Mercury Cougar 50th Anniversary

During our last weekend in Michigan, the Annual Shelby Mustang All-Ford Car Show was being held at Ford World Headquarters, and this year in celebration of the Mercury Cougar 50th Anniversary, there was a special show for them.

Tom’s brother, Joe, has a 1967 Cougar XR7 and he took it out of it’s hiding place in the barn for this special event.  His other brother, Dave, and their Dad went along to keep him company.

Nicolas had hoped to go with them, but he didn’t get up here in time.  Tom and I joined them later in the afternoon.  It was a beautiful day - a little hot, though, – but a great day to be outside.  We walked through the rows of Cougars,

and were amazed by the number of them there – from all over the country!

Usually at a car show, you might see one or two Cougars . . . but this was something different . . .

The organizers had done an excellent job of getting the word out, and with the great weather they had record-breaking participation – 248 Cougars – the most ever in one place at any time!  We heard that this set a record, but I’m not sure if anybody contacted Guiness, so it might not be an official world record . . . unlike the ice cream sundae thing we participated in last June!

So, there were lots of beautiful Cougars . . . several gorgeous shades of blue,

and one in Tigger orange!

Every good car show has to have a couple support vehicles!

In addition to seeing Tom’s brothers and Dad at the show,

we also ran into a family from the boys’ old school – we hadn’t seen them in a number of years, so it was fun to run into each other and get caught up on what all the kids are doing!  They had a Cougar in the show, too.

And the really funny thing was that they were parked right across from Tom’s brother!

We took a break from the Cougars to try our hand at a little Jumbo Jenga, and then wandered over to the other side to check out the Mustangs.

There were anywhere near as many cars over on the Mustang side, but they were still beautiful, so I took a few pictures for the Mustang lover in our family!

Which one do you want, Nick!?!

Summertime–Strawberries and Cars

Temperatures are finally creeping upward, and summer-time activities are also popping up around town.

The local strawberry farm opened for the season,

so on our way to have dinner one evening with my Mom, and Diane & Danny, Tom and I stopped and picked 8-1/2 pounds of berries.

It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of people that had the same idea!

Picking strawberries up here in Michigan is harder on your back and knees than it is in South Carolina and Florida, but still worth it!

My sisters all have season tickets for “Broadway in Toledo”, and years ago when I still lived her, I did, too.  It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a musical, so when my sister Sandi texted me that she wasn’t going to be able to use her ticket this past Friday, I jumped at the chance to go with them.

I met them for dinner at TGI Friday’s, and then we all went to the play.  It was really good – I love musicals, and this one was really good!

I think I need to make Tom go to an occasional musical when we’re south in the winter!

On Saturday morning, we had to run some errands in downtown Monroe, and ended up stumbling onto a small car show along the River Raisin.

Since it was just down the road from the Post Office, we stopped to take a look around.

It wasn’t a big show, but they had some nice cars.

The Mercury Wagon, above, was in excellent condition . . . and it wasn’t even restored!  It was in original condition, still owned by the children of the original owner, and has just 18,000 miles on it!

This pink one was a real beauty, too!

These trucks were pretty cool!

Back at the campground, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset to cap off our weekend!

Almost summer, and still waiting for the other boy to get here

Our month here in Monroe is winding down, and we’re still waiting for Nicolas to get released from his command in Charleston so he can spend some time with us before he reports in Norfolk.  He’s finished with his training, his stuff is all packed up, and he’s ready to hit the road . . . he just needs his updated orders.

With all of his nuclear qualifications complete, he re-enlisted last week, and is now a Petty Officer, 2nd Class.  Congrats, Nick!!

We’ve continued to search for trucks while we wait for him to get here, and last Saturday, we took a drive into the country to check out a few that we found online. 

We loaded Casey into the back of the Jeep, and headed out for a roadtrip!

We found a Ford dealer who had several trucks, none that quite met Nicolas’ criteria, but we talked to the sales manager who does their shopping at the auto auction, and he’s got a handle on what we’re looking for and agreed to try to get some for Nick to look at.  Hopefully by the time he gets here, they’ll have a couple!

We drove as far west as Sturgis, MI, and then went into Indiana to visit my sister and brother-in-law and see their new trailer.  They still have a seasonal site in a campground where most of our family spent decades of summers, and just moved onto my Mom & Dad’s old site overlooking the lake.

There new trailer has so much room, and they are going to have a huge deck surrounding it . . . hopefully soon!

We had a few raindrops right after we got there, but it didn’t amount to anything and was over in a few minutes, so we were able to have dinner outside.  With the sun back out after dinner, Danny took us for a ride around the lake in their boat, which had just been put back in the water that morning.

It was a beautiful afternoon, and we took a nice little rider around the lake to check out any new homes that had popped up over the winter. 

The water was almost like glass, with just a few other boats out there with us.  What a beautiful afternoon!

After our tour, we returned to the camper where we sat on the deck and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

It was nearly 10pm when we loaded Casey back into the Jeep for the drive home.  It was a lot shorter drive on the way home, but still almost midnight when we arrived back in Monroe.

Thanks for a great afternoon and evening at the lake, Dee & Dan!

Meanwhile, back in Michigan, Bryce was at the Tough Mudder Michigan with some friends from MSU.

They battled mud & water – over, under and through a multitude of obstacles – and came out victorious, with just some bumps and bruises!

Not something I would attempt, but the kids had fun!

Around the campground, Tom has been helping out with some of the spring cleanup by trimming bushes . . . and he never trimmed bushes at our house!

The other day, I took Casey for a walk and stopped by him and Paul to see how the trimming was going . . . they showed me a bush that they had just finished . . . and the little guys that they almost didn’t see!  Fortunately,they did see them in time, and no lives were lost!

Today, Bryce headed back to his summer job at Cedar Point, and his last week staying in the dorms.  Next week, we move to Sandusky, and he’ll be able to stay with us the rest of the summer.  Hopefully Nicolas will be here by then, and we’ll have a completely full house.  It’ll be cozy in the motorhome, but I’m going to love having both boys home for a while!!

   Happy Momma!