June 13, 2013
When we woke in the am the storm had passed and the weather looked good ahead. We headed out towards Indiana with an idea to pop into Michigan so we could add that to Legoboy’s state sticker window decal.
Driving across Ohio was smooth and I used that time to call for parts for the AC for the cab and now the wiper motor. I called a local garage a few hours up the road and he said he could install the wiper motor if we brought the part. Unfortunately everyone said they could get us the wiper motor in one day but we wanted to keep moving. I’ll have to figure out where we’ll be in a few days and have one ordered to there.
We thought we had a little luck with the AC parts as there was a local Parker Hannifin (same manufacturer of our AC receiver drier) Store not too far off the interstate. While she was able to give me better terminology to use while looking for these parts and a few leads to chase she didn’t have parts that would work. Her leads ended in dead ends. So, a call to my local camper supplier, who got me this receiver drier. He can find the couplers, although Freightliner said we shouldn’t need couplers, the part should fit right to the hoses! Maybe I have the wrong part…. Sigh.
The kids updated their allowance ledgers as we hadn’t done this daily while visiting the cousins.
They each get $8 per day, $5 of which is placed in their wallet for souvenirs and is logged in a bank book ledger (good lesson on book keeping; add, subtract, carry balance, and money management). $3 is theirs to spend as they wish (so far it’s been on a lot of candy). We don’t log the spending money and they keep it separate from the souvenir money. The money has lead to lots of good conversations about quality souvenirs that you’ll want to and can keep and budgeting to save for a day or two to build up their bank to buy a larger item. Carboy has the most souvenir money as we added what we are giving them to what they already had in their wallets and he hadn’t spend all of his birthday or Christmas money. Legoboys birthday will be on this trip so I’m not sure how we’ll do that yet.
We also have been working on some map reading. We moved across Indiana with Sister Bear riding shotgun.
The kids decided a swim in Lake Michigan sounded good so we headed up to New Buffalo, MI to their famous beach on the lake.
The water was rough from the heavy rains from the storm the day before and the wind was strong at the waters edge.
Sparky and I sat in our chairs with our toes in the sand 
but huddled up with our towels while the kids swam. Silly, kids, don’t you know it’s cold…
They played on the beach and the playground.
A woman handed Sister Bear a kite already in the sky and said she could have it so that was the activity for the next bit of time.
A little snack for the road before we headed out and then we hit the road again, this time with Oscar as co-pilot.
We passed back through Indiana and stopped for dinner (our only “activity” in IN) before heading into Illinois. We planned to head to the north west corner of IL where Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois all meet.
The night grew long as we headed up Route 20, a lonely stretch of highway, especially in the night after a long day of travel. Found a KOA Kampground right on this road not to far from where we were and I took a turn driving while Sparky took a snooze on the couch.
We pulled into the campground around 1:30 central time (2:30 for my EST bodies) and found plenty of open sites on, this, a Thursday night. Sorry neighbors we might have woken as we parked Flyer, she does NOT know how to be quiet!