13 Jun 2025 - RV Repairs, Great Lakes Naval Base, Out to Eat with Michelle's

 

Another great day with daughter Michelle and her family, but Doreen has come down with a nasty cold so we are working through that.  

This morning while Michelle was working I left Doreen and Liberty at the camper and I drove to Michelle's house to help son-in-law Keith with a small repair job on an MCD blind in their camper.  They also have an Alliance coach but theirs is larger than ours.  It has a multi-purpose room that doubles as a bedroom and an office, and a loft overhead.  One of their shades quit retracting so I brought some parts from the Alliance Rally and Keith and I repaired the shade.  

This afternoon Doreen and I drove south towards Chicago to the Great Lakes Naval Facility to visit Michelle at work.  She is the Recruit Training Command mathematics curriculum director for the Future Sailor Preparatory Course.  Their goal is to tutor the recruits who are struggling with math and thereby have scored low on the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).  Improving their score allows the recruits to continue with basic training and potentially become sailors.  There is also a physical fitness tract as well as reading comprehension and verbal knowledge tract.  Since Michelle was born on an Air Force Base and grew up in a military household, coupled with her Masters Degree and 23 years of teaching math, she was a perfect fit for this position.  

We met Michelle in her parking lot and her co-workers were heading out for the day as well.  We got to meet them and I thanked them for what they do for our future sailors.  Michelle then escorted Doreen and I through her area.  Having completed Air Force basic military training this brough back many memories!  The Navy has configured their facilities to generally simulate ship-life.  The doors on the rooms are equipped with portals!

The latrines are labeled "heads".  The building names are ships.  

Their medical facility is similarly named,  

We saw recruits marching and practicing facing movements.  They were chanting cadence, guidons in position and road guards were out!  Ah the memories!

The classrooms were vacant for the day as we toured her area. Computers are used for much of their training and testing.

This was an interesting training room where they learned how to secure the ship with a mooring line on a bitt.  

This was a vacant bunk room.  The bunks are hinged allowing access to storage beneath

This was a sign in Michelle's office.  Michelle and those in her office have a huge impact on these future sailors. We are so proud of her!  

We wrapped up our tour and followed Michelle off-base.  We headed back to the campground and Michelle headed home.  Later, Doreen, Liberty and I drove to Michelle's house where we all went out to eat.  

Mexican food tonight!

A tasty margarita!

A pina colada

After dinner we headed across the street to Moran's Pub which is an Irish pub in South Milwaukee.  Moran's organized a tour to Ireland a few months ago and Michelle & Keith went on it to celebrate their wedding anniversary.  We stopped by to hopefully meet the owner but he was not there.  We did enjoy a Guinness and Michelle & I participated in a round of Guinness Golf, also called "Splitting the G".  This is a tradition where you take a large swig of Guinness so that the liquid level perfectly aligns with the middle of the "G" in the Guinness logo on the glass.   Needless to say neither of us were successful.  We must practice more!!

Michelle & Keith's friend Kevin and Nikki arrived with their sons and it was great to see them and catch up with them a bit.  We used to see them at the campground when we came up.  

We had a great time tonight and some great food.  Tomorrow Joe is going to take us to see some of the mansions he has been working on and then tomorrow afternoon Keith & Michelle bring their camper out to the same campground we are at and we will spend some time with them around the campfire before we take off on Monday and drive to Iowa.

12 Jun 2025 - RV Maintenance, Visitors & Bags Tournament

 

This morning while our daughter was working at the Great Lakes Naval Base, our son-in-law was flying to/from Los Angeles for American Airlines, our grandson Joe was at work remodeling a house and grandson Jon was attending his last day of his junior year of high school, I did some RV maintenance.  

The suspension system on our dual axle fifth wheel involves four leaf springs with a MORryde CRE3000 suspension system in the middle.  We discussed earlier about "wet bolts" and bronze bushings at the end of the leaf springs,  and how the bushings will wear.  Lubrication extends the life of the suspension system. The wet bolts and CRE3000 are equipped with grease zerks.  These need to be lubricated every couple thousand miles.  Realizing our trip this year is right at 9000 miles, that means we will lubricate them several times during our journey.   

This is a "wet" bolt with a grease zerk on the end.  The leaf spring rides on this bolt.  The bolt is hollow allowing grease to be pumped into the zerk on the end and flow through the bolt and out the hole in the middle to lubricate the bronze bushing that the spring rides on.

Spring hanger with wet bolt and grease zerk visible.

Wet bolt with grease zerk showing and hole to lubricate the bronze bushing 

The other end of the leaf spring is a shackle,  These shackles also support the suspension system and allow the axles to move and flex with the roughness of our roads.  They also use wet bolts and bronze bushings.  

In the middle of the suspension system on our coach is a CRE3000 device that offering a smoother towing experience and improved protection from road shock. It's known for its 3-inch suspension travel, which helps to reduce frame stress and provides a more comfortable ride. It looks like this:  

So, again, all of these devices have grease zerks and all require periodic lubrication.  That is my mission for today.  To accomplish this lubrication you have to take the load off the suspension system.  You can do this by either jacking the frame of the coach, or by using the levelers, which is my choice.  You have to get the load off the suspension system or you likely cannot get any grease in the wet bolts. I used the levelers to raise one side at a time and then lubricate those zerks.  It worked perfectly and I completed the task quickly.  Had I not been able to get grease into a specific zerk, then it is likely that the specific bronze bushing has worn and plugged the hole in the wet bolt.  

While under the coach I inspected the suspension system, the axles, the brakes and hydraulic lines,  the propane lines and everything else for that matter.  I also spun the tires and inspected them for any unusual wear, flat spots, bulging, etc. 

Grandson Jon and his girl friend stopped out today and we had a good talk with him.  Jon is a great kid and we are so thankful he has a solid plan in place for his future.  Next year he has been accepted into his high school's dual enrollment welding program at  the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) for his senior year rather than attend high school. He is only short one credit from graduating right now, so he will take a literacy class online through MATC also, and will carry 18 credit hours for the fall semester.  That is a full load for a college freshman as a senior in high school!  This kid is "driven"!! Atta boy Jon!  We are so proud of him!

This afternoon son-in-law Keith arrived after finishing his Chicago to Los Angeles to Chicago flight.  Was great to see him and we are looking forward to camping with them this weekend.  Tomorrow we will go to Keith's house where his coach is and help him repair his MCD shade that we got parts for at the Alliance Rally in May.

Tonight we drove to Michelle's and Jon showed us some of his shop projects.  It is refreshing to see a young person excited about a future in the trades.  Many of these projects are similar to what I did at the Northern University High School, and I loved every minute of it!  

Some of Jon's shop projects including use of CNC machine, milling machine, lathe, knurling tools, thread cutting, boring arms, etc!  These show exacting cuts and great skills!

A table projects using welding skills and some woodworking

A beautiful bowling ball holder made of cherry and oak

We  then headed to a bags tournament that Keith and Joe were competing in.  Unfortunately I did not get any pictures, but was fun watching them compete.  Michelle, Nana and I enjoyed a beverage while we tried to stay warm.  The wind coming off Lake Michigan is very chilly tonight.  

Later tomorrow we will drive to the Great Lakes Naval Base to visit Michelle and see where she works.  It is about an hour from here.

11 Jun 2025 - Arrived at Stop #19 Cliffside Campground in Racine WI + Grandson Bowling

 

We pulled chocks this morning at the Rippling River Resort in Marquette MI at 0921 hrs and headed south towards Milwaukee.  Before we bugged out, though, we go through a checklist procedure to make sure nothing gets omitted.  There are many moving parts and many things to do, and if you skip any steps bad things can happen.  Doreen has her tasks and I have mine.  One of my tasks is the floors.  We work our way out of the coach and then I dry-Swiffer the floors, followed by a wet-Swiffer.  The Swiffers are disposable pads that fit on a flat head attached to a handle.  They really work very well.  So these pictures are the dry Swiffer and the pile of dirt, sand, rocks and crumbs it compiled:

Dry Swiffer pad and the resulting pile

Then I use a wet Swiffer over the entire floor and this is what it caught:

This is just three days worth, and we do not wear our shoes inside the coach, and we use rugs!  We Swiffer upon departure so we are not retracting the slide-outs on top of all this stuff and so that the coach is relatively clean when we arrive at our next destination.  

As explained last night, we timed our departure based on estimated travel time and earliest check-in time at our destination.  So today we motored south along Lake Michigan and a beautiful but slightly overcast view.  

We planned several "comfort" stops along the way and one of them is this lighthouse replica.  It is adjacent to a restaurant/bar that was closed the last two times we have been by here and appears to still be closed.  

At Marinette we crossed the bridge into Wisconsin and back into Central Daylight Time.  YEAH!  The transition from Central time to Eastern has been nothing short of a PIA.  We live and breathe by our Google Calendar as far as events, especially grandkids events, and we are constantly having to verify whether an event time is Central time or Eastern.  So we are thankful to be back in the Central Daylight Time zone and in Wisconsin!  

Traffic picked up substantially as we passed through Green Bay and then even more as we entered the Milwaukee area.  We kept on pressing south on I-43 to I-41 and then east.  At 1513 hrs we rolled into the Cliffside Campground in Racine WI, our home for the next five nights.  

Our daughter Michelle and her family live just a bit north of us in Oak Creek, a southern suburb of Milwaukee.  Michelle works for a US Navy contractor at the Great Lakes Naval Base where she is the curriculum director for the mathematics department.  They are responsible for tutoring math to the recruits that lack sufficient math skills to pass the AFQT test for enlistment. To help solve shortfalls in recruitment, the Navy started accepting what the military calls "Category IV" recruits, or high school diploma-holding applicants who score between the 10th and 30th percentile on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, or AFQT. After 23 years of teaching 8th grade math in a suburb of Milwaukee I believe she finds this new position challenging but very fulfilling.  Her students want to be there and they want to succeed.  She describes students who come up to her after they pass the test and become US Navy Seaman and they are overwhelmed with gratitude.  So awesome!  We hope to be able to see where she works while we are here.  She is pictured here with her new license plate "Mainiac" since she was born at the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone Maine.  

Michelle's husband, our son-in-law Keith is a commercial airline pilot.  He captained corporate jets for many years internationally and recently was hired by American Airlines to fly 737's.  In fact he was called to duty this afternoon for a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles, so we will see him tomorrow afternoon when he returns.  Keith is an accomplished trap shooter too.  They own an Alliance fifth wheel 390MP and love camping at the local campground.  They will be joining us Saturday here at Cliffside Campground.  Sometimes when Keith and I get together we sample a bourbon or two and I brought some from Traverse City for him to try!  We also usually have a project or two to work on and this time I think we are going to tackle an MCD shade repair in their camper!

Grandson Joe graduated high school a couple years ago and is a carpenter in the local area.  He works for a company that performs all sorts of residential construction including multi-million dollar remodels. Joe will be showing us a couple of his projects this weekend.   In his spare time Joe is an amazing bowler and has three 300-games under his belt and an 800 series.  Tonight we watched him bowl in a league and he did awesome,  So fun to watch him and his friends having a good time at the bowling alley.  

Michelle's youngest, our namesake grandson Jonathon Edwin, is just finishing his junior year of high school tomorrow.  Jon is an amazing young man who has taken a liking to welding!  I think I covered some of this last night, but he will be showing us some of his work while we are here.  This summer he has been hired to work with Kolar Arms company where he will gain valuable knowledge and experience involving welding and brazing.  Jon is destined for great things!

That's it for now.  Looking forward to some great days here with Michelle & family!

10 Jun 2025 - Last Day at Marquette MI

 

This was our last day at the Rippling River Resort Campground at Marquette MI.  We got in departure mode this morning and started making preparations to bug-out in the morning.  Doreen woke up with a bit of a sore throat so we hope that is not the start of anything serious.  She did a final load of laundry as the washers and dryers are really inexpensive here and physically close to our coach.  I worked on a few projects and got our paperwork up to date including route planning for tomorrow.  

After Doreen was done we compiled a short shopping list and headed into town to replenish the fridge and pantry, and fuel the big ol' brown truck.  My coffee maker started leaking water and was giving Doreen fits so we picked up a new one.  Our friends Norma and Randy stopped by as they had also been in town and were headed back towards K.I. Sawyer where they are camping.  We were glad to hear Norma was feeling better today.  

After lunch we headed out on a walk around the campground with Liberty.  I wanted to go west past the lodge to see the ski areas, and there are several, a couple pictured below. There is snow-making equipment on several of the slopes.  Nothing really crazy here but it is surely a very busy area in the winter.   There is also some rapidly moving water in the Carp River that runs close to the campground. We can hear it from the campground as we walk around.  Bicycle trails weave in and out of the woods on this side of the river and there are ATV trails everywhere too.  Some pictures:

We finished up our walk and after a trip to the dumpster with our final load of trash, we settled in for the evening.  We got a chuckle out of this sign, but it has a good message:

Tomorrow morning we will pull chocks and head south through Green Bay and Milwaukee to Racine WI, our next stop.  Our daughter Michelle and her family live just a few miles north of the campground in Oak Creek WI.  She has many plans for us this weekend and we are really looking forward to seeing her, our son-in-law Keith and grandsons Joe and Jon!

The trip is about 315 miles and we will have a 2-3 stops in there.  Two other factors with our travels tomorrow are that we will have a time zone change back to Central, so we will gain an hour of travel time, and we are headed to a campground with a strict check-in time of  no earlier than 1500 hrs. Everything considered, that translates into a departure time of 0900 hrs EDT.

Next report from Cliffside Campground in Racine WI!

9 Jun 2025 - Lunch with Randy & Norma Myers, and Grandson Baseball

 

As we travel across the United States it's always great to reconnect with friends, military comrades, relatives and especially Allies (Alliance owners) on the road!  The Alliance community has grown exponentially since we bought our fifth wheel in 2020 and we have become friends with so many Allies from all over the country.  We stay in touch with each other throughout the year on social media and take advantage of opportunities to connect when our travel paths cross.  

Today we had lunch with our friends and Alliance owners Norma and Randy Myers.  We first met on social media I believe but in-person at an Alliance Rally three years ago.  Then we both camped at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio two years ago and last year we were both at the national Alliance Rally in Goshen IN.  Randy retired from the United States Air Force so we had that in common right off the bat.  Norma worked for Pabst Blue Ribbon who owns Lone Star Beer, and  well no further explanation needed there!!  Norma became my new best friend!  You know I do like the Texas State beer!   

Randy was born at K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base just down the road here a few miles which closed in September 1995. The base was part of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, with the closure being officially announced in 1993.  Loring Air Force Base where I was stationed active duty was also BRAC'd during the same round.  So we have sentimental connections to these places.  

Randy & Norma were up here visiting the K.I. Sawyer area and Doreen & I had Marquette on our itinerary after the Michigan rally, so we were able to get together for lunch today. We met at the Iron Bay Restaurant & Drinkery and got caught up a bit while we had lunch. 

Rand & Norma had some work done on their coach recently so we were interested how that came out.  They are headed west from here so we may end up reconnecting somewhere down the trail later this summer.  It was great seeing them today.  We wanted to get together and tour the museum at K.I. Sawyer but it is closed Monday and Tuesday, and we depart Wednesday.  We've emailed the museum POC about opening up for us but nothing back yet.  

We said our goodbyes after lunch and I took this picture of the Lower Harbor Ore Dock  which was next to where we parked.  Constructed in the late 19th century, the Lower Harbor Ore Dock was part of a network of docks that facilitated the transportation of iron ore from the mines of Michigan's Upper Peninsula to steel mills across the Great Lakes region. This area is very historic with it's lighthouses and mining history.  We visited here previously and really enjoyed it. 

That's it for tonight.  We've been watching the Game Changer app cast to our TV as I write this. We are also enjoying the fireplace to take the chill off as the temperature is dropping a bit.  

Our grandson Daniel started Varsity right field tonight for Grand View Christian High School and now he is on the bump as his first Varsity pitching opportunity.  He also got his first Varsity hit tonight and stole several bases.  His team ended up losing the game due to mental and skills errors but not because of Daniel's performance.  He did great! 

Daniel Edwin Schellhase Jr