Fall Adventures and a Lunar Eclipse

We’ve been enjoying some beautiful weather this last week . . . enough for a visit to the local dairy for ice cream one evening.

The ice cream was good . . . but the smell in the yard was enough to knock you over!!

 

Last week we went on another campus visit with Bryce – to Eastern Michigan University.  They have a nice program, and we gained some valuable information about Athletic Training and Physical Therapy degrees, but he’s still got his heart set on Michigan State.

After our campus visit, we went to our favorite apple orchard to pick apples and get their excellent donuts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YUM!  The apples are crunchy and delicious . . . and the donuts . . . they were AMAZING, as usual!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to working around the campground, Bryce and Tom, along with my brother, Donnie, cleaned up my Mom’s hard – they trimmed trees and bushes, burned all the branches,

and Bryce mowed her grass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend, Bryce was lucky enough to get tickets to the MSU football game, so he drove out to East Lansing with a friend, and Tom and I hung out with his brother.

The guys watched the football games, and I worked on Bryce’s quilt.

It’s looking pretty good, I think!

On the way home, we got a good glimpse of the full moon leading up to Sunday’s Lunar Eclipse.

It was pretty cloudy on Sunday, but I was hoping for some good pictures of the eclipse.  I managed to get a few small windows of opportunity.

The beginning of the eclipse

Then it clouded up, so my next opportunity was just as the eclipse was almost complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More clouds, and then I was finally able to get a shot of the red moon – it’s a little blurry, though . . . I was having trouble keeping my camera steady enough for these long exposure shots!

It was pretty cool, and I’m glad the clouds cleared occasionally so we could see it!

Tomorrow my little pumpkin turns 17!  Happy Birthday Bryce!

Visiting the Pumpkin Patch

Last year, Nicolas was upset that he never got a pumpkin for Halloween, so he was determined to get one this year.  Sunday was a nice day, so after picking up Grandma to go out to my sister’s house, we stopped on the way at a local Pumpkin Patch.

There were lots of wagons full of pumpkins to choose from, but the boys wanted to pick their own, so we headed out into the pumpkin patch.

We left Grandma in the donut barn to wait for us while the guys searched for the perfect pumpkins.

Bryce has a design in his head already, so he carefully studied each pumpkin to see if it would fit.

While they searched, I took some nice fall pictures.

Soon they had looked at enough, and settled on their perfect pumpkins.

Tom even found one for us to carve!

We probably should have brought a wagon into the patch!  Oh well, the boys are strong, and they carried all three pumpkins back to the donut barn where Grandma was waiting with donuts and cider.

From the pumpkin patch, we continued to my sister’s house where we met up with another sister & brother-in-law, and my brother to go to their church’s Fall Festival.  We had a delicious turkey and roast beef dinner, bought some chances on gift baskets, and played a few games of bingo . . . Nicolas won $2, and Danny won $1.50 . . . OK, not real big prizes!

On the way out, we stopped for a photo-op with Pope Francis.

Back at Tina’s house, the boys got to play cards for awhile, and we all enjoyed the apple pie that Donnie made . . . although we barely had room for it after that dinner!

Summer travels come to an end

 

We left Indiana at the end of the holiday weekend, and made our way once again back to our home state of Michigan.  This time we’re settled into a site at Camp Lord Willing Campground for the next 2 months.

We’re on site 23, at the end of “Country Club Row”, and since it’s in the corner, it’s not considered waterfront, so it’s at a lower rate . . . we’re not sure of the logic behind that, since it’s a big site and it’s still right on the canal.

The site next to us is empty right now, but even with somebody there, the sites are still pretty roomy, especially with all the space we have between us and the canal.

 

Many of the same people that were here last year are still here, and the campground is still in good shape.  We have solid electric, but our Verizon signal seems a little weak . . . we don’t remember it being an issue last year.  The campground is in the process of revamping their WIFI, which should hopefully be completed in the next few days.  That should help out some, I hope!  They have a decent laundry room, but we’re close enough to my Mom’s house that I’ve been doing all of our laundry there.

 

We got everything set up and had an early dinner, then took a drive to Calder Dairy, just a few miles down the road, for an ice dream cone.

On the way in the drive, we saw cows and horses grazing in the field.

We arrived at the store and got our ice cream cones.

We walked around the yard while we ate our cones, and then wandered over to the Education Center, where there was a group of cows waiting to be milked.         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the cows wait to be allowed into the milking barn, they can even get a massage!    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked past the cows waiting to get into the barn,

and the boys made sure to keep their distance so they wouldn’t get slobbered on!

When the barn doors opened, the cows would all try to push their way past the others and into the barn.

 

Once inside, the cows would quickly make their way to then end of the hallway and try to get into a milking station.  They would try to push and shove their way in . . . not very patient cows!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve been to a couple of very large diary farm operations before, but this was an up-close look at a smaller operation . . . we were glad we ate our ice cream first!!

 

We’re now back to a “normal”, non-travel-mode life for awhile . . . I’m going in to the office 2 days/week, and working from the RV the rest of the time, Bryce has started back to school (still homeschooling), and Tom and Nick are taking care of some maintenance items on the RV.  With Nick no longer in school, he has more free time.  He’s been spending much of it preparing for bootcamp, but he’ll also have some time to help my Mom and Tom’s Dad do the fall cleanup around their houses.

We’ve got a lot to get in order in the next 2 months, especially for Nicolas, and then we need to figure out our plan for the upcoming winter . . . that’s Tom’s job!

I’ll probably be blogging a little less, but I do have a couple of summary posts I want to do of our 2nd year of fulltiming, and we’re hoping to check out some local attractions that we haven’t been to in awhile . . . so I’ll still be here!

Over the mountains and through the woods . . . to Idaho we go!

After waiting for a part to arrive, we finally left Centralia late Tuesday afternoon.  We wanted to cover a lot of miles, so it was going to be a long day with an overnight stay at Walmart.

 

Rather than going up I-5 through Tacoma and Seattle to get to I-90, we decided on the more scenic route along US-12 (yes, the very same US-12 that we know as Michigan Avenue!) to the Yakima Valley, and then along the Columbia River to I-90.

 

 

 

 

Yep – we’re headed east now!!

 

The day started out overcast as we drove past Mt. Rainier – couldn’t see much of it today!

As we passed by the mountains, the sky started to clear and it turned into a beautiful day.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicolas was driving the RV, and he enjoyed the ups & downs, and twisty turns as we crossed over the mountains!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove around lots of mountains,

alongside lakes,

through forests,

and tunnels!

We followed a flowing river for several miles,

with lots of National Forest Service campgrounds along its shore.  It was a beautiful location, and I’d love to come back this way and spend some time here.

Eventually the forests cleared out and the landscape became more rugged and desert-like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bryce thought this looked like a great sledding hill!

We reached the Yakima Valley, and started to see evidence of fruit farms within the desert.    

Yakima Cherries are just starting to come in season, and I would have loved to stop at a U-pick farm, but we were about a week too early!

 

 

 

After a quick dinner at McDonalds in Yakima, we took I-82 north through what looked as desolate as the Mohave Desert in California!

Making the turn east on I-90, we drove out of the desert and back into farming country.

We drove past corn, wheat, alfalfa, onions . . . and windmills!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We crossed the Columbia River,

as the sun was getting low in the sky,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and finally pulled into the Walmart in Moses Lake a little after 8pm!  It was a long day of driving, and we were relieved to finally get off the road.  We settled in behind the Auto Service Garage, did some grocery shopping, and had a quiet night in the parking lot.

 

Bright and early the next morning, well-rested, we drove the last 125 miles into Idaho.  It’s not new on our map, but this is a new area of Idaho for us to explore.  We’ll stay here for a few days before we continue on to Glacier National Park.