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.
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