The Distance: 470 miles, the vast majority of it in the first week of the month as we finished our Canada to Grand Marais, Michigan journey. Our running total for the year is now 6,016.
The Places: We had our last two days in Canada at Panorama Camp in Ontario before reentering the U.S. for a three day stop in Sault Ste Marie. Alarmed at the reports of a rapidly filling campground in Grand Marais due to the music festival, we accelerated our plans and arrived there for a full three week stay. Then it was on to Marquette for our final U.P. stop.
We spent 2 days in a private park and the remaining 29 in public (municipal) campgrounds. We had partial services the entire month: power and water for 26 days and power only for 5.
The Budget: Nearly 15% under budget! The limited mileage (and thus reasonable gas expenditures at U.S vice Canadian prices,) slight reduction in campground fees with a weekly rate in Grand Marais, along with generally conservative living helped a lot, but the real budget savers were the 10 market events we participated in. Four of them we consider highly successful, and all but one of the rest generally satisfying. We finished so far under budget despite having to pay our annual motorhome insurance and a $251 medical bill that caught up with us from Key West.
September may be a different story: our mileage will go up significantly as we work our way back south, and we expect to have some repair and upgrade costs on Serenity as well. Alas, we foresee few, if any, market opportunities to help offset such things.
The Drama and the Improvements: Very little to report. The stairs, which gave us a problem leaving our last Canada stop, have worked well the entire month. The windshield remains popped out and the seal secured with duct tape until we are able to coordinate a repair in a larger city or town. We have started to make some cosmetic improvements to the bathroom, but nothing spectacular. Hopefully September will show some major improvements: we are routing our trip through Elkhart, Indiana, arguably the RV capital of world, and hope to get a few things improved upon there.
And here are our 2017, 2016, and 2015 annual summaries which include monthly report links.
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