Our Family Misadventures

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jemz

Well-known member
Joined
May 27, 2012
Posts
154
We are a family of 6 and brand new to RVing.  We just bought a Thor ACE 29.2 motorhome.  We've never even gone camping before this...so we have a LOT to learn.  We are eager to get going!

We're definately not new to traveling though.  Even our baby will soon have been to 14 states and 4 foreign countries at the ripe old age of 14 months.  We have two boys ages 7 and 6 and two girls ages 3 and 1.  My husband Marc is a stay-at-home dad; I own my own business; and we homeschool so we have lots of flexibility with our travel. 

Here is a link to my husband's blog - in signature line. (I make comments in there too.) 

The most recent entries are about our first RV trip.  It was a one night stay in Wisconsin Dells just to see if we could hook up and dump, have all the supplies we need; and that everything worked alright.  We plan to make an entry all about our motorhome too with lots of pictures inside and out.

Our next trip is this week.  We're going up to Minocqua, WI for two nights.  It's still kind of a test before we take a two week trip in late July.  We'll post about this trip either while we're there or when we get back.

Our first "real" trip should be worth tuning in for!  First we're going to the Michigan Dunes for a beach day, then we'll tour the Ford Factory and spend time in Greenfield Village in Dearborne MI for a couple days.  Next we head to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.  Yes, even the baby has a passport.  This will be her fourth "foreign" country afterall.  After that we're going to Hershey PA and Amish country.  Then a day at a kid's amusement park in another part of PA.  Finally we'll spend 3 nights in Sandusky, OH before heading home to the suburbs of Chicago.  Whew!  See why we're taking these practice trips, first? 

I'd love any suggestions of things to do or avoid on our two week expedition.  Feel free to give us newbies advice on anything RV related too--we could use it!

Edit: Link in sig line.
 
I can not tell you what to avoid, but I can tell you to be sure and visit the famous company when you are in Hershey.  Not just the Amish, Also you can find Amish in northern Indiana too (Just a few miles from Elkhart where my home on wheels was built).

The best advice I can give is this: Try to cram a 2 week vacation into a 3 week time slot.. Works fairly well when you do that.. The reverse .. Not does not work as well.  You want your time slot to be nice and loose fitting.
 
Hi Jemz and John,

Both Nappanee Indiana and Shipshewana are good areas to go see in north central Indiana and away from busy traffic. There are good restaurants to eat at and arts and crafts by the Amish in the area. Do be careful of the horse and buggies on the roads as you can catch up to them fast.
 
John From Detroit said:
The best advice I can give is this: Try to cram a 2 week vacation into a 3 week time slot.. Works fairly well when you do that.. The reverse .. Not does not work as well.  You want your time slot to be nice and loose fitting.

Good advice!  I know because we usually do the opposite! 
Our MH was built in Elkhart IN too.
 
We're off to WI this morning.  First to our cabin an hour north of Wisconsin Dells, then up to the north woods near Minocqua for a couple of nights in the motorhome.  We'll update the bolg as we're able depending on internet connections and kids actually sleeping.
 
Ahhhh....Minocqua!  Our family's favorite relaxation area!  Once you get there; you might never leave!  Enjoy your stay!
 
Don't eve think about trying to bring a firearm into Canada.  It can be done with a shotgun but is a hassle.  Save yourself the trouble.  Check the province that you are going to for towing  rules if you have a toad.  Ontario is one of the more relaxed in Canada and uses pretty much a size of the rv verses size of the tow common sense approach. 

Happy camping.
 
Bobtop46 said:
Don't eve think about trying to bring a firearm into Canada.  It can be done with a shotgun but is a hassle.  Save yourself the trouble.  Check the province that you are going to for towing  rules if you have a toad.  Ontario is one of the more relaxed in Canada and uses pretty much a size of the rv verses size of the tow common sense approach. 

Happy camping.

We're good on both counts.  No toad and no guns.
 
MN Cake Eater said:
Ahhhh....Minocqua!  Our family's favorite relaxation area!  Once you get there; you might never leave!  Enjoy your stay!

My husband spent every summer in Minocqua as a kid.  His grandparents had a house on Lake Seventeen.  It's for sale now (by the owners who bought from his grandparents) at a great price.  It's hard not to buy it. (Except for no extra $200K in my pockets.)  Someday we'll have a log cabin on a beautiful lake here, but for now I'm sitting in our beautiful RV staring at the lake as we speak.  This will certainly do!

We are in Minocqua now (actually Woodruff.)  The lake at the campground (Lake Tomahawk) unfortunately has people reporting swimmers itch so we are staying out.  The pool is okay and we've used it plenty.  Someone summed it up by saying "The pool is slightly more cloudy than the lake."  The kids love the playground though.  I loved making homemade whole wheat pancakes this morning and enjoying the fresh air and lake views.  The pancakes never tasted so good!
 
Bobtop46 said:
Don't eve think about trying to bring a firearm into Canada. ....

Some years ago there was a convention of Baptist Preachers in Detroit, They met at Cobo Hall.

Well many of 'em decided to pop over to Canada for lunch (This was pre- 9-11 so you could do that without a passport)

The governmant agent on the South side of the bridge or tunnel (Detroit is the only city in the contential US where you go SOUTH to enter Canada) ask "Anyting for protection"

NO

Any firearms

No

This goes on for a few more rounds

NO.

Pull around back

Hand gun, in holster, in full view of the agent, on the deck of the station wagon.

Oh well.. Was not me in that car, I"m not Baptist. !
 
JEMZ, I'm assuming your camping at Indian Shores.  Would love to hear a review.  We will be coming back from Traverse City in a couple weeks and we've been scouting for a place to stay a day or two.

Paul
 
MN Cake Eater said:
JEMZ, I'm assuming your camping at Indian Shores.  Would love to hear a review.  We will be coming back from Traverse City in a couple weeks and we've been scouting for a place to stay a day or two.

Paul

Yes, we camped at Indian Shores.  This is only the second campground we've EVER been to so my review is certainly not based on comparisons...
We paid $65 per night and got a spot on a big cement pad with an obstructed view of the lake.  The front window looked at the main building (store and restaurant)  The site had plenty of space with several trees for shade.  It also had a fire ring and a big picnic table.  There were sites that had better lake views but we specifically asked to be close to the playground.
They have a pool (cloudy but adequate), a mini golf course, tennis courts, and a large playground. Everything was dated but fine. There wasn't much of a beach.  Mostly just boat launches/piers.  It was reported that people were geting "swimmer's itch" so we avoided the lake anyway. 
We didn't try the restaurant.  The store was small.  The people were nice. The main building was also the internet hotspot.  The wifi was hit or miss even though we were as close as could be to the hotspot.
Our only "complaint" was that the place to dump garbage was very far away. (With diapers we we went there a couple times a day and we don't tow a vehicle.) 
My GUESS is that there are better campgrounds in the area. It was fine though.  DH will hopefully update the blog about this trip tonight or tomorrow. Hope that helps.
Kyrie
 
Wow!  $65 per night.  I'd seen the price on their website and assumed there must be something "magical" about this place.  It sounds like a normal campground with a inflated price.

We're from Mpls and your posts caught our eye as we are a family with 3 kids (12,7 & 7) who travel in a Class A.  We haven't ran into a lot of Class A families to run with.  All of our friends are in Class C's and TT's. 

Enjoy your coach and let us know if you head for MN, we'd be happy to help you with some travel advice.

Paul
 
MN Cake Eater said:
Wow!  $65 per night.  I'd seen the price on their website and assumed there must be something "magical" about this place.  It sounds like a normal campground with a inflated price.

We're from Mpls and your posts caught our eye as we are a family with 3 kids (12,7 & 7) who travel in a Class A.  We haven't ran into a lot of Class A families to run with.  All of our friends are in Class C's and TT's. 

Enjoy your coach and let us know if you head for MN, we'd be happy to help you with some travel advice.

Paul

Thanks!  I'm sure we'll head to MN some day.  I'm sure my husband won't be happy until we get to 49 states!
 
One more long day of work (tomorrow) and then we're off on our first REAL RV trip! 

Our itinerary starts with 3 nights at Harbortown in Monroe MI.  We'll tour the Ford Factory and Greenfield Village and hopefully have some time to read and relax. 
Then we're heading to he Canadian side of Niagara Falls.  We're staying at a hotel here for 2 nights mostly because we want a view of the falls while we're here.  We splurged on a nice suite.  We will cross over the American side for the kitchy touristy stuff too. 
Next we're going down to Pennsylvania.  We're staying at a Jellystone Campground in Lancaster County that looks nice--has an awesome water play area-- but the reviews online all complain about a crazy owner.  Crossing our fingers that we made the right choice here.  We'll go to Hershey to tour the factory and shop, but not do the theme park.  I'm looking forward to exploring Amish Country more than anything and eating lots of homemade goodies!
We're going o Idlewild Amusement Park next.  It's supposed to be THE best kids' park.  Since we've got a bunch of kids, it seems like the place to be.  It's near Pittsburgh.  We'll get there the night before we go so we can get an early start there.
Finally, we're camping in Sandusky OH at Cedar Point's campgrounds so we can get early entry to Cedar Point.  We're staying 3 nights here and then going home.
All together we'll be gone 2 weeks!  We actually dropped a lot of things we had originally wanted to do on this trip, trying to make it a more relaxed pace.  Let's see how we do!
My husband intends to blog along the way and hopefully upload pictures as we go too.  We probably won't have internet everywhere we go or the time to keep up with it every day but we'll try.  I hope you enjoy reading about our first ever REAL RV trip!
 
We're back from our circle tour of Lake Erie.  12 days are on the bolg (link in my signature.)  Boy, did we have some misadventures this time!  We still have to add the last couple days and add pictures.  Hopefully DH will do that tonight.
 
I saw the pictures in your signature and showed them to my wife and I think that we decided on our next trip location. I`m curios about what will happen and I will try to prevent what happened to you. I will let you know.
 
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