HIT N THE ROAD

Thursday, August 6, 2015

BLUFFTON/FINDLAY OHIO KOA

Today is Aug. 6th and I had to do a small post about this lovely koa we are in. Joel drove for about 8 hours till we needed to stop and this koa was the perfect choice. It is right off I75 next to a cornfield and has 2 lakes in it. One for fishing and one for swimming with a sandy beach. It also has the nicest playground I have ever seen, pirate ship, train, fort, slides, swings, monkey bars and even a sandbox for the little ones. Lots of activities but no pool. All the sites are nicely manicured and grass and flowers are everywhere. Our long pull through was level, was 50 amp water and elec. but no sewer. We are only here for two nites so that is ok, they have a dump station on the way out. However, at each site there is a french drain for you to empty your gray water in, have never seen that before. The campstore is packed full of everything, food, rv supplies, loads of toys, lava lamp anyone? The owners are so nice and are here all day. It is very peaceful and quiet here, at night all you hear are the cicadas in the trees. I took a couple of pics. It is well worth going there.

Beautiful geese at the lake

View from inside the gate of the farm and fields

MACINAC ISLAND OR BUST

Well, here it is August 4th and we are at the St. Ignace, Michigan Koa to visit Macinac Island. We passed the Koa into the town but because there was no name of the town on it we kept going till we got to the bridge. We went over, it was $20 to cross. Once on the other side we realized that it was the Koa we were looking for on the other side, so back we went, another $20. We pulled in and saw that this koa had very tight roads. The office is manned by teenagers, who know nothing about sites, camping or direction. I had read a previous review of this place that said the electrical box is way in the back and you might not be able to reach it. Was he ever right. We ended up changing sites 4 times and finally found a space we could reach the elec. and get our satellite signal. By the way, every site in this park is so unlevel, you will tear your hair out trying to get level, just do the best you can. We booked three nites and left after two. This area has very few rv parks with pull thru sites,which is what we needed, so we take what we can get. It wasn't at all a good experience. The trip to Macinac Island the next day was nice. It is an expensive ferry ride over, but once you are there it pays to take a carriage ride. Only horse drawn carriages and bicycles are allowed there. It is such a pretty place. Food there is reasonable. A carriage tour is only $28, which seemed average. You will learn a little about the place. You can also rent a horse and go on your own or even a small horse drawn carriage. I don't know how much that was. It is difficult to get through the streets with so many people all over. The weather was beautiful. Enjoy the pics

Unfortunately sitting behind these huge belgian horses is amazing

Below is the Grand Hotel, where the movie "Somewhere

in Time" was made, it is a gorgeous place, just to walk through it

if you are not a guest costs $10

Below is one of the stops on the carriage tour

Like a museum with old vehicles and an

old sled

This cemetary is is the Macinac Island State Park

one of the stops on our tour, Catholic on one side

Protestant on the other and a small area for

veterans of foreign wars

A gorgeous pic of Lake Huron

This is Arch Rock overlooking Lake Huron

The turbo diesel ferry going to the island

An example of the architecture on the island

Behind view of the carriage

Friday, July 31, 2015

WISCONSIN DELLS

Well, it is July 31, and here we are at the Ho Chunk Casino rv park in Baraboo, Wisconsin, just up the road a piece from the Dells. We have been here since Wednesday. We have a large pull thru full hook up space and we leveled the coach and so far the new windshield is holding. We are a short walk from the casino and very few coaches are here, but the WINDS. They are unbelievably strong, and it pulls the door from your hands.

Yesterday we went to the House on the Rock, which is a famous house which was built in 1945, but has only been open to the public since 1960. Alex Jordan used to come to a picnic area called Shelter Rock when he was a little boy. His family liked the area so much he bought the piece of land it was on. Afterwards his father purchased all the surrounding property and began building this monumental house. Alex continued the work after his father passed away and had loads of quarry rock brought in and this is what the house is made of. Just walking through its dark and cavelike area is extraordinary. We took the section 1 tour which was the original house, infinity walk and the Japanese gardens. It was amazing to see this.

Afterwards we went to Culvers, our favorite fast food place. Love that culvers. Then we went to the Circus Museum, Barnam and Bailey was quartered here in Baraboo. Seeing all the old circus things was wonderful, they even had shows there and live camels and elephants.

Today, Friday we drove to the Dells, which is the tourist area to take a boatride on the lower dells. This is an hour ride. The upper dells is over 2 hours and it was very warm and extremely windy so we arranged for the lower one. A shuttle brought us to the dock and we had almost an hour before boarding so we had some mexican food for lunch at a real nice place right on the dock. The water level was too low to launch from there, so a Duck, amphibious vehicle shuttle picked us up and took us to a higher level dock. There were only 6 of us on the tour, and so relaxing. We chose to sit below because the wind on the upper deck could blow you away.

Anyhow it was a nice ride, we learned about how the dells were formed and I got some nice photos.

There are the sculptures outside the

"House on the Rock"

Below is on of the carousel animals,

the house had a carousel room, a dollhouse room too

The lovely japanese gardens

Horseless carriage

Photos from the Circus Museum

Jumbo the largest elephant in captivity

Costuming area

Camels and elephants, oh my

Oldtime circus cars

I loved the old posters

Photos of the Dells

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

NORTHWEST CHICAGO AND BEYOND

Well, it is July 29, and we are now in Union, Illinois. We are at a very nice Koa, we got in easily but getting out was another story, tight turns and flower boxes all over, but beautifully manicured lawns and overall in the country, cornfields and fun. We got to do a few things while we were there. We went to the Volo car museum, about 20 miles away.

However, on the way we stopped at a vienna hot dog place for lunch. It was pure heaven. Then we got to the museum, more pure heaven. There were 6 barns full of beautiful cars, most for sale, restored and gorgeous. In some of the barns were cars from the movies, and tv. We saw a short movie about how they made the batman cars. We went in and passed through a dusenberg exhibit and then they had a whole military exhibit, which was so interesting, outside and in were memorabilia everywhere, even a playground for the kids and a picnic area. There was also a cute Betty Boop cafe for lunch and had an animatronic animal trio playing fifties tunes, joel and I shared a hot fudge sundae. We had a wonderful time there and the photos tell the story, then then we had dinner with joels childhood friend, bob anders and his wife barbara. They drove an hour to come to see us and we had dinner at a german style restaurant. The next morning before we left for Wisconsin we went to a railroad museum and the photos also tell the story. We are on the way to the Wisconsin Dells today and will be there for 5 nites.