Highlights from 10 days in Michigan including the Upper Peninsula
We explore the highlights of Michigan including the Upper Peninsula with our friend Bill on this weeks StressLess Camping RV podcast. We recount the highlights and hits - and a few misses - from 10 days touring Michigan.
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Automated transcript of Podcast Episode 219
Mark Ferrell
Welcome to the weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into Stressless camping. Each week we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some Stressless camping.
Peggy Barthel
Welcome to the Campfire.
Tony Barthel
I'm Tony. I'm Peggy.
Bill Elsbeck
I'm Bill.
Tony Barthel
And we are three. Three <laugh> travelers
Peggy Barthel
Who travel part-time in small trailers
Tony Barthel
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips, tricks, discounts, <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
We are so happy that we are joined by Bill. We are so sad that this is the last evening together with Bill. We've been on a
Tony Barthel
Epic
Bill Elsbeck
19 multi-day, multi-week 20.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I should have counted the number of days. But anyway, we've been on a Michigan adventure together with Bill.
Tony Barthel
We were trolls in our ERs. Right.
Peggy Barthel
So as long as we were all sitting around having our last beer together, we thought maybe we'd talk about what our trip was like.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. We met Bill last year at the Frog Rally and then he came and stayed with us for part of the Balloon Fiesta. Yes. Right,
Bill Elsbeck
Right at the end. And
Tony Barthel
Were there other,
Bill Elsbeck
No, I don't think so. We haven't
Peggy Barthel
Back to the ground Frog
Bill Elsbeck
Again this year. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Frog again this
Peggy Barthel
Year? No, Georgia for fca.
Bill Elsbeck
Oh, right. Fmca. One
Tony Barthel
More. Yeah. <laugh>.
Bill Elsbeck
Yes. That was a boondocking adventure.
Peggy Barthel
And after we planned this trip and we thought this would be the only time we'd see Bill this year, he decided he's coming back to Balloon Fiesta this coming years. This year in a couple weeks, <laugh> kind of <laugh>, so it won't be that long again before we get to see him in Zappo. But for right now, we're, this is our last evening together. We're each heading to our homes for a day or two to repack and do laundry and then head back out again.
Tony Barthel
One of the things we thought we'd do is talk about this adventure. We have the highlights and all of that from this. Peggy's also been doing a daily blog about this adventure, so that might be worth going back and looking at.
Peggy Barthel
So I should know how many days the 31st was number 13, 14, 15. So it was 16 days altogether
Bill Elsbeck
Since the Frog rally.
Peggy Barthel
Since the Frog rally, yeah. Just in Michigan.
Tony Barthel
One of the things that we all have in common is that we all have systems designed by a, B, C Outfitters, right? Yes. Ours was put in by the factory, but Bill sought them out and had his system put in.
Bill Elsbeck
I met them at the Frog Rally last year actually after you guys interviewed them for the podcast. Okay. And they made a pretty impressive proposal. And before I went to Albuquerque last year, they installed, I was their first upfit. So
Peggy Barthel
You went, oh wow. You scheduled it and went home and then stopped on the way back to Albuquerque, is that right? Yeah. I
Bill Elsbeck
Actually put the trailer in storage in Ohio. Oh.
Peggy Barthel
And left it there for a
Bill Elsbeck
Month, so I didn't have to drive it all the way back to the East Coast and back. So, and then I picked it up, stopped in Elkhart, stayed at the Harvest host the RV U Museum. Oh,
Tony Barthel
That's cool.
Bill Elsbeck
And they did an upfit, I think I was there three days with them. And the systems worked great ever since. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
We have been in some really sunny, bright, beautiful spots and <laugh>. We have seen some, we have seen
Peggy Barthel
Some weather
Tony Barthel
To challenge the solar system
Peggy Barthel
Some days that weren't so good for the solar system. And actually, well, we have electric now, but the last site we were in, Tony and I had a site that was very, very shady, but we were able to, we had to move sites the second day anyway because of availability. So we moved to like a super exposed sunny site. But Bill got a site for all four days and it was pretty shady. Yeah.
Bill Elsbeck
Yeah. Mike trailer was tucked nicely into the shade. Yeah. Back in the trees. Beautifully
Tony Barthel
Shaded. You still never went.
Bill Elsbeck
I, I left the park after four nights with about 49, 40 8% battery on my
Tony Barthel
Battery, which is really now one of the differences between the way bill's Rockwood is configured in ours is we have a 12 volt fridge, which Right. Is a thirsty bugger
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. And we use starlink, which is also a thirsty
Tony Barthel
Bugger. Yeah. We also have starlink. So there are two reasons we really like being out in the open, but both cases, everything just worked fine. Which is pretty typical. So how was the process of getting your trailer Upfitted?
Bill Elsbeck
Oh, it was easy as can be. They had an online form that I filled out. They asked questions, how do you camp? What are you looking for? Et cetera. I actually sat with Ben for on a good half hour and Stacy, and they kind of quizzed me on different things. And they came back by the end of the frog rally, which is a week with the proposal. They gave me detailed blueprints. I have schematics of my entire trailer.
Peggy Barthel
Nice.
Bill Elsbeck
And yeah, it was just easy
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. And that's something that we have said over and over. When you get a system from a B, C Upfitters, it just works. And we have been proving that. So if you are thinking about getting a solar system or you're solar curious, we can't say enough about A, B, C Upfitters. We are all proof in the pudding as it were, <laugh>. And you can give Ben and his team and Scott and Stacy and all of a call at (574) 333-3225.
Peggy Barthel
Don't worry about writing that down while you're driving. It's in the show notes. Yeah. We have
Tony Barthel
Link in the show notes@stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy Barthel
So how shall we do this? I think, should we talk about anything we didn't like about this trip first and get that out of the way so we end on a high note? Sure. Because we don't wanna accidentally at the very end go. Yeah, but there was that day that I didn't like <laugh>. Okay. And I don't think there's a lot to say about this, but was, but I know that you have. Right.
Tony Barthel
Definitely something. Well, I'm very affected by weather. And the rainy drizzly, the rainy drizzly muck did bum me out where I was like, you know, it's August and it's all rainy and drizzly <laugh>.
Bill Elsbeck
You should leave that in
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. And it's all rainy and drizzly. And my expectation is, Hey, it's summer, it's sunny. Yeah. And it was not. And that's just not something I'm used to. And it bummed me out. And I was like, eh, this is kinda stinky. But then,
Peggy Barthel
So like on day six, he wanted to just end, go back to New Mexico
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah. I was ready. I was like, ah, I've had enough of this. It was sandy and muddy in that campsite. And it was like, Ugh, we're just tracking mud in and blah. I can't go outside. And,
Peggy Barthel
But you know what, the next day it got sunny. Yeah. It
Tony Barthel
Was all nice. And
Peggy Barthel
We had a great day. And you know, that's why we have two brooms and a vacuum <laugh>. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
That's true. It's not just for flying.
Peggy Barthel
Actually, we don't have a vacuum with us right now. But we do have three brooms. I realize.
Tony Barthel
Well, we also have three vacuums and all of those are at home too. In
Peggy Barthel
House. Yeah. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. A lot of things including, I'm thinking about you, my buddy Mike Sol, including my electrical Multimeter, <laugh>, which I have three of those too. And guess where all three of them are back in New Mexico. Right.
Peggy Barthel
Bill, did you have anything that you like wish could have been better or Tony
Bill Elsbeck
Too? I can only say the one I really liked our, uh, campground in Ypsilanti. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But I got bit by mosquitoes on my ankle and it took a week and a half for them to go
Tony Barthel
Away. That was tough. That's right. Yeah. Well now we are sitting in our Lippert picnic portable gazebo because of mosquitoes. And it's a great way to eliminate those. And we talked about this last week, so I don't wanna do it again, but this thing has been, it's very easy and fast to set up and it's been a really great addition to our camping repertoire.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah. So we have, I gotta say, one of the, one of the best things, I know we're supposed to start with the bad, but one of the best things was that Bill did such an amazing job Yeah. Of organi, you know, like kind of coming up with ideas and thinking about the things to see at each stop and knowing how many nights to stop. And that's usually my job. And really every time Bill said, well, how about if we go here? I said, okay, I'm signing up <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. To that. I want to add, typically what Peggy and I do is we'll do two or three nights and then sometimes a very long day of driving. Yeah. And then maybe a short day the next day. This was all, I don't think we ever went more than 150 miles
Peggy Barthel
The day about 150 each time. Yep. Yeah.
Bill Elsbeck
Kept it short. Yeah. 'cause this way we had time in the morning. Yeah, yeah. Get there. Not in a rush. And
Peggy Barthel
We always stayed.
Tony Barthel
I liked that a lot. That made it real easy.
Peggy Barthel
We always stayed at least two nights. So it made taking the tent out and popping it up and getting the nice chairs out and sitting outside. These are some things that Tony and I, if we're like getting somewhere when we travel, we blast through and we're one night. One night. One night. One night. One night. One night. Which is, we
Tony Barthel
Don't, which is somewhat how we're going back
Peggy Barthel
Too. And we don't do all these, these things too. Yeah. And we don't sit around a campfire and have a beer together and we don't use the tent. So that's been again, yeah. Terrific. Wrong time, wrong part of the conversation, but I just had to throw that in there 'cause it was really terrific.
Tony Barthel
And something we learned about the tent at the last site. We all went out on a day of sailing and we came back and our tent had moved. And I was bragging about the lag bolts that we used to hold the tent in. And we did go to the local hardware store and buy significantly longer lag bolts. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
About as long as the three tent stakes that our neighbor put in the <laugh> in the gazebo. So it wouldn't fly away while we were gone. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
People have been super nice. Yes. Including that dude who staked our tent down after it was blowing around in, in front of our camper while we weren't there for the day. All right. So let's start with things we saw that were absolute highlights and I will let Bill start. Any favorite things that stick out from the strip?
Bill Elsbeck
Well, I, I, I have to say the Henry Ford Museum, it just, it was incredible. The collection and Greenfield Village, you're able to walk around and like see the Wright Brothers shop and things like that. It was quite a collection, more than I expected.
Tony Barthel
And that was a day that we stayed back and worked,
Peggy Barthel
Had been there. But we did that last year.
Tony Barthel
So yeah, we did that last year. And I, boy that you're right, I still can remember walking around in there and we rode around in a Model T and you're right, the Henry Ford, if you have a chance to go to Michigan and go to that, don't, don't miss it. It's fantastic. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So that doesn't get to be our highlight this time. No. Because we didn't get to do it this time. What's your absolute favorite?
Tony Barthel
Well, it was two, I mean, two really stick out, but there were a, a number of them. So I mean every
Peggy Barthel
Day. Right, right. Every day
Bill Elsbeck
That it didn't rain.
Peggy Barthel
Every day. That it didn't rain
Tony Barthel
Every day. That it favorite <laugh> rain. Well that day we went on the shipwreck tour. Yeah, I love that. And one of the things we saw was like an entire ship under the water. And so we're in this glass bottom boat floating around or well, you know, driving around on the water and you look down and you can see like an entire sunken ship. And I think the draft on that boat was like four feet. And the ship was like six feet underwater.
Tony Barthel
Six
Peggy Barthel
Feet underwater. So it was right there. So it was
Tony Barthel
Really close. Yeah. And the water coming from other places, the water here is so amazingly clear. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so you can totally see the boat. And then we saw a second boat that they had, I guess it was sticking outta the water in the past, so they blew it up <laugh>. And so we would go like over the debris field, including Captain John Johnson's John.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. The toilet and bathtub were just That's right. Barely exposed. So
Tony Barthel
That was funny. Yeah. They were just out there and the way they did this shipwreck tour boat, there were a bunch of viewing stations. So there, it wasn't like you were crowded and you know, like, oh, I can't see 'cause someone's in my way. It was really well done, right. By the way, you just heard Zappo Zappo Zappos here with us too. <laugh> Bill's dog. So that was a highlight. And then the thing, I can never remember the name of Kitche Kitch.
Peggy Barthel
Hey, you can't talk about that. That's my family. Okay.
Tony Barthel
<laugh> <laugh>. But other things, like, I love ridiculous roadside Americana. Oh gosh. And the, what was that? Lincoln
Peggy Barthel
And the land, Lincoln
Tony Barthel
And land this dude like who must be a welder and also an artist made like this whole drive through or walkthrough collection of metal stuff. And it was a bit, he definitely has opinions about things, which is good.
Peggy Barthel
Sure. There was some things that were not at all political, like flowers that said Happy Mother's Day. But there were some things that were taking a stance on some things, but yeah.
Tony Barthel
Or the slot machine that actually worked kind
Peggy Barthel
Of sorta. Yeah. That was fun.
Tony Barthel
So it was, that was neat. And then where was that place? The er tourist trap? Oh
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, the ERs tourist trap. The
Tony Barthel
Er tourist trap where you would stick your head in different things where they had all this weird stuff that
Peggy Barthel
Was just goofy yard art. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
Yeah. But like, you know, these people went above and beyond on the yard art, including an outhouse where you could stick your head through the business hole there.
Peggy Barthel
That's
Tony Barthel
Right. Those were my favorite things. But I guess I was gonna steal yours. <laugh>. So,
Peggy Barthel
So mine was the kit. Idy Tippi? No, Kitch. I think so teepee. Uh, he
Tony Barthel
Macarena,
Peggy Barthel
I feel like Tepe strong, big spring. It was the big spring. That's right. And it is a spring coming up through limestone and it's natural, but it's like 10,000 gallons a minute, I wanna say a minute. Yeah. Every minute, every day. All the time. So like a ma like I can't even think of how much water that is. And then there's an outlet, it's kind of a river that goes to another lake, which eventually amputees into Lake Superior. So I guess that's why it doesn't overflow.
Peggy Barthel
But it's, the water is so crystal clear, it's incredible. The thing is like 45 feet deep and we looked down and it looked like it was the same two foot distance to like, it was to the shipwrecks. It was just so clear and beautiful. We saw the cup that someone had dropped the day before <laugh> and the, the ranger that was driving, so you can actually drive it yourself. And I don't mean drive really, it's on a cable. So you can release the, the catch the brake or whatever and then turn the wheel and it drives across the cable and then drives back.
Peggy Barthel
But that morning there was a ranger there and at first I was like, oh darn, we don't get to drive it. But then he was so full of information that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise. So it was really good.
Tony Barthel
So this thing that she's talking about, it's, I guess you'd call it a boat 'cause it floats. But again, you look through, it's got a glass bottom right. And you look down on this spring and see the water bubbling up and, and all of that. And the clarity, actually,
Peggy Barthel
I don't even think it was a glass bottom. I think it was just, it might've
Tony Barthel
Just been a hole. Yeah,
Bill Elsbeck
Just a hole in the middle. Just open in the middle square D square
Tony Barthel
Donut
Peggy Barthel
Boat. Square donut boat. Yeah. And so you could just look down. And then to me it was pretty amazing that was that there were fish and he said there's only half a dozen fish or something. But they stalk it sometimes and put more, they stock them. So they're like trout that are aged out a little bit. So they just go there as their like retirement home or something. Well,
Tony Barthel
But the weird thing is because that water source is so sulfur rich, I guess that whole spring is very sulfur rich.
Peggy Barthel
Right? Right.
Tony Barthel
So,
Peggy Barthel
So you cannot, you absolutely are not allowed to swim or fish or boat or drink, drink that water. But it was just seeing the, you could see in a few places where the water was bubbling up through the loose limestone and just a big old cloud of mud. But it was so still that once you moved, you know, a foot away, it was again crystal clear and you couldn't see that cloud of dust anymore. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
It would, that was neat. That was one of my favorites
Peggy Barthel
Too. Yeah. So that was just a really just, I think I could just sit there and watch that water for hours. It was just so lovely.
Tony Barthel
Any other big highlights? Any of y'all?
Bill Elsbeck
Are we gonna talk about food or are we waiting for Well, we are
Tony Barthel
Food and beer <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
I mean, we did do activities pretty much every day, either driving to a new site or going out and exploring. And that was, I think it was just fantastic. Like I said, we have a bad habit of getting to a place and then just working. Yeah. And so actually going out and sightseeing was a highlight
Tony Barthel
To me. That was, yeah, that was super awesome. Yeah,
Bill Elsbeck
Marquette was a nice visit with the big or dump thing. Oh yeah, that's right. The train and Oh yeah, that was
Tony Barthel
The big boat.
Bill Elsbeck
The ore
Tony Barthel
Dock. Yeah, that Ore dock was super neat where they bring a train on this pretty high up or dock. And then there's a big either ship or a, I think they're barges and they dump the ore down. We saw the train coming, but then we went back and they had already done their dumping. We
Peggy Barthel
Saw the boat in place and we drove by once and there wasn't a train. We drove by again, there was a train
Tony Barthel
Drove by. A third time train was empty,
Peggy Barthel
<laugh> train was empty. But we, we were kind of hoping that we'd be there just in time to watch the, you know, I guess, I guess the ore carts way up high drop into a a bin. And then from that bin some like channels flop down and tho
Tony Barthel
Yeah, they're like, and the, or
Peggy Barthel
Writes down those channels onto the boat. And that's that part we didn't get to see. We were kind of hoping that we'd time it just Right. But we did not see that happen.
Tony Barthel
That's the fact Jack. But yeah, that was cool too. Okay. So you had brought up food. Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
We've had
Tony Barthel
Some great food. Unfortunately, I think we, we were talking about this tonight at dinner and I think we all kind of have the same places. <laugh>, but Phil, since you did the research, go, go for it.
Bill Elsbeck
Well, I'll start with the one that I suggested, which was Slab Town Burgers.
Tony Barthel
Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Bill Elsbeck
That was in Traverse City. Traverse City in Slab town area of Traverse City. And the burger I had was a Pungy, which was a burger stuffed with cream cheese, bacon and jalapenos. Oh
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Bill Elsbeck
And man, was that a great
Tony Barthel
Burger? Yeah. I had just, I think they called it classic or American. And it was a burger stuffed with cheese and it's just the stuff you expect on a hamburger. But they make their own fries. I love french fries, <laugh> and the slabtown fries are every bit as good as the incredible burger. I mean, the food was so good and it's just a little place.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. A little tiny place. It was one of those drizzly days and yeah, we didn't think we were gonna find seating inside. We were kind of standing around like, what are we gonna do? And then a couple of guys that were sitting at a table right there said, Hey, we're done. So you could take this spot. So we did. And I had the big blue and stuffed into my burger was a mixture of cream cheese and blue cheese and bacon and Oh boy. Oh
Tony Barthel
Boy. If you haven't guessed, they're stuffed burgers.
Peggy Barthel
And Bill, can you, I know that you told us what is Slabtown? What does that mean? So
Bill Elsbeck
Slabtown was an area that was built by the lumberjacks, I guess people who worked at the wood mills and slabs were like the leftover Oh.
Tony Barthel
Off the
Bill Elsbeck
Outside. And they built their houses out of that, out of the s So scrappy town.
Tony Barthel
Okay. Slab
Bill Elsbeck
Town. And
Tony Barthel
This little burger place was pretty small. Not a lot of seating indoors. Typically. They have a lot of out, well decent amount of outdoor seating. But another thing that I thought was neat is, you know, a lot of times you go to these places and they're either affiliated with Coke or Pepsi. This was all local soda pop? Yes. Or what do they call it? Pop here. <laugh> or Soda, whatever you call
Peggy Barthel
It. Yeah, it was a local, it was a local brand called, I wanna say northern or north something.
Bill Elsbeck
Northwood maybe.
Peggy Barthel
Northwood maybe. And they had all these great flavors. So Tony, Tony did like a flight. Yeah. But just in one cup he got a couple ounces of one and then he went back and got a
Tony Barthel
Couple ounces of something else. Couldn't 'em all. And so I did try 'em all and they were all, it's so refreshing. I'm not a big soda person, but it's so nice to A, support a local business and B, try something new. I mean that's, you know, like one of the reasons we like to travel is to taste stuff we haven't tasted before.
Bill Elsbeck
Right, right.
Tony Barthel
So we tasted sodas we haven't tasted before. Yeah. And that was, yeah, that, that whole slab town. That might've been the best. That might've been my favorite too. Maybe. I
Bill Elsbeck
Think that was my favorite meal we've had.
Tony Barthel
I, yeah,
Peggy Barthel
I, yeah, that was the, the best burger certainly in,
Tony Barthel
In a long time. Oh,
Peggy Barthel
Without a doubt. But you know, those sandwiches at Market 20, gosh two, I think those were a definite second place or first place if you're not counting, you know, whatever. They were right up there. Ev we got, you guys had Rubens. I think both
Bill Elsbeck
Of these.
Tony Barthel
Awesome. Oh my gosh, you were so
Peggy Barthel
Good. Oh my goodness. Those sandwiches were so terrific.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And that was just a total, like serendipity find, right? Yeah, a lot of,
Peggy Barthel
I think for the most part, like I said, bill you know, said, oh we should, while we're in this area, we should go, you know, see the shipwreck tour or we should, but not necessarily planning out food. He had heard of a couple places that we looked up and tried, but kind of when we all said, Hey, is it almost time to get a meal? I'd just get out my phone and look for lunch and look for something with high stars. And we have to talk about pasties, right?
Tony Barthel
<laugh>, I guess
Peggy Barthel
We do. I mean we're in Michigan,
Tony Barthel
We're
Peggy Barthel
In the Up some, everyone told us we had to try 'em. We tried 'em in two different places. Upper
Bill Elsbeck
Peninsula. And lower
Peggy Barthel
And lower. And when we were in the lower peninsula and we got them, we got gravy. And so everyone knew that we were being trolls because only the lower Peninsula has gravy. However, when we were in Munising and we got off the shipwreck tour, we did go get pasties and they had gravy. So we did get gravy there too. It wasn't, it wasn't, it's not only a main Michigan, Southern Michigan thing.
Tony Barthel
Hey Michigan just f y I, you can put spice in your food. Don't feel bad about that <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
So yeah, the first place, I'm gonna say the reason I liked it better is their pie, their dough, their pasti.
Tony Barthel
Oh yeah. It was super,
Peggy Barthel
It was like a
Tony Barthel
Pie
Peggy Barthel
Dough. It was super, super good. It was really, really good.
Bill Elsbeck
Yeah. It was a much better dough. The other one was more like a croissant
Peggy Barthel
Dough almost. And thinner. Yeah. It wasn't, there wasn't as much to it. And really, I mean, a pasti is like some hamburger and some chopped up potato and rutabaga and carrot and salt and pepper. I guess as an afterthought. I don't know.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>, it didn't seem like they were, I
Bill Elsbeck
Think the salt came from the gravy <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
I think you're right. Yeah. Because they were, I was like, oh, these are not, they're very, very bland to me. Yeah, they were. But I'm the guy who likes the green chili bacon, so. Right, right. By the way, it's, it's spelled pasties.
Peggy Barthel
It is. It's
Tony Barthel
Spelled pasty. And it's spelled Mackinac <laugh>. So Michigan, you can also like say things so
Peggy Barthel
When we catch the way, catch ourselves and say Mackinac of all, that's because we're seeing it in our minds with the ending with a C. Yeah. We did spend a day on Mackinac Island. That was fun.
Tony Barthel
We did, that was where we got the fudge.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. So Mackinac Island, for whatever reason, is like famous for fudge. Even in LA at the LA County Fair. We'd see Mackinac
Tony Barthel
Fudge. We had Macina Island Fudge there. Well we also went on like Fudge Day, like it was the, oh
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, it was Fudge Festival Day. That's right. Fudge Festival. That's right. There's about seven to 10 companies and there's like 13 stores because three. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Some of them,
Peggy Barthel
Few of stores have two stores. And the experiences were different. You know, of course the fudge was different and everybody's gonna have their favorite. But the experiences were so different. When we went to Joanne's Fudge, which was like our first stop, they were so friendly and so nice and so accommodating. And they gave us a taste of, you know, like everything,
Tony Barthel
Anything we wanted,
Peggy Barthel
We asked for. Tony said, you're gonna get tired and kick us out. And she said, no, tell me what you wanna taste. And we did by fudge there. A couple of the other stores we walked in and they're like, do you want a box of fudge or not? Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I mean it was, the customer service experience was so different. Like some of 'em, they were so great. Well, that Joanne's was. Yeah. And that was also coincidentally where my favorite fudge was. That is, it was Oh so good.
Peggy Barthel
And that also is where the woman who won the contest and got to be a fudge flipper or whatever it's called, right? Yeah. Fudge
Tony Barthel
Maker, whatever,
Peggy Barthel
On the big marble tables, helping stir and flop the fudge so that it cooled properly.
Tony Barthel
It's interesting how they make this, 'cause there's a big copper kettle. Yeah. And they melt, I guess sugar and butter and cream and whatever, flavorings. And uh, they, uh, sorry. I just saw a squirrel. Literally. I literally just saw squirrel and it distracted me <laugh>, my word squirrel.
Peggy Barthel
I was just waiting for Zappo to react
Tony Barthel
And Tony <laugh>. Right. And instead it was me. <laugh>. That's funny. Anyway, so they boil, I guess all this in a copper kettle. And then they have these big marble slabs and they put a metal square on the table and pour it out, which keeps it from running over the edge. And then they have these big wooden shoving things and they keep flipping it and flipping it, flipping it until it gets firm. And bing bang, boom. You got yourself some fudge sun
Peggy Barthel
Form it into a big old log and then slice it up. Yeah. Yeah. So we did, I mean, I think there was maybe only one other place that even offered a sample. Oh. There were samples sitting in little cups at the back of one of the stores. So we tried it, it was okay. But again, nobody really like made us want to buy fudge. And there was one other notable place. We didn't go into the place. It was in a hotel, which also had a restaurant, which apparently also makes fudge. And there was like a barker out there on the sidewalk.
Peggy Barthel
She was fantastic. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
She, she was like,
Peggy Barthel
Who wants a fudge? We got great fudge.
Tony Barthel
Come and try this F somewhere from one of the Caribbean islands,
Bill Elsbeck
I'd say. Yeah. And
Tony Barthel
She's like, you know, just out there first was fudge samples. Then we went by later and she was uh,
Peggy Barthel
She was showing us the dinner samples, which was I think some kind of seafood or something.
Tony Barthel
No, it was Mexican park. Oh, it
Peggy Barthel
Was Mexican night. You're right.
Tony Barthel
Yep. The weird thing about Mackinac Island to me is no cars like, no. The only motorized vehicle on there I think is the ambulance. And
Peggy Barthel
We did not see that. And
Tony Barthel
The boats, no, we didn't see that. Which is a good thing.
Peggy Barthel
We saw horses, towing carriages. And we saw bicycles galore. Including a bicycle. Towing. A bicycle that was, had a flat tire. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It was a bicycle. Tow truck.
Peggy Barthel
It was a bicycle. Tow truck. Truck was a bicycle. Even the man who picks up after the horses was on a bicycle with a trash bin on the back. Yeah. <laugh>. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I guess for him, business is always picking up.
Peggy Barthel
Always picking up.
Tony Barthel
And that was, I enjoyed going out to Mackin Island. More
Bill Elsbeck
Food. I gotta, I gotta interrupt. Oh
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Bill Elsbeck
So desserts count. We've gone on to fudge. Oh yeah. And I had some really great ice cream. Oh gosh.
Peggy Barthel
Oh gosh. Yay.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. What was that?
Peggy Barthel
Boomers. Boomers.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Yeah, we ate that twice. <laugh>. Yeah. The first
Bill Elsbeck
Mac at Macinaw Island was the one. Yeah. Mac. The
Tony Barthel
Second one was
Peggy Barthel
Mackinaw Island inverse. But we first had it in Traverse City, which I am thinking was the first store. I don't know if I got that story
Bill Elsbeck
Right. Yeah, I think so. I think that's like the
Peggy Barthel
Original. And that is, that is one place that Bill said there's food I've heard of. We have to try. And we sure
Tony Barthel
Did. And boy it was, oh that ice cream is so good. Yeah. Yes. What did I have
Peggy Barthel
You
Tony Barthel
Had? I know, I didn't have any sea salt caramel.
Peggy Barthel
He did not have any sea salt caramel. 'cause you went in the store Not No.
Tony Barthel
Oh yeah. They didn't have. Oh gosh.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. We asked for, we, we wanted a cup of coffee. It was our time to have afternoon coffee. And Tony said, do you have just coffee? And she says Yes. So she hands us two scoops of coffee. Ice cream, just coffee, ice cream. And we said, no, no, no. We just wanted coffee. So while Bill was getting his cherries Muee
Bill Elsbeck
Cherries muee. Yes. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
We ran across the street where they did have coffee and Tony was in the store so long. But I finished my salted caramel and then he came out and finished his butter pecan. But he did not get taste of mine because
Tony Barthel
I didn't really, yeah. The idea was I was gonna get to try the salted caramel and I did not. I got You
Peggy Barthel
Did not. So you got it at Mackinac?
Tony Barthel
Yeah, I got it at Macan Island. So there,
Peggy Barthel
And that's when I got cherries, moee. 'cause that looked so good. And what did
Tony Barthel
You
Bill Elsbeck
Get? I think I got salted caramel <laugh>. I think
Peggy Barthel
You're right. I think you did.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I guess it's like the merry-go-round. It just came round. Yeah. So yeah, that was, that was good.
Bill Elsbeck
I have another dessert. Oh. Some of the best cookies I've ever had. Oh gosh. Made by monks. You're right from the jam pot.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Yeah. We should talk about the jam pod. Yeah.
Bill Elsbeck
Again, it's the place I heard of and we said we gotta go by. And Peggy made sure we found it. <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. I did a lot of the navigating so that bill could drive and
Bill Elsbeck
Oh, it was much easier as a solo driver, having somebody to look at the maps and pick out restaurants. A lot less fast food. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I don't think we did any fast food.
Peggy Barthel
No. I tried to avoid it. The only time was that day that Tony said, or maybe Bill said, I heard of a great place that had burgers. And I looked at the map and I said, oh yeah, this Burger King <laugh>. No, no, no. That's not it. <laugh>,
Bill Elsbeck
It only had two stars that
Tony Barthel
Many
Bill Elsbeck
<laugh>. But Jam pot is a bakery, I guess. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they sell jam, obviously it's run by monks. I think it's been there for like over a hundred years in kind of the middle of nowhere. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yes. Upper
Bill Elsbeck
Peninsula of Michigan. And actually the key one up peninsula. So even further up than kind of That's right. The upper, the main part. Part of the upper, the upper of the upper peninsula.
Tony Barthel
Upper the, the, the upper peninsula. The super super uper. Duper
Bill Elsbeck
<laugh>. And you know, I've heard stories of lines out the door and there was a constant crowd while we were there. And we
Tony Barthel
Got there in the morning. We got
Peggy Barthel
There not long after they opened.
Bill Elsbeck
I had a peanut butter and jelly brownie. Brownie. Oh my
Tony Barthel
Gosh. Gosh. That so good. Yeah.
Bill Elsbeck
Good stuff.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That was good. And we bought peanut butter, oatmeal raisin cookies. And even though raisins really don't belong in cookies, ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you these were just great. Tony's
Peggy Barthel
Been really dying to get some maple syrup while we were up here.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Because we keep seeing maple syrup from up here. So we got, so
Peggy Barthel
I did, we got a jar of maple syrup. We got some jam of course. 'cause we were at the jam pot and we got the brownie to share. And while we were sharing the brownie bill said, wow, these cookies sure are good. So we ran back inside and got some cookies too. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I went back in and got a bag of cookies and I'm like, oh, you have cookies. He goes, yeah, these weren't here when you were at the register last. Okay, I'm gonna get some. And I did. Then we just got fudge again, which we haven't tried yet.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. We got a sample. We were in Calumet, and that's just a little bit north of where we're staying in Hancock, which is just on the other side of the Keon, uh, not peninsula. The Keon waterway from Houghton or Hooten, which is where I
Tony Barthel
Can see people from Michigan are like, what in the world? We're talking about people.
Peggy Barthel
Michigan Tech. So it's a college school.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. We saw people rushing. We did <laugh>. There was a, there was like a kitty pool out in front of the frat houses, or it might've been a sorority house. I don't know. There was a big kitty pool and a bunch of people in it.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Uh, so anyway, so there was a, a gift shop there. And we were sitting and having a sandwich and I kept seeing people go in and go in and go in and Yeah, it
Tony Barthel
Was like that, like ca on Gilligan's Island where people never come out. Yeah. Looked
Peggy Barthel
Like this. Looked like this tiny little store. And people kept going in and not coming out. And I'm like, where are they going? Well we went in and it turns out that, that all three storefronts on that whole block were all connected. Yeah. So we walked through all three stores and in the back Tony found a fudge
Tony Barthel
Place. Yeah. Some guys who made fudge. So that was more fudge we had to have. And we have not tasted it yet.
Peggy Barthel
We haven't, like we hadn't three minutes ago and we still haven't now. <laugh>. So you guys also did kind of a little bit of a beer tour while you were here.
Tony Barthel
I don't know if you would call it a little bit <laugh>. We had a couple of beers every night. And they were all from local breweries. Yeah. Yep. Or we went and got the beer there. Yep.
Bill Elsbeck
That I think started with Goshen. Yeah, I did. At the Frog Rally. Yeah, at
Tony Barthel
The, at the Ocean
Bill Elsbeck
Brewery. Ocean
Peggy Barthel
Brewery. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's the one that we started touring. Well because we'd
Tony Barthel
All, we went there I think three times because
Peggy Barthel
We had all been there last year for Frog. We'd been in the area. So, you know, we've talked a lot already about the, the donuts that are called Amish Crack. Oh my gosh. In
Tony Barthel
The local
Peggy Barthel
Food there and Chip Shaana. So we weren't really gonna throw that in, but Really? Yeah, the beer tour started in Goshen.
Tony Barthel
So that was, at least for me, one of my top beers was the,
Bill Elsbeck
The con concussed. Con
Tony Barthel
Concussed. Yes. Oh gosh, that's, that
Bill Elsbeck
Was a great, I p A, in
Tony Barthel
Fact, we have two left.
Bill Elsbeck
I have one <laugh>. Oh, you,
Tony Barthel
You have. Maybe we each have one. But we bought a lot of that when we were there because it was really, if you're ever in Goshen, which I realize is in Indiana, and we're talking Michigan <laugh>, but if you're ever in Goshen, go to Goshen Brewing. And if you like beer, if you don't like beer, then go wherever the heck you want.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Where else? What else? The next
Bill Elsbeck
Brewery was Frankenmuth. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yes. Frankenmuth.
Bill Elsbeck
Which was a cool city. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It's like a German Bavarian ish city where we even had German food. Yeah. Which was okay. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. It was just having eaten my share. And your share and everyone else's share of German food growing up. Yeah, it was.
Bill Elsbeck
It was okay. Yeah, it was okay. It wasn't as good as the German food we had in other places. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
It was not as good as that second place. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Where they had proper ler. Yeah.
Bill Elsbeck
Yes. It was very good.
Tony Barthel
But that was Frankenmuth Brewery, right? Which is that the oldest brewery Micro brewery in the US or something like that? Yeah,
Bill Elsbeck
I think that's what they said. Oldest either Michigan or the US. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And it was,
Bill Elsbeck
They had quite a collection of beer.
Tony Barthel
A big collection. Yeah. And so what did you get?
Bill Elsbeck
I got a Frankenmuth lager, which we would call the Brown Can <laugh>. Yeah. <laugh> and Brickhouse
Tony Barthel
Brick House was one of my favorites on this.
Bill Elsbeck
I like brick. I actually liked the lagger a lot too. It was both of the Frankenmuth, the two that I got, I liked a lot.
Tony Barthel
And the two that I got, I didn't like as much. I mean they weren't bad, but one was October Fest and one was like a honey wheat. It was Okay.
Peggy Barthel
I have to make sure we're clear. We didn't eat at the Frankenmuth Brewery.
Tony Barthel
No, that's correct.
Peggy Barthel
We ate at Bavarian Inn or something like that. Bian. Yeah. And then we walked over to the brewery. So. So if you have been to Frankenmuth Brewery and had the best food you've ever had, don't be confused by us. Right. We did not eat at Frank
Tony Barthel
Brewery. Did what we did do in Frankenmuth though was go to the world's largest Christmas stuff store.
Peggy Barthel
Oh gosh. It is. It's, that's like
Tony Barthel
Huge.
Peggy Barthel
Wonderful.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's all ornaments and
Peggy Barthel
Mostly ornaments, but a lot of other things. And you know, giant polar bears and
Bill Elsbeck
Kind of things. Yeah. Ornaments and Yeah. Christmas trees. Fake Christmas trees that up to like 15 feet tall.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, it's like a fake Christmas forest. <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. And they had like a whole cabinet or whatever section for, let's see for pets, one for travel, one for nurses, one for teachers, one. You know. And every one of those was had like 50 different kinds. One for rock and roll <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. You. And then they also had people that are making custom ones. So you could go in Uhhuh and they would make one
Peggy Barthel
For you, get your name put on online or something. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Your name or whatever.
Peggy Barthel
And the same with stockings. They had stockings. That's right. So you could have embroidered or whatever. Yeah. So that was a fun stop.
Tony Barthel
Any other pop out memories? Recollections.
Bill Elsbeck
It was a beautifully landscaped town.
Peggy Barthel
It was Frankenmuth
Bill Elsbeck
Walked up and down. That was,
Peggy Barthel
There were so many flowers. It was gorgeous. Gorgeous.
Tony Barthel
It gorgeous Was like being in Germany. Yeah. It was beautiful. Back
Peggy Barthel
To be.
Bill Elsbeck
I think the next beer we got was Kanon.
Tony Barthel
That was good too. Yeah.
Bill Elsbeck
I got a six pack at the supermarket that has like meat, one of each flavor. Right. <laugh>. And it was like, pick which one you want, just pick one.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. I had a black widow. I think it's a, a black ipa. A dark. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. That was really good. I really liked it.
Bill Elsbeck
And the couple I had were citrus. I had one that was tangerine and
Tony Barthel
Interesting. You're gonna have to drink one of the last concussed to make up for that.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Right. <laugh>.
Bill Elsbeck
I have two brick houses too. Oh.
Tony Barthel
Oh man. Yeah that was, maybe
Bill Elsbeck
We can work out a trade <laugh>. Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
There you go.
Tony Barthel
I'm good with that. I do wanna remind people every day Peggy has been doing a compendium of what we've seen and done and with the links and notes and just all of that geology
Peggy Barthel
Rather than our crazy back and forth freeform as we like to do talking. That was actually one day, one post. So each day I did just kind of pictures with picture. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
You can see what we saw, what
Peggy Barthel
We did that day.
Tony Barthel
So I had zero input on the planning <laugh>. I just, my job was to point the schnoz of the ram wherever I was told and not crash. And that's what I did. But Bill was the primary planner and then Peggy helped a lot.
Peggy Barthel
As I said, I usually use the trip wizard and plan our trips and decide how far we're gonna go and where we're gonna stop. Bill was so terrific. So before I could get to it, he'd say, okay, well what about this being the next stop? And we were sharing our Trip Wizard planners back and forth. And then he also had a spreadsheet that he made of, while we're in Frankenmuth, we have to see these things and while we're at Mackinac Island we should make sure to get this fudge and things like that. So that was again very, very helpful for us to, you know, make sure we stayed enough days to see all the things and make sure we saw all the things in the days we had
Bill Elsbeck
<laugh> going back and forth. I think in on one night or maybe two session, just texting back and forth. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's go to this campground. How's this one looking? Are we trying to find, and we've made reservations for this
Peggy Barthel
Site is next to that site everywhere. I'm booking this one. You get that one <laugh>.
Bill Elsbeck
Yeah. And I think we did really good with campsites. This one was a little tough for me to back into. Oh it was tight. And your first site in Muning was tough, but then you got the perfect site. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Newing. Yeah, I think that <laugh> catch that fly Zappo. When we decided that this last stop would be our stop, I went ahead and looked online and you know, I've gotten better about remembering to look for sunshine, but I knew we'd have electricity so that wasn't such a thing. But looking for northern exposure so that we can get our starlink to work. You know, it was just a cartoon map and I thought that I picked the best northern exposure and not only did I not do that, but I picked the two smallest tightest sight in the whole camp Griffin.
Tony Barthel
No, I think we've been, we've been fine with the starlink. Oh yeah, its been, it's
Peggy Barthel
Been good. Yeah. It's just something that I'm just learning still.
Tony Barthel
Right. But we, I need to do an article about it. But we've put the starlink on a CAMCO flagpole and it's been way high up, which is a little bit entertaining. <laugh>. But yeah, the RV Trip Wizard, I mean it's been, I presume a great planning tool for Yep. Yeah. Collaborating.
Bill Elsbeck
Get the distances. That's why we had reasonable drives.
Peggy Barthel
And that's one of the things I like about the Trip Wizard is I can say I wanna drive between 102 hundred miles a day and it will give me rings that show me where that ends. Right. And so, and then being able to share, I tried to share a trip wizard map with someone who doesn't use it and they weren't able to get it. But being able to share the map was really helpful.
Bill Elsbeck
Yeah. I got your A map and then Uhhuh <affirmative> kind of put my input and found things to do by Yeah,
Tony Barthel
That's a great
Peggy Barthel
Tool. That's a great thing about Trip Wizard. If you are trying to travel with someone else and you're both using it, you can share the same trip and it makes it so much easier. And then finding campgrounds from there
Tony Barthel
You can read reviews of campgrounds. There's a lot of things. Yes. So it's, it's worth trying. And if you'd like to try RV Trip Wizard, you can do so we have a link on our show notes where you can try it for free. I recommend if you, another thing you can do the size of your rig. So if you're with a small rig or a large rig or whatever, you can input that and that way you don't be on uh, YouTube's 11
Peggy Barthel
Foot eight, 11 foot eight channel. Yeah. So I used a feature that I hadn't used before and this time I've been recording the prices of each of the campgrounds that we're staying at. Which it has, it has a, a pretty good gas. You know, it'll tell you, if you tell it your mileage and your tank size, it'll tell you on the map you're probably about ready to put gas in the car, truck, whatever. We usually fill up before that. Or like we did while we're sitting still, we each run out and fill the tanks with gas so we don't have to worry about it in the morning.
Peggy Barthel
But having that kind of a little reminder like, oh we need to build in X amount of time for putting gas in the truck today.
Tony Barthel
It's a great tool. So if you are planning to do a travel, whether it's with someone else or just all by yourself or whatever, we recommend giving RV Trip Wizard a try.
Peggy Barthel
So today being our last day we did a really fun activity too. And we went on the tour of the Quincy Mine that's here in Hancock, Michigan. We tried to go yesterday, but we found out that it is a, you know, of all the other things everywhere, it said, oh, get there early or do this or do that because of the crowds. We've really been super lucky, I think with crowds even today. Like it was a full tour but it wasn't a crowded tour.
Peggy Barthel
So thinking about doing it yesterday and they said, no, we're full today. So we made our reservation for today and we went on the tour of the Quincy Mine. And with that tour you also can include going to the other location, to the smelting facility. At
Tony Barthel
One point the Quincy mine was the largest copper mine in the world. And some of the copper they pulled out was like basically pure, right?
Bill Elsbeck
Yeah. They just pulled it outta ground. They just had to melt it.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that's amazing. And so copper's all over the place here and we bought some copper souvenirs and such. But you guys went under, I did not go. 'cause my back was hurting. So Peggy and Bill went on the mine tour. It was an underground operation
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Bill Elsbeck
So the, it was cold.
Peggy Barthel
It was cold. It's 43 degrees there all the time. The unfortunately the tram that rides you down the side of the hill broke yesterday or the day before. So we were in a bus, which was fine. But we did a little bit of, you know, we saw some of the buildings up at the top and then rode the bus down and went underground. It was far right, like we walked a mile, I'd say at least.
Bill Elsbeck
Yeah. It's at one point halfway through the tunnel that we walked, there's this blue light and he goes and he stops and he goes, you're now crossing the highway you drove in on.
Tony Barthel
That's impressive.
Bill Elsbeck
Yeah. <laugh>. And it was kind of weird that it was, that we were under and then we walked another half a mile. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Bill and I were talking about like, it's weird to think like when you're up on the top of the ground, you don't necessarily think about all the things that are going on underneath. And you know, like right now we might be sitting on a mine shaft <laugh> 'cause they're everywhere, right?
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I mean it's amazing what they pulled out of the ground here.
Peggy Barthel
And then we were talking about, you know, like in cities, how there's multiple subway levels in New York and things like that. And when you're just driving around down the street, you don't think about all the structure that's below you. It's kind of weird. Oh you've
Tony Barthel
Gotta think there's sewer and water even there. But that mine,
Bill Elsbeck
It was unbelievable. He had a model of the Empire State Building. Yes. And it was like four or five of them deep. Oh wow. And just like some of the areas were just like big empty. They had a name but I don't remember areas. Yeah. In the mine big roof, they crossed multiple levels. Hmm. Like we were on level seven, you could see up to level six. Yeah. You know, a hundred feet up or however. Right. And it was a little scary. <laugh>. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
This was a happen in town for mining in the early, I think right about at the turn of the previous century for about 1900 to 1912. Although the mine kept going till the seventies
Bill Elsbeck
And it started just before the Civil War is when they really first started. Yeah. And actually Hout in the name of the town was when Michigan became a state. He was like the mineral guy. And he came up and figured out that we should do mines here. Dig
Tony Barthel
Here. <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. We're actually using our weekly gadget today because it's, it's a little still today.
Tony Barthel
The first night you brought the little Ryobi fan out and I'm like, oh I have those. Yeah. And then we got 'em out and we, well so if you don't know, Rabi makes all kinds of power tools for work. But they have some really neat gadgets that we bring camping with us. And among those are the little Rabi battery powered fans. And they can clip to stuff like awnings, which is where we had it until we got the tent or tables or chairs or we put ours on our bedside.
Tony Barthel
'cause we like the breeze. They're little fans and you can move the head around so they can point up, point down, point front, point back and gosh, the batteries
Bill Elsbeck
Last forever it lasted.
Peggy Barthel
It's amazing
Tony Barthel
How long they
Peggy Barthel
Last. If we just use 'em overnight on warm nights, usually we can go two or three nights. We each have one on our side of the bed and we can run 'em two or three nights before we have to charge that battery again.
Tony Barthel
Every week we ask a question of the week. And last week was one near and dear to my heart. Do you bring I didn't answer it. And that is, by the way, on our newly renamed Stressless campers Facebook group.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. And what was last week's question? Do
Tony Barthel
You bring a musical instrument with you?
Peggy Barthel
Well, since you forgot to write your answer, why don't you, while I'm trying to get the answers to come up on my Facebook, why don't you tell us what your answer is
Tony Barthel
Right now? I have nothing with me. Which is a, there's a lot of stuff we don't have with us that I wish I did. The smoker being one, but also the washboard and the Cajon. Those things would've been good to bring. I used to play clarinet and I still have one. I don't bring that, even though I'm in the Frustrated Maestros, which is a group of F M C A <laugh> people. But one of the things that we used in that post was a photo from last year's frog rally,
Peggy Barthel
A photo of Rick playing his bagpipe.
Tony Barthel
And he answered, he's like,
Peggy Barthel
I always, always bring my bagpipes. He did. I always bring the bagpipe. So Rick brings bagpipes, Brenda says her husband brings three guitars and a mini music studio. That's
Tony Barthel
Pretty impressive. And here's something we've known Cheryl for years and years. I did not know her husband Terry played keyboard.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. They carry a keyboard with them. Shannon doesn't. But she said sometimes her son brings his trumpet. Beverly carries her one man band. Robin's husband Richard brings his guitar. <laugh> Mark, like I answered. No, I'm not musically inclined. <laugh>, Kathy's husband brings his flute, which that sounds awesome. Steve carries, no, Steve has three guitars and a ukulele, but he never seems to remember to bring them. That's kind of like us.
Tony Barthel
Now Larry, he says he brings a drum set and I, knowing Larry he's, it might,
Peggy Barthel
He's 20 might
Tony Barthel
<laugh> I, I don't know if he's kidding or if it's true and he also plays trumpet but doesn't seem conducive to the aura of Stressless camping. I don't know. Ah,
Peggy Barthel
Lori says there's always room for ukulele. Bill wanted to know what, what did you wanna know? Bill? Does a
Tony Barthel
Bluetooth speaker count?
Peggy Barthel
Yes, I think so. Because you usually get good music out of that. That's
Tony Barthel
Right. Better
Peggy Barthel
Than
Tony Barthel
I'll ever play. Including great music from our now newly departed friend Jimmy Buffet. That's right. That was last night. It was so coincidental. We were playing all this Jimmy Buffett music and then this morning we find out he passed away. So fin's up buddy.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, Felicia said she has taken her cello and her husband has taken his auto heart.
Tony Barthel
A cello is no joke. No, that's so well I guess a bagpipe is no joke. Right.
Peggy Barthel
She said she's taken the cello when camping proceeded a rehearsal or performance or a workshop and she can play it with a music stand in place inside their 22 foot camper. But she says, then I block the kitchen and bathroom area <laugh>. It's like having a third person in the rv but she won't move if asked <laugh> <laugh>, she says her husband played his auto heart for Heritage days at a core of engineers campground. That's really cool.
Tony Barthel
That's really cool. You can always answer those questions or weigh in with your own questions or get answers from a really friendly community at Stressless campers, our newly renamed but ever popular Facebook group,
Peggy Barthel
Still fun and friendly, that's
Tony Barthel
Still fun and
Peggy Barthel
Friendly. We could call it the Fun and Friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group <laugh>. And we only dropped one name then <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
So what is our question this week? This
Peggy Barthel
Week I was just curious, have you traveled in a a kind of a caravan road trip like we are?
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that's a good question. And you can answer that on Facebook at Stressless campers, which is linked on our website@www.stresslesscamping.com. And in the hamburger menu you'll find links to all the places where we are social. So come and join us wherever you are. We're probably there too.
Peggy Barthel
Also in the hamburger menu, you can find in the Contact us a place to sign up for the newsletter.
Tony Barthel
Did you know that this month if you are a new subscriber to the Stressless Camping Weekly email newsletter, you have already been entered in a chance to win a Air Gear RV Tire changing kit. All you have to do is sign up for our newsletter if you haven't. And that's all it takes. And someone Buddy is gonna get notification that they got the air gear tire changing kit and that will be in our weekly newsletter. So
Peggy Barthel
That's all we do is we send a once a week newsletter. We don't, you know, sell your name to anybody. We don't try to spam you. We send you links to videos and podcasts and whatever news that we find that might be helpful in your Stressless camping experience. Yep.
Tony Barthel
To
Bill Elsbeck
Help you be a Stressless
Peggy Barthel
Camper, to help you be a Stressless camper. You might notice we're a little rough because we did not have our script in front of us today. We don't have any notes. So what do we say next? You guys? <laugh>, come on. You know this as well as we do. Oh,
Tony Barthel
Heck. Well, it's just a pleasure to be here with you all. Bill. It has been an absolute joy. It
Peggy Barthel
Has these past few
Tony Barthel
Weeks to travel with you. I, I hope it's, we
Bill Elsbeck
Do it. It's been really great. I, it's better than I could have imagined.
Tony Barthel
I really do it again. Agree. Well, there was some suggestion of us doing a pub crawl tour, so That's right. Who knows what's coming down the road. Well, that's what we have for you this week. And again, if you would be so kind, if you haven't yet, don't forget to write a review on whatever podcast catcher you are using. That really helps them know that people are listening and that means they tell others about us. If you've already done that, don't forget. You can share any content on our website with your friends or people you don't like, whoever, whatever suits you <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
But that also helps too. And we sincerely appreciate your being with us again here this week. And
Everybody
Happy camp, happy camping!
Mark Ferrell
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stressless Camping Adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure. And we look forward to your joining in us next week. Until then, happy camping.