Paul & Tammy Greenlee Visit, Taylorsville, IL

We arrived at my nephew Paul's and his wife Tammy's place on Sept 21st. For those of you who aren't aware, due to my placement in the Babcock family, the youngest of seven with my oldest sister Avis (Paul's mother) being at least 23 years my senior (any family members feel free to fill in her birth year) I grew up with mostly nephews and nieces, with a few cousins sprinkled in here and there, with many fond memories of them all. We spent a little time that evening catching up, we decided that we hadn't seen each other since we were in our early twenties'. Way to much time! We also figured out Paul is about nine months younger than me. 

They have a wonderful little lake lot on Taylorville Lake not far from their home and had us join them out there. After being in an industrial parking lot next to an airport for two weeks, having our RV sitting on the bank of a lake was definitely a wonderful change of pace! Though it was sunny the whole time we were there, unfortunately it was very windy and cold and we could not get out on the lake.

We were greeted by their two dogs, Chevy and Miles. Chevy, I think  was a Shih Tzu mix (correct me Tammy) and Miles was a Pomeranian, the size of good Muskie bait! Miles was definitely one of the happiest dog I ever seen. When he barked he would quite literally bounce straight up and down with each bark! He was like on caffeine all the time! Chevy was the lover, would curl up next to me in a heartbeat!

The area that their lake lot is on seems like it has become a tight knit community over the years. It is definitely a community all by itself consisting of several styles of RV's from fifth wheels, travel trailers and park models. The last night we were there, we had the chance to meet some their friends from the lake community and shared a potluck meal together. Starr & I were welcomed like we had always been a part of the group!

As I was attempting a nap Chevy jumped up and accosted me with a good face washing before I got my hands free! 

Sunset at the lake! Paul, Tammy and Starr

Tammy, Paul and Miles the pooch

Starr warming feet by the fire!

Paul and I 

Starr with the lake in the background!

They had a wonderful fire pit, truck rim with landscaping block around it!
Had some fine fires in it while we were there!!!

Me, Starr, Paul & Tammy

Potluck campfire on the last night!
Ron & Becky
Starr's empty chair, the grey head is me
Jen & Ethan
&
Chevy

Onward to Taylorsville, IL

 Tuesday Sept 21st was a cloudy, misty day when we left South Bend, It was a "easy on the eyes" type of day for driving, it felt good to be back on the road!! Like the title says, we were on route to Taylorsville, IL to vist and catch up with my nephew Paul and his wife Tammy! We had to stop part way there to dump our waste tanks, half way thru dumping the monsoons started and we had to run for cover! I think we arrived at Paul and Tammy's around 6ish.

The route we took.
The green bubble with the tent is where we dumped our waste.
I'm using an app called "RV Life" you can preplot the route out on the computer then open it on our phone for step by turns. It has all the trailer information so it will let you know of low bridges, sharp turns etc to keep us out of trouble.
(Like most apps, when it works it's great, when it doesn't, you want to throw it out the window! LoL)
 

Starr and I took cover between "Bessy" the truck and "Boo" the trailer when the heavy rain started! Snug as a bug in a rug!!

Onward to South Bend, Indiana!

 Well, Monday, Sep 6th rolled around and it was time to Hitch up, Jacks up, dump, and head to South Bend, In. A company, Briter Products, that was at the Escapees rally in Rock Spring in July invited us to their manufacturing facility to help us determine what we would need in Lithium batteries and solar panels so we would be able to camp off grid (dry camp, boondock) with our RV. The process has been slow, They will start installation tomorrow (Sep 17th). 

This shows the testing phase, the two solar panels, the controller (one of the mumbo jumbo things mentioned below) is on the side of that little building looking thing! The batteries are in the front cargo hold area!

Today is Sunday, Sep 19th. Our system is installed, (2) Lithium batteries, (2) 400watt solar panels to keep them charged and a whole bunch of electronic "mumbo-jumbo stuff" in-between those two things to keep the whole thing working together without burning everything up. I thought we would be on the road today heading to Taylorsville, IL, but, alas, no. There is a converter in RV's that, as the name implies, converts shore power (120vac) to 12vdc, which the lights and motors operate on. The converter also charges the batteries, like a giant battery charger! I guess lithium batteries charge differently then standard lead acid batteries and our converter, per the P/N, was suppose to have a switch that could be switched to this setting. When it came to change that setting, that switch wasn't there. This was discovered late on Saturday (yesterday) so we have to wait till tomorrow (Monday) to find out what's going on. I didn't realize I would be spending my retirement years in an old Industrial Park parking lot in South Bend, ID!! LoL!! 

Monday, Sep20th: An update on the switch, it was was there, they couldn't see it until the manufacturer showed them where it was! We decided to spend one more night and leave in the morning!!

Solar panels getting installed on the roof (by the top of the ladder). I'm at the front checking out there work!

Some fun things since we have been here, we have visited Notre Dame University, Indiana's Dune State Park and Trinity Evangelical Free Church which I will write about in a separate post. We have also met Don (see picture below). He having some work done on his RV also. Great sense of humor!

Starr and Don. 
Also note the refrigerator, we had to put up a calendar so can keep track of the day of the week.

Avanti Lalwani & Starr, Avanti was one of the people that installed our system!
Truck and trailer are in the background, hitched and ready to head to next destination!

Labor Day Weekend

 Instant Update: Nothing has changed, still in South Bend, IN!!

Todays installment covers Sep 04-05!

I'm trying to remember what we did!

I'm not sure I got the order right, we spent Saturday with Mark, Mihaela & family. Mihaela made her fabulous traditional lasagna for us, it was mmmmmmm good! 

Starr, Mark and the girls went out Geocaching, I stayed at Marks and napped!

One thing Mark & I attempted was to saw a broken limb in a tree in his yard. It was one those attempts that you might see on a social media page, My pickup backed under the limb, step ladder in the box of the truck, me on the ladder, 2nd step from the top, pole saw extended to the max, (as well as me) Mark was holding the ladder, what could possibly go wrong? We about were about 2" from reaching the branch, we decided to let it go. No pictures were taken, I think it would have been a good one however!

Later we grilled chicken breasts and turkey thighs!

Sofia, Nectaria & Starr heading out looking looking for a Geocache!

I think they may have found one!!

Not sure, I think Starr is giving them a crash course!!

Nectaria (supervising) and I are

grilling chicken breasts & turkey thighs! 

On a personal note, don't let her size fool ya, 

she kept on my toes, alert and toeing the mark!!!

And the end of a perfect day, I'm getting a crash course in Minecraft
from Nectaria She says she can teach me to play, I dunno,
the "old dog, new trick" thing comes to mind!!
That's Mihaela in the back ground eyeing up the goldfish

An instant update: we are still in South Bend, ID, one week now. We think the battery & solar install will start tomorrow!

Now for the rest of the story!!!

On Aug 3rd, we continued our journey to Wheaton, IL. One of the things we want to do on our adventure is to travel the backroads, stay off the interstates as much as possible, to slow down and see rural America, on the roads less traveled. 

We started this leg of the trip from Wesby, WI. We took Hi-way 61 South to Dubuque IA, then worked our way down to Savanna, IL. We were quite impressed with the rolling hills(?) on this stretch. It must be absolutely stunning when the autumn leaves are at peak.

At Savanna we started heading east, main route being Highway 52 & 64 to I39, then a few miles south to east I88 to Wheaton. Got set up at Blackwell Campground, I still had to deal with no power to the slide out, well sort of, it moved 6" then stopped. I climbed under the trailer and removed an access cover, found the motor in question. At the factory they had connected the wires together with a crimp wire nut and only had maybe 5 strands of one of the wires in the crimp. It must have been arcing ever since we've had it and finally just burn its self thru (see below). We quickly located a hardware store to buy some threaded wire nuts, then ran over to say hi to Mark & Mihaela, Starr's brother & his wife & their kids, exchanged a round of hugs with everyone, then back to the campground so I could finish fixing the motor issue, which I did, and must say the slide out has never work or sounded better!!

A rest area near Galena, IL, picture does not do it justice!

One broken wire!! Arrow shows where it's suppose to be!

Next installment will be the Labor Day weekend with the Goldfeld's (Starr brother)

 

 Trying to catch up to get current! Plugging away!!! Todays installment is from Sept 02!

We got the RV packed, upgrades done that I had time to do, done! (That's not to say I don't have others planned, more on that in other postings). 

We left home on Sept 2nd around 2:30 on a rainy afternoon. In typical Babcock fashion, 2 miles down the road, we went 360 degrees around a roundabout and came back for something we forgot. After that, the first leg our trek to Chicago (Wheaton IL) took us thru Rochester, down to La Crosse and down to the "Last Ride Ranch" on the edge of the small town of Westby, WI. This was on my "Boondockers Welcome" app that I signed up for. It's basically other RV'ers that open an area on their property for other RV'er to send one to two nights then move on. We plan on using this often on our journey! We got there a little late, around 7ish, the owner had gone home and couldn't be reached. In our hurry to get on the road it hadn't occurred to us to let him know what our ETA was. I backed into the spot you'll see below, I was hoping there would be no issue as we were pooped from all our house prep work!

We went to put the slide outs out, and one had NO POWER!!  Grrrr! Oh well, deal with it in Wheaton, thank goodness it was wasn't when we were trying to bring it in!!

We woke up, after a peaceful night's sleep, Friday morning watching horses out the back window as we drank our coffee and tea (see below). I had email communication with the owner, turns out he had company over and he turned his phone off, what a concept! 

It was still raining when we lifted jacks and got on the road!! 

Leaving the house on our adventure! Fully loaded!!

Starr is making sure we remember where we stayed!!

--> More later <--

 Well it I finally did it, as of Friday, Aug 27th 2021 at 4:30pm, I am officially retired! Decided to pull the plug early (by 3 days) and help Starr out in getting ready for our big adventure! As it turned out, I am glad I did! There is a lot of work involved in getting the housed shut down and prepped on the off chance we decide not to return to until next spring! Plus a few thing I had to do to the RV (I think we need a name for the RV). 

One of them being a new bathroom sink and vanity top. The one that came with it had the faucet mounted on the vanity top and the water barely made it into the actual sink. When you washed your hands, you were having them pressed up against the back wall of the sink, it was fine for weekend warrior-ing but living for longer periods of time, I don't think so!

(New Sink & Vanity Top)

I also added a drop shelf off the kitchen sink to add additional counter space. Our garbage can and recycling bin will sit under it and later on in our journey, when we settle in Tucson Jan-Mar, Starr is going to make a removable curtain to attach to the bottom and hide them.

(Drop Shelf)

I'll post more later about the first leg of our journey!