4,335mi Trip begins with the 1st step - Page 2

be happy · 05-01-2021, 05:01 AM

Wow we left Hot Springs last week and your campground looks 100% better than the one we stayed at.

Have Fun

tmelsonjr · 05-01-2021, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by creativepart

Thanks but... we don't go to places where we might worry about such things. And, we are not go out at night folks any more.

The "Mashalling field is gated and has 24-hour security and from what I hear far too many lights illuminating the place. In Non-Covid times there would be massive conventions being staged there weekly. With hundreds of semis hauling massive exhibit hall display's and buses and RVs full of workers that man the booths. The Hall is completely closed now for over a year. But the security staff is still on the job.

we stayed there and felt very very safe! we actually rode our bikes on lakeshore dr.

RocknRoll · 05-02-2021, 05:55 AM

Thanks for documenting your journey. Safe travels!

**creativepart** · 05-03-2021, 03:40 PM

After three nice days in Hot Springs we hit the road again this am. We drove 280 miles to just north of Poplar Bluff. We took Hiway 67 which is a pretty good road sometimes it’s a divided 4-lane other times a 2-lane. Signs on the road say it will be I-57 in the future.

Today’s campground is a Army Corps of Engineers park and if you don’t know about them you should check them out. They are always near water and usually very nice and inexpensive. We have a full-hookup paved concrete site with tons of room. The price is $24 a night but if you’re old like me and have a Senior National Park Pass you get half off. COE Parks are all around the country - 450 parks in 43 States. Always check them out on your trips.

Tomorrow is a 300 mile drive to Springfield, IL.

Here’s a couple of photos of today’s campground.

**macnut** · 05-03-2021, 03:53 PM

Nice park. I will add Army Corps of Engineers parka to my Allstays filter when looking for campgrounds. Have a good and safe journey tomorrow. 300 miles is at the top of our range for days drive.

**creativepart** · 05-03-2021, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by macnut

Nice park. I will add Army Corps of Engineers parka to my Allstays filter when looking for campgrounds. Have a good and safe journey tomorrow. 300 miles is at the top of our range for days drive.

Reservations for COE Parks are made at www.recreation.gov. We stay at them very often, but keep in mind that since they’re always on a lake and they are inexpensive they are usually booked up on most nice weather weekends.

Yes, 300 miles is our longest drive on this trip.

**creativepart** · 05-04-2021, 05:52 PM

300 mile day today and all of it in rain showers. Typical RV experiences today... trouble finding a gas station that would accommodate a 38' motorhome towing a Lincoln SUV with bikes hanging off the back.

We found a station on our route with gas at $2.42/gal. But there was no way to fit. So, we went to plan B and found one that we just sort of fit by luck and a prayer for $2.59/gal. Ouch, especially because we needed 50 gals!

It's a good thing we did though because once in Illinois gas was between $3.10 to $3.29 a gallon. YIKES! I actually saw diesel cheaper than gasoline today... like $.30/gal cheaper.

I feel fairly certain that we are 1,200 miles away from the cheap gas ($2.29/gal) of south Texas. Especially as we enter Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We won't be in the south again until Memorial Day weekend.

Tomorrow we drive straight into downtown Chicago to "boondock" in a big bus parking lot behind the McCormick Place convention center for 3 days. We really lucked out because yesterday it was 82 degrees in Chicago... and today it turned cold. It's supposed to be in the high 50's all three day's we are there. So, we'll only need our generator to recharge our 400 amp hours of AGM batteries to run our residential fridge and the LP furnace at night (lows are 40's all week). NOTE to self: order one of those BT/WiFi thermostats that just came out for our Coleman Mach system.

The EasyTouch RV Touchscreen Thermostat Control By Micro-Air, Inc.

The best part though... without a doubt is seeing our daughter in Chicago. We haven't seen her since Nov 2019 due to Covid. So, it will be a very happy day tomorrow spending time with her and her boyfriend.

I may add a photo later of this nice little campground we're in in Bloomfield, IL. But it's been cold and wet when we arrived.

Since some people want to know about how to find a place to "camp", here's how we picked this place. It's less than 150 miles to Chicago. It has full hookups to drain tanks and fill fresh water for 3-days of boondocking tomorrow. It's on the road we need to take to go to Chitown and it's rated 7.9 on www.campgroundreviews.com. Simple.

PS. After Chicago, we head north of Milwaukee to a Wisconsin State park that's 8-miles away from our daughter's boyfriend's family lake house on Lake Michigan. Water and electric there - but no sewer - the State Park, not the Lake House.

**macnut** · 05-05-2021, 03:27 PM

Glad your long day is behind you! Have a great time visiting your daughter!
On the thermostat, when I looked at the owners manual, it doesn’t seem compatible with multi-zone Coleman’s yet. Did I get that wrong?
Take care!

**macnut** · 05-05-2021, 03:33 PM

I take that back. I guess I read the manual wrong. They have a good wizard that walks you through the process of selecting the right model.

**creativepart** · 05-05-2021, 04:39 PM

Ah, the joys of boondocking in the wilderness. Here's our RV in it's "campsite" and the sites are super spacious. Hardly any neighbors to intrude. In fact there are only 3 other RVs in this "campground"and it's huge.

Plus, Lake Michigan is just across the 8 lane street out our front window.

**creativepart** · 05-05-2021, 04:52 PM

Last night we went to bed and learned our propane furnace has stopped working. Luckily we were on 50-amp shore power so we just used the Heat Pumps. It was 42 degrees last night.

However, that means no heat in the RV unless the generator is running since we are dry-camping for the next three days (see above).

We're going to wait and see how things go tonight... and if it's too cold 39 tonight - we may leave our downtown camping spot and drive out to the nearest real campground 60 miles away.

For those curious, we're staying in downtown Chicago right on Lake Shore Drive. This is the McCormick Place Convention Center's Truck Marshaling yard. During non-Covid times the convention center would be booked with events and this lot would have trucks and buses coming in and out 24/7. But this year there are no events and the big lot is mostly empty. There are some Semi-Trailers being stored at the far south end of the lot. But mostly this huge parking area is empty. It's all lighted and there is 24-hour security. Mostly though it seems no one knows this place is here. So, there is no one around to worry about.

Our drive today was 147 miles but it was all freeway into downtown Chicago so it was not an easy drive. To make things more of a true RV experience we had a 20 mph headwind the whole time too.

When we first discovered the broken furnace we came up with all kinds of ideas of how to get it fixed. But in the end we decided to ignore it for now and concentrate on visiting with our 34 year old daughter that we haven't seen since fall 2019.

Tonight... it's Chicago Deep Dish Pizza with our daughter and her boyfriend!

**macnut** · 05-05-2021, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by creativepart

Ah, the joys of boondocking in the wilderness. Here's our RV in it's "campsite" and the sites are super spacious. Hardly any neighbors to intrude. In fact there are only 3 other RVs in this "campground"and it's huge.

Plus, Lake Michigan is just across the 8 lane street out our front window.

Yes, a picture you never see in an RV commercial. :-) still, a great location for your visit to Chicago!

**creativepart** · 05-06-2021, 12:17 PM

Day two in the boondocks.

Lake Shore Drive is directly in front of us (a stand of pine trees between the road and the driveway to our parking lot). To the left of us is I-55. Behind us are 5 or 6 sets of railroad tracks. So, we are surrounded by noise. Since it's cold the RV is all closed up and we slept fine.

Some commuter trains pass every hour but they are super quiet. Lake Shore Drive (signs call it LSD) is always busy but no semi-trucks so it's a fairly constant drone that's pretty easy to ignore.

So, far this has been a super location for our purposes, visiting our daughter and her boy friend. It's a straight shot 8 miles up the LSD from our RV to her place and that makes it easy to get there for a visit, but still come back "home" to the RV to rest up, walk the dog, etc.

Since we have done limited dry camping with this RV it's a good time to better understand our solar setup, battery bank condition, battery monitor and how we use power. With a full size residential fridge you need to routinely keep tabs on the batteries' state of charge.

Last night, we went to bed with 100% battery charge after running the generator for 1.5 hours. And, ran the fridge, heater fan, routers, chargers, etc all night to awaken to 73% state of charge. We ran the generator in the morning for a bit over an hour and left to go visit folks with 98% SOC. Returning 2.5 hours later we still have 93%. There's very little sun today in fact it rained all morning. So no real solar amps being added today.

With an RV everything is a learning experience.

**creativepart** · 05-10-2021, 08:48 AM

Sorry I missed the last update... here’s my take on Boondocking in downtown Chicago.

We left the Chicago Boondocking site on Saturday. Overall that was a good experience. It is noisy and industrial but worked great. Mostly there were just two or three other RVs in this gigantic parking lot. But one night there were 7 RVs. There are no “quiet hours” so running a generator was never an issue. We ran ours about 4 - 5 hours a day. 1-2 hours at a time during meal prep. It was cloudy so solar wasn’t all that helpful.

When we were there 2/3rds of the lot was closed due to the McCormick Place being closed due to the virus. It was still a giant parking lot.

If the temps had been ~10 degrees warmer it would have been an awesome location with an extensive bike lane on the lake. But, it was too cold and windy to ride along the lakeshore. For travel by toad it was perfect.

For some reason, almost no one goes to this place smack dab in the middle of the 3rd largest city. By that I mean, no vagrants, no foot traffic, no one. It’s as if no one knows it’s there. So we felt very safe. There is security and they were very nice to us and helpful, but extremely lax. Most of the time they had the gate arm up and the gate booth empty. But that didn’t matter at all. I’m sure in non-COVID times the lot has a fair amount of trucks and busses coming and going and security is on point. But after more than a year of guarding an empty lot there was no need to be alert.

Our daughter lives 7 miles from the lot and it was an easy and usually fast drive up Lake Shore Drive. Driving into the heart of downtown even easier.

It’s an odd place to “camp” but I’d give it a solid 4 stars. In the summer it could be hot there for a few weeks. Temps can occasionally sit in the 90s. So, if you go keep that in mind. And get your parking pass online before you go. They were only letting people in that had already paid before arriving.

**creativepart** · 05-10-2021, 09:04 AM

After 4-days dry camping we spent a night at the nearest real campground in the Chicago area... the Chicago NW KOA. Which is 60-miles outside of the city!

We needed to dump tanks and do laundry before heading to Wisconsin.

The KOA was all the things that give KOA a bad name. It was crowded and cramped and totally full for Mother’s Day weekend with unattended kids roaming everywhere. But it served our purpose for a one day stop over.

Now, we’re in tiny Belgium, WI a mile from Lake Michigan in a State Park with power and no other hookups. We’re here 4-days because of our daughter again. Her boyfriend’s family has a lake house 2-mi away so they are staying there this week to extend our time to visit with them. COVID has transformed working so that they can work remotely from anywhere.

So this week is 180-degrees opposite of last week - we’re in an isolated wooded area.

Later in the week we split off from the daughter and head to scenic Door County, Wisconsin and then Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

**macnut** · 05-10-2021, 11:21 PM

Thanks for the great updates on your trip. When we boondock, we also find the solar really helps cut generator time….IF there is good sun. Sounds like a great place to stay in the city and avoid an hour of driving each way. If/when we make it there I’ll look it up! Great to hear you are enjoying the next leg of your trip in WI.
Take care!
Al

**creativepart** · 05-13-2021, 11:04 PM

We left Port Washington today for the short 140 mile drive up into Wisconsin’s Door County. This quaint tourist Mecca is a peninsula that juts out into Lake Michigan at Green Bay.

We chose a full-hookup RV park for this weekend after 4-days in an electric only State Park.

It’s a mixed bag of a RV park. An older section is heavily treed and has some smaller sites and even a number of old mobile homes. Not very attractive. But there’s a new section that’s wide open, spacious and pretty inviting. We chose the new section when we made our reservation because it’s open and sunny and we were worried it would still be cold here - it’s not. It was 65 here today and bright sunshine.

We have traveled 1,700 miles so far. There’s a long way to go still. Gas by the way is $2.79/gal up here right now. When we left Texas it was $2.35. The most we’ve paid was $3.19 a gal in Illinois.

Here’s tonight’s campsite (for 3-days):

**creativepart** · 05-16-2021, 04:11 PM

On the road again today after 3-days in Door County, Wisconsin. Our campground (see above) was near the hamlet of Sister Bay. We loved our time there. We’ve always heard of people visiting “Door County” but knew nothing about it before going. We enjoyed it so much that we really wished we could stay for a week or two. We’ve already said we will return. If your looking for a super neat place to vacation in the Midwest you should add it to your list.

Today we drove 180 miles to the town of Escanaba, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula (folks call it the UP - “you pea”). It’s a one night stop.

We’re staying at a campground you may have never even knew was a camping option. We’re staying at a Fairgrounds.

Nearly all county fairgrounds also accommodate RVs. Here In Escanaba the fairgrounds is actually a State Fair fairground. Michigan has two State Fairs. One in the lower peninsula and a second here in the UP. So there is a 400 site campground with 30/50 amp service and water for over 100 of the sites.

It’s a big lawn with power pedestals and this time of year it’s mostly empty. It’s totally self-service and no registration or reservations either. Today it’s us and another RV about 600’ away from us.

These fairground campgrounds are common but usually are just a parking lot or field. So don’t forget to add them to your list of places to camp. And they’re cheap. Tonight’s pull-thru site is $25 for 50 amp and water.

Here’s a photo:

**macnut** · 05-16-2021, 11:00 PM

Looks like a wonderful trip so far. Great tip on the Fairground!

**creativepart** · 05-17-2021, 10:40 PM

Short 64 mi drive today to Munising, MI on the shore of Lake Superior. Trust me, Superior is a must see Great Lake. We’ve traveled 1,900 miles so far.

Our campground is a city municipal campground which is another great RVing option for you when planning a trip. Many towns and counties have small inexpensive RV parks that you can stay at when you’re traveling. So, be sure to check them out.

This one is full hookup and on the shore of Lake Superior... and I do mean right on the shore.

PS. This is a back in site, but with a Class A “pulling in” is better than backing in with a view like this. We carry extensions for power, water and sewer to make that possible.