Yes that's right, after avoiding coming here for almost 10 years, tonight we sit in the little town of Muskegon, Michigan. We are staying at the Muskegon, KOA. It's a nice campground, a little on the rustic side, but with a large swimming lake and inflatable water slides. Missy is convinced that the engine trouble we have been having is my attempt to keep us from Michigan.
Our day kicked off very early. We left Indiana Dunes at 6:00am so I could be in Elkhart, Indiana by 8:30am to try and get the camper fixed. It's only an hour and a half drive, but when I made the appointment, I forgot we also moved from Central to Eastern time zone, so we lost an hour. The kids were particularly thrilled with the early wake up!
The game plan at sunrise was for me to drive to Elkhart with the camper and hope they could fix it, while Missy and the kids went out for breakfast and then back into Chicago. After breakfast, they decided it was too early to head to the city, so instead they drove up to Michigan City, Indiana in search of the worlds largest fake nose and glasses. (yes, there really is someone that records and tracks this kind of stuff.) Unfortunately when they found the place, it looked like it was in for a nose job or something and was not on display. (it had been moved over the border to Michigan but was not opening until 10am!) A real bummer. So with heavy hearts, they decided instead of going to Chicago they would head over to Elkhart and catch up to me.
In Elkhart - actually Mishawaka- I was at Jordan Ford, where they informed me (And this is for all you Technical people) that the issue with the Motorhome was the number 10 cylinder was mis-firing. They replaced the #10 coil and within 1 hour we were good as new. My lesson - always take the motorhome to a Ford certified repair place for engine issues.
Well, with everything is good running order we drove over to Potawatomi zoo in South Bend - had a nice picnic lunch and made a new game plan for the day. The tiger there kept rubbing his head on the glass in front of us. I think he was eyeing up Daniel for a snack. Despite the zoos small size it was very well maintained and had some really nice exhibits.
Since none of us had ever been to a Presidential library we decided to head on up to Grand Rapids, home to the Gerald Ford Presidential museum. We were not sure what to expect, but it was a an impressive facility. There was an interesting display on the history and life of Ford along with a replica of the Oval Office and Cabinet room as it looked when Ford was in office. In the picture above, you can see Daniel, Sammi and I heading into the museum. Outside we paid respects to the Ford's at their burial site. Ford was also an Eagle Scout. So below is a picture of daniel with a statue of Ford getting his Eagle Award. He joined Scouts at 12 and had his eagle in 2 years!
Daniel splashed in the unique water cascade in front of the entrance and we took a short walk across one of the many bridges in downtown Grand Rapids. It's a nice and livable looking downtown.
From there we drove on to the KOA, about another hour and set up camp for the night. We even had a nice dinner outside for the first time on this trip. The kids ran right out the door to the lake and spent hours playing in the water. In the picute above you can see Sammi and Daniel on the slide. Below you can see Missy, Daniel and Sam in the lake playing catch.
Tomorrow, Friday, we push on into the Upper Peninsula. We are not sure just how good the cell coverage will be so don't panic, we will post again as soon as we can get a cell signal.
We hope you are all doing well.
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Location:Muskegon, Michigan
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