This spring (2005), while we were enjoying our winter in Florida we decided to return to our home in Appleton, Wisconsin and sell our home, buy an RV to live in and become fulltime RVers. On our trip to Alaska in 2003 and on subsequent camping trips we had met several other fulltimers and had envied their lifestyle.
Soooo...we returned to Appleton in February and listed the house on March first. Much to our surprise the house sold the first day that it was listed. We were panicked...the buyer wanted to close in three weeks...it was too early to hold rummage sales...what to do? Well, we rented three storage lockers and between hauling things that we wanted to keep and by either giving away or selling the rest we managed it. In the meantime we traveled to Southbend, Indiana and bought a 5th wheel RV and truck from our friends Lee & Luella Chizum whom we had met at Whispering Pines in Florida. We then traveled to Sioux Falls, SD, opened a bank account, got drivers licenses and became legal residents of South Dakota. Returning to Appleton we moved into a motel for a month while we sorted out things, and whittled our storage down to one locker which we subsequently transferred to Teddy's sister and husband Deb & Fred Lawrence’s storage facility in Traverse City, Michigan.
On May 1, 2005 we pulled up anchor, said goodbye to Mike, Toni and all of our friends and hit the road. Deb & Fred, had graciously offered to let us base our summer travels parking behind their summer cottage near Sugarloaf Mountain in Leelanau County, Michigan. They even had a 30-amp RV service installed just for us. The cottage is also conveniently located only 3 miles from the family farm where Teddy’s mom lives. Teddy was able to visit her mother almost every day during the times that we were there. Teddy’s brother, John runs the farm; they grow both sweet and tart cherries.
In July we returned to Appleton and camped nearby at Calumet County Park for the week of the 4th. On the 4th we had our traditional picnic with the usual crowd. It was great seeing all of our friends; Our son, Mike & his wife Toni, tent camped with us and in the evening Mike entertained us with a fireworks display. A few days later Mike got tickets to an all day outing at the Milwaukee Zoo which was to honor the returned veterans of Iraq so the four of us had a wonderful day at the zoo.
We broke camp a week later and headed down to Naperville, Illinois where we spent a few days with friends, Kevin & Julie Fenner; we camped at a park in Yorkville, IL. From there we wandered on down to Bement, Illinois and attended the Whispering Pines summer reunion. While there we camped at a delightful little nearby county park called “Friends Creek Park”. Frank & Violet Swaim were our hosts and it was fun seeing the folks from WP. On the way back to Michigan from Bement we camped for a few days in South Haven, Michigan with the folks that we purchased our fifth wheel trailer from, Lee & Luella Chizum...got to admire their new trailer and showed them how we had decorated their old “Fifth Avenue”.
We then returned to Leelanau County, went to the county fair for the first time in years and soon were on the road again to attend the Devil’s Lake Scamp Camp at Devil’s Lake State Park, WI. We no longer have our Scamp trailer but our Scamp friends pretend not to noticeJ. On the next to our last day there, tornados swept through that part of the state and we had major damage to the roof of our trailer so we ended up in the same motel in Appleton for a week while our roof was repaired...paid for by our insurance, thankfully. During that week we also traded our ‘00 gas Silverado PU for an ‘03 GMC diesel, which is now giving us much better mileage. We then returned briefly back to Michigan and in less than a week we left again for Wisconsin, this time camping for a few days at a small park near Stevens Point, WI. Then on to a large resort complex called “Christmas Mountain” near the Wisconsin Dells where we met up again with Kevin & Julie who had a week in a timeshare condo there. We were joined by friends Dick & Jenny Orr and Wes Evans. We had a lot of fun, drank a lot of martinis, ate well, swapped war stories and hope to make it an annual outing at a rotating time & place. Hint, hint, Kevin!
We went back to Michigan for a week and then went across lower Ontario to Leichworth State Park in New York State for another Scamp Camp. Leichworth is known as the “Grand Canyon of the East” and rightly so. It is awe-inspiring. We are definitely going back again.
Anyway, the summer finally came to an end and not wanting to winterize, after stopping briefly in Appleton for goodbyes, we headed for Florida and Whispering Pines Village here in Sebring.
Our email: larry@larryandteddy.com or teddy@teddypage.com
Mail Address: 3700 S. Westport Ave. #3168
Sioux Falls, SD 57106-6360
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