Homeward Bound

We left the UP and proceeded south. Our plan was to visit a couple of RV Resorts along the way but, as we were getting closer to seeing the kids, we bypassed those stops and headed straight to Frankenmuth where we stayed at the Jellystone CG (which was really nice) downtown and toured one of our favorite German/Christmas towns. We ate at Zehnder's and John was able to pick up his Cheddar Bacon flavored cheese spread. Of course we visited Bronners, the largest Christmas Store in the U.S.
Then moving on to the Farmington Hills area so we could visit with our very good friends, Nat and Candy for a few days. We stayed at Haas Lake RV Resort in New Hudson. This is central to our doctor for annual checkups and only 15 min from Nat and Candy. Great time with them. All is good with doctor and then on our way east into Canada. Yeah!!! So looking forward to seeing the kids. We called Green Acres CG in Waterloo, booked in early and, when we arrived, we were able to have kids onboard. We pulled into Green Acres Park to find our 08 Phaeton was pictured on their park map. What a pleasant surprise. It does look good.

MacKinac Island

We travelled east from Minot ND on highway 2 which we thought was more interesting than what we had seen of the prairies in Canada. It was nice to be on our 'home turf' as we went thru Minnesota to Duluth and on into Wisconsin, along the south shore of Lake Superior and into Michigan. The cg at Iron Mountain was nice. When we arrived at St.Ignace MI, we decided to spend a few days at Summer Breeze CG overlooking Lake Michigan. Full hookup and only $25 with our Good Sam discount. Really a pretty spot to tour the Upper Peninsula. We spent a day at MacKinac Island and were pleasantly surprised at how big the island is, how interesting and pretty, and at how many people live there. The only way to the island is by ferry. We took the Shepler's Ferry trip which included a tour under the Mackinac Bridge.
We took the Mackinac Island Carriage Tours (world's largest horse & buggy livery) to experience the history, legends and beauty of the island. Although we took a horse and carriage tour, we could have rented our own horse and buggy, our own horses to ride around the island or rented bicycles. We would def recommend this stop to anyone. Can't believe we lived in Michigan for so many years and never went there.

Flooding in Saskatchewan and North Dakota

We left Lake Louise Friday and joined our friends, Marv and Donna, at their rv park in Okotos, AB. Really nice rv park. However, they have a stream running thru their park that was now a raging river and threatening to overflow it's banks. The water would have flowed in to Marv and Donna's site as well as the one next door that they had borrowed for our use. Donna had just had surgery on her foot and was immobile. Fortunately the river stayed and then went down. It stopped raining to further ensure safety at this time. Marv showed us around Calgary even tho there wasn't much to see at this time of year. We did have a great visit with Marv and Donna. Then Monday we started out again heading east to Ontario. The rain, the mud and the wet combined with the boring scenery of the Prairies prompted us to again change our plans and we headed south east on hwy 39 at Moose Jaw. We crossed the border at Portal into North Dakota. What an experience that was. We could not believe the water sitting in the fields both in southern Saskatchewan and in North Dakota. We expected to stay the nite in Minot, ND but when we called campgrounds, they were closed due to flooding. We called Walmart to find that they were not in the flood zone and were allowing rvs to stay there. We spent the night, safe and dry, along with about 40 other rigs. The National Guard, Core of Engineers, Contractors and many volunteers were filling over a million sand bags. Ten Thousand of the town's residents had to manditarily evacuate their homes. It will take months to clean up the mess in this and other North Dakota areas. The flooding going east along #2 highway is just amazing.