Summer of 18-#31-Old Mission Point Lighthouse & 45th Parallel & A Bill!!

Wednesday August 1st, 2018

We woke up this morning to an e-mail invoice from the RV place that had been sent just after 3pm yesterday.  It was for $157.50 for mileage and 1 hour labor, for the initial callout.  Wow!! They can certainly get their bills out urgently can't they.  Shame they can't get everything else done as quickly, and we wouldn't be in this situation. There had been no mention of a mileage charge but realistically we weren't opposed to it. We were opposed to the fact that they take no blame for this not being able to be completed.  We started to call them as we were so angry, but held off.  We decided we would go out and try and forget about it. Ultimately we decided we would send them an e-mail.  We would wait until we had cooled off and then write it.

Anyway, on to our day out.  We went to Old Mission Point Lighthouse at the tip of Old Mission Peninsula, North of Traverse City.

The short walk from the car park.

It's a pretty lighthouse that is on the 45th Parallel.  That means we were halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.  

There are several of these type of markers across the USA.  Here's a map of them.

Bryan took this picture and it had the name of the lighthouse from the sign in the picture above, at the bottom.  Like a postcard.

The entrance to the lighthouse was at the back by the beach.  This is the beach in front of the entrance to the lighthouse.

Bryan going into the lighthouse

There was a small gift shop where we bought our tickets and got our passport stamped.  This couple were keepers for the week.  The fee for this program is only $200 per couple, so more reasonable.  Still 8 hour days and I assume 6 days, so 48 hours at $10 an hour equals $580 per person.  $1160 per couple.  Nope, I think if we ever do this we will go back to Oregon and get a site for our RV for free and work there.  I think it was a month minimum and 4 days per week for less hours, and you don't pay anything that I'm aware of.  Of course, you are providing your own lodging.

We reached the upper deck.

View from the top

There were some Amish having a picnic lunch.

Coming back down.

and back out the door.

The Oil Room that most of the lighthouses up here seem to have.

Self-Explanatory

I walked along a path toward the beach and took these pictures.

There was an old Log House.  It was saved from demolition on it's original site and moved here.

Inside of the Log House

Bryan taking a picture of the lighthouse.

We walked out to the entrance to the park and looked at this memorial that we had passed on the way in.

Look at the name that jumped out at me:  James Mccluskey  Wonder if he was related to RearAdmiral Wade McClusky who USS McClusky was named after. Ryan's old ship certainly doesn't want to be forgotten!!!  

Bryan walking back to the car park.

Some pictures on the way home.

We stopped at Harbor View Lavender Farm and I tried their Lavender Ice-cream.  It was vanilla with a hint of lavender, quite refreshing but not something I have to have more of!!  Unfortunately the lavender wasn't in bloom yet.

Not long after we left there it got very dark and then we had a torrential downpour.  It was so heavy we had to pull off the road and stop because Bryan couldn't see to drive.  It doesn't look bad in these pictures but it was!!!!

It didn't take long before it eased off and we got going again.  

We went through downtown Traverse City.  

There was a film festival going on and there were a lot of people standing in line to watch an old Jane Fonda movie.  We're definitely not joining that line.

Nearly home, there's Crystal Lake in the background.

It was a lovely but long day and we got home safely.

At 10.42pm we sent the RV place an e-mail suggesting we meet halfway and offering 50% of the bill.    We don't want them to be out of pocket, they have been having personal problems as well, but we don't see why we should pay for their delays.  We very rarely argue a bill, it's often not worth the hassle but the lady lied to us, she wasn't timely in contacting the warranty company and that is why this can't be completed.  This has really caused us to rethink how much longer we can stay on the road, and the realization that it might not be as long as we would like really hurts. We shall wait and see!!!!