18 Faces Every RV-er Will Recognize
Because it’s Friday, and I think we all could use a good laugh at the end of the week, I now present to you for your enjoyment, 18 faces that every RV-er will recognize. Enjoy! I hope you have as much fun laughing at these as I had putting them together!
TeeHee! Hope you enjoyed!!
The Weirdest Campground We’ve Ever Been To
Boo!
Scared ya, didn’t I? With Halloween just behind us, what a great time of year to have camped at Eden Springs Campground in Benton Harbor, Michigan. This campground was weird, and spooky, and weird. But fun! And interesting!
Eden Springs Park was a popular zoo and amusement park, founded by The House of David in Benton Harbor, Michigan in the 1930’s. One of the main attractions at the park was a coal-powered miniature locomotive that gave rides all around the park.
The park also offered miniature racing cars, a restaurant, a penny arcade, pony rides, and dances and shows at the amphitheater. The park closed in the 1970’s and the land was abandoned. It was purchased and opened in 2011 as a campground on one side of the land, with the old buildings and train tracks on the other side of the land. The new owners are slowly working to refurbish the old buildings, which are VERY run-down and will take a long time to rebuild.
I was kind of surprised that we were allowed to walk the whole grounds and check it all out, as most of it is very hazardous due to the condition of the old buildings. However, our host (who lives on the grounds) was very kind and more than willing to answer all of our questions and allowed us to poke around all we wanted. The place was WEIRD.
Did I mention that the place was weird?
For a full read on The House of David, follow this link: http://theclassical.org/articles/the-beards-of-summer. Its a very well-written article describing this strange religious commune, where its members were sworn to celibacy and never cutting their hair or beards. Right behind the campground/park, there are a couple of houses that are home to the remaining 3 members of The House of David. They are well-fenced, and the manager of the park told us “they just want to be left alone.” The houses are large and very nice, from what we could see.
All in all, it was a very interesting couple of days spent at Eden Springs Campground. I would love to visit again some day!
Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going
So the last month has been pretty boring as we have been stuck back in Illinois. The good news is that Brian’s Eagle Scout project is turned in to his troop. And now we just have to wait for the Council to contact us for the final meeting. This could take several weeks, so as of today we are outta Illinois!! The plan to drive to The Smoky Mountains in Tennessee for the fall colors. However, we will be going to Michigan first for a couple of days, as Jim has a client to see there.
Our time back in Illinois was filled with work work work. And friends, and family of course! Its amazing how much stuff has to get done when back in our hometown!! We got new glasses, I took care of a couple of photography clients, we filled prescriptions, went to the storage unit about 62 times, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. And visited lots of family and friends that we won’t be able to see for a while.At this point everybody should be happy LOL!!
So now the plan is to get this client taken care of in Benton Harbor, Michigan, head south to Smoky Mountains for a couple of weeks, and then we are going to head further south and scoot along the Gulf Coast in Florida, Alabama and over to Texas. We will visit some friends and family along the way, and enjoy some warmer weather, while you all here in Chicago freeze! Can’t say I will miss the weather, but I will miss all my peeps here!! See you all in a few weeks!
Spearfish Canyon of South Dakota
When Jim said, “Let’s go to South Dakota!” when we were trying to figure out which direction to go first after our launch, I was all like, “Meh. South Dakota? Not much in South Dakota, except the Badlands, which are only mildly interesting.” Boy, was I wrong! We spent several days around Deadwood and the Spearfish Canyon area, and it was BEAUTIFUL!! Sorry Jim, I stand corrected!
Deadwood was established in 1876 during the Black Hills gold rush. In 1875 a miner found gold in the Northern Black Hills, thus this area is known as “First Gold” as it was the first place gold was found during the gold rush. Nowadays, the downtown area is a great place to go to gamble (yes I hit the Blackjack tables – shhhhh!), and get a fine meal. But back in the day, Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane used to hang out in these parts. In fact, Hickok was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall on August 2, 1876 while playing Poker at The No. 10 Saloon.
While the downtown area of Deadwood is a lot of fun, the Black Hills themselves are beautiful! We spent a couple of days touring the Spearfish Canyon area and all its awesome natural sights.
The first day we went to Roughlock Falls. There is an upper and lower falls here, so we had to hike all the way down to the bottom, which was just beautiful!
The next day we visited Spearfish Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. Both are gorgeous, but Bridal Veil was my favorite one!
I’m very glad I agreed to come to this area, and I would love to visit it again! For now, we are on our way back to Illinois to take care of Brian’s Eagle Scout paperwork and final things, as well as the NASCAR race at Chicagoland Speedway. I’m guessing we will be in the area for a few weeks to get it all finished up. And then, we head west! Colorado, Arizona and who-knows-where, as long as its warm, for the winter!
Cheers!!
The Sunflower Fields of South Dakota
I had no idea that there were Sunflower fields in South Dakota! When Jim and I were discussing which direction to go when we left Illinois a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to go to Colorado to photograph the Sunflower fields, but Jim wanted to go to South Dakota and see The Badlands. So we argued discussed it for a few days and ultimately Jim won. But only because it made more sense to go to Colorado later on when we will be heading toward Arizona anyways for the winter, not because I’m a nice wife.
Anyway, so we’re driving down I-90 toward Rapid City when much to my surprise, we start rolling past the hugest, most beautiful fields of Sunflowers that went on and on forever!! So I says, “Pull over!!!” Which is no easy feat in a 40-foot bus with a car in tow, but my husband (because he knows what’s good), found a place on a side road to park the beast, unhooked the Jeep, and then drove me to one of the Sunflower fields (ain’t he sweet???)
And I died.
And went to heaven.
35 of these images have been submitted to my 4 stock agencies to be sold as stock photos, and 4 of my favorites have been uploaded to Fine Art America, where they are for sale there as prints, greeting cards, throw pillows, phone cases, shower curtains, tote bags or t-shirts. Click HERE to see!!
The Amana Colonies of Iowa
We finally broke free of Illinois for a couple of weeks!! Woot!!! So we started heading west and stopped for a couple of nights in Amana, Iowa so we could see the Amana Colonies.
The Amana people began in the early 1700’s in Germany by two men, Eberhard L. Gruber and Johann F. Rock, who advocated faith renewal through reflection, prayer and Bible study. They believed that God, through the Holy Spirit, would inspire individuals to speak. This gift of inspiration was the beginning of a religious group known as the Community of True Inspiration, which began in 1714. But, they were persecuted for their beliefs. This, combined with economic depression in Germany forced the group to begin searching for a new home. They left Germany in 1843-44 and came to America, where they pooled their resources and purchased 5000 acres near Buffalo, New York, and began living a communal way of life. When they needed more farmland for their growing community, they then looked to Iowa, where land could be purchased for a low price. So, in 1855 they arrived in Iowa, where they named themselves “Amana” which means to “remain true”, and established 6 villages, each a mile or two apart. In 1861, the 7th village was established, giving them access to the railroad. In the 7 villages the residents received housing, medical care, meals, all household necessities, and schooling for the children. Properties and resources were shared. Jobs were assigned by their village council of brethren. No wages were received, because none were needed.
The Amana Colonies were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and today it is a thriving community founded on religious faith and community spirit, where the past is cherished and hospitality is a way of life.
Today we spent the day walking through downtown Amana, with all of its shops and museums. While the shops were somewhat disappointing (we were expecting to see goods made in The Amana Colonies in all the shops, but most of the junk was “made in China”), the vibe of the area is one of graciousness. Everyone we met in all the stores and museums were more than kind to us, and very willing to help us out with whatever we needed. We spent some time in the museum watching a video and learning about the history of these people through their displays (History lesson for today’s homeschool – yay!!)
We bought some fudge in one of the shops, and Jim even bought a hand-made knife, which is beautifully crafted by the Amana people, for chopping vegetables. He said the knife just needed to look at his lime and it chopped itself – LOL. Guess that thing is pretty sharp! For dinner, we went and ate a typical German family-style meal at the Ronneburg Restaurant, which was absolutely delicious! Now we are back at the camper at Amana RV Resort enjoying a nice cool evening outside the camper and yelling at the Huskies who keep trying to get at the Ground Squirrels by digging them out of their holes. The Ground Squirrels are kinda like Whack-A-Mole – they pop their little heads up out of their holes in the ground and drive my doggies nuts!!
All in all its been a great day. Tomorrow we will head out of here toward Madison County so I can see the covered bridges!
Today I am grateful for: My health and my ability to walk for hours to see all of the places we wanted to see in this interesting piece of history.
Plus Seven
Day seven of our full time journey…
It’s getting more real, slowly. We’ve been full time Rvers for a week now, but still cleaning up “former life details” in the Chicago area.
Yesterday was a big day. We finally closed and sold the house (Yay!)
And I sold my jeep. Not sure how I feel about that one. I like my jeep, it was the most fun car I ever had, and as a car guy, I’ve had a LOT of fun cars.
This little green jeep gave me 80 some thousand miles of reliable transportation over 5 years, and sold for $100 less than I paid! I’ll miss it, and someday I’ll buy another. Jeeps ROCK!
I also now have the warehouse under contract. That will close in September, WE WILL BE FREE AND DEBT FREE!!!
This morning we go back to the parking lot at work, tomorrow Brian Mellema goes off on a scout campout, and Carol and I are going to Galena.
Not A Beautiful Beginning
Well, we’re not having a very sexy beginning here. We are camping on the hot (its 92 degrees right now!) black asphalt parking lot at Jim’s work. We did not close on the house as expected on Friday. Something about some child support paperwork that the buyer still needs to get to his bank.
In the meantime, we emptied and cleaned the whole house anticipating that we would close on Friday. Which means we moved into the RV. However, we have to stick around here until the house closes (hopefully by Tuesday). We were going to go to the campground in Millbrook where we used to keep the camper, but they were full for the weekend. I am hoping to be able to go there tomorrow afternoon.
We are still working on Brian’s Eagle Scout project. That was kinda a bust today too. Everybody is on vacation, so only a couple of people showed up this morning to help with the project. Nobody had a post-hole digger, and nobody had a way in to the chapel to get the safety vests needed, so we had to go rent a post hole digger and we will meet again tomorrow and try and get the project done.
So our launch has certainly been a flop (go ahead and laugh – I don’t mind – I’ll be off on my adventure soon enough!)
I’ve been learning how to make and edit videos. I have a goal of posting a video every day of where we are, so you all can share this beautiful country too as we travel. I’m just using the Movie Maker program, which has been very easy to learn. There’s not much to video here so I just shot the fields of flowers close by. I posted that on my facebook page if you would like to go see it there. Its not much yet but its a start of learning! While you’re there, please give our page a “like” if you haven’t already!
Time to go cook some steaks in the parking lot!
Peace and popsicles,
Jim, Carol & Brian
Seven
Seven more days. One week. At this time next Friday we will be full-timers. There’s still so much to do! And yesterday we got word that the buyer’s bank is insisting he have the radon mitigated, even though it only tested at a 4.4. I always thought it didn’t require mitigation if it is under 8. Sooooooooo, we are hoping his mitigators can get in here on time and get it done and it won’t delay closing. It’s always something…
Yesterday I got all my stock photography props packed up into 2 giant bins that will fit in the storage under the bus. That was a job!! I have lots of props, but I need to have them all in order to do my work. Nevertheless, I did get rid of about 3 garbage bags full of junk.
Today’s job will be my other photo stuff. I’m trying to decide if I should keep it or sell it. Lots of lights, backdrops, softboxes. Not sure what to do with all of that.
Soooooo, busy day!! In the crockpot – ziti with Italian sausage. Since its crock-potting all day I can get my work done and not have to worry about dinner later on. If you want more great recipes, follow my Pinterest food board here: Carol’s Pinterest Food Board. I have over 1000 pins of great recipes that I use all the time! And the best part is that its on my computer, so it will travel with me when we launch, and then I don’t have to bring any cookbooks along! Ain’t nobody got room for those!!!
Off to clean out more stuff 🙂
Nine.
We’re counting down! 9 more days! So far we have:
*Held 2 garage sales
*Sold multiple items via Craigslist
*Taken 2 carloads to Goodwill (stuff that didn’t sell in the garage sale)
*Dumped multiple loads into the dumpster at Jim’s office.
And all this is AFTER we just sold the big house in December and got rid of a bunch of crap there when we moved to the small house! Where does all this JUNK come from???? And we are not historically “keepers”! We have always been “throw-away-ers!” Its amazing!
Closing is set for July 24, however yesterday my attorney called to get permission for an extension for the buyer’s financing. I’m assured that this is “normal” and not anything to freak out about. I’ll believe this is all happening when I have a check in my hand and I hand over my house key to my buyer. As we have found out, before that ANYTHING can happen (and it has!)
Today I am EXCITED. So many adventures ahead!