National Grand Design Rally

September 3, 2024 / marniesteve / Leave a comment

We took a break from our time in Michigan to attend our first National Grand Design Rally in Goshen, Indiana. This is the largest gathering of Grand Design owners in the country and is a week filled with food, music, tours, and technical repairs. We split the four hour drive to Indiana with a stay at a great Harvest Host location: Archival Brewing. Located in Belmont, MI, just north of Grand Rapids, Archival has great beer and food and allowed us to park right next to the biergarten. After a great meal we enjoyed live music before retiring to our RV for the night. Harvest Hosts are really cool!

The Grand Design National Rally takes over the Elkhart 4-H Fairgrounds. With over 600 Grand Design rigs on the property., more than 1500 owners, vendors, and Grand Design staff gather to explore all things RV and Grand Design.

By attending we got work done on our rig and bought a few new accessories which make life on the road a little easier. New wallpaper in the bathroom and an improved entry door handle were worth the trip. Every day’s agenda was filled with activities and opportunities. One of my favorites was the silent auction, where I walked away with four baskets of goodies!

One day I joined an organized tour to explore the nearby Amish country. Our guide-led exploration took us to a leather goods workshop, a carriage maker, and an Amish bakery.

This is truly some of the most beautiful rural areas we’ve seen in a long time. Along the way we ate really yummy food with an Amish family and gained insights into their simple life.

Typical sights on the road in Amish Country

Steve and I also had the opportunity to take a tour of the factory. This is where our Grand Design Solitude fifth wheel was made. We walked through the manufacturing process, from chassis to side walls, from roof to interiors.

It was fascinating to see how our little house on wheels came together just over a year ago. The tour reassured us that Grand Design is producing high quality RVs that they stand behind. If you are in the market for an RV, we highly recommend Grand Design!

A few finished products outside the factory

Crossing the USA, Visiting Family & Friends

July 12, 2024 / marniesteve / Leave a comment

The bulk of this summer will be spent at our “new to us” RV lot at Traverse Bay RV Resort in Traverse City, Michigan. However, to get there, we had a bit of a haul from Idaho. Traveling across the country with an RV is certainly the way to go, and we made the most of our cross-country trek by stopping along the way to visit family and friends.

From Idaho we stopped at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park near Whitehall, Montana to check out the caves. Discovered in 1892 by local hunters, these caverns went on to become Montana’s first state park. As one of the largest known limestone cavern systems in the northwest, people have been exploring the caves for over 100 years. However, Lewis and Clark weren’t among them though they did explore in the area. We were glad we took the two hour, two mile guided walking tour that gained an elevation of 300ft, ascended over 100 stairs, and descended over 500 stairs.

While in the area we checked out a place where Lewis and Clark definitely stopped: the headwaters of the Missouri River. Steve lived along the river as he was growing up in Blair, Nebraska, and he’s always had a fascination with the river. Now he’s been to where it all starts.

As we crossed Montana, we made a stop at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. This area memorializes the US Army’s 7th Cavalry, Crow, and Arikara scouts and the Lakotas, Cheyennes, and Arapaho in one of the American Indian’s last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer died fighting several thousand native warriors. It was a quick stop for us and a sobering reminder of the lives that were lost in the battle for western lands.

After several more days of driving we landed in Elkhorn, Nebraska and the home of Steve’s brother Brian. During our two day visit we hung out with the kids, spent time in the pool, and celebrated my birthday. It’s always fun to stop at Brian’s house!

As we traveled through Iowa we made stops in Corning to visit the cousins, in Des Moines for lunch with our friends Dan and Jackie, and in Muscatine to spend time with Steve’s high school buddy Kent and and his wife Lori. Unfortunately we didn’t take any photos of our night with the cousins but we did remember to snap a few at our other stops. Again, our RV lifestyle allows us to stay connected with so many of our loved ones, and for that we are grateful.

We had one more stop before arriving to our new place in Michigan. In Elkhart, Indiana, Steve attended the Lippert RV Owner’s School. For three days he attended classes related to plumbing, electrical, roofs, suspensions, and more. He doesn’t promise to be able to fix your RV, but he now knows more than he did before.

Next we arrive to our new home in Michigan and we’ll have another post soon to give you all those details.

Fun in Northern Idaho

May 29, 2024 / marniesteve / Leave a comment

We’ve been to Idaho several times and each visit we fall more in love. This time we traveled from Grand Teton National Park in western Wyoming, through southern Idaho, with the goal of reaching Coeur d’Alene for a marathon in Steve’s 35th state.

First we met up with Steve’s cousin Tracy and her husband Mark, near Boise, for a lunch filled with catching up and reminiscing. We hadn’t seen Tracy in Y-E-A-R-S, so it was long overdue and super fun to see them. Traveling in the RV gives us these opportunities from time to time and for that we are grateful.

From Boise we drove north another two hours to the resort town of McCall. This is a popular area for the city folk from Boise, and we quickly saw why. Surrounded by stunning mountains, roaring rivers, and sweeping views, McCall had us enthralled immediately. We explored the area on foot on the Goose Creek Falls trail, which took us down, down, down to the creek that roared below. It snowed a little bit along the way, but wasn’t enough to deter us.

Even though it was still pretty chilly, we got out on the bikes a few times. First we rode on the awesome paved city trails to the nearby Ponderosa State Park. Filled with incredibly beautiful hiking and biking trails, the park is the jewel in McCall’s crown. It wraps around Payette Lake, which just adds to the beauty. The park was almost empty since it was still early in the season and the weather hadn’t yet warmed up. For us, that’s perfect!

On another day we rode the twenty miles around Payette Lake, which took us through enviable lakeside neighborhoods and then into the State Park again to travel just along the lake’s edge. My new e-bike allows me to keep up with Steve and makes these excursions so much fun!

In McCall we stayed at the McCall RV Resort and from there we could walk to the Broken Horn Brewery. This became our hangout, and one evening we even caught the weekly pickers circle, where local musicians gather and jam for the evenings.

After four nights in McCall, it was time to head north for a beautiful drive up Highway 95 to Coeur d’Alene (CDA). We were here a few years ago and happened upon the CDA marathon. That inspired us to return. Our site at Blackwell Island RV Park was very near the shores of the Spokane River and allowed us to easily get into town.

On a cold but clear morning, Steve finished his 26.2 mile run, mostly along the banks of Lake Coeur d’Alene, while I did the 10K. He has now completed a marathon in 35 states.

Can you find Steve in the crowd at the start line?

We’re making our way to our new RV site in Traverse City, Michigan. On our first road day we stopped at one of the coolest National Park Service sites we’ve visited. Grant-Kohrs National Historic Site, about an hour southeast of Missoula, Montana, celebrates ranching in the west.

It took us about an hour to tour the 175 year old ranch, which was once the largest cattle operation in the country. It is still a working cattle operation, and we visited during calving season. I just kept thinking, “Dad would have loved this!”

We’re now settled in to our campground at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. As you may remember from previous posts, Lewis and Clark are Steve’s favorite explorers.

That’s us! The Trailer Twins on the Lewis and Clark Trail

Tomorrow we’ll take a tour of the caverns and visit a few other historic sites nearby. We’ll keep you up to date on all the fun in our next post.

Marnie and Steve Travel

We're retired! Let's go!

RV Adventures

National Grand Design Rally

Crossing the USA, Visiting Family & Friends

Fun in Northern Idaho