We’ve been in Pigeon Forge for 4 days now. We’re really enjoying our camp site. There aren’t too many places that putting down the patio makes sense to us but we’ve had it down every day here.

The Little Pigeon River has provided a lot of wildlife to watch. Mostly geese and ducks. Gander found a goose to have a staring contest with.

And there’s a blue Heron that visits every day! It looks like a pterodactyl flying in. But it’s so pretty to watch in the river.

We’ve been working so we haven’t gotten out much yet. On Sunday we went on a bike ride. There’s a nice paved trail along the river. And yesterday we rode through a few campgrounds near here. I still think we made the best choice on our campground-especially for the $ we paid.

We did get out to dinner one night. A nice place called Junction 35 kitchen and bar. It’s a distillery. They take hydration very seriously. They even got Jay to drink a glass of water!!

On a sad note, our 17 yo kitty, Smore passed yesterday. She lived a good life but being a 1 kitty household will take some getting used to.

Lots more exploring coming up with weekend. Stay tuned.

For those that have been asking, yes we are ok. I guess I caught whatever Jay had that prevented him from posting.

After leaving Petoskey on September 21st, we went to Stanton KY for a couple of weeks. We were there when Hurricane Helene hit the Carolinas. We were fine where we were but a few of the things we wanted to do got canceled. After about 7 straight days of rain, the rivers were quite swollen so we decided not to kayak the caves like we’d planned. But we did go on a nice drive on one clear afternoon. Toward the end of the loop we went through a tunnel that was only one car wide. A true test to Jays driving skills.

We left KY in early October and headed to Nashville TN. We were there about 12 hours before I had to fly out for a conference in San Diego. I had lots of fun meeting my coworkers in person for the first time.

After getting back to Nashville, we had a great visit from Will and Anissa Ryan, our neighbors from Skyline Terrace in Seymour. We had lots of fun hitting the restaurants and bars in Nashville with them. We tried a Korean Steakhouse. The food was mehhh. And you had to cook it yourself. I guess it was an experience.Anissa and I also went to the Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas decorations. They weren’t all up yet but what was there was beautiful.

And we introduced them to Top Golf. They were reluctant but were surprised by how much they enjoyed it.

Camryn isn’t traveling with us but she is an Avery so I’ll share that she and Conor are currently traveling too. They went to Scotland for a friends wedding. And are headed to Ireland tomorrow. So excited for them.

In true Camryn and Conor fashion, during the wedding, they even found some cows to pet and chatted with the farmer.

Jay and I are headed to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg today. We’ll be there for a couple weeks. If I get some good pics I’ll be sure to post again.

We’d heard a lot about Torch Lake and how it was the Caribbean of Michigan. So we went for a drive to check it out. Honestly we were a little underwhelmed. It was a pretty lake but I didn’t think it was anything really special. But it was a nice day for a drive and that is enough some times.

While the lake was a bit of a let down, Michigan’s second bridge was pretty spectacular. It’s called Skybridge. It’s at a ski area. I love it that ski areas are doing things to make themselves year round destinations. The Skybridge is a 1200 foot suspension bridge. It’s accessed by the world’s oldest sky lift, literally. It ski lift was first built in Idaho in the 1930s and moved the Boyne Mountain in Michigan in 1940. After crossing the bridge there is a food truck with food and cocktails and nice area to sit and enjoy the views. If you’re in Michigan, I think it’s worth a visit.

We’re wrapping up our time in Michigan. We’ve enjoyed our time in Petoskey and the Jellystone Park has been great. We head out to our next destination on Saturday. I’ll give you a couple of hints: We’re looking forward to exploring mines and caves. And Jay wants to pick up some of their famous jelly. 😉 Stay tuned.

It’s been a really busy week. We started the weekend with a bike ride. For our friends that ride, on regular bikes or e-bikes, consider a trip to western Michigan. There are several nice bike trails around. We rode a section of one called Little Traverse Wheelway. There were some great stops along the way for amazing views. We event stopped for a quick lunch right on the trail.

On Sunday, we went back to Mackinaw City and took the ferry over to Mackinac Island, which we’ve dubbed “the island of misinformation”. First when planning our trip over, we read online that only one ferry company was operating in the fall. So we headed to their docks. At the gate, we were directed down the street to a different parking lot. From that parking lot, we could see another ferry preparing to board. We hopped right on. Once on the ferry, we meet another full time RVer, Candie. It was great to chat with her about her experiences. Once we landed on the island we decided to get lunch with Candie and her pup, Shadow. We stopped at the first restaurant we saw without outside seating. Unfortunately they were not dog friendly but they directed us down the street to another place. That place had a small outside area for sitting with dogs but it was full. They directed us back in the other direction to a 3rd place. The 3rd place was closed for the season. On our 4th attempt we finally found a place that welcomed Shadow. Sitting across from us, we met another couple of RVers, Diane and Tim. They aren’t quite full timers but they’ve traveled quite a bit on some longer trips. The RVing community is so welcoming. And it’s great to hear all of the various experiences. They might have even talked us into a visit to Texas in 2025. We’ll see.

After lunch we split up and headed to the Mackinac Island Art Museum. We thought this was the museum that our friend Paul Grabiel had a painting in. We didn’t find it unfortunately. That bit of misinformation was our fault I guess. Next I wanted to head into the state park to see Arch Rock. Since horse drawn carriages and bikes are the only mode of transportation on the island, we stopped to ask a Taxi carriage for a ride up to the rock. The driver told us taxis aren’t allowed and we’d have to take a tour. Since we weren’t interested in a tour, we decided to walk. It was quite a step hike up to the top of the island. We stopped at a bench at the top to catch our breathe. What do you think we saw go past? 2 TAXI CARRIAGES. At least the rest of the walk was pretty level. And the views at the rock were worth the effort.

On the walk back toward the return ferry, we stopped for a drink at a pretty mini golf sort of place on the water. Of course I didn’t get any pictures, because we suck at taking pictures. I did get some of a bride and groom headed to their reception on the island. It would be a pretty cool place for a destination wedding.

After a really busy weekend, Jay and I decided to add a little interest to our traveling family. I’m happy to introduce little Miss Gander. Her and Smore are getting along great and some of Smore’s usual behaviors are starting to return. We really hope they’ll be good friends.

We have another big weekend planned. Hope you come along for the ride.

We left Port Austin and arrived in Petoskey MI on Saturday. It was a beautiful day for a drive and the roads in MI are in really good condition. We’re getting used to route planning and figuring out gas stops, making sure there is enough room for us. Lots of stuff to get used to.

We arrived at Jellystone Park in Petoskey MI before dinner. The park was recently bought by Sun Outdoors and is on par with their other parks, really pretty nice. Since it’s the holiday weekend, we still had a couple days to explore before we had to jump into work. On Sunday , we ‘planned to take the e-bikes out on a trail called Little Traverse Wheelway. Unfortunately, we learned another lesson. Always take the batteries out of the bikes before travel. This prevents the bikes from accidentally turning on over bumps and draining the batteries. :(. So Jay’s bike was dead so we tried out Plan B instead.

Plan B was a great drive up through an area called the “Tunnel of Trees”. It’s a really winding narrow road through the woods along the water. I’m not sure how they come up with speed limits in MI but we definitely aren’t in CT anymore.

Because we still suck at taking pictures we didn’t take a lot of pictures on the drive. Also because we took the drive south to north so we were on the wrong side of the road for good pictures. We stopped in Cross Village on the north end and walked down the beach. It was a really windy day. The beaches around here are rocky. And a common pass time is fossil hunting. More specifically, Petoskey stone hunting. We looked for a bit but didn’t find any great ones. I wasn’t really prepared with the right shoes to look to closely though. We’ll try to do some more before we leave.

On our last day in Port Austin, we mentioned to a couple of people that we were headed to Petoskey next. They said, “oh, you should do to the Mackinac Bridge Walk on Monday”. So on Monday, we headed to Mackinaw City to walk the bridge. This bridge is an engineering marvel and pedestrians are only allowed on it on Labor day each year. It was a really cool experience and we are both really glad we did it. Apparently everyone does it! I even met Santa Claus!

After the walk, the plan was to take the ferry to Mackinaw Island. Apparently that was the plan for the 30000 other walkers on Monday. We decided to come back another day. Instead we grabbed some lunch and walked around the shops before we headed back to camp. But not before this live statue scared the shit out of Jay. LOL.

The topography on this side of the state is much different than Port Austin. It’s lots of rolling hills and beautiful trees, with still a lot of farms. At one point, I made Jay turn around so go back and check out the largest birds I think I’ve ever seen in my life. It turns out they are sand hill cranes, the largest bird in Michigan and the oldest living bird species. I’m turning into a birder!

We gave ourselves a second shot at tunnel of trees on our way home. This time we actually got pictures.

First, I know I haven’t kept up with my weekly posts. We’ve just been really chillin’. Not a lot going on to write about. With 2 weeks worth now, I guess there is enough for a post.

We went to Frankenmuth, MI, a town “known for its Bavarian-style architecture. ” Honestly, it felt more like a day at discount Epcot than anything else. Apparently there are 2 restaurants offering “world famous chicken dinner”. Jay and I were not impressed with the one we tried. I don’t think we’ll bother going back to try the other. But it was a pretty nice day to walk around. Since I was under-whelmed with the experience, I remembered to take a few pictures for you all.

Jay did found the placement of a few of the shops interesting.

I have been talking about kayaking out to Turnip Rock for weeks now and this weekend seemed like we might have good weather for it. Sitting around the campsite on Thursday evening, we met our neighbors, John and Terry. They have a seasonal site here and own a house in town so they know the area well. I mentioned our plans for the weekend. John told us about the head winds we would face on the LOOONG paddle back. (Recall our experience with headwinds in Pennsylvania). We opted for the boat ride instead! It was a good decision! It would have been a long paddle and an even longer time hearing about it from Jay. If you’re ever in the area, do the boat tour. It’s worth it. And don’t even think about paddling!

In true Avery fashion, our itinerary has changed again. We were headed to Traverse City on Saturday but after reading some recent reviews of our selected campground and talking to some ‘Ganders we met here in Port Austin, we changed our plans. We’re headed to Petosky instead. Hope you’ll stick around to hear all about it.

When we scheduled this trip to Michigan, I wanted to come in particular because I want to kayak to Turnip Rock. As you can see from this pic, the wind was really high this weekend (Lake Huron doesn’t usually have white caps and waves! )High winds doesn’t make for safe kayaking so instead we explored other things in the area.

We headed over to the other side of the thumb, to a cute town called Caseville. Well that’s the official name. It’s also referred to as Key North. They host a Jimmy Buffet themed Cheeseburger Festival for 10 days each August. The crowds were crazy! Like Big E crazy. But we had a good time and some good food, once we found a place to park.

There was supposed to be a sand sculpture contest on Saturday but it was cancelled because of the wind. But instead we got an excellent show from the kite boarders. I’ve never seen this in person before. It was amazing to watch. I took lots of video but I can’t seem to upload those to the blog. So this picture will have to do. As you can see in the picture, this guy is about 10 feet off the surface of the water. And he definitely wasn’t the highest we saw. I’ll stick to watching!

Other than our day in Caseville, we’ve been just hanging out in town mostly. We enjoy riding our bikes to the beach when we’re done with work and having a drink together watching the people, birds and water. We’ve found a few really good restaurants and met some nice people who gave us tips for some more. Are we turning into foodies?

I’m not sure if we’ve earned the foodie title but we are those crazy cat people! Our cat Smore has always been the adventurous one. Without Boo, she has to put up with the added attention but she also gets more exploring in with her new harness and leash. I promise I won’t be offended if you look the other way when you see us at the campground walking our cat!

Since we’re on the subject of politics 😉 I have just one thing to add. I don’t know if windmills are the solution to our energy and climate issues but there is just something about them that fascinates me. I just can’t seem to get the perfect picture of them. IDK, maybe the next one will be perfect. Lol.

We spent this weekend traveling. Saturday was pretty uneventful, made it to the KOA east of Toledo without any issue. It always amazes me how quickly the topography changes. From the mountains of Western Penn to “as far as the eye can see” flat in Ohio in what felt like minutes.

After a night outside Toledo we headed out on our way to Michigan.

As soon as you get to Michigan it is clear that pot is legal here. 8 out of 10 billboards are for pot shops. The other 2 are food. Munchies much?

After a stop for fuel and a quick visit to Bass Pro Shops, we headed north toward the thumb. With no warning what so ever the road in front of us is closed with baracades. The detour is just turn around. No other instructions. Thankfully we have several GPS apps and we chose another one to get us where we needed to go. Our new route took us to Port Huron. Literally the last exit in the US. We had our passports and were tempted but ultimately decided that we needed our jobs to continue to live this adventure. So we had to stay state side. The rest of the drive (almost 90 miles of it) ran along Lake Huron. Several cute little towns and some really nice views.

We’re all still getting used to not having Boo around, especially Smore. She found a few new positions to travel in this time. She always seems to settle down about 30 minutes before we get where we’re going.

So we’re in Port Austin for the rest of August. It’s a really cute town and everything is walking or biking distance from the campground. The campground itself is a little odd. No office or store. It took us nearly 24 hours before we met our first campground employee. But we’re hear and settled in. Looking forward to lots of adventures as we explore Michigan’s Thumb region.

We left Ocean City and traveled to Connellsville PA. We’re staying at a resort called Blue Canoe. It’s a great resort. Right on the bike trail, right on the river, 3 pools, including one adult pool and hot tub. On site restaurant and ice cream shop. Bike, kayak and tube rentals with a shuttle that will take you up river so you can float or paddle down. The sites are good sized and the upgraded ones have concrete patios. I never thought I cared about that but it is really nice to have. Especially when you compare it to “Lake Basle” after every rain storm in OC.

The only down side to this resort is getting here. We used “RV Safe” GPS and it took us on this road called “Coolspring Jumonville Rd” Jay called it Jumanji road. It was SO windy, up and down through the mountains. I would recommend avoiding it if you can. The plus side to that is after making it through Jumanji road, the entry into the campground didn’t seem so bad. There are a couple of sharp turns on Adelaide Rd so if you come in another way, just be prepared.

This week was back to work for us. Before we knew it, it was Friday. Jay and I realized that this weekend is the first weekend alone since we started this adventure. If we have more like this we might stay on the road forever. 🙂

On Saturday we rented an e-bike for me (that’s a long story but moral is do not buy a Jasion bike). Jay and I had a great time on the Great Alleghany Passage (GAP), the rails to trails bike path that runs through the campground. We road 14 miles. We stopped a couple scenic overlooks. Even found a nice place for lunch in town. Called Kickstand Kitchen. The summer salad was great! It was a really fun time and we can’t wait to put more miles on our bikes.

There’s some pretty cool art work along the trail as well.

On Sunday we went to Ohiopyle State Park. Again we found a great spot for lunch, Ohiopyle House Cafe. Great smash burgers. Then we went across the street and played ion the rocks n the river for a bit. Since we suck at taking pictures, we didn’t get any but here’s one I found online. ( Credit to: https://paweekendfun.com/2014/07/29/hiking-ohiopyle-state-park/)

We still prefer the Baker River in New Hampshire but this was a fun experience. I’m glad we got a chance to check it out.

We’ll be working again this week and then it’s off to Michigan. Now that we’re finally caught up with posts, I hope to stay on schedule ( notice I didn’t say “promise”).

Obviously, Jay hasn’t been very good about keeping up with these posts so I’m taking over. Over the next couple days I’ll be adding a few back dated posts to get you up to date on where we are. Hope you’re all still along for the ride.