Visiting with Friends from the Past

(Harris, MI) Hi 75 Lo 49 -- Last night after posting the blog we were watching a recorded program on our satellite receiver, and all of a sudden the screen went black. Jim tried everything to get it going again, but it didn't respond, except for a crunching noise from the hard drive. He called Dish, and they agreed it had died. They're sending another receiver to our next stop, but in the meantime we're limited to three channels we're picking up on our antenna. We also lost about 50 shows that we had recorded. Once we set up the new receiver, at Dish's suggestion we may get a separate hard drive to record our shows onto. That way if the receiver crashes again we'll still have our shows. Meanwhile, we'll be watching a lot of NCIS tonight (along with commercials... yeck!).

The reason we stopped here in Harris, MI is to see the couple that inspired us to start our full time lifestyle.

In November 2005 we visited Cliff and Virginia at the Raleigh State Fairgrounds. They were there in their 35-foot custom-built fifth wheel. We visited them because they were ham radio operators like us, and we heard about them through our local ham radio club. As we talked with them, we grew more and more fascinated with their full time lifestyle. We started asking them questions about what it's like to be on the road full time in an RV. Cliff showed Jim how all the systems work, the hoses, hitch, etc. It was at that time our lives changed. The idea of going full time was born! They’re currently in Norway, MI about an hour from where we are. They spend the summers up here at Virginia's family's place, and the winters in Tucson, Arizona.

They arrived about 11am and we got caught up with each other on our travels and what's happened in the six years since we've seen them last. They've been full timing for over 20 years now, and are experts on boondocking, which they do a lot. We went to the casino for a great lunch, then back to the RV to say goodbye. We really enjoyed their visit and hopefully when we head west next spring we'll see them again.  Thank you so much Cliff and Virginia for coming today; it was great to see you again!

The entrance to the casino

The attached hotel

We're leaving tomorrow morning for Wisconsin. We're going to visit Karen in the Woods as she's known on the RV-Dreams chat. That's where we met, now we'll meet her and her husband Steve after several years of chatting. We can't wait!