Moving Day to Ionia Recreation Area

Location: Ionia Recreation Area; Ionia, Michigan
(click pics to enlarge)

I pulled out of Lakeport State Park around 10:00 with a 160 mile tow ahead of me. Before leaving the park I had to empty my tanks at the dump station in the park. This is the first dump station I have used where the sewer hoses are provided. It works well and saves time by not have to use your own hoses. One of my November projects will be to build an extra hose storage area beneath Liberty's bumper. Currently, I have about 25 feet of hose in her bumper with two, 15 foot sections in the basement. It is one of the things you want to make sure you have enough of, cause when it comes time to use them, you don't want to be short of hoses. So far in all of the campgrounds I've been at, the longest section I have had to use has been 40 feet which gave me 15 feet to spare. I don't know if I've mentioned it or not but one of the tricks I've been using is to wash up the last of the dishes on the morning of hitching up. I use extra Dawn to make the water really sudsy. This water goes into the galley holding tanks and are the last tanks I empty so the last thing through the hose is Dawn suds. It is just one of the things that help keep the hoses clean and smelling wonderful, fresh, good, not to bad.

The trip was good except for about 30 miles of bad road. They even put up a message board saying "rough road ahead". It didn't appear to be a worn out road but instead looked like a construction project that had gone bad. At 65 mph, the road set up a harmonic frequency, (a rhythmic bumping) with Freedom and Liberty. I had to slow down to 50 mph to break the cycle. I was thinking, "good beat, easy to dance to" (ya'll guess the tv show). I'm not sure what would have happened if I had maintained the 65 mph, but I didn't want to find out. 

The campground is kind of isolated from any grocery stores, so I stopped at a Walmart in Lansing which is about 25 miles before the

Walmart at Lansing. I'm not the only one

campground. It is really convenient to use Walmart because the parking lots are large enough for RV's to park while shopping and most are easy to access from the main roads. I got some food and bottled water and was able to put it right in the Liberty's refrigerator. I also picked up lunch and had a little picnic in Freedom. One of

Picnic Lunch in Walmart Parking lot.
Notice the notes on the side, I still
don't trust the GPS 100%.

the habits I have is to do a walk-around Freedom and Liberty whenever I'm away from them. I look at the tires, landing gear, stabilizing jacks, hitch pin, light connection, door, etc. You never know when somebody is going to mess around with some of the buttons. This time it was me, not somebody. I have to partially open one of my slide-outs to get to the refrigerator. After putting the food up, I locked the door and got back in Freedom to eat my lunch. Freedom and Liberty weren't in a straight line so I couldn't see the slide from my side mirror but something told me I forgot to do the walk-around. I got out and sure enough, I had forgotten to put the slide in. I'm sure I would have seen it once I straightened out, but not sure what damage may have happened by moving, even a few hundred feet, with the slide out. I know it is just a matter of time before something happens, because every full-timer always has a story of dropping their RV on the truck, pulling out with the electric cord still connected, etc. So far, I've avoided anything major, but it is coming, someday.

Like I said, this campground is pretty isolated and I chose it for that reason. There isn't anything I want to explore in this area but it is a nice stop-over point as I cross-over to the western part of the state. Yesterday, I did some house-cleaning inside of Liberty. By the way, I really like those Swiffer Duster things. I also picked up a lot of information from the Michigan welcome center and went through it to do some preliminary planning of where I'll be going in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. So you see, this full-timing lifestyle isn't all exploring and sight-seeing; sometimes it is cleaning and planning.


Road to Campground? I was hoping it
didn't dead end somewhere.

 

The road finally opens to this lake

Ionia Recreation Area Campsite
One of the few times I've used my awning.

Trip planning.
That's Allstays program on the laptop
Ignore the mess on the couch.

It started raining on and off early this morning. I have to go to Ionia to fuel up and to do laundry. Google says there is a nice looking laundry in Ionia, but we will see. 

I pull out tomorrow for a campground on Lake Michigan. I have seen the lake before from my time spent in Navy "A" school at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center but I think I'll look at it using different eyes this time. Back then, it was the eyes of a 17 year old just beginning to see that things were a lot bigger than he thought. By moving around the country while growing up I already had a sense of size and that there were many things outside of a hometown. Lots of people grow up within 100 miles of where they were born. They go to school there, marry there, work there and raise their kids there. Except for yearly vacations somewhere, they only know their 100 mile hometown area. I enlisted at age 17 and had to have my mother and father sign off on it. Back then if you enlisted at 17, you were referred to as a Kiddie Cruiser. It wasn't an insult, just a name. Tomorrow I'll see Lake Michigan again, but this time with the eyes and life experience of a 58 year old man. Maybe that kid and I will re-hash a few things while looking at the lake. Get a few things resolved, so to speak. It will be interesting.

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya down the road.