Grand Forks ND Again – Day 7 (Oct. 27, 2012)

We are up at around 5:00am and make it to the West Side Market in Cleveland about 7:00am, close to our usual Saturday morning routine. This trip involved lots of time on the road and terrible weather, but it was a a good change of pace and a good trip for us.

Grand Forks ND Again – Day 6 (Oct. 26, 2012)

We are up early and on the road. We stop at two suppliers for the RV business and camp at a KOA near Toledo, OH.

Grand Forks ND Again – Day 5 (Oct. 25, 2012)

Another cold, rainy day. The workshop continues until 2:30pm. Mike and I head out for home around 3:00pm and collapse about 9:30pm at a Holiday Inn Express just West of Eau Claire, WI. 

Grand Forks ND Again – Day 4 (Oct. 24, 2012)

We spend the day at a huge sugar beet processing plant conducting a workshop on electrostatic precipitators. We go back to Sanders for dinner and stay another night in the hotel.

Grand Forks ND Again – Day 3 (Oct. 23, 2012)

We set out about 9:30am with only about three hours left to drive. It is a grey morning, about 45 degrees, with a steady drizzle. All the fields are empty here, but there is a peaceful mist over the burnt orange colors.  We learn that we are too late to cancel the hotel reservation Mike’s office made without a penalty, so we check into the Hilton Garden Inn in Grand Forks, ND. The space and heat feel great!  At the hotel, we meet the two people from the Cleveland office who flew here and then we all meet our local friends, Paul and Jill, at Giuseppe’s for dinner. We go to Sanders for dessert: awesome cheesecake topped with peach cobbler.

Grand Forks ND Again – Day 2 (Oct. 22, 2012)

In the morning Mike gets up to find us some coffee.  He comes back empty handed. People at both the truck stop and restaurant next door treated him with disdain when he asked for decaf.  We drive for half an hour to a Cracker Barrel for decaf and a full, hot breakfast. 

Across Wisconsin, it is a cloudy, grey day, about 50 degrees.  The fields are empty except for a few pumpkin patches. We stop at a KOA in Hixton, WI for a few RV supplies.  The fields here between the rolling hills are golden. 

On the iPhone, Siri gives us a list of “the best restaurants in Eau Claire.”  At the top of her list is Tacos Juanita, a tiny Mexican place in a strip mall one mile off I-94, where we enjoy the best tortilla soup we’ve ever had. Our waiter brags that he made it himself.

We stop in Albany, MN, just west of St. Cloud, for fuel. This is the exit for the Lake Wobegon Bike Trail that we enjoyed earlier this year. We are sorry that we don’t have time for biking this trip.

I am alarmed to find that most campgrounds this far North closed Oct. 15. In Alexandria, MN, we discover that Alexandria Shooting Park and RV Campground is open until Nov. 1. Camping at a shooting park is a first! It is a wide-open, flat area stretching for about a half mile with about 30 shooting sites. Yes, they shoot away from the campsites! This night there is only one shooter and he stops at dusk, around 7:30pm. 

The showers are hot but the bathrooms are not heated, so we shower in the evening, thinking it will be colder in the morning.  We heat up pot roast and root vegetables from home and, since there is no TV reception, we listen to the presidential debate on the radio. 

Grand Forks ND Again – Day 1 (Oct. 21, 2012)

Late in the afternoon on Sunday we set out in our Sprinter RV for Grand Forks, ND, about 1100 miles away, where Mike will help facilitate a workshop on Wednesday and Thursday.

Our goal for today is to get beyond Chicago, a six hour drive. As we drive, we figure out some new technology. Our GPS system has been updated so we discover new features, like different screen views. Mike “pairs” his new iPhone 5 to the new Pioneer AV-Nav system and we learn how to ask Siri questions. I download Pandora so we can find new music within the genres we enjoy.  I hope that figuring new technology out is good for my aging brain!

We stop around 11:00pm just west of Chicago, “dry camping” at a TA truck stop.  Finding a spot away from the lights and the motor noise of refrigerator trucks, we tuck our little Sprinter between two huge tractor-trailers and sleep well.

Customer Visit: MIssy and Rick

This week Advanced RV had visitors: Missy and Rick, a high-energy, interesting couple from eastern PA.  They arrived in Willoughby yesterday around 4:00pm. Mike and I picked them up about 6:00pm at the Marriott Courtyard and took them to dinner.

Over drinks at Lure Bistro in downtown Willoughby, Missy and Rick told us they are “retiring” and planning to buy a Class B motor home so they can realize their travel dreams. Although she is in her 40s and he is in his early 50s, Rick has sold his small manufacturing business. They are also selling their home, with plans to set out in a Sprinter RV with their two dogs, explore the country, and eventually choose a new place to live.

Missy and Rick have worked hard since their early teens. They have had all kinds of jobs. For example, at one point when they needed a break from their norm, they moved to Aspen for a few months, where Rick ran the ski lift (one of his dreams) and Missy waitressed and did manicures while they remotely managed to remodel a local (eastern Pennsylvania) restaurant. He kept getting promoted and had to turn down running the operation and move back home when the restaurant was ready to open.

They have great taste and love remodeling old buildings and making them into new businesses, according to their own exacting standards. They really enjoyed Lure Bistro, once a taxi dispatch office, now a thriving, hip eatery featuring sushi and martinis. Missy took pictures of the menu and all the food and drinks as they came out.

The next morning Mike took them to the Advanced RV shop to see the Ocean One as it nears completion. Missy loved the interior design, especially the custom, bamboo-finish cabinets,  including a wine cabinet. Rick and Missy liked the heated leather seats and that they can be positioned to face in any direction. Because of their dogs, they liked the charcoal colored seats and couch and the extended length chassis. They don’t plan to camp per-se, but rather “dry camp” in cities where they happen to be, so they appreciated the four lithium batteries and large inverter and air conditioner. They also appreciated the HushMat and other noise and thermal insulation that make the Advanced RV extremely quiet and comfortable.

Mike and I had a great time getting to know Missy and Rick and look forward to future get-togethers.