ROAMING FREE 2010

The joy of victory, and the agony of defeat!

2012-02-04T23:11:00.000-05:00

It was another busy weekend of basketball. Bryce and his buddy, Brendan, were on opposing teams yesterday, and there was quite a bit of friendly competition going on!

They somehow managed to always be guarding each other, and enjoyed getting in each other’s face.

They were really into the game, and played a little rough at times!

It was all in fun, though, and both of the friends got in some good plays!

At the end of the game, Bryce’s team was victorious, and the boys were still good friends!

It was Brendan’s Mom’s birthday, too, so we all went to Baskin-Robbins for an ice cream treat after the game! YUM!

Today was Nicolas game and his team played hard to maintain their undefeated record.

They couldn’t quite pull it off, though, and suffered a disappointing loss! Oh well, they can’t win them all, I guess!

Back at home, we have a sign in the yard again, and we’re looking forward to a win for us!!

Just another winter day

2012-01-30T22:09:00.000-05:00

An early morning winter sunrise . . . 7:30am

Life around here has been pretty normal lately, without too much excitement.

The boys have basketball games every weekend,

and both of their teams are on winning streaks. The games have been pretty exciting lately!

We’ve been having a fairly mild winter, where we seem to alternate between cold, snowy days followed by warmer-than-normal days when all the snow melts. Currently, we have snow on the ground, but we’re supposed to have 40+ degree temperatures over the next couple of days.

About 10 minutes later . . . the sun is a little higher in the eastern sky.

Tom and I have been interviewing realtors for the last month or so, and we finally settled on somebody to sign a contract with. We’re going with just a 3 month contract, though, and we’ll make a change if we don’t see progress in that time. With just 2 years with Nicolas still at home, and four with Bryce, we need to get serious about selling our house this year.

Now that we’ve made the decision, we need to get busy this week and get the house cleaned up, because we’ll have a photographer and videographer scheduled for late this week or early next week! So, that’s what I’ll be doing for the next few days . . . today I tackled my desk and the library. It didn’t take long, and I can actually see the top of my desk now!

But life isn’t all work . . . three of my sisters and I are participating in a “mystery quilt” for 2012. “Just Takes 2” is being hosted by 2 quilting blogs, and it promises to be quite an adventure! The whole quilt takes just 2 fabrics – a color and a background. I went with turquoise and brown, and I love the combination! If you’re interested, you can follow our progress at Quiltin’ Dreams.

Just before the sun fully rises, the sky was a magnificent display of color!

Wish us luck as we put our house back on the market, and hopefully we’ll be able to hit the road this summer!

A little snow, Dave’s barn & basketball

2012-01-14T20:48:00.000-05:00

It’s finally starting to look and feel like winter around here! Not everyone is excited about that, but I’d rather have the snow than the chilly rain . . . and it’s definitely prettier!

Tom’s got a little project keeping him busy this winter – building a barn for his brother, Dave. After several delays, they finally got started this past week, so we stopped over there this morning to check on the progress.

They’re moving right along, and it’s looking pretty good.

The roof goes on this week, and then it will really look like something! Denise and the dogs came outside to say “Hi”, and we chatted for awhile until everybody was shivering!

From there, we made a Sam’s Club run for shopping & snacking, before Nicolas & Bryce’s basketball games. Today were their first games, and after only 2 practices, they did pretty well.

Bryce’s team played first – he’s #55. They didn’t win, but they played really well, and didn’t lose by much considering that the other team had a lot taller guys!

Bryce has a pretty strong competitive streak, and he really gets aggressive when he plays.

Nicolas’ team played right after Bryce’s (convenient for us!), and they played really well, too. Nick had a particularly good game, scoring about 12 points himself (I think that’s more than he scored for the whole season last year!)

His team won their game, and it was exciting to watch, as usual! These high school boys get pretty intense!

We got out of there just after 5pm, and thought we’d be early enough to grab dinner at Outback Steakhouse before the crowds hit, but we were wrong . . . they must have had a deal going on, because there was hardly a spot left in the parking lot, and already a 1 hour wait (at 5:15!)! Next door, the Cracker Barrel wasn’t too busy at all, so went there and enjoyed a delicious dinner.

Now we’re back home, watching a movie and playing some ping pong. I’m getting much better . . . I can give Bryce a run for his money now, and I’ve even beat him a couple of times!

Tomorrow the boys are going to Detroit for the Auto Show, and I’m still thinking about whether or not I’m going to go with them . . . I guess I’ll decide tomorrow morning!

Mom’s Birthday Party

2012-01-11T22:17:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was my Mom’s birthday, so my family (a few of them anyway) gathered at my house on Friday for a lasagna and ravioli dinner.

After dinner, we had coffee, cake and ice cream in the basement while several ping-pong challenges were made. Grandma took on the boys to see if she still had what it takes.

She was a little rusty at first, but after some warmup, the old skills came back and she even managed to beat Bryce at his own game!

Dee & Danny brought their granddaughter, Kailyn, along and she quickly became an old pro at ping-pong!

Nick and Bryce weren’t feeling quite 100%, so it was up to Grandpa to keep Kailyn occupied after they gave up!

Before long, she noticed that I was taking pictures and really started to ham it up!

(I think she just beat her Grandpa!)

We all had a good time, especially Mom, and I was glad that we could all get together to celebrate her birthday.

After the party broke up, Mom settled in with us for a quiet weekend at our house.

On Saturday, Tom and the boys went to the motorcycle show while Mom and I tackled the huge job of taking down my Christmas decorations.

It was a big job, but we got it all done, and the boys put the boxes away and took out the tree when they got home.

On Sunday, Nick and Tom took down all the outside lights, and we had a friend over who is an appraiser. He walked through the house with us, and we talked about possible strategies for when we get the house back on the market. We still need to decide what we’re going to do with that information.

Before we knew it, the weekend was over and it was time to take Grandma home. Hopefully she’ll come back and stay with us again soon!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T23:37:00.000-05:00

Tom and the boys and I are spending a quiet evening at home for New Years Eve – OK, maybe not so quiet with all the ping pong going on – but anyway, it’s just the 4 of us tonight.

We cleaned out closets yesterday, so this morning Tom and I made one last run to Kiwanis to drop off a bunch of clothes and blankets and toys. After that, a stop at Dunham’s to exchange some gifts that Nicolas got for Christmas and a quick trip to Kroger for the makings for homemade pizza for dinner.

While the boys enjoyed a “Jaws” marathon (I, II and III!), I did a little sewing and then got the pizzas started. Everybody got their own personal pizza . . .

. . . and YUM, they were good!

After dinner and some ping pong, we settled in to watch “Inglorious Basterds” . . . it was definitely an interesting movie – you had to pay attention, reading subtitles much of the time – but REALLY graphic . . . wow! Now we’re watching the New Years Eve Shows from New York City (switching back & forth between NBC and ABC), and waiting for the ball to drop.

We wish all of our friends, family and fellow bloggers a safe, happy and healthy 2012!!

Christmas Celebrations

2011-12-29T21:01:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to all of our blogging friends!

December was pretty busy with shopping and wrapping and baking . . . followed by all the celebrations . . . and now we’re finally settling down and getting a little rest!

Christmas Eve started with a morning baptism for my niece's baby, Jaxon.

After some coffee and cookies at my sister’s house, Tom & the boys and I rested up for awhile at my Mom’s house and got some things ready for dinner. After mass, everyone gathered at Mom’s for dinner and presents.

Bryce got to know his new baby cousin,

and Tom got in his “baby fix”!

He’s a little sweetie, and he adapted to all the new people holding him pretty well!

My sisters and I made a quilt for my Mom, and she was surprised . . . even though she was with us when we bought most of the fabric – and even helped pick some of it out!

Christmas morning at our house was pretty relaxed – now that the boys are older, we’re not having to get up so early in the morning!

They still love to open presents, though!

Nicolas has been asking for a belgian waffle maker (the rotating kind that many of the motels have in their continental breakfast area) for 2 years now – and he finally got one from his Aunt Diane & Uncle Danny. He was SO happy . . . and we had belgian waffles for Christmas breakfast!

Later that afternoon, we joined the rest of Tom’s family at his brother & sister-in-law’s house for more presents, and a delicious prime rib dinner.

our hosts – Dave & Denise

the cousins waiting for presents

We enjoyed all of the Christmas festivities, and now we’re looking ahead to the new year . . . hoping it brings some changes for us! We’ve got the house off the market for now, but will put it back on in the spring, unless something happens in the meantime . . . we’ve got a couple of potential prospects that we’re keeping an eye on!

We’re still working on thinning out the “stuff”, but for a few months we’re adding a ping pong table to the lower level – it gives the kids something else to do besides the XBox!

Hard to believe it’s been sitting in Tom’s parents’ basement, unused, for 20 years or more!

The boys are having lots of fun with it – all 3 of them!

That’s all we’ve got going on right now – hopefully 2012 will be the year that we join all our RVing friends on the road! Happy New Year!

The search for the perfect Christmas Tree

2011-12-05T19:50:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was our traditional weekend to find our perfect Christmas tree. For years, we’ve been going to the same Christmas tree farm where we would pay $25 and could cut down any size tree – and we’ve come home with some huge ones – some years we would have to cut another foot or two off the tree just to be able to stand it up in our living room! A few years ago, their supply of frasier firs dwindled and we had to switch to douglas firs – also a very nice tree, and with the added benefit of being not quite as heavy. Last year, this wonderful family-run tree farm closed up because they didn’t have enough trees for people to cut, and the new trees they’ve planted will need several years before they are ready.

Last year, we found a new farm and for just a few more dollars, we had a beautiful, tall douglas fir for Christmas. They were unsure if they would be open again this season, so last week I called and found out that they were closed. Disappointed, we searched again for a new tree farm. There are several about a 1/2 hour north of us, so on Saturday we headed out in search of our tree. There was still snow on the ground from last week, but it was warming into the mid-40s on Saturday, making the round a muddy mess. As we drove around looking for the various tree farms, Nicolas cringed every time mud splashed up on the sides of the truck!

The 1st tree farm we visited promised “The best trees at the best prices!”, and at $40 for any size tree, it wasn’t too bad a deal. Unfortunately, as we walked around the farm, we realized that the pickins’ were pretty slim!

We gave up on this farm and headed down the road. We stopped at a couple more that weren’t much better, and even at a house where a lady was letting people cut down trees in her backyard! Her trees actually looked pretty nice, but with prices STARTING at $70, we decided to keep looking!

We finally ended up at the Broadview Tree Farm,

along with a hundred or so other people determined to get their tree before the rain predicted for Sunday! The majority of the folks were jumping on the wagons and going out into the field to find either a white spruce ($40) or canaan fir ($45).

Any size, same price sounded pretty good until we heard that the tallest we would find would be “about 7 ft.” . . . then we weren’t so anxious to jump on the bandwagon!

We inquired about other fir trees, and she directed us to a patch of douglas firs over behind the barn . . . we walked in that direction, neglecting to ask about the price . . .

Mr. Christmas (Nick) wasn’t too thrilled with the available trees, but we were running out of options, and daylight! We finally settled on a 9 ft. tree, although narrow and not too full, and Nicolas got to work with the saw.

The boys carried it (pretty much effortlessly, according to Nick!) back to the cashier, where she “oohed & ahhed” over the beautiful tree we found, and we forked over $63 . . .

. . . the most $ we’ve ever paid, for the smallest tree we’ve ever had! Oh well, we have a tree, and it will look beautiful once it’s up and decorated!

We got it home, and after a quick dinner we brought it in the house and got it set up.

Nicolas was ready to decorate, so he got started and I helped him (role-reversal!!). We had plenty of lights, and actually even had 1 strand left over that we didn’t use!

There were several benefits to having a smaller tree:

1. We could get all the way around it easily (usually we have branches smashed up against the windows, and sticking out in front of the fireplace)

2. You can see the whole tree (typically, the top of our tree is in the skylight, and you can’t really see it!)

3. Two hours later (NOT two days later!) we had it all decorated!

Nicolas still thinks we should have gotten a bigger tree, but at least it’s up and decorated, so he’s happy!

Thanksgiving & Black Friday shopping

2011-11-28T22:06:00.000-05:00

The turkey was ready to carve, and the side dishes were waiting in the wings . . .

My brother was doing most of the cooking, while Mom watched . . . Donnie had banished her from the kitchen!

Everything was delicious, and it didn’t take long for everybody to stuff themselves! When we weren’t eating, we played some cards and checked out the Black Friday ads.

We had big plans with my Mom and 2 of my sisters & brothers-in-law for Black Friday, so we spent the night at my Mom’s. On Friday morning, we hit the road early (9:30m . . . OK, not really too early!) to tackle the “doorbusters” where else but . . . .

Shipshewana!!

It was a beautiful day, with temps near 60 degrees, and we we definitely not the only ones doing our “Small Business Saturday” shopping on Friday!

We all got some Christmas shopping done, stocked up on staples at the E & S Bulk Food Store, visited the puppies at Eash Sales, and opted for pizza for dinner.

It was a great day of shopping – and we didn’t have to deal with crazy crowds, pepper spray, or even get up at the crack of dawn!

Ford Driving Skills for Life

2011-10-30T22:23:00.000-04:00

This truck travels around the country, presenting these programs at high schools.

On Saturday, Nicolas attended a teen driving program sponsored by The Ford Fund. It was a mini version of the half-day program he attended back in the summer at our Test Track. There were just 12 kids in a 40-minute session. They started with an introduction to the program, and a description of the two scenarios they would experience.

The teens listen intently to the instructor as he describes the program they are going to experience.

The two situations the kids would experience were distracted driving and reacting to a rear-wheel skid. In the distracted driving course, the kids followed precise directions to navigate around a small course, and then had to repeat that same course while attempting to text a message on their phone.

Nicolas driving a new Focus while texting.

The intent of this exercise was to demonstrate to the teens that there was no way they could be successful at all three objectives – navigating the course without hitting cones, maintaining the required speed, and texting the requested message – they would mess one of them up. And they all did . . . even Nicolas . . . he was able to maintain the required speed complete the text message, but he flattened a few cones!

The other situation was the rear-wheel skid, in a Mustang that had been set up to skid very easily.

The Mustang was definitely the favorite car of the teens!

The kids drove around an oval course, and when they reached the correct speed, the car would skid in the corners. The instructor explained to them how to steer out of the skid, and how to keep their eyes on where they wanted to go, NOT where they did not want to go. Nicolas was anxious to get behind the wheel on this one, and he did really well. Most of the kids were tentative at first, not going fast enough to get into a skid, but not Nick . . . he was skidding from the very first lap!

Even though it was just a mini-session, Nicolas enjoyed it, and got some good experience. All the kids seemed to like the session, and one girl even ran up to her dad after getting out of the Mustang, and said “Let’s buy a Mustang!” That’s another side benefit of this program – exposing these teens to new and exciting Ford cars may turn them into future customers!

Burning leaves and the housing market

2011-10-24T21:10:00.000-04:00

We had an eventful week with a 2nd showing on the house on Wednesday. The visit seemed to go well, but we haven’t yet heard back from them yet. If nothing happens in the next week, we’ll take the house off the market for the winter, and put it back on in February, probably with a new Realtor. We’ve given our current Realtor 2 seasons (3 with this Company), and we figure that’s long enough . . . it’s time to move on to somebody else.

We saw an article in the Sunday paper that said that luxury home sales have increased 43% from last year, and the worst is supposed to be over for that market segment. That’s good news for us, and we’re hoping that starting fresh in the early spring will bring us some luck!

Yesterday we went to my Mom’s house for dinner – she had quite a few leaves down in the backyard, so Tom and the boys were busy raking and burning.

By the time the raking was done, and we were just watching the last of the fire, the “Supervisory Crew” arrived . . .

It was a nice day for working in the yard, and Grandma appreciated all the help!

Fall Cleanup

2011-10-17T21:16:00.000-04:00

With the fall weather settling in, we’ve been doing quite a bit of cleanup around here . . . trimming bushes, pulling out dead flowers, covering the A/C and getting the furnace ready to turn on. We’re lucky that we don’t have many leaves (most of them just blow away), but we do have black walnuts. In fact, we have a line of black walnut trees between the house and the barn, and this year was apparently a good year for black walnuts – we have tons of them!

It took 4 days, but the boys and I finally raked up all the walnuts and deposited in the back corner of our property.

That’s a lot of walnuts – too bad I don’t have something to make with them!

Nicolas’ favorite part is pulling the wagon with his 3-wheeler . . . in fact, it’s not too difficult to get the boys to work in the yard when they get to use the 3-wheeler.

After several hours of back-breaking work, Bryce is ready for a ride in the wagon!

So, we’re pretty much ready for the winter now . . . all cleaned up outside, RV winterized and packed away, furnace and humidifier cleaned up and ready to go . . . now all we need to do is sell this house so we don’t have to do this again!

Meanwhile, we brought Nicolas’ RV carpet and Poang chairs into the house, and Casey sure is happy – she’s been making herself at home in one of the chairs!

We were shocked the first time we found her there – she’s not allowed on any furniture . . . but for some reason she’s decided that this is her chair!

Another season ends . . .

2011-10-11T22:57:00.000-04:00

Here it is, mid-October, and the RV is washed, winterized, and tucked away in the barn until next year . . . how sad!

The winterizing process went fairly smoothly, with just one small incident. Last year, our one mistake was that we forgot to blow out the water line to the icemaker, and the sprayers at the kitchen sink and the toilet. We remembered the icemaker line in time to thaw the small bit of ice with a hair dryer, but the sprayer at the kitchen sink cracked and we had to replace it.

So this year, we made sure to drain the icemaker line, and I made a point to remember the sprayers. We were blowing out the supply lines; first the kitchen, then the vanity & shower, and last was the toilet. I opened the valve so that Tom could start the compressor, and was removing the sprayer when it flew out of my hand . . . and you guessed it . . . right into the toilet and through the open valve to the black tank!! Oh great, how do we get it out of there??!! Of course, I didn’t have to just listen to Tom ask “Why did you do that?!” . . . I had to listen to all three of the “men” in my house . . . as if I did it intentionally!

We started out dumping buckets of water into the toilet to see if that would wash it out, with no luck, and then decided we had to put a hose down the toilet to fill the tank completely. Filling the tank halfway didn’t do the trick, so we kept going until the black tank was completely full (and re-calibrated our tank level indicator in the process – since it showed only half full when water was backing up into the toilet!). With the tank full, Tom opened the valve and let the water fly . . . and the sprayer handle flew out with it! Success!

With that done, we were able to finish up the winterizing process and get the RV parked in the barn . . . it added a couple extra hours to the process, but luckily wasn’t a disaster . . . and I’m pretty sure we won’t repeat it next year!

Fall has arrived in Michigan . . . or has it?

2011-10-10T22:57:00.000-04:00

The trees say that it’s fall, but the temperatures don’t agree!

Saturday was another beautiful day, so after a lazy morning around the campground, we decided to take a drive up to Pentwater to check out the Octoberfest Car Show. Pentwater is a cute little harbor town on Lake Michigan, and it was packed on Saturday! Several blocks from the main street, we found a shady spot to leave the truck, and walked downtown.

There were a lot of really cool cars in town, and everybody found one of their favorites.

Tom really liked this Corvette Stingray

Nicolas’ favorite was this Boss 302 Mustang

I thought this purple Studebaker with it’s teardrop camper was adorable!

Bryce was happy to see so many cars in his favorite color – green, including this old Ford truck!

The owner of this car was nice enough to let the kids get in for a picture!

We walked up and down the streets, admiring all of the old cars and trucks,

and then stopped into the Cosmic Candy Company to pick up some vintage candy.

The bright lights and bold colors are very appealing!

The boys are trying to decide what they should buy . . .

Once we had our fill of cars and candy, we walked down to the beach.

It may have been October, but on this warm & sunny afternoon there were a fair number of people on the beach, including a few brave souls in the water! Tom & I put our feet in for a minute – and that was long enough for them to go numb!!

BRRRR . . . that water is cold!!!

We wish this beautiful weather could last forever, but we know it won’t . . . and soon the lake will be frozen and the snow will be flying! for now, though, we’re thoroughly enjoying these last few days of summer-like weather!

Bryce and Brendan are friends, despite their opposing team preferences!

Tom found a new friend!

Back at the campground, I made dinner while the kids played, and later we joined Brendan’s family for a campfire while watching the Tigers game and listening to the U of M game on the radio. It was another perfect weekend of camping, and we wish it wasn’t our last . . . but it is, for a while anyway. Back at home on Sunday, the boys got the RV washed and ready for winterizing.

We’ll get it in the barn this week, and it will stay there until next spring . . . unless we get lucky and sell the house this winter!! Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Indian Summer?

2011-10-07T23:56:00.000-04:00

When the weather turned so cold last weekend, we thought we might be winterizing the RV without getting in another trip, but we live in Michigan . . . and you never know what the weather is going to do! With temperatures in the 80s being predicted for the weekend, we decided to take advantage of it! Tom & I took a vacation day today, and I gave the kids the day off school, and we were packed up and on the road to Silver Lake by 9:30am.

We quickly set up and had some lunch, and then took a bike ride into town to see what was going on. It certainly is different than when we were here on Memorial Day weekend! It was really quiet in town, with most of the shops closed-- even the ATV and Dune Buggy rental shops! The Jellystone Park was open, and part of the state park, but the other RV parks were all closed for the season already. With the looks of the RV park we’re in (nearly fully this weekend!), I think the other parks are missing out on some $$!

We rode down to the state park, and enjoyed some of the beautiful fall colors.

Tom and Bryce take a rest on a park bench

Nicolas rides along the lakeshore

From the state park, we went back through town and out towards the ORV area at the sand dunes. It was definitely quieter out there today, but there were still quite a few folks out there with their ATVs, Dune Buggies and trucks.

We walked around for awhile, and watched several ORVs come off the dunes.

With the cooler temperatures, light traffic, and beautiful fall colors, this had to be a great day to be on the dunes!

We left the ORV area then, and decided to take a different way back to the RV Park. We thought it might be shorter, but turned out to be a LOT longer – and we went several miles out of our way! Oh well, it was a great day for a bike ride . . . and we eventually made it back! along the way, we passed this cute Body Shop.

Tom decided to stop in and check it out, and we were surprised to find what almost looked like an automotive memorabilia museum – complete with a few local guys hanging out enjoying the afternoon!

They do work on old cars, too!

Out front were a couple of vintage gas pumps, complete with a vintage motorcycle and truck!

Back at the RV Park, Bryce and Tom played cornhole while I got dinner ready.

As it cooled off and the sun began to set, we got a fire going and enjoyed the summer-like evening. Tomorrow will be another full day, I’m sure!

Birthday Weekend

2011-10-03T21:18:00.000-04:00

I now officially have TWO teenage sons! Bryce celebrated his birthday this weekend – he’s now 13! I can hardly believe it – it seems like just yesterday he was such a cute little boy!

OK, I guess he’s still cute . . .

Grandma came up to spend the weekend with us, and when the rain finally stopped on Friday we went to the apple orchard to pick some apples and get doughnuts and cider.

We had to bundle up pretty good for apple picking – it was COLD!!

Bryce checked out the pumpkin patch while we waited for the tractor!

The three cousins all have birthdays this week (Bryce & Kathleen are both 13, and Joe is 9) so we all got together for dinner on Saturday.

Looks like we’ve got some division in the family (U of M –vs- MI State)!

Dinner was calzones and salad, followed by a yummy DQ cake!

Bryce’s theme for birthday gifts this year was Michigan State Spartans . . . he got new T-shirts, pajamas, a sweatshirt and hat . . . and even a custom-made cornhole game!

My brother built the boards for my Mom, and I found a lady near my Mom’s house who makes the bags, and picked them up for her. Bryce couldn’t wait to start playing –this is his #1 present!

With warm & sunny weather on the way this week, we’re going to get plenty of playing time in! Speaking of nice weather, it looks like we’ll be able to get in one more weekend of camping before we winterize the RV. This weekend we’re heading back to Silver Lake for another trip to the sand dunes – can’t wait!

Quilts, Raspberries & a Sunset Walk

2011-09-22T20:41:00.000-04:00

We’ve had a string of warm, sunny days this week, so we decided it would be a good day to pick raspberries. Tom & I got home fairly early from work, so before we started dinner, we took a drive to the local raspberry farm.

The berries were plentiful and beautiful – and the 4 of us picked 6 quarts in under an hour – and ate quite a few, too! Delicious!

Home from the berry farm, we grilled up some boneless chicken thighs and boiled some corn for dinner. Tom and I decided to go for a quick walk before the “Big Bang Theory” season premiere, and I managed to catch a beautiful sunset in the backyard.

So, what else have we been doing lately? Well, not camping . . . we caught up on some long-overdue cleaning around the house, and I got some sewing done. My niece, Katy, had her baby a couple of weeks ago,

Jaxon Ryker – isn’t he adorable!!??!!

so I quickly finished up the quilt I had made for him,

and found a cute little outfit to go with it,

and shipped it off to them. They live in south Carolina, so we haven’t seen the little guy in person yet, but hopefully they’ll make it up here at Christmas.

My other finished project was one that’s been hanging around since spring, waiting to be finished,

and now it’s finally on my bed! Looks good!

Campground Review–Hartwick Pines State Park

2011-09-11T21:51:00.000-04:00

Location: Grayling, MI

When we stayed here: Friday, Sept. 2 – Monday, Sept. 5, 2011

We got an early start on Friday, and since it was Labor Day Weekend, we were hoping that it was enough to put us ahead of much of the crowd. We took US-23 north to I-96 west, to US-127 north until it merged into I-75 at Grayling. We could take US-23 to I-75 at Flint, and take I-75 all the way up north, but we much prefer the less-travelled US-127. Traffic was pretty light, even through East Lansing, where we were also early enough to miss most of the crowd going to Spartan Stadium for MI State’s home opener football game. We made it to the campground in exactly 3-1/2 hours, with one rest area stop.

Our site: #82

We had a pull-thru full hookup site, although only 30 amp electric, and paid $33 per night. There was no cable or wi-fi in the park, and Verizon cell service varied from non-existent to OK.

The full hookup sites are in the interior of one half of the campground,

and the sites were paved, well-spaced and reasonably level.

We had plenty of room at our site for campfires and cornhole!

The interior roads were pretty good, although the layout of the one-way roads were a little goofy. Our row of sites, for instance, had an inbound road on one side of the sites, and an outbound road on the other side. This is fine until you have your RV parked, but then, since the end of the loop is a site, afterwards you need to drive either in or out the wrong way on the road.

This was just a minor annoyance, though . . . getting the RV in and out was no problem.

Our friends were in the other half of the campground, on an electric-only site. (#51)

This area of the campground is more wooded, giving the sites more privacy, but less room. We made our reservations about a month ahead, and I was surprised at the number of sites available for the holiday weekend. By the time the weekend arrived, though, they were fully booked.

Amenities: One of the reasons that this state park is easier to get into is probably that it is not on water. Usually, we prefer to have a beach or pool, but we were only about 15 minutes from Higgins Lake, which is one of the nicest lakes in Michigan. If the weather had been better, we could have spent a day at the beach there . . . as it was, we were able to rent a pontoon boat on Higgins for a day (see my post here), and that was about all the lake time we needed this weekend!

Conveniently located in the middle of the two halves of the campground is a new bath house with modern showers.

In addition to the campground, there is a small fishing lake with a pier, a large picnic area with baseball field (where the local vintage baseball team plays), a Visitor Center and Logging Museum, and several hiking trails and mountain biking trails. See my other post about our ride on the mountain bike trail and visit to the Logging Museum. No shortage of outdoor recreation!

For the little kids, there’s a nice play area in the campground

Starting at the entrance to the park, there’s a paved bike path that goes all the way into Grayling – I think it’s 9 miles long. For the most part, it was pretty level, and looked like it would be a fun ride. We might have to try this next time we’re here!

We saw a wide array of campers in the park this Labor Day Weekend – from tents to popups, to a Jayco Recon toyhauler that gave us a little competition for “Biggest Camper in the Park”!

This little camper reminded me of my Mom & Dad’s old Holiday Rambler!

Overall Impression: We really liked this state park, and it’s definitely one that we can get our RV into. The location is great, as it is conveniently located close to almost everything up north, including the Boyne area, Traverse City, and even the Mackinac Bridge -- only about an hour away. Grayling has a catholic church (St. Mary’s), a bakery with awesome cinnamon bread, and a quilt shop (The Ice House) that I have to get back to visit!

We’ll definitely stay here again sometime – it’s a really nice state park that we can actually get into – I’m glad we gave it a try!

The big wheels at the entrance are a tribute to the logging industry that was the lifeblood of this area of Michigan at one time.

At the Carnival

2011-09-10T21:20:00.000-04:00

The happy bride and groom – Kelly & Brian

This weekend we attended the wedding of one of my cousin’s daughters, and it was quite the festive affair. They went with a carnival theme – red, turquoise and yellow – and non-traditional in many ways.

the parents of the bride – my cousin, Steve, and his wife, Barb

In addition to the “candy bar” (which seems to be a staple of weddings these days) sporting red, yellow and turquoise candies, there was a cotton candy stand, a popcorn stand, a snowcone stand, and carnival appetizers including soft pretzels, mozzarella sticks and nachos.

grandma of the bride, with her two youngest grand-daughters

Dinner was also carnival-themed, with pulled pork sandwiches, italian sausage, gyros, deep fried green beans and mac & cheese, and funnel cakes. Definitely not your standard wedding fare!

more crazy cousins – Dave, Jane and their oldest grand-daughter

I wish I had a picture of the cake to show you – it was the coolest wedding cake I’ve ever seen! Three lopsided layers frosted in red, yellow and turquoise rolled fondant, with a ring of gumballs at the bottom of each layer. It tasted pretty good, too!

another set of cousins – Mark & Sandy

Not to be undone by the food, the bar was a hoppin’ place, too. You could get alcohol for your snowcone, or try a cotton candy martini – OK, can’t recommend those . . . Tom tried one, but they tasted like cough syrup!

one last set of cousins – Sue & Jeff

How are we related to all these crazy people? Well, our moms are twin sisters!

Marilyn (my mom), their brother, Jimmy, and my aunt Margie

So, I’ll admit it . . . my cousins aren’t the only crazy ones . . . my sisters and I had a good time in the photo booth, too.

Tom and Marci

Tina and Larry

Deby and Charlie

Diane and Danny

Five gorgeous sisters!

OK, so by now you’ve figured out that they had an old-time photo booth set up. It was a lot of fun, and each group would get a series of three photos taken (in a vertical strip, like the old photo booth), and 2 copies of the strip would get printed out – one to take home, and one to put into a scrapbook for the bride and groom with a personal message. Definitely more interesting than just having the disposable cameras on the tables – thanks to innovations in digital photography!

In addition to the photo booth, there was a caricature artist. He had a LONG line all night long, but we managed to get Mom, Margie and Jimmy in front of him at the end of the night.

Nick and Bryce didn’t want to go with us to the wedding, so they stayed home . . . but once their aunt Diane started texting pictures of the cotton candy and candy bar to them, they were thinking that they made a bad decision! We brought them each a goodie bag, but no cotton candy – too messy!

A Day on the Lake

2011-09-07T20:19:00.000-04:00

OK, well we didn’t quite get one of THOSE boats . . . but we did rent a lovely pontoon that had just enough horsepower (fishpower??!!) to pull the kids around on a tube!

After a quick stop at Goodale’s Bakery in Grayling – for our power breakfast --

(too bad . . . just across the street was the Icehouse Quiltshop . . . but they weren’t open yet!)

we arrived at B&B Marina on Higgins Lake and got loaded up on our rental pontoon for the day.

The sky was pretty much overcast, but heck – we had a 60% chance of NO RAIN! Everybody got situated, and we headed south. Higgins Lake is quite a big lake, and the marina was at the far north end of it, and our friends we were meeting up with were on the far south end of it . . . so we had some travelling to do!

Aerial photo of Higgins Lake . . . 9900 acres of water surface

Despite the cold morning temperatures (did I mention that we had to pick up the boat at 8:30am?), the kids (well . . . a couple of them) decided to go swimming.

About the time Bryce and Jensen were turning blue, the rain started! We huddled under towels and hooded sweatshirts, and made our way south as quickly as possible in the driving rain!

OK, this was before the rain started . . . still happy!

We spotted Nancy & Andy’s cottage just as a HUGE bolt of lightening struck something not too far away – we got the boat tied up to the dock, and made a beeline for shelter!

We spent the next hour or so catching up [Nancy was daycare provider to Nicolas & Bryce, AND Hannah & Jensen] and visiting. Another former daycare family [co-worker of Tom, myself & Paul] arrived with their 3 boys and boat, and Nancy’s son & girlfriend got back from a run to the grocery store soon after we arrived.

As soon as the rain stopped and the sky started to clear, the kids were ready to get back in the boats.

Bryce and Jensen went first, and had a great time bouncing over the waves. They started getting a little bit daring, and eventually ended up in the water!

They didn’t mind, though, and came right back for more!

Bryce thinks he’s a stuntman, standing up on the tube!

Andy has a nice speedboat, and he took some of the older guys tubing and beat them up a bit! Tom even tried skiing . . . and regretted it! (didn’t have my camera handy for that one – I was in the water!)

After a potluck lunch back at Andy & Nancy’s cottage, it was time for some more tubing – this time just behind the 2 speedboats.

Bryce and Hannah went behind Carl’s boat (and from what I heard, he whipped them around pretty good – sent them both flying off the tube!)

and Nick and Reed went behind Andy’s Baja – he took it a little easier on them!

Once that morning rain got out of the way, the day turned out to be pretty nice – we even got a few peeks of sun! We had to get the pontoon back to the other end of the lake by 5:30, so it was time for us to wrap things up and start making our way north.

The kids decided that they wanted to ride the tube back to the marina, so Bryce and Jensen hopped on first.

By the time Hannah traded places with Jensen, the water had gotten pretty rough so she and Bryce got quite a ride!

Captain Paul got us back to the marina in plenty of time

and with all passengers accounted for!

We all enjoyed our day on the lake, spending time with old friends . . .

. . . and even though it could have been a little bit warmer, we all managed to get a bit of sun! Maybe next year we’ll try to do this earlier in the summer!

Labor Day Weekend camping

2011-09-06T21:12:00.000-04:00

There are only a couple of state parks in Michigan that have full hookup and sites that are big enough for our camper. One of them is Hartwick Pines State Park, just north of Grayling, MI. We’ve been wanting to try out this park, and it’s close to one of our favorite lakes, so we made plans with our friends to spend Labor Day weekend up there.

We got a fairly early start on Friday, and managed to dodge the rainstorms all the way up north. It was in the 90s at home, and a relatively cool 80 degrees when we arrived at the park.

We quickly got set up on our site,

and Tari & Jensen joined us in making a fire so we could have pizza pies for dinner. The kids set up the cornhole boards, and spent plenty of time practicing for the big tournament on Sunday.

Not an “official” tournament, just our own personal tournament . . .

Casey found a comfy spot to rest and spectate from!

In addition to all that cornhole, we also tried out one of the mountain bike trails in the park. The trail was nice and wide, one way, and just had a few steep, sandy climbs that proved to be too much for the old folks – and even some of the young folks!

The bike trail took us to the logging camp and museum.

Logging Museum

We saw how the loggers used to live in the logging camp – the kitchen where their meals were cooked,

where they slept and even what they wore to keep warm in the northern Michigan winters!

We also saw the tools that the loggers used to move the logs down to the river. Since much of the work was done in the winter, the equipment was all equipped with sled runners.

With the invention of the “Big Wheel”, loggers were finally able to move logs without the aid of snow.

Nick & Bryce pose in front of the Big Wheel – my Mom has pictures of me in front of this very same wheel!

From the logging camp, we walked the nature trail through the “Old Growth Forest” to the Visitor Center.

These tall white pines create the “canopy” that characterize the old growth forest.

As we walked, we came upon “The Monarch”,

the most famous tree in Hartwick Pines. It was once the tallest, oldest, and largest circumference tree in Michigan, but it was damaged by storms several years ago and is now missing its crown. Over 325 years old, the tree is now dead, and will one day fall down. For safety reasons, “tree-hugging” is no longer allowed, so the kids had to just stand in front of the once-great tree.

Further along the trail, we came to the Chapel in the Pines.

This chapel was built in 1953, and dedicated to a Founder and 1st President of the Kiwanis Organization.

The large, cross-shaped window in the chapel is its only source of light, and makes for a spectacular sight.

after our walk through the woods, we got back on the bikes and rode back to the campground – on the pavement this time! It was a great day, with perfect weather for bike-riding!

We also spent a day on Higgins Lake, but that day gets a post all of its own!

Happy Birthday, Dad! We miss you!

2011-08-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

83 years ago, my Dad was born – he was the oldest child in his family.

He spent his entire career at one company – Columbia Gas of Ohio, retiring after 47 years.

He married my Mom in 1950, and they celebrated 60 anniversaries together.

He was the father of 6 children,

including me – the baby of the family.

Over the years, he enjoyed many hobbies, including camping,

bowling and golf,

and boating.

He was grandfather to 12 grandkids, and great-grandpa, too.

We would typically spend this weekend at the lake, celebrating with Dad and chocolate cake.

Dad is enjoying his chocolate cake in heaven this year, but he’s still in our thoughts. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!

Cedar Point Amusement Park

2011-08-24T22:50:00.000-04:00

It’s 10 am sharp, and we’re waiting in line for the gates to open!

This week was our 2nd (annual??) trip to Cedar Point, in Sandusky, OH. We were a little bummed to find out that the park switched over to its “fall hours” on the day we arrived, which meant we lost 2 hours of ride time, but at least we were staying onsite which allowed us “early entry” of an extra hour in the morning.

The kids were up, dressed, and had eaten breakfast bright and early Monday morning . . . they were anxious to get going into the park! There were (5) roller coasters open for the extra hour in the morning, and the kids’ game plan was to head immediately to Top Thrill Dragster.

The plan worked – they were on so quickly that I missed getting a picture of them!!

Next on their radar was Millennium Force, after a quick ride on Iron Dragon.

Iron Dragon is a fairly mild roller coaster, so even Jensen and I went on that one!

Tari and I let the guys take the kids on Millennium, while we waited with Jensen. This one is just too tall and steep for me . . . No, Thanks!!

Next up was Maverick . . .

This is a fun one, even if it bangs your head around a little bit. The first hill isn’t too big, and you are launched up rather than that slow, agonizing “click, click, click” up to the first drop. Tom and I rode this one together – screaming all the way!

From there, we made our way over to Mean Streak.

I think this one may still be the biggest wooden roller coaster in the world, but I’m not sure. I just know that I’ve heard that it’s rough . . . so I passed on this one.

The feelings from our group were mixed on this one – the kids thought it was OK, but Tom & Paul said “Once is enough – too rough”.

After a nostalgic ride on the fastest, steepest, tallest roller coaster (in 1978!) – Gemini – we decided it was time to tackle the water rides! One detour first – Hannah and her friend, Alexis, decided they wanted to try Sky Hawk. They couldn’t get anybody else to join them, so the girls braved it on their own.

There they are – all the way to the left – arms in the air!

Now, it was time for the water rides. Snake River Falls wasn’t busy at all, and we walked right on and boarded a boat. When they say, “You will get soaked on this ride!”, they mean it . . . we all came off of it soaking wet!

Once wasn’t enough for Bryce, Hannah and Alexis – they went back for another ride!

Next was Thunder Canyon, where 12 people get in a circular raft and ride along a river, bouncing off walls, never knowing who’s side of the raft is going to end up under the waterfalls!

Nick, Tari and I watched from the overlook as the rest of the group went back for another ride

Now it was time to go back to the campground to get into dry clothes and have some lunch. Tari and I were ready, but Tom, Paul and the kids decided they were up for one more trip down Snake River Falls.

After some lunch and a little rest, we were back in dry clothes and ready to tackle some more coasters. First on the post-lunch agenda was Magnum – another tall one, with some quick up & downs at the end. I sat this one out, too.

Note the empty queuing area in the background -- we were amazed at the short lines we experienced all day. Many of the less popular coasters had no line at all, and even on the big ones, we only waited 15 – 30 minutes at the most! It made it really easy for the kids to get on all the rides they wanted to ride!

Hannah really likes the front seat on the coasters, and she was often able to get there with hardly any wait!

The next roller Coast that I went on was Raptor. This one is pretty radical – your feet are dangling, and although there is no big drop, there are lots of loops and spirals. I sat it out last year, but everybody said how smooth and fun it was, so I decided to try it this year.

Those are people’s FEET pointing toward the sky as they go around that loop!

It was a fun ride, and definitely exhilarating – and I even managed to open my eyes for part of it!

Bryce and Nick wanted to go on Blue Streak – this is an old wooden coaster – they probably keep it around more for historical significance than anything else.

They couldn’t get anybody else to join them, so they just went on their own.

Wicked Twister (or Twisted Sister, as we called it!) was one ride that Bryce skipped last year, so this time he was going to give it a try.

Riders are launched – forward and reverse – higher and higher up these two spiral columns . . . crazy, if you ask me!

It wasn’t all about roller coasters, though, and we rode a few other rides, too. Nicolas’ favorite was the “Turnpike Cars” . . . even if his knees were above the windshield!

Bryce and Jensen were about the right size for these cars, though . . .

We all took a ride on the Cedar Downs carousel.

At a top speed of 14 mph, it couldn’t compete with the coasters, but was pretty darn quick for a carousel!

Paul and Tari are ready to race!

The kids put their iron stomachs to the test on the Matterhorn, and they survived!

The new ride at Cedar Point this year is Windseeker.

It’s a very tall swing, where riders get listed to the top and then rotate around the center column at 9mph.

It looks like it would be a very relaxing ride, and the view must be spectacular, but it would need to be about half as tall for me to ride it!

Jensen was determined to ride it, though, so Paul, Hannah and Alexis joined him.

After they were safely on the ground again, they admitted that the view was great but 9mph is faster than it sounds!

By then, the evening was winding down, and we were definitely winding down. The kids decided on one last ride on Millennium, so Tari went with them while Tom and I killed some time riding the train around the park. It was a quiet, relaxing ride, and I got a couple of nice sunset pictures.

We got back to Millennium just as they were getting off the ride – perfect timing – and they had just enough time (10 minutes) to squeeze in one more ride on Mantis, the last roller coaster of the day!

After that, it was back to the campground and into the hot tub to soak our aching legs . . . a great way to end a fun & busy day!

A Dream Cruise and a Concert

2011-08-24T00:05:00.000-04:00

Every August, Woodward Avenue from Ferndale to Pontiac gets overtaken by classic cars. It’s the annual Woodward Dream Cruise, and car enthusiasts from all over the country will descend on Michigan to join in the celebration. Many of the classics line the parking lots along Woodward, but the majority are cruisin’.

This next one is for you, D-mann!

A rat-racer powered by a CAT!

The boys, especially Tom and Nick, love the old cars, so since we were home for the weekend and heading to Detroit later in the day anyway, we decided to head down in the morning and check out some of the cruisers. We saw quite a variety of old cars, trucks, motorhomes, and even a boat!

How’s that for a limo . . .

Nicolas would love to take this monster truck on the sand dunes!

This orange convertible was one of my favorites!

The cruise stretches for miles along Woodward, passing through several communities, but the bulk of the action is in Royal Oak. We found a place to park, and walked along the side of the road, watching the cars cruise by. We even saw Elvis (or three!) go by on a trailer!

The Big 3 car companies all had big displays, and the Ford display was in Ferndale, so we drove down that way to check it out.

Mustang Alley was reported to have a collection of privately owned Mustangs representing every model sold in every year since the Mustang was introduced. There was even a “Mustang Garage” where owners could get performance parts installed on their car.

Nicolas felt pretty comfortable in this new Boss 302!

Bryce liked the paint job on this Mustang!

It wasn’t all Mustangs, though, and there was a nice display of super duty trucks, too.

Bryce liked this custom F-150, with its matching ATV!

As we were making our way back to our car, we spotted a well-known face in the crowd ahead of us, and managed to say hello and introduce ourselves as members of the extended Ford family.

It was none other than Alan Mulally – the CEO of Ford Motor Company, and Tom and I were quite honored that he took the time to pose for a picture with all of us (He even suggested that this would make a good Christmas card photo!).

That was our celebrity sighting for the day – we didn’t get nearly as “up close & personal” at the concert!

So that takes us to “Part 2” of our busy Saturday . . . we arrived at Ford Field to find it already packed and bustling with activity.

Check out those motorcoaches – I wonder which one is Kenny’s?!

We finally found a place to park, got into the stadium, and made our way up, up, up to our seats . . . OK, it wasn’t that bad!

Not too many people in their seats yet, but it filled up later!

We got there just in time for Uncle Kracker’s opening act,

and then Billy Currington.

We were pretty surprised at the number of his songs that we knew . . .

Since I still don’t have a case or a zoom lens for my new camera, I took my old dependable one. It has a pretty good zoom, but had quite a bit of trouble with the lighting. I found that my best pictures ended up being of the jumbotron, as long as the lights weren’t too bright.

Next was the Zack Brown Band, who we really like, and I got my best pictures of the night . . . I think it was the blue lighting that helped.

When they sang “Free” it reminded me of the RV-Dreams Rally in Sevierville, TN

Tom, Nick and Bryce were all enjoying the show, and we were ready for the big guy to come on stage.

Soon enough, it was time . . .

Kenny puts on a really good show, and his band does a good job, too . . . the three guitarists were really good.

The show ended with Kenny Chesney and the Zack Brown Band together on stage, and the entire audience on their feet . . .

. . . it was a great show, and we all really enjoyed it . . . even from the “cheap seats”!

Lake Shelbyville, IL – Bo Wood Campground Review

2011-08-15T20:55:00.000-04:00

Dates we stayed here: Wednesday, July 27, 2011 – Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Location: Bo Wood Campground is a COE park on Lake Shelbyville in Sullivan, Illinois. Contrary to the route that Streets & Trips wanted to take us on, we took I-70 west from Indianapolis to Effingham, and then took IL-32 north to the campground, which is just south of Sullivan. From what we heard, lots of people had trouble with their GPS finding this campground!

Our site: #106

We were in a brand new, reservable full hookup loop, which had mostly pull-thru sites, and a few back-in sites. We had reliable 50 amp electric, water and sewer . . . no cable or wifi . . . and no shade!

Had we been thinking clearly, we should have taken a look at some of the non-reservable full hookup sites in other areas of the campground. There were quite a few that were open, and we could have fit on easily.

Several sites in Area 5 were full hookup and had plenty of room!

For a shorter stay, there were several sites in Area 5 that had great views, but were electric only.

I think this might qualify for an “IT” factor site in Howard’s book!

Oh well, we didn’t think of changing sites until after we (and our friend, Todd) were all set up . . . so we stayed put! We’ll just make the best of the situation.

There are a few sites in this loop that have a little bit of shade (morning, anyway) . . . they are the back-in sites, and were already occupied when we arrived.

For our full hookup site, we paid $24.00/night. Still not a bad price for full hookup! There was no entry fee into the park.

Amenities: The campground is located on Lake Shelbyville, and there is a boat ramp with a large parking area in the park.

One night we watched this guy take this big boat out all by himself!

The beach is located less than 1 mile from the campground, and entry is free for campers (with your vehicle pass).

The campground is just across that bridge from the beach.

There are modern restrooms with showers throughout the park – I didn’t check them out but the kids were turned off by a huge spider in one of the showers! Tom said it wasn’t so bad!

There is a small laundry facility (2 washers; 2 dryers) near the gatehouse, but I opted to go to the Rainbow Wash Laundromat in Sullivan to get our laundry done (no wifi there, either!).

Two small laundry rooms – each with a washer and a dryer

The dump station is right by the gatehouse, and there is a small playground and amphitheater. They had a program on Illinois spiders one evening, but the mosquitos drove us away!

Sullivan had a catholic church, an IGA, a pizza shop that delivered to the campground (we didn’t try it, but we saw one of our neighbors get delivery!). The closest Walmart was in Mattoon, along with pretty much everything else you might need . . . and the Rural King Corporate Headquarters!

The area around Lake Shelbyville is nice, and we could have explored more, but we didn’t venture too far. We would come back to this campground, but we’d definitely arrive during the week and skip the reservations. When we arrived on the Wednesday, there were only a few campers, and when we left on the following Tuesday, it was all but deserted!

Looking into our loop Sunday night . . . and our neighbor left early Monday morning!

If it’s as hot as it was on this visit, we’d definitely look at those non-reservable sites overlooking the water, with shade!

Congratulations, Kelly & Josh

2011-08-14T22:31:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was my niece, Kelly’s wedding. She and her fiancé, Josh, celebrated their wedding at home with friends and family.

Kelly comes down the “aisle” with her Dad . . .

The weathermen were talking about rain, but we ended up with a beautiful afternoon, although a bit hot!

Kelly and Josh say their vows surrounded by friends and family

The happy couple

Parents of the bride . . . my sister, Deby, and brother-in-law, Charlie

Josh just acquired a bunch of new aunts . . . what did he get himself into!!??!!

Grandma with her new Grandson-in-law

With all the pictures finished, everybody headed to the reception. The bride and groom make their entrance . . .

With the ceremony complete, everybody was ready to relax and enjoy themselves. Nicolas danced with his cousin,

while their little cousin, Kailyn, kept Bryce busy!

Bryce almost danced when his Aunt Deby dragged him out on the dance floor!

There was no shortage of delicious food at the reception . . . from the “candy bar” which is the trend at weddings now,

The kids all loved the candy bar . . . the “big kids” too!

to the italian buffet, and the dessert buffet which had something for every taste . . . cakes, cookies, cheesecake, brownies . . .

The guys kept the bartender busy all night,

and the DJ kept the dance floor full! Tom and I joined all the other married couples on the dance floor for the Anniversary Dance, but we were sent away fairly early, with only 19 years under our belts. The longest-married couple in the room were my sister, Diane, and brother-in-law, Danny at 39 years!!

Diane and Danny can’t believe they’ve been married longer than anyone else in the room!

It was a really nice wedding, and everyone enjoyed themselves! Congratulations to Kelly & Josh, and we wish them many years of love and happiness!

Back at home, Tom and I saw some deer in the front yard early one morning. As we looked closer, we realized that it was 3 young bucks – we never see bucks!

We watched them for quite awhile, as they played in the front yard like puppies!

It was really cool to watch, and we’ve seen them quite a few more times this week. The cooler weather must be bringing them out.

One last picture before I close out this post . . . we’ve had some stormy weather the last few days, and it’s made for some beautiful sunsets!

Campground Review–Brookville Lake, Mounds Recreation Area

2011-08-13T20:31:00.000-04:00

Dates we stayed here: Saturday, July 23, 2011 – Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Location: Mounds Recreation Area is off IN-101, about halfway between Liberty (to the north) and Brookville (to the south). It’s about 8 miles to either town, and Brookville is probably slightly bigger.

Brookville Lake is a COE Reservoir, but it has (2) Indiana State Parks on it – Mounds Recreation Area, and Quakertown Recreation Area. We stayed at Mounds because they have a full hookup loop.

Our site: #C25

There are two sections to the campground – the A through G loops, and the other, older section (the loops aren’t identified). All of the roads and sites are paved. The sites in the older section are definitely smaller, and there weren’t too many that looked suitable for a big rig.

The A through G loops, however, were set up nicely for big rigs, and there were lots of sites that we could have fit on. All of these loops had nice grass and good shade; the sites were angled to the road, and had lots of space between them – not to mention the center of each loop, which was basically a big, open grassy playing area.

Loops B, D, E, F and G are electric only, but still very nice sites

NOTE: Loop “A” isn’t really a loop; it’s the main road that connects all the other loops, and it has a few sites scattered along it. A1 – A5 are full hookup, also.

Interestingly (I wouldn’t have expected it), the C loop (full hookup) had the best shade, with pretty much every site having a large shade tree. With temps pushing 100 degrees while we were there, and even though we kept both A/Cs running non-stop, we were mighty glad for the shade!

Looking down C loop, towards our camper

We had full hookup with 50 amp electric, which was very reliable. Even with the high temperatures, and everybody running the A/C, we never had in interruption in electric, or even low voltage.

The park does not have cable or wifi, but we picked up a few TV channels with our batwing antenna, and I used PDA.net to tether my laptop to Nicolas’ new phone. Our Verizon signal was very good.

We paid $27.03 per night, plus a 1-time entry fee of $7 for the vehicle.

Amenities:

The campground has a campstore with basic groceries, souvenirs, ice cream, some local produce, and a small laundry facility (1 washer; 1 dryer). They also have a boat launch, (2) dump stations, and a large playground in the back of the A-G loops.

There are (3) bath houses along the main road that connects loops A through G, and they seemed to be well-kept, although we never used them. Bryce went in one the first day, and said it was too hot – he needed A/C!

We did a lot of walking and bike-riding through our section of the campground, which was nice because of all the shade. One evening, we took a ride to the campstore for ice cream and rode around the other section of the campground. The only problem was that there was a pretty big hill that you went down, and it was a little tough going back up.

The beach is pretty far from the campground loops, and it’s at the bottom of a HUGE hill, so bike-riding was out of the question (plus the road had zero shoulders, so it wouldn’t be too safe).

The beach was very nice, even though it has Indiana sand (not Michigan sand!). The beach is very wide; the swimming area is clearly marked; and the water is clean. There is a large parking lot, and several overflow parking lots (each with a bath house – pretty convenient!). They have a concession stand which offers ice cream, drinks, candy, and sandwiches – their prices didn’t look too bad, either!

We really enjoyed our few days at this campground, and we would definitely stay here again. There was a lot to see & do in the area – we did some geocaching in Brookville, went to mass at St. Michael the Archangel in Brookville, and found a nice produce stand just north of the campground. We never even drove to other areas around the lake (which is huge!), but may on a future visit. There was a canoe outfitter in Brookville also, that we heard was a really good trip, but we didn’t end up checking it out – maybe next time!

History Lessons

2011-08-09T22:26:00.000-04:00

Our last day at Prophetstown State Park, we decided to stay close and check out a couple of the history attractions in the area.

Right in the park is Historic Prophetstown.

It was an easy ride on the bike path from the campground to the farm

From their website . . . .

The Farmstead

This real working farm contains outbuildings, crops, and livestock found on a traditional farm.

Bryce enjoyed talking to the animals . . . and chasing them!

Learn the difference between pets and livestock, the reason farmers raise livestock, and how every person is connected to agriculture.

The pigs were keeping cool in the mud!

Bryce wanted to know if they really slaughter the pigs . . . and I asked him where he thought they got the pork chops and bacon that was for sale in the freezer in the Welcome Center . . . last year it was laying in the mud!

The horses were on their lunch break while we visited

The House

Visit the Gibson Farmhouse to experience life in the 1920's. This is the last historical component of our facility. The house is set up like a traditional farmhouse, complete with furniture, baking, and a farmer's wife.

Well, it’s bigger than the convection oven in my RV, but I’m not sure it’s more versatile!

Repair Shop

The boys check out the repair shop, and its assortment of tools

The repair shop contains tools and equipment used to fix the things we break! The mechanic is also handy on the forge at blacksmithing.

After our visit to Historic Prophetstown, we rode our bikes back to the campground and had some lunch before driving into Battleground to visit the Tippecanoe Battlefield National Historic Site.

The 16-acre site of the battle was deeded to the State of Indiana by John Tipton, a veteran of the fight, on November 7, 1836, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the battle. This November is the 200th anniversary of the battle.

. . . from wikipedia . . .

The Battle of Tippecanoe was fought on November 7, 1811, between United States forces led by Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and forces of Tecumseh's growing American Indian confederation led by his younger brother Tenskwatawa. In response to rising tensions with the tribes and threats of war, a United States force of militia and regulars set out to launch a preemptive strike on the headquarters of the confederacy. While camping at the confluence of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers, outside Prophetstown, awaiting a meeting with tribal leaders, Harrison's army was attacked in the early morning hours by forces from the town. Although the tribal forces took the army by surprise, their assault was ultimately repulsed as the attackers' ammunition ran low.

Although the tribes attacked with fewer men and sustained fewer casualties, the United States was victorious both tactically and strategically. The immediate result of the battle allowed Harrison's army to destroy Prophetstown and scatter its inhabitants. In addition to serving as an important political and symbolic victory for the United States, the Tippecanoe defeat dealt a devastating blow to Tecumseh's confederacy, which never fully regained its former strength. The battle was the culmination of rising tensions in a period sometimes called Tecumseh's War, which continued until the collapse of tribal resistance with Tecumseh's death in 1813. Public opinion in the United States blamed the Native American uprising on British interference; it was later revealed that the British leaders in Canada had supplied Tecumseh's force with firearms and munitions. This suspicion led to further deterioration of American relations with Great Britain and served as a catalyst to the War of 1812, which began only six months later.

Well, that was our history lesson for this trip . . . actually, these were a couple of educational days for us . . . history and science (at the dairy farm). Back at the RV, we had some dinner – including homegrown Lafayette sweet corn, compliments of one of our neighbors, and started getting cleaned up for the drive home on Friday. We had about a 250-mile drive to get home, so we were planning on an early start. This has been a fun 2-week camping trip, and we can’t wait until we can keep moving from one campground to another . . . rather than having to go “home” and back to work!

Fair Oaks Farm–the Cow Place

2011-08-04T22:22:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, we decided to take a roadtrip to a nearby dairy farm that I had heard about last year.

We drove north on I-65 towards Chicago, and on the way there we passed through a very interesting kind of farm that we had never seen before.

Row after row of windmill stretched for as far as we could see!

After several miles of windmills, and many more miles of corn, we arrived at Fair Oaks Farm.

The Fair Oaks Dairy Adventure is actually a huge operation, organized by a group of 10 different dairy farms in the area. We arrived at the Visitor Center,

paid our admission fees (with a significant AAA discount – I actually remembered to ask!), and followed the hallway of cows

to wait for our bus to take us on the tour.

There’s a definite theme going on around here!

Visitors are not allowed to have any physical contact with the cows, because they don’t want them exposed to any germs that are not local to the region. The bus tour gives you a pretty good overview of the whole operation, though. We drove about a mile from the Visitor Center to reach one of the dairy farms.

This is one of the free-roaming barns in the distance.

We saw where the cows’ food is prepared.

They have a precise combination of grains that they feed to the cows.

This is a pile of ground corn that is fermenting under this tarp, and will go into the feed.

Next we drove past the anaerobic digestion tanks, where manure is processed into methane gas which is then used to provide power to the Visitor Center, and the Cheese and Ice Cream Processing Plant.

Giant tanks of methane gas!

Next we moved on to see the main attraction . . . the cows! They are housed in free-roaming barns, where they are allowed to wander freely, eating, drinking and resting on their own relaxed schedule.

The barn sides are open in the summer, and the cows have misters on them to keep them cool. In the winter they can be closed up to keep in their body heat and keep ice from forming.

Outside the barn, was a row of little huts for the new calves.

These little guys are SO cute!

Each of the 3200 cows on the farm is taken to the milking house 3 times per day to be milked. That was our next stop on the tour, and the only time we were able to get off the bus.

The milking carousel takes about 8 minutes for a full revolution

It’s an amazing process to see – there are hundreds of cows waiting in the barn to come into the carousel to be milked – and they know just when to get on the carousel, and when to get off at the end!

We noticed that many of the cows had markings on their backs – either green or orange. The orange marking indicated that she was in heat (which they know by tracking the number of steps she takes in a day; when her steps triple, she’s in heat) and ready to to artificially inseminated, and green meant that she’s pregnant.

Back on the bus, we went back to the Visitor Center where we checked out some of the interactive displays and the 4D movie.

Tom and Bryce sporting their awesome 3D glasses!

Nicolas made an attempt at climbing the magnetic wall – almost to the top!

The other main attraction at the farm is the Birthing Barn, where several calves are born each day. There was nothing going on when we got back from the tour, so we decided to get a bite to eat for lunch.

What else would we want to drink with our sandwiches? Milk!!

By the time we were done with lunch, the green light was on at the Birthing Barn, indicating that a birth was in process, so we headed right over there.

One of the many outdoor play areas for kids . . .

In the birthing barn, the Vet was having some trouble with a first-time mom. She was supposed to be laying down, but she wouldn’t, so the Vet had to pull the calf . . . it was quite a process to see!

She attached straps to the calf’s legs

She worked and pulled and finally the calf was free

Success!

With that done, the mama cow cleaned up her baby, and it wasn’t long before this little guy was trying to stand up!

Shortly after, the Vet moves mama and baby out to make room for another. Mama goes back into the barn, and baby gets put on display.

This little guy is strong, and ready to try walking!

One of the calves born earlier in the day is trying to get on her feet, too.

The calves are SO cute – especially the black & white ones!

Before we left the barn, another calf was born – this one without assistance!

It was a fun and educational day at the farm, and we all enjoyed our visit!

Arriving back in Indiana

2011-08-02T23:45:00.000-04:00

Todd and the kids had to go back home on Sunday, along with most of the other campers around us, so by Monday morning we were pretty lonely.

We’re the only one left in the full hookup loop!

We needed to fill up on diesel, and stock up on groceries before we moved to the next campground, so on Monday we were headed for the nearest Walmart, in Mattoon, where we also found

the Rural King Corporate Headquarters! Bonus! So, we walked around for a bit, but didn’t buy much . . . just a bag of potato chips and some Jiffy cornbread mix.

Next we had lunch at DQ where I used the free wifi to connect my work laptop and clean out my email inbox. At Walmart, we filled up with diesel at $3.85/gallon (could have saved 10 cents/gallon, if I had been thinking and had bought a Walmart gift card to pay for the gas with!). After stocking up on a few groceries, we headed back to the campground.

On Tuesday morning, we were packed up and ready to hit the road by 10:30 am. We took IL-32 north to IL-133 east, through Amish country, and over to I-57. From I-57, we took I-74 east out of Champaign, and then took IN-231 into Lafayette. We skirted around the edge of Lafayette, through a little bit of construction and traffic, and onto IN-25, which was supposed to take us right to Prophetstown State Park, at least according to Streets and Trips.

We were doing well, and only got a little bit nervous when we saw this bridge up ahead.

Single lane bridge over the Wabash River – at least it was tall enough!

We made our way over the bridge, and according to our directions, the park should have been right there. We saw the Park Office (not quite soon enough), but missed it and as we continued on, we went over the top of what looked like the road into the campground, but could not see how to access it. We continued on about a mile to the little town of Battleground, where we were able to turn around (barely!) in the Fire Department driveway.

We went back to the Park Office, and Tom just pulled off on the shoulder while I walked in to find out how the heck to get into the campground. The young DNR officer said that we needed to go back into Battleground, make a left at the RR track, go back about 2 miles and a couple of more turns would get us to the main gate.

OK, well, I’m aimed in the wrong direction on this road, so we can’t go back into Battleground, so what other option do we have? Another DNR officer took pity on us and told the girl to just check us in and let us go through the service entrance from their office.

Well, that worked, and soon enough we were settled into our site.

This part of the campground is on an old christmas tree farm, and the pull-through sites are tucked nicely into the remaining spruce trees.

We have plenty of room, but the trees add privacy between the sites (we can’t even see the camper right next to us!), and some shade in the afternoon – which is nice on these days that are still in the 90s.

We got all set up, had some dinner, went for a bike ride, and then later a walk to get some pictures of the colorful sky.

The southwestern sky was pretty, with the blues and pinks,

but the northwestern sky was even more dramatic with its reds and purples!

Tonight we have severe thunderstorm warnings around us, but it sound like everything is going to go north of us. I wouldn’t mind a little rain though – maybe it would cool things down some!

Shelbyville–Forest Park Aquatic Center

2011-07-31T23:43:00.000-04:00

Saturday was going to be another hot day, and we were looking for something fun to do with the kids. Looking around on the internet, we found the Aquatic Center in Shelbyville’s Forest Park. It looked promising, so we decided to take a drive to that side of the lake, drive through the Lithia Springs Campground (another COE park that we had considered) to check it out, and then go to the Aquatic Center.

With our plan in place, we had a quick lunch and changed into bathing suits. It was about a 20 minute drive the the other end of the lake, through corn and soybean fields. At Lithia Springs, we obtained a “Sightseer Pass” from the gate attendant, and drove through the 4 campsite loops. This is a more popular campground, and it was almost full, but not suitable for our big rig! They have one full hookup loop (D leg), and a beach within the campground (off C leg), but each leg ends in a very tight turnaround. We could never get our rig around those turnarounds! So, even thought several sites are technically long enough, this campground is not really big-rig friendly. Lots of trees overhanging the roads, too!

From there, we drove into Shelbyville and right to Forest Park. We paid our $5/person entrance fee and found a group of chairs under a giant umbrella.

The pool included a zero depth entry area for small kids, up to 3’6”, then a larger area that was 4’0” to 5’0”, a smaller area that was 11’0” with a diving board and slide, and a waterslide that ended in a 3’6” pool.

The largest area of the pool – 4’0” through 11’0”

The very popular waterslide – No, I didn’t go down it!

The kiddie area of the pool – complete with water fountain and frog slide!

In the building they have mens’ and womens’ locker rooms, a family changing room, and a concession stand.

Lots of big umbrellas for people who need to be in the shade.

The kids headed right for the waterslide,

and it didn’t take long for the big kids to join in the fun!

Todd gets the prize for making the biggest splash – in and out of the pool!

They certainly had a blast on the slide, and I would have loved to join them, but at Bryce’s insistence (Please Mom, don’t go on the slide!), I just stayed in the pool. That was refreshing enough!

Next, the group headed down to the deep end to try out the other slide and the diving board.

They had fun on that one, too, but not quite as much as on the twisty slide! Tom and Todd decided that they needed to check out the kiddie area, and rest for awhile!

They’re just a couple of big kids!

It was a great way to spend a hot day, and well worth the $5/person entrance fee!

Staying cool!

After a few hours, we packed up and headed back to the campground so we could get cleaned up in time for church at 5pm.

While we were gone, Todd got a fire going and we had pizza pudgie pies and hot dogs for dinner. We had quite a bit of thunder and lightening while we were cooking our dinner, but the storm stayed south of us and we never got any rain.

It cooled off nicely, and turned out to be a good night for a campfire!

There’s nothing like a busy day at the pool to make everybody sleep good at night . . .

. . . or even in the afternoon!

More swimming and geocaching

2011-07-30T00:47:00.000-04:00

It may have cooled back down in some areas of the country (including back home!), but here in southern Illinois it’s still REALLY hot and humid! Thursday’s high was predicted to be 97 degrees, so it sounded like a good day to spend at the beach!

Despite the heat, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves!

One of our neighbors in the campground has a couple of Sea-Doos, and invited to guys to take a ride.

Making sure Nick knows the hand signals . . .

Unfortunately, the Sea-Doo chose that very moment to stop running, so they had to get towed back to shore. Nicolas got a ride on the other (faster!) Sea-doo, though.

Nicolas takes a ride on the Sea-Doo with one of the girls . . .

While they were out for their spin around the lake, the Dad’s were trying to figure out what happened with the other Sea-Doo.

Tom the engineer gets right in there!

We found out later that 3 rocks had gotten sucked up into the motor, and were rattling around in there, not allowing the motor to spin properly. Later, after dinner, the guys managed to get the rocks out . . . but weren’t sure if permanent damage had already been done!

It’s HOT, and Bryce is ready to get back in the water!

We stayed for a couple more hours, until everyone was sufficiently sunburned . . . and then headed back to the campground to relax and cook dinner. When we got in the truck to leave the beach, the external temperature reading was 100 degrees . . . our hottest day yet! Later we played some cards and watched a movie in our RV . . . it was just too hot to have a fire!

On Friday, after breakfast of waffles and bacon, we decided to do a little geocaching. It was overcast, and not supposed to be quite as hot . . . but we all needed a break from the sun anyway!

We thought this one would be easy, but no such luck!

Todd, Josh and Kylie had never been geocaching before, so we thought this would be a fun way to introduce them to it . . . unfortunately our first two attempts (right in the campground!) were unsuccessful.

We weren’t doing a very good job of convincing them that this was a FUN pasttime!

Even Bryce was getting tired from the effort!

We didn’t find the cache, but Bryce found a “natural” bike rack!

Giving up on those, we left the campground to attempt a series of 4 caches in the Kaskaskia wildlife Refuge. We had to find the first 3 caches in order to find the “codes” we needed to be able to open the last one.

At the first, we were a little distrustful of the GPS that was pointing us into an area of waist-high weeds, so we took a little walk down a mowed path.

Taking a walk along the banks of the lake . . . but not towards the cache!

We finally decided to listen to the GPS, and Tom trudged into the weeds . . . and he found the cache!

Tom makes the first find of the day!

With our confidence boosted from the find, we go back to the truck and continue our search for the 2nd cache in this series. This one took us down a “scenic drive” . . . and it was definitely an adventure!

This narrow gravel “road” (unnamed on our GPS) to us to the 2nd cache.

The hint that was included in the description for this cache made it an easy find for Bryce.

Bryce and Tom in the middle of the “tree junction”

Number 3 took us to a boat launch, and everybody got into the search, but it was Bryce who made the find again!

Close to the “end of the line” now, everyone gets into the search!

The final cache included quite a hike, but we weren’t giving up at this point! Tom and Nick took the lead, and the rest of of followed close behind.

This guy was practicing for an upcoming bass tournament . . . looks good!

We made the long hike to the far side of the island, and the kids dove right into the woods to look for the large cache and use the 3 codes we had found that would unlock the box. Once again, the coordinates were right on and Nicolas found the cache with no trouble . . . well, hopefully no trouble . . . we’ll see if he ends up covered in poison ivy n a day or two!!

Everybody washes off their arms and legs to minimize the poison ivy risk!

Having successfully completed this geocache series (yeah!), we headed back to the air conditioned comfort of the RV. The boys headed right to the showers, and Tom and I loaded up the dirty clothes and went to the laundromat in Sullivan.

We got a little bit of rain as we were coming back from Sullivan, but it didn’t last long or cool the temperatures down much. After our busy day, we were ready to relax in the air conditioning again tonight, and watch another movie. Maybe tomorrow we’ll be able to have a fire!

Last day at Brookville Lake & Move to Shelbyville Lake, IL

2011-07-28T00:37:00.000-04:00

Tuesday was our last day at Brookville Lake and we were just taking it easy. Nicolas and I took a run in the morning to pick up some homegrown corn from the local market.

We picked up some delicious corn, tomatoes, green beans and melon from Denny.

Back at the beach after lunch, it was a lot quieter than on the weekend, and the water even felt cooler.

Tom scans the beach for the best place to sit.

We had some fun in the water and worked on our tans for awhile, and I got to spend some time reading.

Back at the RV, I started dinner while Tom relaxed and the boys played cards.

Tom talks to his dad while Casey relaxes under the camper.

We’ve played lots of cards this week, and even gotten Tom to join us!

After dinner, we got a lot of the outside cleaned up and ready for the move, so we could get an early start in the morning.

Tom takes care of the stinky job!

We woke up to find it nice and cool in the morning, and the boys got right to work getting the bikes and chairs put away. It’s definitely easier to get ready for a move to another campground than it is to go “home”! The clothes and the beds and the food all just stay where they are, rather than getting packed up to go back in the house – we could get used to this!

Casey is ready to move on – and she makes sure that she isn’t going to be left behind!

By 9am, we were all hooked up and ready to head west to Illinois. We took I-74 to Indianapolis and then picked up I-70 to Effingham. We stopped at a Walmart to re-stock some groceries before heading north on IL-32 to Sullivan and the Forrest W. Bo Wood COE campground.

Our friend, Todd, with his kids – Josh and Kylie – had arrived just a few minutes before us, so we both took care of getting set up and settled into our sites.

Right now there are just a few other RVs in this section, but it’ll fill up by the weekend!

We’re in a brand new section of the campground (just opened this summer) with full hookup and really long pull-through sites, but that also means no shade at all and not a lot of grass. We are oriented so that we get afternoon shade from the RV itself, so that’s not too bad . . . and the electric is good so the A/C is cranked up!

It’s supposed to be hot this weekend, so I’m sure we’ll spend plenty of time at the beach . . . but hopefully we’ll be able to do some hiking too, and check out some geocaches in the area.

Geocache Adventure

2011-07-25T22:09:00.000-04:00

It was supposed to be cooler and less humid today, so after a big brunch of pancakes and sausage, we decided to do a little geocaching. I had located several geocaches around Brookville, so we packed up some water and set off.

The first were a series of (4) caches along the Yellow Bank trail.

We located the trailhead and parked the truck in a shady spot.

The first cache was supposed to be near the trailhead, so we searched all through the weeds using both our Garmin Nuvi GPS and our handheld GPS. One of our goals was to determine which GPS worked better. IT didn’t take long to realize that the handheld does have better accuracy, because it gets you down to within 2 feet. so, I guess all our previous trouble must be due to operator error.

Today wasn’t starting out too well, and none of the guys were successful in finding this first cache.

Bryce is sure he’s got to be right on top of it!

Nicolas found lots of good hiding places under that old bridge, but no cache!

Tom contemplates where this could possibly be hidden.

We decided to move on to the next three, since there were supposed to be easily accessible from the trail.

The Yellow Bank trail is an easy 3/4 mile hike (each way) through the woods.

We arrived at the location of the second cache, and everyone was searching for this camouflaged test tube.

Hmmm . . . could it be under this bench?

We looked all around the trail, in hollow trees, under roots, and then I found it! It was just laying on the ground, covered by a few leaves! The container was pretty chewed up, like an animal may have gotten to it, but the log was still there and we were able to get it out and sign it.

OK, now we were on a roll – we had found one!! the next was supposed to be a similar container, and the clue led us to believe that we should be looking in trees this time.

Again, we were successful, with Tom scoring the find this time! Then it was on to the last. This time we were looking for a box, so it should have been even easier. We had an extra clue to go by, but it ended up not being very helpful. Finally, Bryce made the find, and we were 3 for 4, and at the end of the trail.

We decided to take another stab at the first one on the way back to the truck, hoping to capitalize on our success so far. They searched around in the weeds some more, and finally Tom found it! Yeah!!

Bryce signs the log, making us 4 for 4 on the day!

It was a nice walk in the woods, and a successful day of geocaching! We decided to push our luck and try for one more at the Franklin County Park & Fairgrounds.

The county fair was a couple of weeks ago, so there was just one RV in the campground today.

This is a really nice park, with some great camping areas – we wouldn’t mind staying here at all! They even have sites with water & electric.

Nice sites that would even accommodate our big rig!

Bryce took the lead with the GPS, and soon located the cache.

Hey, check out that stump behind you, Bryce!

Before we left, we took the truck up the “hilltop road”, and YIKES! What a steep climb – up and down – and some crazy switchbacks that we never expected to see in Indiana!

The road was steep, twisty-turny, and BARELY wide enough for our truck!

On the way out, we drove around the 4H barns and the fairgrounds areas. This is a really nice park!

A nice ball field – with lights, even!

We rewarded ourselves for our 100% geocaching success with a stop at the Dairy Cottage in Brookville for ice cream. Their sign out front said “homemade orange sherbet”, and that sounded really good on a hot day! The boys had blizzards, and Tom and I tried the sherbet – it was wonderful!

Only $1.60 for that giant cone – and it was sure good!

With today’s successes under our belt, RVfamilyMI (our geocaching name) is well on their way to being real geocachers!

Brookville Lake–Day 1

2011-07-24T17:39:00.000-04:00

We were up early yesterday, and since we had gotten the camper packed the day before, it was a quick job to get hitched up and ready to go. We were on the road just before 9am as the rain started falling. The rain was a welcome relief for our lawn and flowers, but we were equally glad to drive out of it after just a few minutes. We went south on US-23, and picked up I-75 south in Toledo, which we took almost to Dayton. At I-70 we went west into Indiana, and exited the interstate at Richmond, IN. Following “40 Highway”, it should have been a simple left-turn onto US-27 to take us south to Brookville. We had so much trouble with our GPS on the last trip, we decided to create our route with Streets & Trips and use the printed map for this trip. The problem was, in downtown Richmond, it wasn’t clear which of the numbered streets corresponded to US-27 . . . and we never saw a sign anywhere! After getting all the way through town, we finally decided to pull out the GPS and see what it said. It did get us going south, and appeared to be leading us toward US-27, but it wanted us to go down a side street that did not go through! We finally stopped and asked a guy cutting his lawn which street would take us through to US-27. He got us on the right track, and we were finally headed south toward the campground. After a little detour around the town of Liberty, where the main street was under construction, we finally made it to the Mounds State Recreation Area at Brookville Lake.

We had reserved a back-in site in the full hookup loop, and got parked on the site fairly quickly.

Site C25 was plenty long for our RV and had lots of shade to help keep us cool.

With the temperature hovering around 97 degrees, we were happy to see how much afternoon shade this site had! We quickly got plugged in so the frig and A/C could go on, and hooked up the water and sewer. After cooling off in the RV for awhile, we took a drive to find diesel for the truck, and to locate a church for mass on Sunday.

We found both in the nearby town of Brookville -- diesel for $3.95/gallon and St. Michael the Archangel Church that had mass at 11 am.

After dinner, we took a bike ride to the campground store, which is in the next group of loops. The roads and sites are all nicely paved, and have good spacing between them. Most sites are grassy and shaded, and we were surprised to find how hilly it is in this area of Indiana. Walking or bike-riding around the campground gives you a pretty good workout!

After mass in Brookville, we came back to the RV for some lunch, and then got ready to go to the beach for the afternoon. It was still pretty hot (94 degrees) and sunny, but for a Sunday afternoon the beach wasn’t too crowded.

Brookville Lake is a COE reservoir with several recreation areas along it.

The water was a little warm, but still refreshing enough to cool us off. Tom and the boys enjoyed throwing the football around, and I cooled off for awhile and then sat in the sun with my book.

Nicolas and Bryce catching the football.

Nicolas looks like a natural at the beach!

Bryce thinks he can avoid getting his picture taken, but he’s not quite fast enough!

We stayed at the beach until some dark clouds started rolling in, and it looked like a storm might be on the way.

Time to go, Mom . . . before the storm gets here!

Back at the camper, we didn’t get any rain, but we had a really nice breeze that blew the humidity right out of there! It was actually comfortable enough to sit outside!

Tom and the boys relaxing while I work on my blog post.

We may even be able to have a fire tonight . . . and maybe tomorrow we could do a little geocaching.

A long-awaited package arrives!

2011-07-21T20:46:00.000-04:00

Yes, I did it! I finally did it – I graduated to a “grown-up” camera! My old Olympus was a great, reliable camera . . . and pretty much “the thing to buy” when I bought it 7 or so years ago . . .

but it was time to upgrade! Today, the package arrived on my doorstep (should have gotten a picture of it on the porch, but I was just too excited!).

Oh yeah . . . now that’s a camera!

So, while everybody else was being lazy in the 100 degree heat, I was playing with my new toy!

I can’t wait to go on our next trip – I’ll have two weeks of exploring and finding things to take pictures of!

Speaking of camping, we’re getting all set for our trip. We won’t have wi-fi at any of the campgrounds, so today I downloaded PDA.net so I could at least get some blog posts done (since I’m going to have so many pictures to post!!).

I also downloaded a bunch of geocaches to my Garmin Nuvi . . . we’ll see if we have any better luck with this GPS! I’ll still bring along the handheld in case we need it when we get near to the find. Wish us luck!

OK, more packing to do, so I’d better get going . . . and maybe I’ll try to get a sunset picture!

Car Show and new purchases

2011-07-16T23:57:00.000-04:00

Every summer, the Design Center in Dearborn has an employee car show.

The shady lawn of the Design Center makes a nice location for a car show on a hot day.

Tom’s brother, Joe, likes to take his 1967 Cougar out occasionally, so Tom entered it in the show for him.

The boys wanted to go check out all the cars, so we made plans to meet Tom down there at lunchtime. They invited a couple of friends to go with us, and we arrived in Dearborn just as lunch was cooking and the crowds were picking up.

The boys all enjoyed looking at the old cars, and they each had their favorites

There were nearly 400 vehicles entered in the show, with the majority being Fords, but there were also lots of others . . . including a few that weren’t even cars.

Mountain biking, anyone?? LOL

Cozy little camper, complete with flamingos

There were even a few old tractors!

In addition to the many rows of production vehicles,

there were also some truly unique vehicles that were given a special place to park.

Tom and Joe check out the old Lincoln Continental

Mustang Shelby Hertz edition . . . they don’t rent cars like this anymore!

I can’t believe they used to make convertibles like this!

This Ford GT40 is not employee-owned, but drew a huge crowd all day!

So, we all enjoyed the car show – it was a beautiful day – not too hot with a nice breeze. Shortly after 1pm, the cars started moving out, and we left, too. We followed the “Old Geezer” out of town, and the boys were encouraging him to burn some rubber, but he didn’t.

On the way home, we stopped at the Verizon store to look at some possible phones for Nicolas . . . and ended up taking home an LG Vortex. I decided to just add the smart phone to my plan for him, and I’ll keep my old technology phone for now . . . until it dies, anyway. At least with one smart phone in the family we’ll be all set for internet (using PDA.net) when we’re on our next camping trip. We’ll be in all state parks, with no wi-fi at all.

Today I finally ordered my new camera (yeah!!). I’ve been using my old Olympus point & shoot digital for about 7 years, and wanting to upgrade for the last several. I decided on a Nikon D3100, and ordered a refurbished one online this afternoon. We should have it just in time for our trip, so I’ll have lots of time to try it out! Yeah!!

Campground Review–Eby’s Pines

2011-07-11T22:34:00.000-04:00

Dates we stayed here: June 30 – July 6, 2011 (Thursday – Thursday)

Location: Bristol, IN

The campground is off State Route 120, 3 miles west of State Route 13, and just a few minutes from the Michigan state line. It’s conveniently located close to Middlebury, Elkhart and other Amish communities in northern Indiana.

Our site: #167

This site is considered a “deluxe full hookup” site. It was level, plenty long to park the truck in front or back, with reasonable spacing between it and the neighboring sites. With the orientation of the site, we had full sun in the morning, and shade from the RV in the afternoon.

Looking down the main road, towards the office and entrance.

We had full hookup with 50A electric, which was stable even with a full campground and everybody running their A/C (90 degree daytime temps). Water pressure was good, and we had a strong Verizon signal. Wifi was available for a fee ($5/day or $25/month), but the signal was strong. No cable TV, but our batwing antenna pulled in all the major networks.

We paid $256 for the week, which included the 7th night free and a $10 “holiday surcharge”.

Amenities: The campground has a store with basic groceries, camping supplies, souvenirs, and ice cream. There is a laundry facility, but I did not check it out. There are several bath houses, but they looked old and in need of updating. We did not use them, since we had full hookup. They have a couple of pavilions and while we were there, there was a band playing one night, and karaoke another night.

The Little Elkhart River runs along the back of the campground, and there are a couple of ponds for fishing.

Kids fishing in the large pond.

The campground is fairly large and spread out, with seasonal areas, tent & popup areas, and the full hookup area that we were in. There are walking paths throughout the campground, and one trail that takes you to Bonneyville Mill in Bristol.

Covered bridge on the walking path near the big pond.

One of our favorite features on the hot days were the pools. There are (2) pools which are open 10 am – 8pm daily, with a lifeguard. The large pool has a water fountain, 2 slides (for 12 & under), and several water spouts.

The older pool is less busy, and is reserved for adults between 6 – 8pm.

The big pool was a popular place for families on those hot July days!

The campground also has a large playground, basketball and volleyball courts, a large open field for baseball or other sports, and horseshoe courts.

Overall Impression: We liked this campground, and it was a good location for visiting the nearby Amish communities. Even though it doesn’t have the premium resort feel, it was still nice. the full hookup sites were plenty long for big rigs. Some of the seasonal sites were a little run-down, but all of the people we met we friendly and welcoming, including the staff.

The rates were OK, but I think wifi should have been included for free. Some of the facilities we old and in need of repair, but the pool was really nice , and for us, that more than made up for the other deficiencies.

We preferred this campground over the Shipshewana campgrounds, due to the better shade on the sites and the addition of the pool. We would definitely stay here again.

A Bike Ride, a Mill and a Geocache

2011-07-06T21:02:00.000-04:00

One of the many quilt murals in the area

After a leisurely morning we decided to check out a trail that our neighbor told us would take us to the Bonneyville Mill, an Elkhart County Park. It was an easy 1-mile bike ride through woods and a meadow, along the Little Elkhart River.

This wrong turn took us on this bridge that suddenly ended, right at the edge of the river!

Without the aide of much in the way of trail markers, we arrived at the Bonneyville Mill.

There were a couple of Amish families having a picnic at the park, too.

There was a geocache at this location, as well, so we brought along our GPS to see if we could find it. This was a 2 Phase Cache. Phase 1 required us to answer some questions about the mill and its history, and then give our answers to the Miller, who would give us the coordinates and the Phase 2 clue.

It’s no longer a commercial operation (but I won’t tell you since when!), but you can still buy cornmeal and whole wheat flour that is produced right here at the mill.

We successfully found the answers to the clues (Thanks Bryce!), and after a few minutes spent remembering how to operate our GPS, we were off to locate the cache!

Our walk took us across a meadow,

past an Observation Tower,

and finally down the trail that would lead us to the cache, “off the beaten trail”.

Bryce leads the way with the GPS

We do really well at zeroing in on the location, but we’re still not very good at locating the actual cache. We’re pretty sure we got to the right place (as long as we can trust our GPS), but we never found it!

Tom and Nicolas checking out the view from the top of the Observation Tower

While Tom & Bryce searched for the cache, Nicolas picked wild raspberries (I wouldn’t let him go into the woods – he gets poison ivy too easily!)

We did enjoy our visit to the mill, saw lots of beautiful scenery along the way, and got a bit of exercise (even though it was really hot!) . . . so it was all worth it!

Back at the campground, we had some lunch and then went over to cool off in the pool for awhile. It felt really good after our bike ride and hike!

Tonight we’ll have a relaxing evening around the campfire, and then tomorrow it’s time to go home. Oh well, only a couple of weeks and then we’ll be off on another adventure!

Happy 4th of July!!

2011-07-06T12:17:00.000-04:00

After 2 busy days of shopping and playing, we decided to spend the 4th just hanging out at the campground pool.

Nicolas is working on evening out his “farmer tan”!

It was a hot one, and the pool was pretty packed early in the day! As the 2pm check-out time got closer, though, the crowd started thinning out. We enjoyed our day at the pool, and didn’t even go out anywhere in the evening to watch fireworks.

On Tuesday, rejuvenated from our relaxing day at home, we headed back into Shipshewana in the morning to check out the famous Flea Market.

People come from all over to visit the Shipshewana Flea Market, but I’m not sure I understand the appeal . . . most items could just as easily be found at a dollar store!

The sun and the heat were brutal, and we made quick work of the rows and rows of vendors offering anything you could possibly imagine. Tom found some new sunglasses and a grill brush, and a fluorescent yellow T-shirt to wear when he rides his motorcycle. Bryce found a leather wallet that he liked, and Nicolas had a nametag made up for Casey, with our cell phone number engraved on it. No major purchases, just a few odds & ends that we couldn’t live without – LOL!

The Wana-Cup is well-known for their shakes and malts

After a quick lunch, we visited a few of the shops we missed on Saturday. We checked out the recliners at Lambright’s Comfort Chairs, and enjoyed cookies with Mr. Lambright. I really like the chairs at Lambright, but still need to convince Tom . . .

After cooling off at Lambright’s, we continued on to stock up on bulk food supplies at E & S Market. This is one of my favorite stores, and I needed to re-stock on many things that I get here . . . oatmeal, brown sugar, dried fruit, spices, candy sprinkles, and many more. The boys picked up some candy with the money Grandma had given them, so they were happy.

E & S is a popular store for both the tourists and the locals!

By the time we were finished shopping, we were ready to go back to the campground and cool off in the pool. After a cooling swim, we relaxed in the shade of the camper and enjoyed a late dinner.

Casey relaxes under Nicolas’ chair . . . and doesn’t want to move, even when he tries to get up!

We were surrounded by an Outbackers Rally (owners of Keystone Outback RVs), so we joined them for their campfire, where we learned all about the complicated toll freeways systems of Illinois and New York. I’m sure glad Michigan hasn’t gone that route to raise money yet!

The weather this week sure has been picture-perfect! hot and sunny during the day, but cool enough at night to turn off the A/C and open the windows! Love it!

4th of July Fun with Family

2011-07-03T23:44:00.000-04:00

Amish buggies parked on the streets of Shipshewana

We had a couple of reasons why we wanted to come here to Amish country this week – one was to get back to some of our favorite shops, and the other was to be close to the campground where 2 of my sisters have seasonal sites, so we could spend some time with them.

On Saturday, we made plans to meet up with them in Shipshewana, and Tom and the boys and I got an early start so we could make a couple of stops first. 1st stop was for breakfast – rather than eating in the RV, we decided we we check out the ‘Rise ‘n’ Roll’. We’ve driven by numerous times, and never stopped . . . now I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to drive by without stopping again! YUM! They have the BEST donuts!!

MMMMM . . . breakfast of champions!

Completely stuffed, our next stop was going to be at Lambright Comfort Chairs so Tom could see their recliners, but they aren’t open on Saturday, so we’ll have to come back during the week. Next was Yoder Popcorn, where we stocked up on both microwave and air-popper popcorn. They have the BEST popcorn! There were 2 couples in there, visiting from Wisconsin, and they were taking home a 50 lb. bag of popcorn, along with several other smaller bags!

Yoder Popcorn has several varieties of kernels, and they are all really good!

We made a couple of other quick stops to look for some trailer parts Tom needs, and then it was time to meet up with my family. We had planned to meet at Jo-Jo’s Pretzels in the Davis Mercantile . . . too bad we were still full from those donuts! Oh well, another place we’ll have to visit during the week!

My sister, Diane, and brother-in-law, Danny, with Nick & Bryce

Another sister, Deby, and brother-in-law, Charlie

Another sister, Sandi, and my Mom with Tom

(Are you sensing a food theme??!! It’s one of our favorite reasons to visit Shipshewana!)

After everybody finished their pretzels, we split up – the guys to check out “guy stuff”, and the girls to hit the quilt shops and other crafty shops! I forgot to get any pictures in the shops, but Diane did, so you can hop over to Quiltin’ Dreams and check them out. It was well into the 90s on Saturday, so after a few hours of walking through shops, we were ready to check out one of Shipshewana’s newest merchants, featuring shaved ice. YUM!

Shaved ice really hits the spot on a 95 degree day!

We needed to get to the meat store before they closed at 5pm, so it was time to meet back up with the guys. The Yoder Meat & Cheese Shoppe has the best grain-fed meat, and we stocked up meat to take homes, as well as some beef snack sticks that Tom and the boys love. After the meat store, they all were headed to the Yoder Department Store, but we needed to run back to the campground to feed Casey and let her out for a bit, before meeting back up for dinner at Das Dutchman Essenhaus (Are you wondering how we could possibly eat dinner after all the snacking we did all day!?!). Since nobody was starving, we opted to eat on the Menu side of the restaurant, rather than the Family Style side, where we could have smaller meals and still have room for pie!

After dinner, Deb and Charlie headed back to their campground, because they needed to stop at the grocery store on the way back. Diane , Danny, Sandi & my Mom stopped at our campground for a little bit, and checked out the modifications that we made to the RV last year, before heading back to their campground. My Mom and Sandi were spending the night, and we were heading over there on Sunday to spend the day.

On Sunday, after mass at St. Joseph in White Pigeon, MI, we headed over to Manapogo Park to spend the day. My niece, Kelly and her fiance, Josh came up for the day, also. It was a relaxing day – just sitting around and visiting – except for Charlie, who was puttering around all day, planting flowers and putting together whirligigs that he bought in Shipshewana! Danny took Tom, the boys, Grandma, Kelly and Josh out on his boat, where they went for a swim (intentionally), and almost sent Grandma into the water (unintentionally) when they hit a big wave!

After their swim, they gathered back at Diane’s trailer to play cards – “Sh__ on your Neighbor” – Bryce’s favorite game!

The card sharks were having a blast!

It was another day of food, with a big BBQ for dinner and s’mores and pudgy pies on the fire later.

Diane’s giant marshmallows were a big hit – so were the blueberry pies!

Casey even got to go with us today, and even though we had to keep her separated from Lola & Roxie (Kelly’s Yorkies), they had fun “talking” back and forth at each other.

Casey relaxing in the shade of the tree

We had a great day, but by evening we were getting tired and it was time to head back to our “home”. Deby & Charlie were taking Mom home, too, so they were getting packed up and ready to leave. We said our good-byes until we see everybody again at Kelly & Josh’s wedding in early August, and Nicolas took the wheel for the drive back to Eby Pines (getting in some of his ‘night driving’ requirement!). We arrived safely back at our campground, watching all the fireworks in the distance, with only a few hundred bugs splattered on the truck’s windshield!

Shopping in Amish Country

2011-07-01T21:14:00.000-04:00

After some crazy backroad detours, courtesy of our GPS, we finally arrived at Eby’s Pines Campground in Bristol, IN, around 1pm yesterday. It was pretty hot, so after setting up and having some lunch, we took a dip in the pool. The pool area is really nice, but I didn’t have my camera with me . . . I’ll get some pictures of it later.

Later in the afternoon, the skies turned dark, and we got some thunder and rain . . . but no major storms, and no wind. We were even able to keep the awning up all evening. Our neighbors were having a fire, so we joined them and were introduced to a new campfire snack – toasted banana splits! You take a banana, cut it open lengthwise, keeping it in the peel, sprinkle mini marshmallows and chocolate chips in it, close it back up, then wrap it in foil and set it in the hot coals. After a few minutes, they’re ready to eat – with a spoon! Tom and the boys thought they were an interesting new treat!

This morning it was still raining lightly, on & off, so after a leisurely breakfast, we decided to take a drive. Tom needed to get some miscellaneous parts and screws for the RV, so we first went into White Pigeon, MI to Bontrager’s RV Surplus.

This is the main building, where we found all the hardware we were looking for – they also have furniture and appliances in here

This is a really big RV Surplus, and we had fun just wandering around the buildings, just looking at all the parts you could buy. Tom found some nuts and bolts he can use in building his mounting rig for the motorcycle, and a new plastic clip for our sliding wardrobe doors. I want to find something that will hold open my cabinet doors over the couch, so we spent quite a bit of time looking through all the available hinges and latches. In the end, we bought a couple, but back at the RV, it doesn’t look like either are going to do the trick. Oh well, still looking . . .

In here we found lots of fabric, and wood trim pieces

We saw this building as we were driving out – and didn’t even get in there!

After lunch, Tom was reading the Amish Country book, and found the Guggisberg Cheese Factory in Middlebury. There is also one in Millersburg, OH, and the founder came from Switzerland and invented baby swiss cheese. It says on their website that he was looking to create a cheese that would appeal the the less-refined American palate!

I just had to get a picture of the “cheesey” bag!

We enjoyed lots of samples, and brought home some Original Baby Swiss and some Amish Creamery Cheese, along with some beefstick and homemade peanut brittle – snacks!

As we were driving to the cheese factory we past an interesting little amish market, and we just had to stop on our way back.

Lots of beautiful plants in front of the Dutch Country Market

The amish proprietor was very welcoming, and encouraged us to sample man of the treats he had to offer, including giant jelly beans, homemade peanut butter, and homemade candies. We found ourselves taking home some of his wife’s special-recipe peanut butter spread, her homemade noodles, and his specialty – Happy Salt! It’s a mixture of onion, garlic, salt and other spices that smelled really good. I also bought a quart of home-grown tomatoes (in early July – I couldn’t believe it!), and they were delicious!

Before we left, I had to get Bryce to stand on the tailgate of the truck to get a picture of his Quilt Square Garden – the first I’ve seen this year!

Quilt Square Garden at the Dutch Country Market

Back at the camper, we had some ribs for dinner with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. I must tell you, these were the best ribs I have ever made – I had read a recipe somewhere that said to cook them in Dr. Pepper, so I tried it. I’m not sure what it did, but they were SO tender and tasty!

The rain has finally moved on now, so we’re going to have a campfire tonight. Tomorrow we’re meeting my Mom and my sisters and brothers-in-law in Shipshewana, where we’ll “shop ‘til we drop” and then go to dinner at Das Dutchman Essenhaus. YUM!

Internet is $5/day here, so I probably won’t be back online again until Monday/Tuesday. Speaking of the $5 internet, my current subscription is going to expire in about 15 minutes, so I had better get this post published!

Division Champs

2011-06-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

Bryce’s baseball team – the Pirates – ended their season with a 10 – 5 record, and managed to upset the 1st place Cardinals, taking over 1st place in the Division ‘A’.

Yeah, Pirates – Division A Champions!

This win made them 1st seed going into the playoffs, and they didn’t play in the 1st round. The 2nd round of the playoffs was last night, and they were facing off against the Cardinals again! Unfortunately, the Pirates were having a rough night, and they lost to the Cardinals, 14 – 3. It was a sad end to the season, but overall they played well and still felt good about the Division win.

Bryce has another trophy to add to his collection!

So, it was a good season, even though they won’t be moving on to the League Championship, and now we don’t need to come home a day early from our vacation!

On the quilting front, hop on over to Quiltin’ Dreams and check out the post I did on my new Underground Railroad quilt for the RV. If you are a quilter, you might also want to check out Kathy’s giveaway at Quilting Along the Gorge – she’s giving away a Baby Go! cutter by Accuquilt! I hope I win!

Fun & Games and a new blog

2011-06-26T21:59:00.000-04:00

My niece, Kelly, is getting married later this summer and yesterday she and her fiancé had a Couple’s Shower at my sister’s house.

Kelly and Josh getting ready to open their gifts

There was lots of family, and lots of food, and lots of nice gifts. To work off some of that food, we played some highly competitive badminton . ..

Bryce was really into the game!

lots of exercise, running after the birdie

I don’t think you’re going to hit it, Donnie!

too bad we’re not that good!

I thought YOU had it!!

After wearing ourselves out, and getting chased inside by the mosquitoes, I created a new blog for my sisters. They decided they wanted to be like me, and have a blog to share their quilting projects, favorite quilt shops, and other exciting adventures. So, we created the Good Sisters’ Quiltin’ Dreams blog. So, if you like quilting, or quilt shops, or just want to follow along with these 5 crazy sisters, check it out and become one of our followers!

Tom’s new toy

2011-06-16T18:10:00.000-04:00

He’s been shopping for awhile now . . . ever since we took the motorcycle safety class last summer, he’s been looking . . . he found a few, and lost them when he didn’t act quick enough!

So, this time when he spotted the bike he wanted on craigslist, and he spoke to the guy on the phone verifying that it was legit, he acted right away!

He and his brother took the day off and drove almost 300 miles to Akron, OH . . . to check out this 2007 Kawasaki 900 Vulcan with only 240 miles on it!

He wasn’t ready to ride it all that way, so they loaded it in the truck!

We had torrential rain all day while he was gone, but luckily they were far enough south that they missed it all . . . until the last 75 miles! By the time they got home, it had stopped raining and they were able to get it unloaded, although it still wasn’t an easy task!

Everybody had a hand on it, but it was still a dicey operation!

Finally it was out of the truck, and Tom was SO happy! He’s finally got his bike!

Tom’s new toy!

It’s been a couple of weeks now, and he’s getting used to riding, although he won’t be taking any passengers for a year or two, or more! On the days that I don’t go into the office, he rides the bike as long as the weather is nice. That’s OK with me, that leaves me the car so I can get out and about for anything I need to do, without taking the truck out.

His 1st day taking the bike to work

Now he’s just got to figure out how to fit it in the toyhauler garage with our bicycles and all the other stuff back there!

Birthday, Baseball, Driving

2011-06-14T22:06:00.000-04:00

Nick turned 15 this weekend, and it was a pretty big deal!

Happy Birthday, Nicolas!

In Michigan, kids can take Driver’s Ed when they are 14 years, 8 months old, and can get their Level 1 driver’s license (allowing them to drive with a parent or other adult) at 14 years, 9 months. Well, we made Nick wait a little bit longer . . . he was 14 years, 11 months when Driver’s Ed started, and he just finished up last week which meant that we could go to the Secretary of State on his actual birthday to get his license. Yeah!!

So, for the next year, he’s got to get in as much practice driving as possible, in all different conditions, at least 50 hours. When we were getting the license, I asked the clerk if it was valid out of state, just to confirm. She said yes, and asked, “Are you planning on driving across the country, getting all 50 hours in one trip?!?” I hope to be heading out this year still, but probably not all the way across the country! We will be in Indiana and Illinois some this summer, and just wanted to make sure he can drive while we’re there.

We were going to pick up my Mom on Friday, so I had Nicolas drive. It’s almost an hour to her house, so that’s a pretty long trip! He did really well. On the way there, going south on US-23, we spotted an RV up ahead, and I commented that it looked like ours. Sure enough, as we got closer, we could see that it was an X-Aire! So, that makes 2 now that we’ve seen, besides ours.

Bryce had a baseball game on Friday night, and we we’re concerned that he might get rained out or, worse yet, have to play in the rain! We got lucky, though, and they got their game in without any rain.

No rain, but it was a little chilly on Friday!

Bryce got a couple of good hits, and they won the game in 5 innings. They normally play 6 innings, but they have a 2 hour time limit, and this was the 1st game they’ve had this year where they’ve actually hit that time limit. By the time the 2 hours was up, we were freezing! The Coach was taking the team out for ice cream, but Bryce decided to pass, opting for hot chocolate at home instead!

He’s got his eye on the ball, and he’s going to hit it good!

His team is doing really well, and they are in 1st place in their division, with 5 games left in the regular season.

Go Pirates!

On Saturday, Nick had a few of his friends over for a BBQ and campfire, and a couple of the younger brothers came along to hang out with Bryce. Several of our family friends have 2 boys – one Nick’s age, and one Bryce’s age . . . it’s very convenient! It was a great night to be outside, and we had a nice time catching up with what’s going on in everybody’s lives.

Sunday was the family gathering, and we had a really nice afternoon with a good dinner, and Nicolas was sufficiently spoiled, as usual!

Grandma watches as Nicolas opens all his presents

Grandma went home Sunday afternoon with my brother, even though we told her that she could stay all week – Bryce would have been thrilled to have an opponent for cards all week long! We’ll have to find a reason to have her come back and stay with us again!

A beautiful Memorial Day to end our weekend

2011-06-02T15:45:00.000-04:00

We sure were happy that we had planned to stay an extra day this weekend (don’t like travelling with the crowds!), since Monday turned out to be beautiful!!

Enjoying the pool as the crowd begins to thin out!

Check-out is noon, so lots of people were packing up on this beautiful Monday morning, unfortunately, our friends included. We had made plans to go to the Memorial Day Parade in nearby Hart at 11 am, so as soon as Paul & Tari were hitched up we headed over there, with just a few minutes to spare. We found a side street to park on close in to town, and walked the couple of blocks to where it looked like the parade was going to be starting.

We saw the high school marching band,

We think that’s the Mayor with them, or maybe the Principal . . .

or I guess he could be BOTH!

some Army veterans, kids on bikes, a Cub Scout troop,

and firetrucks . . .

Two firetrucks actually – this antique one, and a new one!

and then it was over!! This had to be the SHORTEST parade I have ever seen in my life! Had we been a couple minutes later, we would have missed the whole thing!! LOL

OK, then . . . we said our good-byes to Paul & Tari & the kids – we’ll meet up with them again in August when we go to Cedar Point, and we headed back to the campground. It had emptied out quite a bit by then, but there were still lots of seasonal campers around, Bryce’s friend Brendan included, so we joined his family at the pool. Ahhh . . . this is the life – reading my book by the pool while Tom & the kids play in the water. I did go in a few times, since it was pretty hot out.

After a couple of hours at the pool, we decided to take a break and go get an ice cream cone at the Country Dairy which we had heard so much about, and top off the truck for the trip home the next day. We stopped to say good-bye to Brendan’s family – we hope to come back to silver Creek Resort again later this summer and spend some more time with them!

Arriving at Country Dairy, we were greeted by the cows!

These guys look pretty content, just munching on the grass!

They give tours of the dairy farm, which would be pretty cool to see, but today it was hot, and we just wanted ice cream! It was delicious, as promised!

After eating our cones and topping of the truck, we took the scenic route back to Silver Lake, and drove through the state park to check out their beach and campsites. The campsites are definitely too small for our rig (so are the roads!!), and we were surprised that, with the amount of sand around, there wasn’t much at the beach!

Bryce said the water was COLD!

Back at the RV Park, we decided to go back for another swim in the pool – and we had it pretty much to ourselves this time!

After cooling off in the pool, we enjoyed a steak dinner on our grill (Oh yeah, Monday was mine and Tom’s 19th Anniversary!), we packed up the outside stuff so that we could get an early start in the morning. Nicolas had to be home for Driver’s Ed at 3pm, and we needed to stop in Grand Rapids to look at a Jeep that is going to be auctioned off next week.

We had a really great time this weekend – even with the marginal weather – and we’re looking forward to returning later in the summer! We’ll be home for a few weeks now, until our next camping trip . . .

Little Sable Point Lighthouse

2011-05-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

Little Sable Point Lighthouse – 1874 (oldest in Michigan)

Sunday started out nice, but in the early afternoon the clouds started rolling in and rain was threatening. We all wanted to get out to the lighthouse, but decided we’d better drive rather than bike, just in case we got caught in a downpour.

Sure enough, it started to rain just as we started walking down the beach to the lighthouse, and we could hear thunder in the distance. We reached the shelter of the lighthouse, and were welcomed inside by the volunteers from the Sable Point Lighthouse Keepers’ Association.

They shared bits of information with us about the lighthouse and how it functioned in the past, and now. The light was originally produced by three concentric wicks which burned lard oil originally, and later kerosene. The light was then amplified by a 3rd order Fresnel lens (the inventor of which was 12 years old before he started school – a tidbit shared with our 12-year-olds, Bryce & Hannah), and could be seen 19 miles out into Lake Michigan.

Standing out on the balcony, we could get a view of the Fresnel lens

This is a very rare type of lens, and a clockwork mechanism is used to rotate the top of the lens once every 5 seconds, creating Little Sable Point’s signature flash.

Climbing to the top of the 130 steps, we learned that every lighthouse has a unique exterior appearance, and a unique sequence to its light. This lighthouse flashes its light once every 5 seconds.

From the balcony of the lighthouse – the clouds are so low, you can’t see where the lake ends!

We also learned that when the oil-burning wicks were replaced by incandescent light, the visibility from the lake was reduced to 17 miles, and with the current halogen lights, it’s down to 16 miles – technological advances!

Standing out on that balcony was dizzying – especially knowing how high up we were!

Bryce wasn’t crazy about the height!

. . . but the view was spectacular!

Between 1874 and 1954, there were 14 lighthouse keepers at Little Sable Point, but now the light is completely automated. The lighthouse was renovated and opened for tours in 2006. We enjoyed our tour, and learned some new information about this famous landmark of the Great Lakes!

Fun at the Sand Dunes

2011-05-30T01:08:00.000-04:00

It was pretty winding up there on top of the dunes!

The Silver Lake area is well-known for its sand dunes, and are the last dunes in Michigan that people can actually drive on still. There are jeep, ATV and buggy rentals all over the place, and the campgrounds are full of them!

This guy wasn’t from our campground, but there was an orange one just like it!

Tom and Nicolas were ready to let the air out of the truck tires, stick a flag on it, and head out there with the rest of the crazies! But No, we need to be able to depend on this truck to get us home! So, they decided that they would have to settle for renting something, or finding somebody to take them out.

Maybe these DNR officers will let them take a spin on their ATV!

We rode bikes down to the pedestrian area of the dunes, and climbed to the top to check out the action. The kids got to the top first (big surprise!), and headed right over to watch the trucks come down the hill.

Watching the trucks, buggies and ATVs race over the hill – from a safe distance!

Four dune buggies – ready to race down the hill!

We found out later that this hill is the fourth in a series referred to as “Test Hill”, and you have to be pretty good to make it to this point!

We watched for awhile, and then headed back. The kids found a dead tree that somebody had tied a rope to – they decided to try it out!

Bryce took a nice spill!

They had a lot of fun competing to see who could land the furthest out from the tree.

Stopping long enough for a picture.

Everything was going fine until the big kid decided to take a turn at the rope swing – and Nicolas brought the branch down with him!!

No more rope swing – but at least the branch didn’t land on anybody’s head!

One last action shot before we got back on the bikes!

With all that exercise on the dunes, it’s amazing we were able to bike back to the campground!

Tom & Nick seriously had the bug to get out on those dunes in a vehicle, so Tom made it his mission to find somebody to take them! Later in the day, he struck up a conversation with some guys in the campground with a big ‘ol Ford pickup, and they offered to come by the next morning and take them out for a ride.

Couldn’t go out in anything but a Ford!

These young guys were really nice, and they had 4 very excited passengers!

Tom and Nick

Paul and Hannah

Nicolas said that the roughest part of the ride was the trail to get out to the dunes! Once they got there, they took a spin down to the Lake Michigan beach, and then past “the dragstrip”, where there were tons of people just hanging out and watching the action.

It’s like a giant tailgating party out there – tents and grills, people everywhere!

The guys they went out with had a whole array of vehicles besides the truck –

dirt bikes,

and ATVs, too!

They all had a great time, and really appreciated these guys taking them out to share in the whole dune experience!

Memorial Day Camping

2011-05-29T00:20:00.000-04:00

Downtown Pentwater was all decked out with flags for Memorial Day

It seemed to rain non-stop all week at home, but we were still looking forward to getting out for the weekend. We loaded up the camper in the rain, hitched up in the rain, and drove a good part of the way in the rain! By the time we got all the way to the west coast of Michigan, though, and made the turn to the north, we were out of the rain and starting to see blue skies ahead.

Sure enough, we arrived at the Silver Creek RV Resort under blue skies and sunshine, and got settled into our site on the corner of Coyote Lane.

Nice sites – wide concrete pads, nice grass, and decent spacing between sites

Aaahhh . . . maybe we have a shot at a nice weekend!

Friday morning was cool, but sunny, and we decided to take a little drive into Pentwater and Ludington to do a little shopping and fill the truck up with diesel. We visited several little shops in Pentwater, including The Beachnut -- where we couldn’t resist their honey roasted pecans and almonds; the Bitchen Kitchen – lots of cool kitchen gadgets, and the Cosmic Candy Company – our favorite – where we stocked up on vintage candy like Zotz, Poprocks, Slap Sticks, Now & Laters, and candy cigarettes!

Pentwater is on a little inlet off Lake Michigan, and is a pretty little town

Officially the start of summer, we saw several boats going into the water

Our shopping finished, we filled the truck with diesel for $3.88/gallon at Meijer (not bad!), and headed back to the campground. We stopped on the way back for some firewood, and Tom let Nick drive the rest of the way back! He’s 2/3 of the way through Driver’s Ed now, and he’s allowed to drive with us in the vehicle! Big step!

After dinner, we took a walk around the campground, and Tom saw somebody that he swore he knew from somewhere, but couldn’t figure out where. That’s not an uncommon occurrence, so I tend to just ignore him, but later the same guy was walking around and he stopped at our camper because he thought he recognized us, as well! As it turned out, it was the Dad of one of the boys that Bryce played basketball with this past winter! We talked for quite a while, and the boys got together to play basketball and ride bikes – Bryce was really glad to have a friend to hang out with!

We had some friends coming to camp with us this weekend, so we got the fire going, and soon they arrived. It was a nice night for a fire, and the kids played cards for awhile before going inside to watch a movie.

Bryce is still in his card-playing mode!

Getting the fire going!

We had a great time getting caught-up, and sat out by the fire until after midnight – that’s a late night for us! It’s great to be camping again!