Ohio - Put-in-Bay and Madison

 After Michigan we checked out Put-in-Bay, OH on Lake Erie.  It's a little town on a little island, not far off the coast from Toledo.  Some folks liken it to the Key West of the North.  I've never been to Martha's Vineyard, but something tells me it's more the Martha's Vineyard of the Midwest.  Very cute, plenty to see and do.  We stayed at Bass Island State Park right next door to a friend from MacDill that spends summers there as a volunteer camp host.  After three nights on South Bass Island, we headed east a few hours to check out Madison, OH (also on Lake Erie) and visit old friends Hank and Rhonda Talikka.  Some pictures from the last week.

Loaded up on the Miller Ferry to South Bass Island

Idyllic harbor at Put-in-Bay

The monument to Oliver Hazard Perry's victory over the British Lake Erie squadron during

the War of 1812

Put-in-Bay's replica of the Southernmost Bouey in Key West, FL

South Bass Light House

When we got over to the island, it was mayfly season.  They were everywhere, thousands of them

coated the motorhome

The tourist snapshot spot, at our state park

Hank and Ronda, friends we met at MacDill probably back in 2012 or so

I was invited to play guitar and sing at our campground for a bunch

of younger folks that are seasonal renters.  One of the kids, Olivia, made me

this Thank You card, telling me I was "Rilly Good"!  High praise, 

and the portrait is the spitting image

Summer 2026 - Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan

 As spring draws to a close, we're on the road up north.  Our first stop back in May was at Bauer upholstery in Dubuque, IA.  We bought a new theater seat and had the couch and captain's chairs rebuilt.  It looks great.  Next, we headed to friends Craig and Mary's in Spread Eagle, WI.  Next, we swung out to Door County for a week at a really nice spot in Egg Harbor.  After that, we parked at Don and Chrissie's in Marquette.  Then, we stopped for a quick visit in Grand Rapids to visit Joel and Tania, friends from when I was stationed in Tampa.    We're currently on South Bass Island, OH, so I gotta post some pictures and get caught up.

Bauer Upholstery.  They got the entire job done in a day, even had a 50 amp electrical connection!

Before...

After

Next stop, Rockford IL for a relaxing 2 weeks at Sugar Shores campground.

Laurent House in Rockford.  A Frank Lloyd Wright project.

Snug as a bug in Spread Eagle.  Craig and Mary store their rig in the barn and

have a great parking area for guest RVers.

Craig and Mary Johnson

Door County lighthouse

The Superior Bowl in Marquette.  Those are wood beams, pretty epic.

Cascade in the Michigan Upper Peninsula (UP)

Birthday dinner for Chrissie, entire Schmidt family assembled

Joel and Tania, friends from Tampa when I was still in uniform

On the Road Again - Looking Back at 2025

 So, no blog entry since we came off the road back in 2019.  Lots of water under the bridge!  We spent some time traveling in the Endeavor, part time, while I was telecommuting.  That amounted to a few local trips in Arkansas and a few partial winters in Florida.  After spending the entire 2024-2025 winter in Florida, we returned to Arkansas determined to get a newer motorhome, sell the house, and hit the road again.  We found a 2018 Tiffin Phaeton, sold the house, and headed west.  Summer 2025 was spent in Colorado, Montana, and Banff National Park, Alberta Canada.  Last fall, we checked into MacDill for the season on November 1st and fell back into our old rhythm (warm weather, the beach, sitting out with friends, karaoke, trivia, and lots of guitar jam nights.  I'll catch up on 2026 in the next entry.  Some photos of the past few years...

Our first motorhome nestled in at her home on Enchanted Valley Lane, North Little Rock.  We spent a lot of years traveling in her, but at 21 years old it was time to upgrade.

In April 2025, we went down to New Iberia, LA and purchased our Tiffin.  Two months later we'd be "home free", with no belongings that wouldn't fit in a 10x20 storage unit and our new motorhome.

Old and new rigs together, but only for a couple weeks while sold the Endeavor.

529 Enchanted Valley Lane, our home for 6 years.  Longest we lived anywhere.

New rig, Happy Birthday to me!

One of our first stops on the 2025 trip, the US Air Force Academy campground (after a few days 

in Albuquerque).

Friends Paul and Jan took us Jeeping in the Bridger Range, Bozeman, MT.

Downtown Banff

On the way back from Banff, we stopped on the east side of Glacier National Park

Out with Paul and Jan

After Glacier, we hit Grand Tetons National Park

Funny thing happened outside Jackson Hole, WY.  We picked up a rock about

golf ball size and had to have the window replaced.  Here's a pic with the old one taken out.

On our way east, we stopped in Wichita so Laurie could catch up

with old friend Carla Chapman.

Some badlands on private land, Western Kansas

Stopped in to see Brad on the way to FL

Gotta stop at the Ho Hum on the way south, probably the 10th time we've stopped 

here in Carabelle, FL

After filling in almost the entire map in our old RV, I decided what the heck and

bought a new one.  These are our travels from 2025.  Not too shabby.  We did a shakedown trip out to

see John and Phyllis in Raleigh, then the big trip out to Banff.  

MacDill Winter 2018-2019

My how time does fly.  As has become tradition, we spent the last week of October at the Ho Hum RV resort in Carabelle, FL on our way to Tampa.  Hurricane Michael had hit the area pretty hard the previous September, but they were putting things back together.  The extent of the damage was horrible, trees snapped for miles and miles from the eye of the storm in Mexico Beach.

We arrived at MacDill on November 1st to find most of our friends already in place and enjoying themselves.  We got a spot near Seascapes, and about 5 days later got the absolute closest spot to Seascapes and the beach, the same spot we had the night of my retirement party June 1st, 2012.  It turned out to be a great place for the season, short as it was.  We planted St. Augustine grass outside the front door since it was just loose sand.  It was a very enjoyable part of this winter.  I hosted trivia every Wednesday night, and Laurie kept score.  Seascapes mysteriously ran out of money to pay our normal trivia host/karaoke DJ, so we stepped in to fill the void.  We also started a happy hour tradition where people would have everyone over (whoever cared to come) to their spot for sunset drinks and snacks.  In November, we made a trip to Key West to stay in one of the Navy Lodge condos they rent with friends John and Phyllis from Raleigh, and Kevin and Char from Arkansas.  It was a great week!  In December, we flew to Little Rock for Christmas with the kids and Laurie's family, then off to Key West for our annual New Year's Eve stay.  We stayed about 10 days at Trumbo Point before heading back to MacDill.  It wasn't terribly long after that when Laurie's Mom started having mobility issues and a terrible bout with influenza.  Laurie flew home to stay with Dee in early February, and I followed later that month.  Brad drove up with me, so we had a good Father/Son road trip. 

After graduating college in December, Brad also got a job in Boca Raton as an electronics engineering technician, so we put the house up for sale and put what little belongings we have left into storage in Little Rock.  We close on the house later this month, so we're officially homeless again.  I've accepted full time work in software development education, so we're turning a bit of a new chapter in life.  Semper Gumby, as they say in the military.  Here are some pictures from the winter season in FL.

Mom and me

Grandma and the Boys.  They came up from Sebring.

Kevin and Char

The six of us took a sunset cruise, really nice evening.

The girls on the sunset sail

The Graduate!

Dee and her progeny at Christmas, 2019

First Happy Hour at Macdill, November 2019.  That's our RV in the background.  I was very careful to patrol for fire ants for a week prior to the event, sprinkling Orthene at the slightest hint of a mound and applying broad spectrum ant killer a couple days before hand.  Nobody got bit by ants!

Sunrise at the Ho Hum.  We love that place.

Larry, Jake, Don and Ed at SeaScapes