The beginning of the trip!

Hello all~

Welcome to the start of the Travlin' Thomases  Blog!

It's been hard to say exactly when we started this trip since we have been "on the road" most of July already! We started with a quick trip to Alabama for Dave's parent's 75th wedding anniversary and are so thankful for the blessings those 75 years have given them! At 94 and 92 they are both doing well, living on their own, still driving (only making right turns!) and most of all loving their Lord with their whole hearts every day. They are an amazing example for all of us!

 

On our way back north at our stop at Grissom Air Force Museum (part of the Harvest Host program) our passenger side slide broke when I was putting it out for the night. We were able to get it back in within a few inches so we could drive back to Michigan to get it repaired. Since we were fully packed for our "big trip" unloading the fridge and the basement to get it fixed was quite the "hot mess" but thanks to Trent at FabTech we were back on the road on the 7th. It was a good thing as Emma flew in from Tennessee on the 6th and we needed a "home" for all of us as we headed up to Mackinaw to meet my family. We had a fast but fun weekend with my mom & dad, brother & sister in-law, niece (this whole event was for her to celebrate her 21st birthday and graduation from West Virginia), her boyfriend and my sister in law's sister and husband. We biked around Mackinaw Island, ate pasties and did some wine tasting. We had perfect weather and such a great time, too bad it went so fast!

Next stop and RV adventure was to head back down to Ludington to camp with friends Bruce & Jan. On our way down the orange engine light came on. All the other gauges were OK so we kept driving but then turned a corner and fluid came out the back of the RV in a big gush! The engine light now turned red and started flashing STOP ENGINE! As you can imagine I am slightly freaking out telling Dave to pull over but we're on a small road with no shoulder. A few minutes later the engine just shuts down and we pull off as much as we can. The truck is still in the road so we jump out to get that disconnected and off on a side street. After many phone calls (good thing I am tenacious!), a nice stop from Mike the Sheriff, and Mel from Nelson's Truck Service we were back on the road again. Even with the breakdown, we were so fortunate that it was only the radiator hose that came dis-attached and Mel was able to fix it pretty quickly. There was also a NAPA store only 10 minutes away that I was able to get more anti-freeze at. Thankful and praying all of those "adventures" are done for this trip! We had a great few days with Bruce & Jan and will miss them so much over the next few months camping without them.

Back headed north again we stopped in St. Ignace to see my college roommate "Sandy UPper". :) It was terrific to see her again and hear about all the kids. Praying good things will happen for Sandy this year. We did the silly tourist thing and climbed Castle Rock and wow, what a view! We are now at Manistique and visiting Kitch-iti-kipi springs. Very cool place with the spring putting out 10,000 gallons a minute. 

We are heading out now to do some Kayaking in Indian Lake but we'll leave you with the picture Dave took this morning of the sunrise (ya'll know I wasn't up to see it! :). I'll try to do better going forward so the posts aren't so long. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers as we continue on our journey!