Silver Lake, MI to St. Ignace, MI to Superior, WI

September 4 was a sad and exciting day.......sad because we were leaving the friendly family that we had been working for all summer  ....and exciting.......because it was time to hit the road for new places and adventures.



We drove a few miles to a local service center to have the rest of the troublesome wiring  over the right rear axle protected  from road wash and dirt. They plugged us up to a 50 amp connection for the night, and started the repairs the next morning.  At 12:45 P.M. on Sept. 5, we said good-bye to the Silver Lake Dunes area and headed north, over the Mackinac Bridge and into the parking lot of the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino.

  All of the RV hookup sites were taken, so we parked at the edge of the parking lot to 'dry camp' for our two night stay.





 During our visit, we won a  few dollars from the penny slots. We treated ourselves to a delicious fish dinner at the nearby Moose Lodge, where we sat with a couple who started fulltiming a few months back.. It was a great dinner with interesting people.

Saturday, Sept. 6, we drove across the Michigan upper peninsula  toward the casino at Baraga, MI. However, trouble raised its ugly head once again as the infamous Stop Engine alarm came on as we were going through Ishpeming, MI. Hank could restart the engine after we sat for a few minutes, but that restart only lasted about 3 miles, where we took refuge in a Pizza Hut parking lot.  An employee came out to ask how long we intended to be there, and after learning of our troubles, he told us there was a campground just down the road.  Since it was Saturday, our efforts to reach local help was not successful. Hank called the campground and they confirmed they had a site available.  The Country Village RV Park in Ishpeming became our home for 3 nights.



Sunday, Hank called Coach-Net (roadside assistance) and they said they'd find help for us first thing  the next morning. Monday, they connected us with a mobile Cummins technician who was close by, and shortly after,  he was with us, reading the engine codes and diagnosing our problem.....a bad heat sensor.  First thing Tuesday morning, he returned with the new sensor and by 11:15 A.M., we were rolling down the highway once again. We had to cancel plans to visit Baraga, so our next destination was the Head of the Lakes Fairgrounds in Superior, WI.

The rest of our trip to Superior was uneventful, with fall colors apparent in many trees and beatiful views of wind-whipped  Lake Superior as we neared the state line. Below is our view when stopped for lunch at a roadside park.

Our trip to Superior was because we were attending the RV Radio Network fall rally.  Hank is Deputy Net Manager and Webmaster for the group.  The rally was being held at the fairgrounds with water and electric hookups, and a very nice building for our use.



Two-thirds of the Curling Club Building is a summertime large event room, or a wintertime curling rink. The rest of the building (where we were)  contained a large meeting room, a full kitchen, and restrooms.



 We were warmly welcomed by the rally attendees already on site.  It's a good thing we had an inside facility to meet in because it became VERY cold as the days went by, with a strong 20-30 mph wind blowing off of Lake Superior. We had to pull some winter clothes out of a storage bin.

The 4-day rally was filled with meetings, seminors, sight-seeing time, prizes,  and plenty of  food.  The sun finally came out on the last day of the rally and it warmed up a little. There were 27 attendees with 3 of them local residents and 11 of them were rally first-timers.  The first night, we had  4 special guests - the mayor of Superior, the County Board Chairman, a Councilor, along with a reporter from the local newspaper. (Our rally hostess is the Douglas County Board Supervisor and the city supported the rally in a big way) . The reporter interviewed several members and Friday's edition contained a front page article about our rally complete with pictures.

https://www.superiortelegram.com/lifestyle/travel/4658433-RV-Radio-Network-rolls-into-Superior

On Sunday, September 15, we said good-bye to old and new friends, emptied the grey tank at the dump station and started our long journey south.

Our Summer Season, and Our Jobs, are Over!

We've been workamping at Sandy Shores Campground at Silver Lake, Mi for almost 4 months. It has been a great summer overall as we worked alongside good people at a scenic location, and learned a lot about campground operations, and the vehicles used to ride the dunes.  We averaged 34-38 hours per person per week with plenty of free time to enjoy our hobbies and run errands.  Overall, the weather has been great, after May & June's very cool and rainy days. My job ended yesterday and Hank finished with his duties today. Since we've had no TV reception here, we quickly became accustomed to finding our entertainment on the internet and  in the activities going on around us in the campground. With the exercise involved in our jobs, we've both lost weight and gained conditioning.

As always, there were a few RV problems to deal with.  There were some lights that were operating on their own, but that turned out to be dirty contacts in the control board.  There's been an ongoing low battery problem for over a year when we sit for a few days, but Hank finally found the loose connections in the battery bay that apparently was causing that, and all seems to be well now in that department.

The biggest problem came about two weeks ago when we tried to start the motor and run it for awhile as you should do when sitting still for long periods.  The tranmission control panel didn't light up and the motor wouldn't start. That problem took a lot of research by Hank, with multiple phone calls to REV (RV manufacturer), Spartan (chassis) , and Allison (transmission).  A damaged wiring issue was suspected like we had back in December.  Since we're in a remote area, finding a mobile tech to come help us was a challenge and we thought we might have to be towed out of here.  But finally, with the help of a local car/truck repair facility, we found a tech who came to us last week. After over 3 hours of work, discussions with Hank on his theories, more phone calls to Allison and Spartan, and much testing, it did turn out to be the same corrosion problem once again in the wiring over the rear passenger axle due to road water and oils being thrown up on multi-pin connectors and another wire had to be spliced and bypassed around the connector. What a relief to finally hear that diesel engine come to life and run like it should!

 Now it's time to get Little House ready to roll after sitting in one place for so long. All of the tire pressures have been checked and adjusted, engine oil, transmission fluid and coolant levels checked, items are getting put away, and we'll soon say our good-byes to our campground family   We hope to leave the area on Thursday for a leisurely drive through Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Superior, Wisconsin for an RV Radio Network Rally which starts on September 11. After that event, we'll begin our journey to the southern USA for the winter.