows damage from gunfire from German fighter planes during the war.

We will have a feature story on our trip to Windmill Island in the next issue of the Gypsy Journal, with lots of photos and details about windmills I bet you never knew.

We have to leave Muskegon tomorrow, so we hope to get our kayaks in the water and do some more paddling today. And of course we can’t forget our nightly game of Mexican Train with Rocky and Berni! It’s been a fun visit.

Thought For The Day – When you’re old and fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you’re down there.

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After sharing my experiences with tools in my Nick’s Tool Box blog  on Saturday, a couple of new RVers wrote to say that even though they now knew I wasn’t the right person to ask, would I check with Miss Terry and some other experienced RVers and ask what they considered the basic to carry in an RV toolbox.

A lot depends on your abilities and your own RV. Most of the bus nuts I know running around the country in converted buses (myself excluded) are pretty handy with mechanical things, and it is not unusual for them to carry a wide selection of tools with them; everything from a full collection of wrenches, screwdrivers, and a socket set, to caulking guns, and even power tools.

My pal Howard Best, who is the guy the rest of us bus nuts call when we’re in trouble, seems to have one of every tool ever made in the cavernous bays of his MCI bus conversion, as well as a pretty well stocked spare parts supply. One time when our 24 volt alternator died, Howard rummaged around in one of his bays and pulled out a brand new replacement, and then fabricated a mount for it!

Other fulltime RVers and extended time travelers we know carry much less, sometimes no more than a couple of screwdrivers, a pair of pliers, and an adjustable wrench. They figure if something needs more than just tightened, it’s time to limp into a garage or call their roadside service company.

Even a non-mechanic like me carries a decent assortment of tools. (Okay, let’s be honest, they’re Miss Terry’s tools.) We have a basic assortment of box and open end wrenches, a few adjustable wrenches, various size vise grips, pliers and channel locks, several sizes of standard and Phillips screwdrivers, a collection of standard and deep well sockets, a hammer. Miss Terry also has a set of Torx head screwdrivers in several sizes.

Then, of course, there are certain non-tool items that everyone should have; WD-40, duct tape, and Rescue Tape, which can be found at many RV rallies and is handier than a Swiss Army Knife. We have used it for everything from mending a leaking sewer hose to sealing a power steering canister. We also carry a spare fan belt, as well as replacement turn signal, brake, and taillight light bulbs.

Keep in mind that very few RV parks will allow you to do much in the way of RV repairs on the premises, so you probably don’t need to bring along every tool from you garage at home. In most RV parks, you can get by with some basic things like replacing a headlamp or taillight bulb, but most are not going to allow you to change your oil in your RV site. But you should still have a basic complement of tools to handle emergency breakdowns on the road. 

What kind of tools do you carry in your RV and find you can’t do without?

Thought For The Day – Nothing’s impossible for those who don’t have to do it.

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Muskegon, Michigan is located on the shore of mighty Lake Michigan, and the city’s history and personality were greatly influenced by its maritime heritage. Even though it is not as busy at it once was, the waterfront is still a busy place, though these days the pleasure boats far outnumber the working vessels.

In addition to the big lake, the area includes several smaller lakes and the Muskegon River, so everywhere you look there are people in fishing boats, sailboats, canoes, kayaks, jet skies and every other imaginable type of watercraft, as well as several I have never seen before.

Several retired historic ships are berthed in Muskegon, including the USS Silversides, one of the most famous World War II submarines, which we visited at the Great Lakes Navel Memorial and Museum and featured in the November-December 2008 issue of the Gypsy Journal. Also at the museum and featured in that issue, is the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter McLane, which saw service chasing whiskey smugglers during Prohibition, and Japanese submarines during World War II.

On this trip to Muskegon we toured another historic World War II veteran, the LST 393, one of only two World War II LSTs still in existence. The official designation for this type of vessel is Landing Ship Tank, because they were designed to carry tanks, trucks and other heavy equipment right to a beachhead, though their crews referred to them as Large Slow Targets. LST 393 made 30 round trips to Omaha Beach during the D Day invasion, and landed 3,248 vehicles during her wartime service. We’ll have a feature story on this historic ship in our next issue.

Docked right behind LST 393 is the cargo ship Paul H. Townsend, which spent the last fifty years carrying concrete from Duluth, Minnesota to Great Lakes ports. Built near the end of World War II, the ship is currently used for concrete storage, because it is cheaper to move cement with barges powered by a tug boat. We were talking to a gentleman at the dock who told us that the ship is still commissioned and can be made ready to sail within a matter of days. Meanwhile, he said, Inland Lakes Management, Inc., the company responsible for the ship, pays a watchman $300 a day to live aboard the Townsend to protect it from vandals or burglars. If I ever stop traveling, I want a job like that!

Seeing so much activity on the water had us eager to get our kayaks wet, so yesterday we introduced my cousin Berni Frees and her husband Rocky to paddling. They rented a couple of kayaks, we hauled ours out of the van, and off we went up the Muskegon River. Rocky and Berni both took to kayaking like ducks to water, and we had a wonderful time. Here is a pictures of Rocky and Berni enjoying their first paddling adventure.

Since it was their first time paddling, we didn’t make a long excursion, but in the couple of hours we were on the water we probably covered a little over three miles.

Until now, Terry and I have only paddled in the Florida Keys and the Gulf of Mexico at Aransas Pass, Texas. We learned that paddling a river is much different. Going downstream with the current is pretty easy to do, but fighting our way back upstream against the current our last half mile or so was hard work! We all had sore muscles by the time we pulled the boats out of the water, but all four of us were already talking about our next expedition!

Thought For The Day – Love, not time, heals all wounds.

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