Where for 2021 (or places reserved so far)

Rock Cut State Park, IL

Morrison-Rockwood State Park, IL

KOA Milton, WI

Governor's RV Park Campground, ND

Red Tail Campground, ND

Rock Mountain RV Park and Cabins, MT

Cedar Ridge RV Park, WY

More to follow!

Mechanical Update

 Our 2021 maiden voyage is scheduled to our usual 'first trip of the season' to Rock Cut State Park in two days. We are dealing with some mechanical issues and timing.

First, the CRV was outfitted with the tow bar electrical system. We are still waiting for the tow bar itself to arrive. For our first trip I will drive the car and my wife the camper to Rock Cut. It is only an hour up the road and we are planning to see the grandkids and my daughter after many months. Also my best friend should be around. So we need the car for those travels.

The replacements for the rear tail light assemblies are in and being installed today. Our refrigerator stopped working earlier this week. After lots of back an forth on the Thor forums, our camper place found a circuit board not working and hopefully replacing that in time for this weekend's trip. If not we can just use a cooler. Sigh.....

Who?

 

John and Michelle

Water inTailights

We store our camper in our driveway over the winter months with a full cover. When uncovering Sir George for 2021 we discovered water inside the taillights. In addition, some of the break, LED lights were not functioning. 

We found a local shop, Ehrhardt's Trailer Sales who provide sales and services for RV's. located in Des Plaines, IL. We dropped the camper off on Saturday and dropped off the keys. Hopefully we have found a good shop for any future repairs or additions in the future. Review to follow.

Closer and Closer

With warmer weather we are becoming excited about the upcoming camping season. Just think, next month is our first trip! Understanding our focus has moved from hiking (but not excluding short hikes) to more RV'ing, I have found some fun things to keep up with it all. 

RV Lifestyle is a great blog about RV life run by Mike and Jennifer Wendland. They cover every facet of RV'ing from campers to gear to great places to visit. They also do a weekly podcast and have a You Tube channel. Great stuff and very useful!

"RVTrip Wizard"is the most comprehensive tool for planning RV-safe routes. You can use RV Trip Wizard to map out a trip, research campgrounds and overnight stops along the way, track your expenses, and locate points of interest in the areas you're visiting." 

This is a pay service but seems well worth the price. Our big trip this year is to Yellowstone NP and this service was great in routing and finding campgrounds. It seems most campgrounds have further information with photos and reviews. I entered in my camper's dimensions and the software will keep us from low bridges, etc.

RV Magazine: I have no opinion yet as the first one has not arrived for a new subscription. I will provide an update when it does.

Car Towing

[Not our car or dolly]

We used a tow dolly for towing behind our camper. I have driven the car over the edge twice which is not a cheap fix after calling a tow truck. I can not trust myself anymore not to drive over the edge again. So.....

Our very expensive solution is to flat tow a vehicle. I traded in my 2013 Honda Accord with 28k on the odometer for a 2014 Honda Accord with 100k. We took on a rather small four-year loan and now have a vehicle to flat two. 

The package we are having installed, the tow bar with the braking and lights is around $4,500. One one had a large cost but for an activity we so enjoy. 

2021 camping starts next month!

Covid Interruptions

 Our camping this year was very truncated due to Covid-19. We managed some short trips and one long vacation.

In June we managed one trip to Wisconsin at Wisconsin Riverside Resort in Spring Green, WI. This is a private campground with pool, restaurant and mini-golf. The sites are packed together without any barriers in between. Our best friends live in Spring Green and this resort is easy for us to catch up. We also spent an evening with friends watching the Summer Solstice - good food and great company.

August saw one trip to Rock Cut State Park in northern Illinois. We usually start the camping season at Rock Cut to "get the bugs out", but snuck this one in.

In September we took our long trip up to the North Shore of Lake Superior. We had a great trip. We drove the camper to Duluth and rented a car. Earlier in the season I put the car over the car dolly again which cost $600 for a wrecker to clear off. Without some type of guard on the dolly, we will be renting.  

Our first campsite was in Two Harbors, MN at Penmarallter Campsite another private campground. The sites are right off Highway 61 and traffic can be noisy. We hiked a few hours on the Superior Hiking Trail, toured the lake shore and had a relaxing time. 

Then it was back to Grand Marias for the last half of our trip, Here we stayed at another public camp ground, Grand Marias Recreation Area located right on Lake Superior. We ate and walked around town to the tourist stores and, of course, I bought a hat and Michelle a sweatshirt. All was done with social distancing and the like. 

To Be Continued