1-- 2022 Spring Trip -- Starting West by Going South

You'd think we would be wiser by now, but we woke up and got going around 9 this morning of April 26, telling each other we only have to throw clothes in the camper and John's tool boxes and hit the road by 10.  Eleven latest.

So at 2:30 that afternoon, tired of schlepping all kinds of stuff, the clothing and tools --and food and sundries and even more stuff-- we finally leave home knowing only that we would go south, along the lakeshore. Debbie's computer search yields a Harvest Host location just north of Michigan's border. Recall that's one of Debbie's ideal “glamping” locations: one night free in the parking lot if you're self-contained (water, sewage, electric) and perhaps are nice enough to buy something.  We're the kind of nice people who consider that something of a contract, but as it turned out, the North Pier Brewing Company in Benton Harbor is closed on Tuesdays...

https://www.northpierbrewing.com/

(did we mention today is Tuesday?  Not by any sort of planning!  So, hoping to make up for the lack, here's their logo.) 

....but their parking lot is open and we can't buy a thing! 

Another camper parks in the North Pier lot. The weather is Michigan cool and John is tired and Debbie is cooking, so we didn't say Hi.  Dinner is Debbie's chili and we add another cork to our growing collection that began about four years ago.

We're still putting stuff away and trying to remember how to run the TV's Rube Goldberg setup.  Recall from previous reports that we tossed out the old lo-tech two-ton box a few years back and replaced it with a flatscreen smart TV and a Bluetooth Bose soundbar, all kludged into the existing system with the original Panasonic DVD Home Theater's AM/FM/Disc player's 5.1 surround sound and a subwoofer under the couch.  Oh, yeah, we stuck on a BluRay player a year later. Four remotes. Six AAA cell batteries to install –and two AA's.

Also, John's still looking for his wallet that he lost about ten days ago.  Nobody nefarious has found it because nobody has tried to make big credit card charges.  It's gotta be in the house somewhere and he's gone through all his clothing and patted down every pocket.  Also his coats by the back door.  And the shirt-jackets he likes in cooler weather.  And under his desk, behind the cabinets, etc. etc. et cetera. At least ten times, resulting in Nope, Uh-uh, Not Here, Where Could It Possibly–, followed by at least half a dozen other increasingly angry and louder words and phrases that don't bear repeating.

Our National Parks get in free pass is in that wallet along with a diesel debit card that has about a 2-fillup balance (pre current Administration; less than 1 now) and memberships to the half dozen travel organizations that Debbie had joined to save money.  Senior Citizen Medicare card, too.  Also little things ––like a Driver's License and Health Insurance cards. Those were easily replaced as (a) John still has his passport from an Alaskan cruise that put into Vancouver five years ago and (b) the medical industry has changed from using our Social Security Numbers as “secure identification” to asking secret questions like Date of Birth, Address and other publicly published data nobody else could possibly know and sticking them into a huge nationwide electronic database that nobody unauthorized could possibly access. Which is why a Wyoming state drugstore's computer 1,600 miles from home keeps emailing John reminders that the one prescription they filled once in 2020 on his doctor's electronic say-so  is due again. And again. And....

Recall also that Debbie didn't experience her Kentucky horsey butts she had so looked toward last fall. Apparently the equines at the Assateague National Lakeshore in Maryland last September didn't count, so we'll spend a night at The Legendary Mustang Sanctuary north of St. Louis tomorrow which will put us about 10 hours into the 27 we need to get to Sedona, AZ.

Why Sedona?  Ask Debbie, who answers, "I don't know.  We'll just wing it as we go."  Swell.  But in asking, John (a frustrated Planner who is even more frustratingly light one wallet) learns we might not even end up in Sedona!  Maybe the Grand Canyon?  A Moab, Utah reprise?  Monument Valley?  Lake Meade?

Whatever.

As he used to say, Stay Tuned....