Cotton escapades

i have to say, i think our first winter camping trip was a rousing success! we went, we saw, we made it back home again in one piece.  We camped at Hemlock campground, at the lower falls. Day 1 we hiked about 1.5 miles each way to the lower falls... it was a long, cold, walk.... but worth it. the falls were beautiful. To my wifes amazement, we were NOT the only crazies winter camping... to BOTH our amazement, about 5 of the other 15 people camping were in TENTS! i can not even imagine trying to tent... it was about 5 degrees at night and 20 during the day. The camper stayed a toasty 70 degrees all night long, thank goodness. Day 2, our only whole day there, we drove out to whitefish point, as we hadnt seen it before. Whitefish point is cool, has some excellent views, but we definently need to go back when the weather is warmer and we can tour the shipwrek museum. After that we did some aimless driving on some "roads" (they were on the map, but look more like ATV trails to me)...

 leaving for Tahquamenon Falls soon! just a weekend trip, but I am so ready to get away. Cant wait to see the snow (i dont want it at my house, but it is nice to go and see it somewhere else occasionally) and of course the frozen falls. Cheyanne and i saw the frozen falls ( ALOT of them) a few years ago, and they are amazing, cant wait for the kids to see them this time.  We got Ruby (the camper) back from the dealer a few days ago, and have spent the last few days getting her winter-ready. i put foam tiles on the floor for a little extra warmth, and put refletix insulation on the windows... the furnace works again (no thanks to the dealership that "fixed it") so thats good. i packed some extra anti-freeze as well, just in case. one of the bigger projects i got done was to flip the axle, so the camper body sits higher. it should do much better going in and out of parking lots now, so we dont drag the bumper on bumps, and it should do better in the deeper snow too (at least i ...

 Despite the restrictions, my changing jobs, and all the other things that came up in 2020, we did manage to go camping a few times.  We made it to the UP, went to oswald's bear ranch, kitch-iti-kippi, and taquemenon. We stayed at Indian lake state park, this is my #1 state park so far.  We went to petoskey state park, this is the worst state park so far. Sites are so small I had a hard time fitting my 17' camper on it. Your neighbors camper is close enough you can lean out your window and grab breakfast off their dinnette. It was bad; however, we had kayaks with us, and still had some fun. We went down to Indiana and stayed at private campground there. It was PACKED, but people were nice, staff was great, the park was well kept... We mostly visited with family on that trip. It was a good time.  Overall, I'm looking forward to alot more trips in 2021. We already have plans for several trips to the UP, and are seriously considering a trip to tennessee/kentucky...

 So our original intent with the camper was to never use the water... I mean all the campgrounds have plumbing, so why bother with the Hassel of winterizing, dewinterizing, draining tanks, ect.... So I took the bathtub and added some much needed storage in that space.  We also had no intention of cooking IN the camper. We tend to explore local restaurants when we in different places, and if we're not doing that, we cook over a campfire. So I built some additional counter space over the stove.  We added small things, like a paper towel holder, outlet over the bed to charge phones, and clothes hooks in the bathroom for yet even more storage.  When covid hit, public restrooms were closed, AND restaurants were closed... So out came the bathroom storage I had added, and I had to come up with a way to create MORE storage. As anyone who has had an RV knows, the under-bed storage is almost useless; who wants to lift the bed up all the time to get to stuff? So I devised a way...

So I wanted to give a little backstory as to how this all started... Cheyanne and I purchased our first camper several years ago; it was a 32 ft long Shasta travel trailer, it was huge. We used it, loved it, but didn't spend enough time INSIDE the camper to justify the gas millage we didn't get hauling it around. At the time we were both working and couldn't camp as much as we wanted too, so we ended up selling it. Fast forward a few years, January 2020, we buy a new camper. A 17' jayco jay flight. At about half the length of our old camper, we get over double the gas millage we did before.  We spent the winter and early spring working on the camper, making it "ours". Then 2020 hit, and the government made it almost impossible to get out camping in 2020. We went out a few times, but not as much as either if us wanted. Now it's winter again, were working in the camper, again, getting ready to hit the road.  I have a huge itch to get started early, very earl...