September 21-25 - 2017 Jackson, Michigan

The past few days have been spent with my brother Joe and his wife Debbie and their family, in Jackson, Michigan. It was nice to spend a few days with family again, do some laundry, get some home cooked meals. (We have been cooking in the camper, but it has been very simple meals.)

Joe and JJ did some repairs and improvements on the car and camper. So, we left Jackson “new and improved”.

Here are a couple of pictures from our activities.

Visit to the local micro brewery

Family bonfire

 

 

It was fun to be in the middle of Lions country, watching the Lions lose to the Falcons and at the same time watch the Vikings beat the Buccaneers 😊

The weather has been abnormally warm for late September. Ever since we left Minnesota, the temperatures have been in the high 80’s – low 90’s F (ca. 30 grader Celsius). We have also had sunshine and blue skies most of the time. This weekend in Jackson was VERY warm.

Written by Mary 

September 20 - 2017 Detroit, Michigan

Wednesday we went to Detroit: Motortown.
We toured one of Fords factories. The truck factory in Dearborn.
The factory is over a hundred years old and was Henry Ford’s ultimate dream: A factory where you
put iron ore (jernmalm) in at one end and got a car at the other end. Everything was produced on site.
Not so anymore, but nevertheless an amazing factory.
We saw some interesting movies about the Ford history, a gallery of old cars and last but not least got
to see a part of the factory where they are today making the F-150 Ford truck. One every minute!!

From pickup trucks to real trucks:
Saw this one on our way out of town: 11 axles !!

Detroit has been a wealthy town since the early 20^th century, because of the auto industry. However, the past many years – and especially after the financial crisis in 2008, the American auto industry has been going downhill. This is very evident in the downtown Detroit area.

We saw many abandoned buildings – public buildings, private houses, industry….

Michigan Central Station - abandoned

 

Abandoned  house

 
 
 


Packard Automotive Plant

 
Luckily the auto industry is starting to come back, and Detroit is starting to revive. There are many new buildings going up downtown, and people are able to buy and renovate the abandoned houses. We drove through neighborhoods, where most of the houses looked kept up, and then there would be 1 or 2 that were not. We also found one area, where most of the houses looked run down or abandoned. But it looks like Detroit will be able to come back after its fall.

 

 

Written by JJ and Mary

 

September 18-19 - 2017 Ottawa Lake, Michigan

Monday the 18^th we spend in transit.
We moved from Illinois to Ottawa Lake, Michigan.
We are about an hour south of Detroit (see map).

Tuesday we went on a long road trip.

First stop was NFL Hall Of Fame in Canton, Ohio
A very exciting place, with lots of history, statistics, pride and glory.

 

We also picked a good year to come, as Morten Andersen from Denmark,
was inducted to the hall of fame only a little over a month ago. Number two from the left.

 

The Vikings history started with the Duluth Eskimos (1923-1925).
When the owner sold the team to the football league, he got first right of any future pro football team in Minnesota. Hense the connection to the Vikings.(He got 10%).
Duluth played 29 games one year. 28 away, because  nobody wanted to go to freezing cold Minnesota !! 😊



The Vince Lombardi Trophy

 

The Vince Lombardi Trophy. (Mesterskabspokalen).
The trophy is on display in Canton throughout the season,
awaiting the Super Bowl winner of the season.

 

The day was a day of total contrasts. We went from the Football Hall of Fame, with all its glitz and glory, to an area of Ohio, where the Amish people have a large community, where they live a more humble and simple life.

For those of you, who do not know about the Amish, they are a conservative religious group, descending from Dutch-Swiss immigrants in the 18^th century. They have rules called “ordnung” (way of life), that prohibit the use of telephones, electricity, motorized vehicles,…. They wear traditional clothing, farm the land by hand, and transport themselves with bicycles and horse-drawn carriages.

Here are some images from Amish land….    

An Amish department store

Amish washing machines

 

Amish gardening tools

 



Children on their way home from school


 

Transportation 

 

Written by JJ and Mary.

 

 

September 16-17 - 2017 Chicago, Illinois

 

This week-end we spent in Chicago.
We did the “must do’s”:
    Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) – once the highest building in the world.
    Deep Dish Pizza (invented in Chicago)
    Navy Pier.
Chicago has a lot of interesting buildings and a lot of interesting people.

How about having your
wedding picture taken inthe middle of the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             

 

We also ran into Abraham Lincoln

 

 

 

And last, but not least, we met with JJ's cousin Peter,
who is in Chicago for a number of years doing his Ph. D

 

On the way back to the campground we crossed the border to Indiana,
to buy cigarettes ($4,50/pack($7,50 in MN)) and gas ($2,19 a gallon($2,49 in MN)) 😊 Big savings 😊

Written by JJ

 

September 16 - 2017 Crete, Illinois

First a practical piece of information (for those who didn’t already know).
It is possible to get an email when there is a new posting.
All you have to do is enter your email address in the box under “Follow by Email”
and then submit. You will receive an email from “noreply+feedproxy@google.com”
where you have to activate your subscription, and you will receive an email when there is
a new posting. You can unsubscribe at any time you want to.

Friday we moved to Crete, Illinois. Half an hour south of Chicago.
The Tahoe is very thirsty with the camper behind it.
We are doing about 10 miles per gallon - at best (ca. 4,5 km/liter) ☹
Gas went up 30-40 cents after the hurricanes to $2,50 per gallon (ca. kr. 4,25/liter).
It is gradually coming down again.

Lake Jewel seen from our campsite

We are still learning things about setting up the camper, and how things work. We have had a couple of close calls…

The first day we set up, we wanted to turn on the hot water heater. Mary remembered that we needed to fill the tank BEFORE we turned it on. She had made a special note of that. But we were not sure of which tank that meant (Mary thought there was a special tank, and JJ thought it was fine, since we were hooked up to water). So, we turned the heater on, and after several hours, there was still no water. We were then pretty sure, that we had ruined the water heater, by not filling an external tank. LUCKILY it wasn’t the case. There was an external switch for the water heater, that we had forgotten to turn on😊

We bought a TV for the camper. It works really well, by using an antenna, that is cranked up on the roof. We have 50 local channels today – all for free! BUT the antenna has to be put down again, when we move the camper! Yesterday, about 5 miles from our first campground, a car in front of us stopped at a traffic light, and put on his flashers. “What now”, said JJ. The guy came back to our car and informed us, that we had forgotten to take the antenna down. Not good☹ But it is nice that Americans are so helpful😊  

Written by Mary & JJ

 

September 14 - 2017 Brodhead, Wisconsin

We spend most of yesterday getting our stuff moved into the camper and get it organized in an efficient way, so we will be able to function in a relative small space for the next 3 months.
We also bought a TV and got that installed, so we can follow the news and see if the world is still turning.

We pulled out of Birchwood, Minnesota this morning and moved 300 miles (500 km) east to Brodhead, Wisconsin (see map).

The trip went well, but there is quite a difference between driving a Peugeot 205 weighing 800 kg (ca. 1700 pounds) and the Chevy Tahoe and the camper with a combined weight of 5000 kg (ca. 11000 pounds) !!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Trump is right 😊: MAJOR investments in infrastructure is highly needed, or kidney belts (nyrebælter) have to be available at all gas stations – free of charge! 😊

It took us about 15 minutes to set up the camper when we arrived.
It takes longer to check into a hotel room 😊

Writen by JJ

September 13 - 2017 Birchwood, Minnesota

September 13, 2017 – Birchwood, Minnesota

I promised on the last blog entry, to tell a little more about our experience with picking up our camper. As I wrote, we were contacted the day before we were scheduled to pick it up. The store did not have the new tires to put on the trailer! (This was one of the 9/11 problems)

We decided to drive up there early anyway, because we were already at my brother’s house, so we could be closer to Paynesville, where we were picking the camper up. No one was going to be at home, so we could just as well go to the store.

Shortly after arriving at the store, the electricity went out! INCREDIBLE!!!!! Americans do have more power outages then we have in Denmark, but they are usually connected to storms and bad weather. That was not the case this day (or on 9/11).

We were lucky, that the paperwork was done, so we could go through that without computers. Unfortunately, the tires could not be put on the trailer, until the power came on again. We got a very good introduction to the trailer, and how to use things (the service guys couldn’t do anything else, so they had lots of time for us).

And finally, at about 2:30 (14:30), we were ready to leave. We had hoped to be on the road by noon, so we could get through the big cities before rush hour started, but that didn’t happen! Luckily, we had chosen a route with less traffic, and there were only a couple of spots, where our knuckles were white.

Home safely in Birchwood, we could breathe easy and congratulate ourselves on our new home, and a trip well done. We slept happy again last night😊

 

Written by Mary     

September 11 - 2017 Birchwood and Dassel, Minnesota

It has been a week since we last wrote. We have been busy buying things for the camper, visiting family and friends, and getting some paperwork done. We have gotten a lot done. But not all of it has been without complications. As my sister said, "You didn't think it would all go smoothly, did you?" Here are some of the complications, we have run in to:

We found out that the plug in for the trailer lights was not working. After talking to "experts" (professional mechanics and my brothers) and hooking it up to a few trailers, JJ finally got the problem fixed :-)

On Friday, our bank sent us a mail, that we had over-used our debit card, and that they would charge us $10 (70 kr.) for each withdrawal we made over 6 per month. We had already made 12 withdrawals the first week of September! JJ WAS NOT HAPPY, that we had wasted $60/420 kr. I wasn’t too happy either☹We finally got it worked out with the bank.

Monday was 9/11 and many flags were flying half mast in remembrance
of the 16th anniversary of the terrorist acts in 2001.

Our own 9/11 was, without any comparison though, not without problems.
So many small things went wrong.

#1 – Our car needs new tabs (en slags vejskat) in December. Because we are going to be in Florida in December (they need to be bought in Minnesota), we asked at the DMV (motorkontoret) if we could buy them early. “Sure, you can”, the woman at the office said. That was until she tried putting the information into the computer. The DMV is changing their computer system – not without problems. After 3 tries, she told us to come back and try another day.

#2 – Right after the DMV, we went to get insurance for the camper. Just before we got to the office, the electricity went out. No electricity – no computers – no insurance! We could see from the traffic lights, that the power outage was local, so we decide to wait for an hour, to see if the power came back.

#3 – We went to a store where JJ had seen lighter gas, which he needed. That store was also out of electricity, but the employees said we could buy things, if we could find them and pay in cash. JJ and one of the sales personal walked around with a flashlight to find the gas. They did. And we had cash, so we got gas for the lighter!

We then waited in the car for about an hour, and decided not to wait any longer for the power to come on. We went back to the insurance company, and as we were speaking to the guy, the power came on again. So, we got insurance too!!

#4 – Just after we left the insurance office, we got a phone call from the RV (camping) store. We were scheduled to pick up the camper at 9 am the next day, but they had not gotten the tires, so it would not be ready until sometime in the afternoon. THIS DID NOT MAKE US HAPPY!!!!! (Imagine JJ at this point!!!!!) We will write more about this tomorrow.

Finally, our day started getting better after that. We arrived at my brother Matt’s house, and watched the first game of the Minnesota Vikings football team’s season. They won😊😊😊 So we were happy when we went to bed.

Written by Mary

P.S. To continue with the bad luck, I have written this blog 3 times, but have had trouble saving it, so I have had to start over each time☹   

 

September 4 - 2017 Deerwood, Minnesota

We spent the last 2 days at my brothers' cabin (sommerhus) in northern Minnesota. It is on a hill over looking a lake. It is a quite, peaceful place to be. And beautiful - especially at sunset.



Pontoon boat

We tried a fun thing at one of the local bars. It is called a meat raffle (kødlotteri). You buy a number, and get a chance to win a package of meat. Between my brother Phil, his wife Mindy, and JJ and I, we won 4 packages of meat and 2 free drinks. The extra money goes to projects for the local Lions club. It was an interesting bit of local culture.




















We are now visiting my brother Matt. There is a town celebration here in Dassel. We saw fireworks (fyrværkeri), when we came last night. Today we head out for my sister's house in Birchwood. We have been in the rural part of Minnesota until now (ude på landet). Birchwood is part of the big city area of Minneapolis/St. Paul.    

Written by Mary

September 2 - 2017 Paynesville, Minnesota

 

Just a short update on the travel trailer.
We did the test-drive yesterday and made the final decision to buy.
Now they have to make it ready for us (new tires etc. etc.).
We will pick it up on the 12th.
It is a 2011 Heartland North Country - 22FB
It may look big, but you cannot get them much smaller over here! :-)
Written by JJ