Making our way back to familiar territory

So, I’ve been told by more than a few people that I’ve been slacking on the blog . . . lol . . . they’re right!  I just haven’t been that motivated to get on the computer at night (too much wool applique stitching to keep me busy!), but I’m going to try to get caught up – that means covering over a month in this one post – and then try to get back on track posting more frequently.  We’ll be getting back on the move soon, so that should help!

So . . . after our few days in West Virginia, we hitched back up,

headed out our narrow driveway,

and headed north on I-77 for a few miles until we picked up US highway 33 which would take us diagonally NW through Ohio.  It was a nice road – some 2-lane, some 4-lane divided – and the only traffic we encountered was when we went through Columbus.  We took 33 all the way to where it meets I-75 in Wapakoneta, OH, our destination for the next few days.

We got set up at the Wapakoneta KOA,

and cooled off in the swimming pool before dinner.

Wapakoneta is the home of Neil Armstrong, and our visit just happened to coincide with the week of the 50th Anniversary of his famous moonwalk.  The town was having a Moonfest that week, and they were getting ramped up for all the festivities.

We went into town one morning, but all the shops were closed, getting ready for the festival.  We walked through town anyway, but there wasn’t too much to see . . .

Old architecture . . .

I like how the old buildings have the names of the original businesses.

moon-themed stuff in every store,

and a new statue of Neil Armstrong, waiting to be unveiled.

We didn’t peek under the tarp!!

We were only there a few days, so we missed the main festivities, but it was time to continue our journey north.

Rather than getting on I-75, we continued a little further on US-33, until we reached US-127, and took that north.  It’s mostly 2-lane road and goes through several small towns, but it’s a good road and was a pleasant drive.

Our destination was Greenwood Acres Family Campground in Grass Lake, MI.  It’s a new resort for us – we usually stay south of Detroit, in the Monroe area – but both of the campgrounds we’ve stayed at in the past we fully booked  this time, so we had to find a new place to stay.  This is a large park (1000 sites) with lots of seasonal campers, and nice facilities.  For the first month of our stay, we were in the middle of the “weekender” area – it was a nice, wide open site, but the utilities were kindof far apart – good thing we have a lot of hose!

The park has a small lake with a lot of pontton boats on it (although we haven’t actually seen many of the boats out on the lake!),

and a really nice pool that just completed a complete renovation.

The pool gets a little busy on the weekends, so we tend to avoid it then, but during the week it’s pretty nice.  We often head over to the pool in the late afternoon for “Adult Hour” , and sometimes even after dinner.

We were there for both Halloween,

and  “Christmas in July”,

both of which were really busy weekends in the campground!

It’s been a busy month for us, too – with all the typical financial and medical appointments, as well as a few days spent in the office for me – but we’ve also managed several dinners with family and friends, and visiting a few of the small towns in the area.

We met our friends Bill & Linda in the little town of Mason,

and met up with our ‘former’ (not ‘old’) neighbors in Chelsea

-- home of “jiffy Mix” --

on a night when there were 10 stages set up around town with different bands playing at each.

We had a nice dinner at a new BBQ restaurant, followed by ice cream,

and then Tom and I stayed to listen to the music at several of the stages.

The old guys in front of the library were pretty tame,

these guys were a little more lively,

and then these guys were about the best of the bands there – they definitely had the biggest crowd.  We stayed and listened to them the rest of the evening.

It was a really nice evening!

Just down the road from the campground is the little town of Grass Lake – there’s not much there except for a Bar/Grill and an Ice Cream Shop/Deli, both owned by the same person.  Tom and his Dad ate at the grill one night when I had gone our to dinner with my college girlfriends, and Tom and I had ice cream a couple of evenings.  It’s a nice little downtown, with a cute gazebo at the old train station, where we sat and ate our ice cream.

We even found a little fairy door at one of the shops.

Before Bryce left for his internship in Pennsylvania, we spent a couple of evenings in East Lansing with him – dinners, shopping, cleaning up his apartment, and making sure his car was ready for the trip.

The Ann Arbor Art Fair was going on that first weekend we were here, and we haven’t been able to go for many years, so we headed into Ann Arbor on Friday morning to check it out.

It’s a huge art fair – actually 4 individual fairs – and takes over most of the downtown area for the better part of a week.  It was fun to walk around and look at all the pretty things . . . but we didn’t find anything we needed!

On another trip to Ann Arbor, we drove back to our old “hood” to visit another neighbor (Hi Larry & Pat!) and check out our old house.  We took a drive up the driveway, and one of the kids was home and walked around outside with us. 

The old place still looks really good,

and the spruce trees we planted as seedlings are really HUGE now!

Another dinner with friends, Joe & Krys, followed by ice cream again!

The first month went by in a flash, and it was time to move to our new site.

Another nice site, but not quite as wide open as the last one.  We’ve got a little bit of shade this time!

Meanwhile in Virginia, Nicolas has had a couple more underways, and they’re busy getting the ship and crew ready for deployment.

Another carrier, the Stennis, joined them on this last underway so that all of the ammunition from the Stennis could be moved over to the Ike.

Helicopters carried the ammunition between carriers.

More supplies arrive by Supply Ship.

Two carriers operating together – quite a sight to see!

So, there we are – I’m all caught up!  Nicolas and Stephanie arrived today for some well-deserved vacation time, so they next 2 weeks will be busy and full . . . but lots of fun!  Hopefully it won’t be a month before I post again!