Cherokee Landing to Red Bay, AL.

Monday morning and the weather is warm right off the bat. But we are leaving this campground and heading to Red Bay, Alabama. Red Bay is where the manufacturer of our Tiffin motor home is. We hope to take a factory tour and have them install some additional items we want on our lovely home. We arrived early in the morning.....about 9:30 and were able to get the last campsite that Tiffin had available. Wow, Tiffin had 42 motor homes pull in over the week-end. Here in lovely Red Bay you can purchase and have installed just about any item you would ever think you might want on your RV, and they will install it for you. We found out that yes, they do repair work. So we got in line for warranty work, repair work and lastly items we want to buy and have installed. This is very time consuming. At least we are in line, just have to wait our turn to have everything written up. This works pretty much like when you take your auto in for repair.....it is all on a first come first service basis. So if you have one of the first motorhomes or one of the last they built.....all customers are treated alike.

We went to the company store and priced things out....where and what do we do to purchase and have them installed? Just getting the lay of the campground system is something. Finally it was 5:00 PM and all the workers have gone home. We still haven't seen Norris who listens to all the sob stories, writes up the orders and tells you how long before they will be able to get to you (he only had 42 different people to work with on Monday). When we arrived we were given a number by the campground host and that is the order they take you.

Tuesday arrived and we wanted to take the factory tour....but Norris hasn't seen us yet. Tom found Norris and he told us he would be able to see us after lunch. We then went for the 10:00 tour. We arrived back at the campground, and Norris got to us. It will be about 2 weeks before they can work on our rig. We have a couple of options. 1. stay here and wait till they can take us or, 2. drive home in the RV, come back in two weeks time cause they hold our number in line for us, 3. Leave the motorhome here, take the toad and go home and return whenever all the work is done.

We want to have a basement slide installed. Oh dear, if we leave, (option 3) what do we do with all the items in the basement? We could find a storage shed and that would solve that problem. Tom is trying to be helpful and manage the area in the basement instead. For him to reach the drivers side basement he needed the slide pulled in. He closed the door....came around to the other side and closed that basement door then came inside to pull the slide in. Well, guess what? When he closed the second door, it must have caused air pressure in the compartment and the first door popped open. When the slide started to come in.....crunch, crunch, crunch, bam!!!!! Stop!! We went outside to find the bottom of the slide with major damage as well as the door that had popped open. Gad zooks, another repair. This one is really serious. Tuesday is not a nice day for us. It is late and workers have left, gone for the day. We have to wait until Wednesday to get another estimate for this repair. What more can happen?

New found friends drove around the corner in their toad. They were going into town and grab a bite to eat....would we like to come? Sure, we needed to get away, so off we go to a really good, really cheap Mexican restaurant (the waiter didn't speak English). After a fabulous dinner we needed to find the local grocery...a Piggley Wiggley to purchase a styrofoam cooler. We had deceided we will leave the motor home and drive back home to Estero. Wait, we can't leave yet. We have to find Charlene and have her schedule someone to give us an estimate on our latest mishap. So, it looks like we won't get to head for home until at least Thursday morning. Welcome to the world of hurry up and wait. We seemed to be getting pretty good at that.

Wednesday morning, Charlene had Brad, the Estimator come check out our latest damage. He shook his head, mumbled something and went to get the other Estimator. Before long, there were 2 Estimators, the Service Area manager, 2 Engineers and Van Tiffin, the owners son looking at our injured RV. Not to worry ...... they decided this should never have happened. It is a major Engineering design flaw!! Tiffin Motorhomes will do the repairs at their cost and modify the RV so it can not happen again. In fact, they are changing all units on the production line because of this problem. Van said, " Thank goodness it happened here in Red Bay, we can take care of the problem permanently".

Thursday, 7:00 AM, Norris led Tom to the parking area for rigs to be worked on at the other end of the runway. 7:20 AM CST we hit the road for Estero. Totally uneventful trip home. We pulled into our driveway at 11:00 PM, EST ... tired, but home, after 3 1/2 months on the road.

Friday morning, Tom remembered why he didn't want to be in Southwest Florida in August, sunny, 95 and humid. Time for a second shower after taking Charley for her morning walk.

Cherokee Landing, TN?

Friday morning we left Hanibel headed toward Paducah, Kentucky. We looked and looked for ways to avoid the horrible St. Louis, MO traffic. We couldn't find any route that was half way decent without going through that mumble jumble of traffic and screwy expressways. We did manage to travel through that @$^*(&%$ town without any mishaps. When we got to our campsite in Paducah....it wasn't the greatest...but it was passable.

We visited downtown Paducah, checked out a couple restaurants and took a few pictures of a train display for Tom Parker, then back to the RV park.

The best part of the RV park was the dog run. We took Charley and she ran like crazy. We were only going to let her run for fifteen minutes...but that turned into an hour after we met an interesting couple to talk with. They had a 10 year old Lab, Nicky, for Charley to run with. They are biker types from Clearwater, FL and were doing basically the same thing we are doing. They went West like we went East. Charley was whipped after that workout.

Late Friday night it started to rain....so when we started out Saturday morning it wasn't in the best of weather conditions. Before too long the clouds did give way to sunshine and hot, humid weather. When we were heading through Greenfield, TN. We had to call our son, Greg. That was where Cal Ripken, Jr was born and we all know that Greg is a huge fan of Cal's. We arrived in the early afternoon at our campground, Cherokee Landing. This is absolutely the worst campsite we have ever had, and it is part of our private campground club. Just goes to tell you we really don't need this Thousand Trails membership anymore.

Sunday is THE DAY!!!!!!! Memphis, Tennessee.

I finally am going to Graceland.

We left early and it is going to be a scorcher of a day. Temperature is due to be in the high 90's, with humididy right up there also. We arrived at Graceland before noon and purchase our tickets. WOW, there is a lot to see and this year just happens to be the KING'S 75th birthday celebration. We toured the home, Graceland, the old car museum, Elvis' time in movies and so much more. What a treat for me. This day is great!!! I had such a good time.

We found a barbecue place to have our lunch, Murdock's. It has been featured on the food channel.

It was a favorite place that Elvis and his entourage liked to eat at .... often .... located just down the street from Graceland. The food was great......and the memorabilia in there was really neat.

Muscatine, IA to Hannibal, MO

Wednesday morning and we are leaving Muscatine. The day started out sunny and a little on the cool side. I wondered how long this cool would last? We wanted to drive south towards Hannibal, MO. Now you ask why Hannibal.......well remember, when we were in Elmira, N.Y. We saw Samuel Clemons gravesite???? We never thought that on the same trip we would be seeing where he grew up and his birthplace.. Hannibal, MO. Is where he grew up. We arrived at Mark Twain Landing campground and set up our campsite.

Tom called a local Riverboat company to findout if we could book a dinner cruise on the riverboat for tonight. Yup, he gives all the info needed so we headed into Hannibal from our campsite for a little adventure. After all Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were from the area so there must be lots of fun times to be had.

We arrived in town were there is a statue of Tom and Huck, complete with fishing poles swungover their shoulders. We noticed a sign if you manage to walk all the way up to thelighthouse the little broken down store will give you a certificate stating as much. We start the climb......up what seems like 75 steps (complete with benches to have a break) and arrived at an old road with Becky's Flower Garden.

We took a break and noticed steep steps upward, looks like at least another 75 to 100 steps. Tom sat down to rest and I continued the climb. I arrive at another old street only to find another set of steps. Well, I'm this far I can't just stop now.....so off I climb another set of steps....only to arrive at another old road with still more steps......yup, I do the next group of steps and I finally see the old lighthouse. Now remember me telling you

the day started out cool?.......well the temperature had been rising all day and it's like 90 out now and the humidity is like 80% so I am hot, sticky and needing cool air. The lighthouse is set amongst big old trees so I am not getting any of that. Now I must still walk down all those stairs.......I finally get down and I pick up my certificate.
We found out that the downtown trades, BIG TIME, on the Mark Twain name. I guess that's to be expected..anything to draw a tourist in. I walked up and down the streets of downtown and find some interesting stores but not really very many.

We also found Lovers Leap ....... It is south of town and where the song about Little White Dove and the Indian Boy being from opposite tribes meet their fate. From there we went back into town and saw Samuel Clemons boyhood home, Becky Thatcher's family home, the law offices of Samuel Clemons Father and finally headed towards the dock for our riverboat cruise.The dock area is right in downtown Hannibal. We arrived a little early. The dinner cruise is to start at

6:30....when we boarded the riverboat we had a table assigned to us. During the loading process we had a musician playing his guitar, a banjo, playing the harmonica and singing river type songs. After dinner we retire to one of the upper decks and watch a magnificent sunset over the Mississippi. The setting sun is spectular over the hills in the background......almost too pretty for words.

The musician comes out on deck and once again plays for us. What a wonderful day this has turned out to be.

Thursday, was going to be hot, humid with an unbearable heat index. We started early heading to Florida, MO. That is where Mark Twain actually was born.

His two room clapboard cabin has been moved inside a special visitor center, a little ways from the actual site it once stood on. After visiting the visitor center we went to Florida. It is now a ghost town and still has a few really old homes still standing. Charley rode with us. The car never got turned off .... burned a little extra gas to keep her cool.We finished in the area and went to Paris then Monroe City then we arrived back at our campsite. We vegged for the rest of the day, trying to figure out where we will head to next.

Red Wing, MN.

Sunday Morning. We really wanted to get an early start today.....which we did. We had planned our route, without knowing just what the roads would be like. When we left Federal Dam it was overcast with the possibility of mist or maybe even rain. Lucky for us we had the rain early before the weather made a turn for the better....we ended up having sunshine, cool temps And lots of those pretty fluffy clouds. Heading south we took back roads, what we did not know that in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, the route we chose would take us by 9,000 of them. The roads were narrow, winding and made me very nervous. Good thing Tom was driving. Hurry, hurry Nancy look......no it was not a Moose, but it was a hugh Elk. I guess I still must look for that elusive Moose. I can't imagine where all the Moose have gone.

Our goal for the day was to arrive in Red Wing, MN at an Indian Casino, usually good restaurants and cheap RV parking!! I gave Tom a wrong turn and we ended up in Wisconsin for about 35 miles.....but we found the way to where we wanted to camp. So, all's well that ends well.

We were crossing the Mississippi River many times during the day and I conveniently

opened a window and tried to get a couple of photos.

I don't think I did all that well though. Sorry 'bout that, maybe Tom can still find a couple more photos for you to enjoy.

Since I don't have much to blog about tonight I thought you might like a little history of the river. Did you know that ten different states

border the Mississippi? How about the length being 2,552 miles.....that is what it states at the headwaters at Lake Itasca in Minnesota. Did you know that if a raindrop fell in Lake Itasca it would take 90 days to reach the Gulf of Mexico? That the width of the river at Lake Itasca is 20-30 feet wide and the depth less than 3 feet. The widest part of the river is near Alton, IL. where it is about 1 mile wide. The deepest part of the river is at Algiers Point in New Orleans - about 200 feet?

We have found that after awhile the road looks like all river roads......trees lining it, and you really don't see much of the river. We are enjoying ourselves and seeing the U.S.A. This country of ours is something else to see and the people are just great everywhere we go.

Monday morning and we are going to be on the road to Dubuque, Iowa. We manage to get up and get going really fast, we did not unhook the car last night so.......it is up, move the slides in and we can leave. We are going to follow U.S.61 all day. The hills (?) are really shaped weird around this part of the state.

The road takes us into Wisconsin near LaCrosse......and then we travel away from the river for half the day. I want to tell anyone traveling in Wisconsin do NOT travel on U.S.61 in the state. I think this is the worst road we have traveled on in the whole US of A...it grabs your tires, is bumpy and has that annoying thump, thump, thump of the strips on the pavement that just doesn't go away. When we cross the river into Iowa at Dubuque it is too early to stop......so we look at the map and decide to go further south. We arrive near

Muscatine, Iowa in the early afternoon at a Corp Of Engineers park nearby so we go to find out if they have room for us. They do, so we are here until

Wednesday morning. Two days of travel and we want to spend a day resting. Our campsite is right on the Mississippi River. The mosquitos sure know to come out at night. We came inside early so we would not get eaten alive.Last night when I was walking Charley I was lucky......on the river a barge was being shoved upstream by a tugboat. It had lights on and was a pretty site to see. We have zero light pollution here, so the lights on the boat were different colors, yellow and red and green. Wonderful!!! What fun we are having seeing sights like that.
It started raining about 1:00 a.m. It was still raining when we awoke for the day. Gee, I wondered if it would stop?Tuesday, I wanted to see the pearl button museum in downtown Muscatine. My Dad used to sell them in all of the Knepps stores. Tom took me downtown to the museum....but he waits for me in the car. While I am in the museum Tom "people watched" on the street and saw a restaurant where all the locals seemed to go. When I came out of the museum, we went to look for the restaurant, possibly for a lunch. It was cool... in the basement of an old building and the interior was just plain neat.

After lunch we went down to the riverfront. There is a great lineal park. We can see the bridge to Illinois, they have a fountain and a statue of a boy with fishing pole.

It is still early, Tom asked if I would like to go to the Herbert Hoover Presidential library and Museum?? You betcha....... So we headed to West Bend, Iowa. We arrived with just two hours left to tour. This is a great museum. I did not know what a humanitarian Herbert Hoover was. The museum was very enlighting. After we toured I walked up to where Herbert and Lou Hoover are buried on the grounds of the museum.

A good day, yes, and no!!.... it never stopped raining.

Saturday evening

Hey is anyone still reading our posts? We haven't had any comments lately.

Federal Dam, MN

Friday was suppose to be an uncomfortable, nasty day .... rainy, overcast, gray, windy, humid and hot. Imagine our surprise to awake to sun, blue sky, cool temps and just a few fluffy white clouds overhead. The TV weather forecasters here in the North are just like those at home in Florida ... semi educated weather guessers. We decided today would be the day for touring along the Great River Road and follow the Mississippi where the road runs close to it.

We left the campground and found "the road". It is marked with a special sign for everyone who wants to explore. We wound our way along back country roads for miles, with beautiful pines, oaks and maple trees along the side of the road.

We had been heading down river and the road signs took us into Grand Rapids. My, my we were just in Grand Rapids, MI. about a week and a half ago. Now we are in another Grand Rapids in Minnesota! The Mississippi actually flows fast here and has real rapids too. We found the local Chamber of Commerce and got a couple of brochures ....one of which is the "Mississippi River Road" map showing the signs and roads you can travel to best see the river.

We asked the little old lady at the CC, where is a good place for lunch? ..... She told us about a lovely old log cabin restaurant, but said she isn't allowed to make recommendations. Wouldn't you know, we were half way thru our lunch when, guess who came in for lunch with some other old ladies .... yep, the CC lady.

Afterwards we headed out of town touring the river road. We found a couple of boat accesses and got out to stretch our legs. We thought that since the vegetation is so lush and we can't really see the river that much, we will just head back home.....but not before we let Charley wade in the Mississippi again.

On the road back to our RV we saw another dam park on the river and stopped to investigate. This one just happened to be under repair....so we watched what the Corp was doing...stretched some more and headed home.

Later, we asked around about a Friday night fish fry. There is one, about 14 miles away. Well, let's go for dinner. We headed out forgetting that the mileage was "as the crow flies". We arrived about 40-45 minutes later and by road more like 22 miles away. Oh well as we age, time and distance are on our side, anyway. We had a great dinner sitting by a window overlooking beautiful Leech Lake. This lake is huge!! I mean the area in northern Minnesota has lots of lakes and the lakes look so small on the map, but they aren't .....many are huge.

On the way back, I was helping Tom look for deer crossing the road tonight....so I didn't get to look for that elusive moose on the back roads. Darn!! So far, here in Minnesota, we have seen white tailed deer, pheasants, red fox, a pack of wild dogs, squirrels, chipmunks, bald eagles, hawks, roadside vultures, possums and a few dead skunks.... but, still no MOOSE !! Maybe they are extinct !

We got back in time to take Charley for a walk along the shoreline here at the campground. She loves to walk in the water. Charley is just loving this life. She has us around most days...she is getting lots of walks and the grass is so soft and nice. Life can't get much better than this.

Chippewa Falls, WI to Federal Dam, MN

Sunday we were going to spend with Greg and Lynn. Greg called early would we come to their home so he could work......he needed to finish some reports for the office. We arrived about noontime and Lynn made us a wonderful lunch. Later in the day we all went to the Woeltje home (Lynn's parents) for a birthday celebration for her two sisters. It was great to see the Woeltje clan and catch up with them.

Monday started out overcast and the prediction was for a rainy day. Oh well, that would not bother us as we were going to be on the road. We left the campground early and headed west before we could head north. By the time we arrived in Rockford, IL northbound), the clouds had cleared and the day turned out to be sunny, HOT and humid. We found a great little (?) campground in Chippewa Falls, WI. We planned on staying there a day before we headed out again for Minnesota. Tuesday was a veg day, maybe a little shopping and any other things we might want to do.

Wednesday morning arrived and we were off to Minnesota. We left Chippewa Falls and headed north again.....we took the road less traveled by going to Superior, WI then into Duluth, MN.

When we left Wisconsin and started across the bridge to Duluth we were in a mess of road construction. I mean the road was really narrow........like it felt like it was only 9 foot wide!!!!! Thank heaven Tom was still driving. We finally wound our way out of that mess and Tom found a place to pull off the road so we can switch drivers. When I took over I just hoped that we didn't run into any more construction sites. I hate to drive through those.

We were excited when we crossed a small stream and discovered it was the Mississippi! We did not take a photo there ...... Our map told us we would see the Mighty River many more times.

We arrived at the Corp of Engineers campground on Leech Lake. Wow, this is a really really nice campground. We set up our campsite, got the bikes down and actually rode around the park. We explored and found this campground is really large, set amongst the tall pine trees. Our campsite is almost right on Leech Lake it is a very pretty setting.

Thursday, August 12th, started out drizzling. The TV weatherman said today would be our best day for touring. We awoke to find crappy weather, rain, cold and damp. decided the reason we even came this far north in Minn-e-so-ta was to go to the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca..... drizzle or not. After debating what we should do we decided to head out for our destination......the great headwaters of the Mississippi River.

The ride further North and further West was a bit dismal as the drizzle turned to rain. The headwaters are located in Itasca State Park South of Bemidji, MN. We arrived about lunchtime so we did the gift shop first. I like to purchase copies of National Parks books and I was hoping that the state park had something like that for the Mississippi....... No such luck!!!!! Next we grabbed a bite to eat, then it was off to the headwaters. The path is well marked and easy to walk (800'). After a short walk we were there.

Imagine our surprise, with such a yucky day, there were many more tourists than you would think. We took pictures so you all can see how narrow and shallow the river is. Many little children (ages 4-10) were actually wading in the river. We took a different route thru the woods back to the car then headed into Bemidji to shop before heading home.

Almost all day we were in the rain. We took Charley with us, but we did not want a wet, stinky dog....so she just got to go for the ride. Maybe tomorrow will be better and she will get to participate in our excursion.

Addison Oaks, MI & Leisure Lake, IL

Tuesday evening I thought we should try and reconnect with some old friends. I gave a call to Sandy and Tom Fick, good friends from our early years in Essexville, would they be home? And like company? Yes they were going to be home and sure come on over. They live not far from Jeff and Amy and for some reason or other we just had never taken the time to reconnect with them. We went to their home and had a great evening.

We learned what they have been up to and how their sons were doing. Jeremy lives in the area and works for Merrill Lynch whereas son Rob lives in the Denver area is a teacher, works for Whole Foods and intends to teach pilates soon. Tom is retired from GM and Sandy still works for Oakland University. We visited for a couple hours and it sure was great to see them.

Wednesday we visited the hospital in the morning and when we left we had grand-daughter Lindsay with us. The two younger girls went with Grandma Sharon to Grand Rapids.

We have Lindsay until tomorrow afternoon when we will return her for her dance class. Amy and Danny come home with Jeff tomorrow. They will have a few days time before the other two girls return home so it will be an easy transision to life back with nighttime feedings, diaper changes etc.

We leave the Lake Orion area Friday

morning heading west to Illinois then on to Minnesota. We will have lots more photos and of course our trip will continue being posted until we are back in Estero.Thursday we returned Lindsay in time for dance class and then headed back to the motorhome. The rest of Thursday was a day of relaxing and packing our things for our trip to Illinois on Friday.
We left Michigan early Friday morning for a campground in Shorewood, Illinois not too far from our kids in Plainfield. We arrived in the afternoon and called to find out if they would like to come out to the motorhome for dinner.

Sounded good to them so they came out. Lynn, Emily and Allison first.

Then Greg came directly from work. We had a great picnic type cookout with brats, hot dogs, home made macaroni salad and various chips. The girls had some playtime, time with Charlie.......and then headed home. Ahhhhhh......life is good!
Saturday found us up bright and early. An hour earlier than anybody else. We are now in the central time zone until we get back to Florida. So we reset all the clocks and watches. Ally had soccer camp this morning so off we went to see her play. I think we walked a half mile on the Polo Field just to get to her soccer field area.

Ally scored a goal and was absolutely thrilled. After Soccer, we all went out for lunch at CHOO CHOO JOHNNY'S. It is a place definitely geared for children. Yes, they have trains on the tracks and when the kitchen has your orders ready, they send them out to you on the train. Then we went back to the kids home for more visiting before heading home. Greg, Lynn and the girls had a dinner scheduled with some friends on Saturday night, so we had to be on our own. We knew about that before we came....it is just great to see the kids and grandkids.

August 3, 2010 - Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Mi.

The day looks promising..sunny, humid and warm. Need I say more. I called both Barb and Connie. Told them our good news and then we got ready to head to the hospital. Beaumont is HUGE!!! We arrived and I had to ask which area is closest to the maternity wing.

The south parking garage. We found it and then headed in. The hospital has many sections and the kids are on the 6th. floor.

When we arrived Amy and Danny were the only ones there. Jeff headed home and slept some and then with Sharon (Amy's Mom) they got all three girls ready and then they came to the hospital. Tom and I were lucky we arrived shortly after 10:30 and we had time alone with Amy and Danny before the mob came. All the girls got to hold their brother. They were so excited and happy. I took scads of photos, now it's Tom's turn to pick which ones to show you all. Yes, he is cute, I think he is the most precious baby boy there is. No I am not prejudiced.

Addison Oaks

August 2nd. 2010.........Monday was to be THE DAY!!!!!! Amy went to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. her doctor was going to induce her this morning. She arrived on time and by 8:30 she had a room. From there it must have been downhill all day. We called them about 1:30 to find out how things were progressing and Jeff told us it would probably be late afternoon or early evening.

Meanwhile.......Since the day was a bright sunny Monday in Michigan we headed out to Grosse Pointe. We found Thomas Hardware and Tom received some rope he had been trying to find for Charley's leash. From there we traveled to Eastland Mall. What a disappointment.....Tom went to find where there was a food court, and he came back to the car and told me that we would not be going in there almost all the storefronts were closed and the mall had NO traffic in it. So we headed towards the hospital in Royal Oak where we found a little strip mall and had a not very good lunch. From there it was back to the motor home and wait till Jeff would call us.

Dinnertime came and we thought we should have an early dinner as we might get that all important call and we could head to the hospital. Well, we had dinner, watched T.V. and about 8:00 Jeff told us still nothing happening. We watched television until 11:00 and went to bed. Then at about 3:15 on the 3rd. we received that all important phone call. Danny was here, He is 7 pounds 11 ounces, 22 inches long with 10 fingers and 10 toes. Dad sounded very happy. He asked that we not come to the hospital until after 10:00 this a.m. as they were both tired. So there you have it. Later today I will add another blog with updates of Danny and photos.

Until then........LATER!!!!

Addison Oaks

Friday we were invited to dinner with the kids. We spent the morning just being lazy around the campground and after a light lunch we headed into the Lake Orion area. I managed to refill my prescriptions and we found a few other items to purchase. After 4:00 we headed to the kids. Amy is very tired and this past week she has not worked, but just managing three girls, two dogs and two cats still sounds like a full time job. We had a wonderful cook-out dinner. I had made pasta salad and they provided the steaks, and fresh fruit. The fresh corn on the cob was so very tasty, just melt in your mouth!

Saturday, still no baby so we found a Walmart to get the oil changed in the car. From there I found the Somerset Collection Mall, what a neat mall. I shopped till I dropped. We ate at the food court and then shopped some more. Just about the time we thought we might head home Jeff called and they were headed to the mall, Amy wanted to walk some. So we stayed and shopped some more with them. Then we parted ways and headed for home. I was exhausted, I had over 13,000 steps on my meter. That's a lot more than I usually make. We had a light dinner and sat around outside until the bugs started to bite...then it was inside for the evening.

Today is still another wait and see day. It is hard and I don't want to call and ask Amy how she is doing......I remember one friend when I was pregnant calling and asking that question and getting a little angry as I still was at home! So we will wait and hope to get a call today if not......tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. She is to be at the hospital and the doctor will induce her. Stay tuned for further updates........later!

Addison Oaks

Thursday proved to be an enjoyable day. We visited another Oakland County Park, Groveland Oaks. It is near Holly, Michigan, around 17 miles from Jeff & Amy. It is nice, but Addison Oaks is better. If we had youngsters, we might like Groveland Oaks. It is now, another alternative for us when visiting this part of Michigan.

We knew that Don and LuAnn Houseman were visiting with the Parkers for a few days starting this afternoon. Since we don't know when the grandbaby will come we decided to call Parkers and Housemans to find out if we could all go out to dinner this evening. We ended up all going out to eat at a great Chinesse restaurant. It wasn't exactly "Moe's on Monday" and the Hebens, Daileys, Mansfields and Toths weren't there, but we talked about you guys and all of our other Estero friends anyways.

After dinner we headed home. Charley had been left alone for most of the day and was really happy to see us.

Thousand Trails-St. Clair to Addison Oaks

Thursday found us resting for the day. Well if you believe that, you haven't been reading the blog lately. We don't let the old sod rest at all. It did turn out to be a rather peaceful day just to take care of everyday items though.

Friday found us on the road to Saginaw and Bay City. We called Bonnie and John and made the trip to their home. The roads for the most direct route.... I-69 then onto I-475 then onto I-75 and finally onto I-675, then surface streets to their home. Well, I-69 had some construction on it, then I-475 was down to one lane all the way. I-75 was OK. I-675 was another story. The bridge in downtown Saginaw over the Saginaw River was out so our travel was much longer than we thought it would be. We finally arrived and then it was into Bay City. Guess what .... the most direct route had a bridge out at Bay Valley, over I-75!!!We had a delightful lunch at "Old City Hall" in downtown B.C. Then it was on to Simmons Jewelry Store. Yes, I always love this stop...I got new backers for my diamond earrings, remember the story about my lost earring before we left Estero???? Well I got new backers and I can finally start wearing them again. Then it was back to Saginaw and the rest of the visit with friends.Our return trip we took old roads "thru the Thumb" and it was much better and a fairly direct road home..... NO Construction !!

Saturday we drove out to Ann Arbor. My niece and her husband purchased a home on a short sale. They were having an open house and we were able to attend. We arrived early and had lunch with my sister and her hubby then we were off to the open house. A great surprise was Greg, Lynn and daughters came from Illinois it was a total surprise for the Michigan group that they were able to come. It was a treat and of course the house was wonderful, big and lots of open space. For two people the house is 3400 sq. feet and the yard is 3 or 4 acres. Good thing they enjoy yard work!

Sunday, Jeff brought his two older girls out to our RV at Marysville. We got to have Maggie (8) and Lindsay (9 1/2) stay with us until Tuesday. We spent Sunday afternoon at the pool. What more can I say?

Monday we spent the morning taking the girls to Port Huron. They got to see the BlueWater Bridge which connects Port Huron to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Maggie kept saying she saw Canadians. The St. Marys River is narrow here and Canada is real close.

The girls got to see a Great Lakes freighter (1000 feet long) and a retired Coast Guard Cutter. We found a small city park where the girls waded in Lake Huron. It was at the bottom of Lake Huron where the start of the St. Marys River is. The current is quite strong so they could only wade there. From there we took them to Ted's, a famous local restaurant. They are known for their coney dogs. Lindsay wanted to try one, Maggie didn't. She opted for a plain old hot dog. We shared a very large hot chocolate sundae. Then it was back to our campsite. They went

swimming for 2 1/2 hours, I got to sit and watch the whole time! The pool is closed at 4:00 for adult swim until 5:00 so home we went and had our dinner.

Later we went into Marysville for an ice cream cone then down to St. Clair on the river. the park is really great and we sat and the girls ran up and down the boardwalk for quite a while. Then it was home for the evening.
Tuesday we had to have the girls back home by 3:00 for Lindsay's dance class. We started the day out moving from Thousand Trails St. Clair RV Park to Addison Oaks County Park campground. Addison Oaks is much closer to where the girls live. We arrived early and got to go to the lake where the girls went swimming. All of our grandaughters really love the water and love to swim. I went back to the motor home and packed a picnic lunch which we ate by the beach under a tree. Finally, it was time to get back to the motorhome so the girls could get their things packed for the short trip home. We really enjoyed having the girls with us for a few days time....but they can really wear us out. We have enjoyed the time we've had to get reacquainted with our wonderful grandchildren.

Wednesday we called Tom and Katrina Parker. They didn't answer so we started the laundry. Katrina called back and we agreed to meet for lunch at the local Olive Garden. It was great to see friends. After lunch we planned on going to Jeff and Amy's ....but Tom wan't feeling well so we thought we should go home instead. We don't need Amy getting sick at this stage.

I know all of you were told that this would be the day our grandson would come. Well, the doctor told Amy a week ago she could not be induced until she was a full 39 weeks along. That will be Monday, August 2 so we are all still waiting. I know that she would prefer this "man child" to come NOW....but mother nature still takes her time. We will keep you informed, but for now it's wait and see.

St. Clair, MI.

Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny, warm and clear day. We hurried to Port Huron (about 15 minutes) so we could watch the boats leave the Black River and head out into Lake Huron for the start of the 86th Annual Port Huron to Mackinac Island Sailboat Race.

There is a great lineal park right along the St. Clair River right under the Blue Water Bridge to Canada. That's where we went and were treated to many boats heading out.

Also saw a couple of Great Lake freighters about 1000 feet long downbound in the river. At this point in the St. Clair River Canada is less than 1/2 mile away. The US and Canadian Coast Guard cutters follow the fleet up Lake Huron to the end of the race at Mackinaw Island. It is a special site to see. After about an hour and a half we headed back to camp. Really glad we got to do this. It is so different watching from shore than when Tom raced all those Port Huron to Mackinaw races. A fun way to start the day.

Sunday Jeff and Amy asked us for dinner so we headed to Lake Orion. We arrived a little early and Jeff helped Tom with his computer. He also helped me with my Ipad.

Gad zooks it's terrible getting old and needing help with computers, just glad that our sons are able to help us.

Monday morning we left St. Clair early and headed west to Plainfield, IL. We were going to visit with Greg and Lynn. It did not work out for us taking Lindsay, so it's just the two of us and Charley.

We arrived in the early afternoon and had a get acquainted time for Brady and Charley. They ran in the fenced back yard and had a great time. Of course Emily and Allison happily played with two dogs instead of one.

Tuesday I took the girls shopping. I also found a pair of shorts for Tom as he forgot an extra pair and he won't wear the same pair for 3 days in a row. It is always an enjoyable visit with Greg and Lynn. We don't get to see them too often. Maybe that's good. Then they can't say we are soooo close that we interfere. Anyhow our time was well spent.

Wednesday we left the Plainfield area to head back to the motorhome in St. Clair, Michigan. Our trip to Plainfield was I-94 all the way. Our return trip we traveled up the Michigan coast and headed to Grand Rapids, then Lansing and on to Port Huron. It was a fun way to travel and
revisit some of the sites we use to see when we lived at the lake house in Michigan. Anyway you put it, we had a wonderful time.