Off to the M&M Rally

Yesterday we took Devyn to soccer practice so we stayed in Onsted one more day.  Today we packed up and made the 150 mile trip north to Essexville for the M&M Rally on Saginaw Bay.  We are expecting 15 HitchHikers and many of our RV family friends.  The rally is at a county park called Finn Road Park.

Two days till departure

Randy cleared out my phone as it was getting slow and "kinky" so I now need pictures of my contacts. Judy photo bombed Devyn's picture!

We have been playing lots of Pegs and Jokers with D, she loves cards and games.  We have also been teaching her how to play euchre.  This picture was taken a couple evenings ago after the games.  Notice how tall Randy and Devyn are?  Or how short Judy is!

After Judy's last doctors appointment in Ann Arbor we stopped in Saline to check out Randy where he works at Klingelneurg America, a German company.  These two pictures are some of the gear cutting machines he works on.  It belongs to Honda and they shipped it from Japan to be refurbished and then sent to one of their plants in the US.  Randy left Ford a few weeks ago to return to his former employer to start up a refurbishment organization now that they have new and improved management.  He's hiring, need a job?

The Saline plant were he works.

This is a one of custom machine used to QC gears and verify they are in tolerance.

Frankenmuth with Clayton & Pat

Judy and Pat spent a couple hours in Bonners getting started on their Christmas shopping while Clayton and I visited the local saloon.  Judy had to say hello to a local penguin.  We tried to get into the Bavarian Inn to compare chicken dinners (Clayton said the Bavarian Inn is better than Zehnders) but the area was so crowded at 2pm on Saturday afternoon we could find a place in the city to park so we went to another German place on the edge of town.  We did spend some time walking around town yesterday.  We returned later in the day as Judy want some Taffy for Devyn and Clayton made a parking spot in the grass beside a couple dumpsters.  

Sunday morning we all packed up and then went to Tony's for breakfast.  This was our first time there and Clayton warned us about the amount of food they put on a plate and he was right, I think we all ate about half of what they gave us.  I had enough bacon for all 4 of us and we still did not eat it all.  The place was absolutely packed and there was a very long line waiting to get in when we left.

Clayton & Pat in Frankenmuth

Today we made the short haul (110 miles) to Birch Run and Pine Ridge CG.  We were set up by 1:30 and an hour or so latter Clayton and Pat pulled in beside us.  There were in CA visiting Scott & his daughters and are going to Monroe for a week before wandering back to FL.  We wanted to spend the weekend with them.

 Later we went to Zehnders for chicken dinners.  We spotted this fellow in the restaurant.

After visiting and eating we played poker until 10pm.  If you are with them ya gotta play cards.

Devyn's return from soccer camp

Today we drove to Hope College in Holland, MI.  Randy took her there Sunday for a week of soccer camp.  She had a game at 3pm so we got to watch it, it was the championship gave in her class and they won 1-0.  She impressed me with a body check she threw on an opponent as they battled for ball control at the game's end, she said it was payback.  Good aggressive play.

Devyn had a short rest in the car then she drove the last half of the way home.  We stopped in Jackson at Klavons for a pizza supper and met Randy there.  The restaurant was packed at 7pm and we had no place to park so the went next door to Steaks Eatery.  We now plan to eat pizza at Klavons Saturday then see Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

New HitchHiker bearings

Wheels off, spindles removed and taken to have the new bearings pressed in.  While we were here two other couples arrived for service and we know one of them.  They had a HH 2 years ago at the Custer, SD rally but then wanted a larger unit which NuWa no longer makes, bought a Teton and had water leak problems and now have a New Horizon.  Small world.  Keith was finished with the bearings about noon so we headed back to Onsted.  We met Randy in Coldwater (he was returning from Three Rivers) and Judy went with him so he could take delivery of his new Chevy truck.  I returned to Onsted, dumped the tanks and set up our home by the time she returned with his car.

Back in Elkhart at MOR/ryde

We returned to Elkhart (120 miles) today to have our HitchHikers bearings replaced.   We were here last month but they didn't have the correct bearings.  Before returning they sent me a picture of the four Timkin Bearing boxes so I know they should have the correct ones this time.
We also broke another window shade so we took it to SWC in Goshin for repair.  On the way home we stopped at Jo Jo's Pretzels and were they good!

At least MOR/ryde has supplied some entertainment out our back window as they are doing lots of construction at their plant on Moyer Steert.  Business is good.  This is their second new building in two years and they now have six paved sites with 50a and 30a power.
We spent the morning addressing ride quality and took Keith, the service tech, and Ben, an engineer, for two trips with them riding inside the HH.  After checking and measuring the suspension system they decided we needed to drop the tire air pressure from 115 psi to 90 psi.  Not sure I will go that low but I'll experiment with it.  Because this took half the day the bearings will not be finished today so we get to spend the night in our HH inside their service bays.