The grand experiment

We’ve always called it “The Grand Experiment”. It was something we both thought we wanted, but have never really tried - RV life.

In our dreams, we’d pack up whomever in the family was game for adventure and head out on the road for weeks, months, maybe even years at a time. Trouble was, we’d never even hit the slide out button on an RV, let alone, driving one, dumping one and living in one together. So before we finally dove in head-first and made a purchase, we had to try The Grand Experiment. 

We headed to Fractional Toys in Oakdale, rented a 30 foot Leprechaun and set out for Mackinaw City, Michigan.

We’d never given Michigan much thought, it was a pit stop on our quest to see all 50 states, but this year, the campsites were plentiful on the shores of the U.P. so we decided to give it a go.

Noah was headed back to college for a summer sculpting class, so Scrappy volunteered to take his place. Rico, myself, Kooka, Tiny and the dog were about to live the dream.

So, after six days on the road, what was the verdict?

1) We LOVE upper Michigan. The lake is clear, cold and almost like the ocean without the salt and sharks.

2) None of us like the tiny, muddy, reedy lakes that are sprinkled through Wisconsin. Not even enough to wade.

3) There are much fewer mosquitoes in Michigan than in Minnesota and Wisconsin- much fewer.

4) Pasties are excellent, but we like them with gravy better than ketchup. We also could eat s’mores every night (and did).

5) The middle of Wisconsin is ripe with great cheese shops and also  “Day Drinkin” souvenir t-shirts.

But those are things we could have discovered on any roadtrip. What we really discovered is that I hate camping.

Not totally. I love it if I can park myself near huge water and stay there. I could build fires and read books and skip stones for weeks and never need to leave. Michigan was a dream, Wisconsin was a nightmare. Rico says it’s because I am too girly. 

He has wanderlust, which means we can’t stay anywhere for weeks. So we have to check out the muddy ponds, the snakey trails, and even the questionable cheeses. He also hates RVing. Which is a revelation, since he spent 40 years of his life wishing for this.

He wants a real bathroom that we don’t have to pump, a shower with hot water, a TV with cable, a light switch on the wall, and to not always second guess if he hooked up the right water source to brush his teeth. 

I’m not sure who’s more high maintenance in this scenario, but it’s fair to say that we don’t really want an RV, we want a hotel, with wheels, in places with cable, and WiFi and preferably a Starbucks.