How we got here
written by Steve
15 years ago if someone proposed us as innkeepers in Leelanau we would have laughed our heads off. What an absurd idea, where is Leelanau anyhow! One day my sister sailed Grand Traverse Bay stopping at Northport, and at her telling of the tale, the seed of our future as innkeepers was planted, although at the time we didn't know it. We started coming up here, staying at various B&B's, eventually becoming good friends with several owners, even bought fudge for the trip back. It was always hard to go back to Indiana, crossing M-72 going South seemed to initiate the blues for us, but we had our other life (down South) to live.
In our other life, I was an electrical engineer, and Bev was a registered nurse. We lived on state road 101 North of Monroeville Indiana for about 28 years, working every day, fixing the house, driving 80 miles per day and liking it all less and less. We knew that staying in the same place would not do, and Leelanau was the place to be, but how to do it, it was like an itch that we couldn't scratch. Having lived in Virginia Beach Virginia, Norwich Connecticut, and Charlestown South Carolina over the 7 years I was in the submarine service reminded us that moving and setting up a new life was nothing to be feared. The die was cast, I bought a flat bed trailer to haul our stuff and we picked out a 1972 Avion 31 foot RV from a friend to pull up here and live in. We were so excited about what was happening that we failed to look closely at the Avion or the stock market.
In March of 2001 we started moving stuff from my old shop up here. The truck bed was filled to the top of the extender sides I built for it, with a tarp over the top tied down with ropes. The trailer was filled to the top and it too had a tarp and ropes to hold stuff in. Some have compared us with the Beverly Hillbillies, you remember, that shot at the opening where Jed, Jethro, Ellie Mae, and Granny are moving to Beverly Hills in their "truck" with everything tied on. Its not too far off. My new shop was being built, just a shell, however it was being reserved for our important things (mostly Bev's stuff), my tractors and big tools were in the woods covered with plastic. When the shop was finished, we hooked the Avion to my 7000 pound Dodge diesel 4WD truck, loaded both with "stuff" and made black smoke headed North. It must have been our 5th trip up here in 6 weeks, at about 5 tons per trip according to my back.
We got within about 4 miles from here, going West up M204 out of Suttons Bay, the hammer was down, we had a high ball, the pedal was to the metal, things were gettin a little giddy, when, bang, dirt, dust, confusion, @#*!@ @)(&&!!! a tire blew out on the Avion, nuts! It was raining naturally and we swerved to the right of the road, and promptly sunk into the soft dirt. I got my parka out and surveyed the situation muttering a few more choice words that I figured would help the situation. A friendly neighbor came out to tell us no auto shops were around to help, it fits I thought! With a jack, and sweat and several more special words I chained up the trailer axle, and told Bev to hang on I'm gonna pull this thing the last 4 miles wheels or not! The Dodge jerked that Avion out of the mud onto the highway and we were off again, although at a more delicate speed. It took an eternity to go those last 4 miles, with the Avion leaning to the left, tire parts and mud flying off the rim, sweat running down my face, and a death grip on the wheel. We made it, got the Avion blocked up in record fashion and decided we had had enough of the day. About a year later when we were getting the Avion ready to sell, I noticed that two other tires were ready to Pop. What a show it would have been, 60 MPH with no wheels..... ! We had more to haul, so next day back to Indiana without the Avion thank goodness.
We closed on our house in Indiana, our son drove the loaded truck and trailer, Bev drove the loaded Jeep, and I drove a huge U-Haul van filled to the roof with the last of our stuff. We left behind family, friends and a lifetime of experiences and moved to an area where we knew exactly 7 people! Our furniture (which you now see in Traditions) and everything we owned was stacked floor to ceiling and front to back in my 28 by 42 foot shop. We began the adventure of living in the Avion with 3 wheels while the house was built.
We arranged our work, Bev part time at the hospital in Northport, and I started telecommuting part time for my job back in Fort Wayne. It was a bit much for me, but the reward of being up here was worth it, my stress level was already starting down, but not for long.
Living in that Avion for 10 months behind my shop must have been better than living in a tent, but we are not sure. It had air conditioning but when turned on it vibrated the whole trailer, sorta like an all night root canal. The bathroom was so small you had to keep elbows close to your side to avoid serious bruises. The roof vent over our bed began to leak when it rained. I could not find parts to fix it so I fixed it by covering it with plastic, which raised the temperature inside by 20 degrees, but there was always the air conditioner! In the early fall, we noticed a few bees flying in under the trailer. I thought it would be a good idea to spray some stuff under there to discourage (and I mean really discourage) the bees. It was about 7PM when the spray got shot in there, and at 7:05PM the trailer sounded like a Boeing 747 taking off. We quickly got inside and slammed the door. The din kept up for hours, we were holed up inside hoping that those angry bees couldn't get inside, and if they did, would not realize we were the guys with the spray. Next morning no noise, no (live) bees, no stings, we win! It was about then that I got a call from my employer in Fort Wayne, seems they were downsizing (for the 20th time in 10 years) and my services were no longer needed. No more trips to Fort Wayne, no more paycheck, no more health insurance, times were gettin tough, but its all relative, more was in store for us, the bees were a piece of cake!
There was 2 feet of snow most of the winter, it was cold, cramped and the toilet seemed to plug up all the time! One morning I got up to discover the door (the only door) to the outside was locked shut and we could not open it. After an hour with a small set of tools we had inside the trailer we got the door open by taking it apart. Now there was no lock or latch so we had to use a 2x4 and a rope to "lock" the door at night for 2 months while looking for a new Avion lockset. Would you believe they don't make those any more, but you can get one for $400, almost 10% of what we paid for the Avion!! Turned out that the $400 version didn't fit. I finally found an Airstream lockset and modified it to work on the Avion, about $90.
It was January, about 5 degrees above absolute zero for 2 weeks, when the furnace blower motor started running slower and slower. Every night it slowed more, you wanted to put a crank in there and help turn the thing, finally it was time to admit the inevitable, we were out of heat. Of course we tried all the stupid things like turning on the oven with the windows open to let out the fumes, but like a sore tooth, that furnace had to come out of there. I removed the furnace using some tools and a few more of those special words that worked so well earlier with the flat tire. We had a 6 foot baseboard heater wired up to 220 Volts through a (new) hole in the Avion to the electric panel in my shop. We put it in the center of the trailer to keep us warm, and to check out the bearing life on the electric meter. The new blower motor did the trick about a week later, the electric meter survived too.
We had little or no TV in the trailer after the lightning strike which produced a nice fireball around the kitchen stove, so we signed up at the Suttons Bay library, bought a box of microwave popcorn from Sam's club, and sat feet to feet on the couch reading every book we could get our hands on while munching the popcorn. During the day we went down to the new house wondering why it was taking so long, how come nobody showed up to work on it today, when is the roof going to get done, is that wall straight, where do we go to pick out plumbing fixtures, what about colors, is "Boulder" Bob ever coming back to finish the chimney........yadada yadada yadada...?
In April 2002 we moved in, and we opened Traditions to our first guest on the 12th of July, the door to their room would not latch shut but more special words and a screwdriver took care of it! Things have been pretty smooth since then, and we still buy microwave popcorn at Sam's club, and read library books.