our last trip of the season, and a little surprise...

Good morning.
As I said, we've just returned from our last RV trip of the season. This one took us a short approx. 70 mile drive to Ft Custer Recreation Area.

Here we are in our spacious camp site.
It rained off and on all day Friday and Saturday. We were fortunate it stopped for a brief time when we arrived, so we were able to set up without getting drenched.  :-)
The campground was packed! We discovered, again, that the campground was having a Halloween weekend. Really? Didn't this just happen to us on our last trip? Fortunately for the little and not so little trick or treaters, the rain stopped literally 15 minutes before trick or treating time. Actually, we started a fire and enjoyed the cute costumes while handing out candy. It wasn't a very active weekend due to the weather, but just nice to be able to enjoy the mo-ho one more time before parking it for 6 months. That's right, up here in Michigan, even with stretching the season, it's 6 months before we camp again.  :-(
We start out near the end of April, and here in  Michigan, there could still be snow.
Anyway, we wandered in to Kalamazoo Saturday for shopping and lunch at the historic Peninsula inn.
Got back in time for the little trick or treaters, the cooked pork steaks on the grill.
Sunday, we went over to Firekeepers Casino, where after a few hours, we left with half the money we took.
Back at the campground, maybe a dozen or so campers were left, so it was nice and quiet.  :-)

We had chicken on the grill for dinner, and afterwords, cleaned up the campsite for an early morning departure.
We left just after dawn, 8am, and arrive back in Lansing.
For the first time in a while, we finished the entire season with no major incidences or expense.  :-)
At home, I blew the accumulated leaves off the driveway and side of the garage into the back yard for Craig to mow up.

While he was mowing, I proceeded to winterize the mo-ho water system. I got the manual out, to follow. Even thought I do it every year, that means I've only done it 6 times.  :-)
First, turn the by-pass for the water heater and drain the water heater.
Open the fresh water tank drains to remove the rest of the fresh water, and open the low end drains to drain the water lines.

Then it's sucking in 4 gallons of antifreeze through the winterizing hose that you can see in the bay door. Unlike a lot of RV's ours came with this nice addition. Just close the line to the fresh water tank, open the one for the suck hose, stick the hose in the bottle, turn on the water pump, and go through the mo-ho opening each water line until it runs nice and pink, making sure enough gets into the drain traps.
I then run the macerator pump to get antifreeze through that and the dump line also. The entire job takes about an hour.

I also take out the battery that runs the macerator, and charge it up before storing it in the garage.
I spent the rest of the afternoon, removing nearly everything from the mo-ho for indoor winter storage. Such as all bathroom toiletries, cleaners, anything liquid that might freeze. Also linens, towels, pillows, toilet paper and such. I don't want to leave anything mice might take advantage of.  :-)
In other news......
for the few of you who have actually read this far, I want to share an anniversary of sorts with you.
Today is our 36th year together. That's right 36 years ago today, we met in a smokey dance club. Who knew back then, while we were boogying on a dance floor together, we were embarking on what would become, a life long commitment. Ahh, we were so young back then.
And I believe that calls for a little celebration! Maybe we'll do lunch today.  :-)
Now time to get Craig up and get going.