On our way to Nashville!

On Wednesday September 28, we left St. Clair at 10:40 with 94,410.3 miles on Acey, 104,067 on Thor and 2204.3 on our bikes. We headed to Charlotte, Michigan (put accent on the –lotte!) to have a safety inspection and maintenance done on Acey at Spartan Chassis – the folks that made the chassis. We wanted to be sure everything looked OK after our trip to Alaska. As we drove, we saw the fall colors are starting to come out on the trees!

Spartan – or Shyft as they are now called – has a big parking lot with electric hookups where customers can stay while they have their motorhome worked on. There is also fresh water available and a dump station. We got parked and set up by 3pm and headed out for the grocery store and made dinner back at Acey.

Thursday was a chilly day! We closed up Acey and she went into the shop at 7 and we spent the morning in the lobby where there was wi-fi. Linda worked on the blog and Jim worked on stuff about building our new house. We went out for lunch at Sidestreet Deli; they make a BIG sandwich! We got the inspection report on Acey – 4 of the 6 airbags need replacement! (The airbags are part of the suspension system which gives us a “cushy” ride.) Acey was returned to us, and we made dinner, etc.

Friday went similarly – and they got the new airbags installed.  We stayed in the lobby in the morning and went out for a delicious Mexican meal at Tequila’s for lunch. The building was formerly the Charlotte train depot.

Saturday, we drove into Lansing to go for a bike ride on the Lansing River Trail. It seemed like it should be called the Powerline Trail!

We finally did see water as we rode along Sycamore Creek and the Red River Creek.

We rode 18 miles on a beautiful and cool day. On our way back to Acey, we stopped at World Market where we buy our favorite Pizza crusts and found two squirrel ornaments. (Forgot to look for those at Bronner’s!)

We got some groceries at Aldi and after stopping at Acey, we visited Charlotte Brewing for a flight.

Sunday morning, we worshipped with Stephens Valley Church watching the service from last week (Sept 25), The sermon, The Dangerous Truth, by Pastor Jim looked at John 8:12-30 (bulletin) In John 7, Jesus had been at The Feast of the Tabernacles; he now makes the bold claim that he is The Light of the World – like the tall lamps that were used at the feast, he also says you will die in your sins unless you believe in Him. We are thankful for our salvation in Christ! Then we zoomed with our Sunday school class, studying Acts 15.

After lunch we left Charlotte with 94,568 miles on Acey, 107,168 on Thor and 2223.5 on our bikes. It was another clear day for driving – and we crossed the state line into Indiana about 2:30.

As we drove into Shipshewana, we must be in/near an Amish community.

 Elkhart and Shipshewana, Indiana are where many RVs and RV parts are made. We had ordered a new couch for Acey when we were at the Tampa RV Show in January, and we are finally going to have it installed! Bradd & Hall had electric hookups for us in their parking area, we arrived at 3pm and got set up. We arrived just in time for Family Zoom which was moved to an earlier time today – and Chuck was able to be with us again from Manchester!

Monday morning the old couch (sofa sleeper) was removed – the faux leather had been peeling for quite a while, so we had put a slipcover over it. When we took it off, we could see the peeling had gotten a lot worse. The color of the sofa sleeper was kind of odd – sort of a light plum-grey.

The new couch was installed, a nice improvement!

 We were on the road again by 11:15 with 94,588.7 miles on Acey, 107,168 still on Thor. We arrived at Johnny Appleseed Campground in Fort Wayne about 2pm, went to the dump station to dump the grey water, then got set up and made lunch. We have water and 50-amp hookups here. Later, we met Sean and 3 of his girls for dinner at Lucille’s BBQ. It was wonderful to see our nephew and great-nieces again! But no photos.

Tuesday morning, we rode on the Rivergreenway – a bike trail that goes all over Fort Wayne. This ornate building is part of the city’s filtration plant

The Three Rivers Water Filtration Plant is right by the confluence of Fort Wayne’s three rivers. The waters from the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s River flow into the Maumee River and on to Toledo, Ohio and Lake Erie.

As we rode on the bike path along the rivers, we eventually ended up across from the Filtration Plant.

We rode 12 miles on a perfect day for a bike ride!

Later, we went to Sean’s house for dinner. He moved in to a nice 3-bedroom home over the summer and has much more room now for the family! No photos of the delicious dinner, but here’s the girls playing in the bonus room. Nellie was on the couch with her tablet.

Zuzu and Adelina played a video game.

Wednesday morning, we rode on the Rivergreenway a different direction which took us thru the Fort Wayne campus of Perdue University and along the St. Joseph River. We rode over the river on this pretty bridge. 

And had our picnic lunch at Shoaff Park – some geese were hanging out nearby.

We rode just 11 miles and headed back to Acey – it was nice to be able to ride right from the campground both days! We had noticed a dam by the entrance to our campground, so we walked over to check it out. Apparently, this dam is used to control water levels, but it doesn’t appear to be used to generate electricity.

Later, on the way to the Wednesday evening service at Harvest Fellowship, this pedestrian bridge was worthy of a photo!

We met up with Sean and heard the pastor speak on Judges 3 – which talks about the first 3 judges for Israel. We met up with the girls afterwards and had to say goodbye; we will be leaving Fort Wayne in the morning.

Thursday morning, we got packed up, filled the freshwater tank, went to the dump station and were on the road by 10:30. Acey has 94,794.8 miles, Thor 107,203 and our bikes 2246.6 miles. We arrived at our overnight stop at 3:30; our Harvest Host is Our Lady of Perpetual Hops Brewing Company in New Albany, Indiana.

We got parked and went to the grocery store.  Harvest Hosts provide a free place to stay overnight, but generally provide no hookups, and we are encouraged to buy some of their product. So, we visited the brewery and enjoyed some craft brews while we watched a father and son play a “Jenga” game.

The tower got pretty tall before the inevitable happened…

Friday morning, we left New Albany at 9:30 with 95,031.6 miles on Acey and 107,210 on Thor. The beautiful fall colors are coming out!

This double-decked bridge carries traffic over the Ohio river, connecting Indiana to Kentucky.

And we are in Kentucky!

We drove into the central time zone where we will be for a while. Soon we crossed the state line into Tennessee!

About 1pm we arrived at Yazoo Brewing to park for the night.

We sat on the patio and enjoyed some brews with Chris, and he joined us for dinner. Since we left Nashville on April 18, we have added 13,294.5 miles to Acey, 5,360 to Thor and 346.4 miles to our bikes. We purchased Acey with 55,051 miles, so we have driven her 40,158.3 miles since March 2019.

We will be in the Nashville area through the end of November – it will be nice to be “home” again!