Tag: family

Day 2771

Rain, Rain, Rain

After going months without rain in Arizona we have had more that enough, and from Saturday and Sunday driving in the rain is just not something I enjoy or want to do. And only because we had commitments did we drive in the heavy rain on Saturday. I woke at 6:20 this morning and lets just say it wasn’t because the sun was shinning in my eyes, cloudy, misty, overcast absolutely nothing to make one want to get out of bed. But we need to push on down the road today to make our next commitment on Tuesday. Yesterday was a short day and today will be a longer day as we position ourselves for Tuesday.

A quick check of our house batteries has then at 38% not an issue but it is not looking like a good solar day, after a few treats for Mister Sam we had some bonding time before he left for the big bed, todays destination is a Cracker Barrel in Marion Indiana on I-69, but to get there we have Indianapolis on our route. Indianapolis is constantly under construction and I have transverse the city multiple ways, and all I know for sure is that it is always a horses back side. When Miss Laurie gets up and apparently I slept through a noisy truck right beside us at two o’clock this morning, which just goes to prove if you are tired enough you can sleep just about through anything.

Breakfast this morning was fried eggs, salsa and sour dough toast, and yes there was a wee bit of Irish blessing in my fresh perked coffee this morning. I want to transverse Indianapolis around the lunch hour today to have lighter traffic and because we need fuel today we need to be on the road around 9 am. We also enter our last time zone today so we will spring ahead that final hour into Eastern Daylight Saving Time. so just one more trip through the clock reset, every time we go through this process I look at atomic clocks that automatically adjust to the time changes but I’m never sure whether they would work for travelling or just if stationary.

As we start today’s journey we drive into some light rain, and there is the hope of some clear skies ahead but there again we have all been lied to before, we rumble down I-70 east bound and it is rough but as we cross the State line into Indiana it takes a turn for the worse, why does a state with some of the highest fuel prices also have some of the worst highways? I’m not thinking this road is great and a country with a self inflicted recession looming it won’t be great for a long time. Today’s fuel stop is at a Speedway with a pump price of $3.599 and after our discount will still be $3.115, we took on 50.656 gallons (191.75 liters), we will have one more top off before crossing the border.

We reached Indianapolis around 12:30 EDST and we followed I-465 southern bypass around the city, there are a number if Interstate highways that pas through the city I-70, I-69, I-65, I-74 plus US-36, US-31, US-40, US-52, so a never ending collection of interchanges then add to never ending construction it makes for about 25 miles (40 kilometers) of aggravation. Once past the bedlam of Indianapolis we are headed north east toward Fort Wayne, and Mister Sam is voicing his unhappiness with todays travel, Miss Laurie is spending some time trying to comfort him but I’m thinking he will be unhappy until we shut down for the night.

2:11 EDST and we have made it to the Marion Cracker Barrel, I have pulled into a section behind the restaurant to avoid having to disconnect Ruby, I normally don’t do this but I know most patrons wont walk any further that necessary, and we should be clear to leave in the morning. We have caught a little sunshine today but not enough to replenish the battery bank so I have ran the generator for about 45 minuets. The running of the generator does a number of things besides charging the battery bank at 90 amps, it energizes the heater for hot water and energizes the ice maker to make another tray of cubes, not a big deal but I do like my beverage with ice.

So a couple of updates from our travels so far, Starlink now attached to Thunders roof gets two thumbs up, we have been streaming music as we drive, the only blips have been when stopping for fuel under a canopy, on another note we had some buffering while parked in Arnold MO at the Cracker Barrel upon checking we had speeds of only 20 MBPS but except for a few seconds of buffering no other issues. Our storage tanks are all in great shape and the Garnet “SEE LEVEL” tank gauges are working out well, with me now checking it regularly and getting accurate reading we have gone from lights indicating 1/4 tank graduations to reading in percentages, the difference is mind boggling and as I look back I should have done this eight years ago.

Miss Laurie made us some grilled cheese for lunch and I haven’t asked whether we are having dinner or breakfast at this Cracker Barrel, the only thing I know for sure is that it will be take-out so that we can enjoy the meal in the coach either with a beverage of a bless coffee in the morning. Mister Sam is on the dash in his bed, Miss Laurie is having a nap or watching videos and I’m laying out the last few days of our trek to Ontario, our projected border cross day looks like Thursday. Miss Laurie has decided on Breakfast so is preparing Quesada’s for dinner, I watched the Canadian News and we caught up on some recorded shows, it’s just 10 o’clock and I’m going to call it a night as tomorrow will be a short drive day but a busy day with friends.

Today’s numbers: run time of 3:45 covering a distance of 221 miles (355.6 kilometers) consuming 27.7 gallons (104.8 liters) averaging 58 mph (93.3 km per hr) and fuel mileage of 7.9 mpg (29.7 liters / 100 km),

Day 2388

Wednesday April 17th 2024

Day 9 of out trek north

Dear Journal:

Well if everything comes together correctly our trek north will end today, we are waking up at the Cracker Barrel in Roseville MI and I have a special breakfast planned for today, we are less than an hour from the border and other than one more fuel stop we will be in Ontario late morning. When I first got up this morning at 6:11 the skies were overcast, and now at 7:18 there is light rain falling, almost exactly as forecast, our weather app is showing a few scattered shower this morning with the heavier rain later today. The temperatures have retuned to seasonal as well the temperature this morning is 54ºF (12.2ºC) with a little breeze, the sad part is that this temperature is the forecast high for todays end destination. We ain’t in Arizona anymore!

But first things first, breakfast and a cup of fresh perked coffee and yes this morning there was a wee Irish blessing in my cup (the end of the bottle). This morning I ordered the “Country Fried Steak” along with scrambles eggs, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, Miss Laurie ordered French toast with “Country Fried Chicken”, maybe a wee bit extravagant but just a typical American breakfast. Along with breakfast I also got to experience the worst customer service that I have ever experienced at a Cracker Barrel, which just go to prove that even an American standard like Cracker Barrel can have issues at times.

Today is our push for the border so we have to prepare for Canada Customs, always a fun experience, trying to remember all the purchases that we are bring back into Canada. My laptop time is 5:58 so I’m thinking is is really 8:58 if it ever catches up, we will be hitting the road in the next few minutes where we will head (east?) on Interstate I-94 that will dump us in to Port Huron at the Bluewater Bridge and our border crossing point. But first one last fuel stop and as bad as the fuel pricing is in Michigan it is still better than Ontario. It is also where I will update Navi to metric so the speed limits in Ontario will be easier as the speedometer on Thunder only reads in miles per hour, and the speed limits just over the bridge are all over the map.

After our fuel stop we are only 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the bridge, and as we approach the bridge the fare to cross the Bluewater bridge is always a mystery, but todays rate was $9.00 American ($12.45 Canadian) compared to last years rate of $18.75 Canadian of back in spring of 2020 at $12.75 Canadian, the receipt today was RV-4 a rate for RVs I assume while often they charge us as a truck, I guess it just depends who is in the booth that day.

Canada Customs was a breeze, of course it helps when I pulled into the wrong lane and the poor agent had to walk over to us to check us through, just the regular questions, how long away, goods or services purchased, and of course the alcohol or tobacco question. That last question is such a silly question because we have a few bottle of alcohol that have crossed the border probably a dozen times so now we just reply we received two bottles as gifts and we have a few part bottles, which is kind of true, along with beer from three different cases, and a few other odds and ends that migrated with us.

Shortly after crossing into Ontario the rain started, not heavy enough to be worth stopping for, but heavy enough to make driving difficult, and as we head further north there are hardly any buds on the trees and temperature just keep dropping. Welcome to Canada EH!

Navi is showing our arrival in Goderich (our summer home) by around noon, and as we take Hwy-21 north along the Lake Huron coast line the winds are buffeting the coach, this old coach doesn’t get pushed around very easily by a little wind, but I can feel the attempt. We made it into Goderich at 12:10 according to my iPad which now seems to have caught up to all the time zones, and we stop at a grocery store to pick up some item that we could not bring across the border.

While Miss Laurie is shopping I decided to exercised the generator, it has been month since I last operated it and as the solar panel harvest today is not strong, so it can replace some battery power as it warms up. Miss Laurie has returned and is putting the groceries away, and we restart Thunder and drive the last ten kilometers (six miles) to Lake Huron Resort. I have to admit this does feel like coming home as this will be the fifth year of six that we have worked here.

Welcome to spring in Ontario or as I refer to it as rain and mud, don’t get me wrong I love seeing all the plants springing to life but as much as everyone was excited by the mild winter, there will be issues because the ground never froze to all the rain had to soak into the soil as opposed to running off. The result is a very wet campground this spring, we were hopping for a couple of days to get our site prepared, but everything is too wet, and the damp cold air is not real welcoming, but a month from now all the wet will be forgotten and life will move on.

Day 9 Stats: 215.6 kilometers (134 miles) solar harvest 84 amp / hours (solar can suck when it rains) $0.00 camping, 21.68 gallons (82.05 liters) of diesel fuel.

And this ends our spring 2024 northern trek 2130 miles (3428 kilometers)