Traverse City, Here We Come!

Woke up to another beautiful, COLD morning, 32 degrees....our dual pane windows and two furnaces are doing the job...the car is all frosted up, but we can see clearly beautiful, blue Lake Michigan from the RV windows. I think I'll go for one last bike ride on the trail before we leave for Traverse City today. We are going to meet up with my sister, Lyle, and her husband, John tomorrow for lunch. They are from Pleasant Ridge, MI and happen to be traveling in the area where we are going to be..Yay!  She mentioned that there is a shopping area called the "Village" in Traverse City, and it is located in a former insane asylum. Interesting! Will have to check THAT out!

We've managed to get our propane tank down to 1/4, so our objective of using up the propane instead of venting it all away to the outside to get our gauge fixed has been achieved. It looks like once we get to Grand Rapids on Wednesday, we will be sitting for four days either in the General parking lot hookup, or having to get a motel room while paint cures on the motor home, we don't know yet how that's going to shake out. We've got a leaking toilet, lights on the vanity that don't always come on, a bulge in the outside wall to get fixed and painted, the Diamond Shield coating on the front of the coach needs fixing, the central vac hose won't stay hooked up, the hot water heater, although a bigger tank than our last one runs out of hot water faster than our old coach did, the thermostat in the bedroom is not working right--these are just little things, but we need to get them taken care of before traveling south...we've read of a few really major problems on new 2010 Tiffin Phaetons that are unbelievably bad. We're glad our unit does not have anything majorly wrong. Tiffin is a high quality RV, but all RVs have "shakedown" issues that usually are easily fixed. The after market service is wonderful and highly commended on Tiffins, so we're not worried. The Tiffin is made in Red Bay, Alabama, and there are nothing but excellent comments about the manufacturer's service and quality of care for these units, IF you have a problem that can't be fixed by your dealership. We're hoping General can take care of us properly.

Just have to mention a great breakfast place in Petoskey where we ate this morning--Julienne Tomato on Howard Street. It's a cute little cafe/coffee shop and deli. They serve a variety of foods, snacks, sweets, and great breakfasts and sandwiches as well.
Everything in the shop is tomato related, from the tomato salt and pepper shakers to posters and wall hangings with tomato decor. Their delivery/service vehicle is a new, funky, tomato red van with a big tomato sign on the side of it. We saw it driving around town this morning as we were making our way to the restaurant.  Even the pillows on the couches at the front of the shop have a tomato motif on them. It's a friendly staff,  a warm cozy atmosphere  and wonderful food!