Monday, June 27, 2011

Friday we went to where Greg will be opening his Allstate office in Plainfield, Il. We found his location and took a look inside. The drywall guys have hung the drywall and are "mudding the walls. It is starting to take shape. If you live in Illinois and are looking for an insurance agent look no further....son Greg will be happy to help you. Contact me and I will be happy to give you his telephone number. After looking we head to the kids home and spend the afternoon with them. Tom and Emily spent some time playing with Em's Macbook.

Their backyard if fenced and they have two dogs, Brady and Maggie, so Charley is in heaven. The dogs ran with the girls and had a great time. Nancy and Ally laid back playing with Grandma's iPad.

Saturday was more of the same.....but Sunday we thought we would give the family a break from Grandma and Grandpa when we received a call asking when we would be over. The grand children were asking, seems they don't get to see us very often and the would like to see us daily while we are here.

Monday we went in search of a mini Cooper dealer. The one giving the discount is north much further than we thought. But to find answers to our Costco Discount questions we headed there. Found out you have to purchase what they have in stock. I don't want an auto with a black interior. So we headed back to Plainfield and visited with kids and grand kids again. Life can be great when everyone wants to see you. Makes one really feel appreciated.

Birch Run

Sunday there was an art fair in Frankenmuth. We purchased a cute sign for hanging in front of the motorhome when we are camped anywhere. We veg around and are glad that we came up to Birch Run for the extended stay, Our stay there was with many side trips, but we touched bases with many old friends. What a wonderful time.
Monday was a move day. We had a reservation in Benton Harbor over by Lake by Lake Michigan. It was to be a short drive and then we could see some sights in lower SW Michigan. We arrived at our resort (?) at about noontime! What a crappy place, we looked around, no need to take pictures!! It was early so we got back on the road and looked for a campground in the South Bend area. We wound our way around South Bend on the beltway and found a nice little campground, 10 miles South of South Bend. We signed up for electric only. Seems the don't have sewers anyways and they had only well water. Oh well, we can camp out a little on the rough side for the next three days.

Monday night the wind picked up and we tucked in for bad weather. Son Greg called and told us in his area the storm sirens were going off and since we were about due east we might look for someplace to take cover. Tom watched his iPhone and saw the storms heading up Lake Michigan instead of heading our way. Dodged a bullet on that one.

Tuesday morning sightly overcast, but since we were so close to Amish country I wanted to go to Shipshewana for the big flea market. Off we went and let me say I think this must be the largest flea market ever. They (Amish) hold it every Tuesday and Wednesday all year long. Typical flea market junk and then some. Afterwards we went into town to the Blue Market Restaurant. Great meal, low prices and a cool place to sit and rest after all our walking.

Wednesday, dreary day that it was, we went into South Bend (yuck, Notre Dame territory) and toured the National Collegiate Football Hall of Fame. What a place to not miss, worth every minute there. But it was an awful lot of walking, two days in a row. We sure were tired. But happy we went.
Thursday was another travel day. We were going to Illinois and we were arriving a day earlier than our reservation was for. But, they had lots of open spaces when we arrived and we actually got a much nicer spot than we had last year at that campground. We will be staying there until the 5 th. Of July. We set up camp and wanted to take a nice long hot shower after not being able to the last couple days. What a great feeling getting out of the shower!

Last night we went to see Greg, Lynn, Emily and Allison. My how the grand daughters have grown sine April. I think Allison is almost as tall as Emily! Both girls are happy to see us and after a dinner we headed back to the R.V. Tired and ready to hit the sack!!!

Pine Ridge RV Resort

Thursday morning we are off to General RV in Birch Run. They're supposed to fix the back-up camera system in the RV. We want to get to our 11:00 appt. early, but mother nature has other ideas. The day starts out with a severe thunderstorm watch, we sure hoped it would pass before we needed to leave, and by 9:45 it was down to just a drizzle. So off we went to get the RV taken care of. We arrived early and got to wait, but by 11:00 they were taking the motorhome in to do our repairs. We left for lunch and then went shopping at a couple of stores at the outlet mall. When we got back to General RV they were just finishing up. The RV now has a brand new color side view and rear view video system, thanks to Mr. Bob Tiffin. We headed back to thepark to extend our stay for a few more days.

Friday ........ wash day. At least all we need to do is right at home. Great having the washer and dryer. We went to Lake Orion at 6:00PM for Jeff's birthday party. Since his birthday is actually Sunday the 19th, also Fathers Day, Amy decided that we would celebrate on Friday the 17th. We did not let Jeff know we were coming.....he had a little surprise and we had a wonderful time. Since we would not see him on Father's Day we took that gift with us. What do you buy for a kid that has everything?? Why, we bought him a toaster!!!

The amazing thing about this toaster is that it burns an image of the MIchigan State Spartan on it!! He loves it

.Saturday found us thinking about next year. Why don't we tour the thumb? We headed up to the Caseville area to the Caseville county park.

WOW......a really nice campground. Huron County has a total of six county campgrounds. We drove a long ways (80 - 90 miles) but we stopped in and looked at them all.

We actually found they are all great campgrounds. Nice ideas for next year.

Saturday evening we went back into Frankenmuth so Nancy could watch the Glockenspiel and hear the tolling of the bells. Whoopie!!!

Pine Ridge RV Resort

Wednesday the 15th. I called Simmons to check and make sure my diamond ring was finished. I left it to be fixed when cousin Dave told me I had a chipped baguette. It was done, so I guess were are going into Bay City again today. On our way into town we stopped to see Ken and Carol VanCise. Ken had worked with Tom at the Gear and played golf with him. Ken would be golfing later that day and Carol had lessons to give but we managed to see both of them. Carol gives riding lessons, she has been horsing Round all her life.
The it was into town, eat at the old City Hall. This restaurant is in the old chambers of city hall from 1892 to 1922. Really a quaint restaurant and good eats, too! Then we went and picked up Nancys ring. From there it was off to Target to purchase a game.

Then to Saginaw across town to one of the branches. Of the bank I worked for to see Shari Colpene. She was my Assistant for a long time and has not changed. When we walked in the door she recognized us right away. A couple of others I had worked with were at that office so it was a nice chat. I also talked with another person via phone who I worked closely with.

Then it was back to the RV to eat dinner and relax.

Thursday our RV was to go in for the camera repair. We awoke to a light drizzle and just when we thought we could pack things up and head over to the RV repair place the heavens opened up and for about an hours we just watched it continue to rain. Finally the rain let up so we hurried up and got the RV over to the repair facility. We left for lunch and did a little shopping afterwards and when we returned the RV was done. Tom checked and double checked to make sure everything had been done and then it was back to our campsite. We have decided to stay here until Monday then we will move on.

Pine Ridge RV Resort

We start the day off going to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. It is the largest Christmas store in the world. Some people come and spend a day at the place, where we only spent a couple of hours there. The store and property run along M83 for a half mile. At night the whole area is aglow with Christmas displays light up, a wonder to see and here. They have the silent night chapel a complete replica of the chapel where the. Original song was written. You just can't imagine how big this place is.....if you ever get to Michigan this is a must see place.
Monday afternoon we went for a drive. We heard about a campground in Bay City area. Thought we would look it over as a possibility for next year. It was in Essexville where we use to live. It was located at the end of the road abutting Saginaw Bay, nice but close quarters and if the wind would be out of the north or northeast it could really be cold and ugly out there, but it is a possibility, something to keep in mind.

Since we were quite close to the old neighborhood where we raised our family we took a drive into the neighborhood. Not much has changed, the trees are older and more established, some have redone landscaping but nice neighborhood. We saw Terry Swihart's out in his yard so we stopped. His wife Romaine was at work (70 years old) but we did manage to see her before we left. They look the same and the thought we did too.
Tuesday the Detloff's came to see our motorhome. I think they were a little surprised how roomy it is. Then as we all must do it was out to dinner at Bavarian Inn. They are known for there family style chicken dinners so we played tourist and ate the chicken dinner. They have a glockenspiel and it chimes on the quarter-hour. Really reminds me of when I was in Germany and the glockenspiels I saw there. At the end of the day we were worn out, that seems to happen a lot lately.

Pine Ridge RV Resort

Sunday was a great day, the sun was shining and we were off to Owosso, Michigan. My older sister, Marti lives there and she was having a party. Her son-in-law, Tim graduated with hisassociates degree, and heryoungest daughter Lynn and family were here from Minnesota, so party is what we did. It was a cook-out with all the summertime foods anyone would ever want. So the photos posted are of all of us enjoying ourselves.

Both my sisters were there, and then three of my nieces and families were there and Jeff, Amy and their kids also came.
We took Charley with us and the kids really loved her. It was a fun day.

Addison Oaks

Friday we just had an easy day.....just being lazy until time to pick up Maggie after dinner. Maggie had a Saturday game real close to our campground, so she got another overnight with us. Son, Jeff had an early game on Saturday, he coaches another girls team which also had a Saturday game and would we take her to her game which is certainly a chore for a grandparents, NOT!!! It was fun having just her and yes we like to spoil any of them when they stay with us.
Saturday after a small breakfast we head off to the middle school for Maggie's game. She hits real good, plays most positions well, but is a little slow running the bases. Jeff says he wants to work with her on all aspects of her game. Her game ended after noon and we had to hurry into town, eat lunch and make it to the High School in time for Lindsay's one o'clock dance recital. Hurry is what we did.

Yes, the dance recital was great. Lindsay did really well, she loves dancing. We could not take photos during her performance, but did get copies of her from the photos the her parents bought. Great girl, and lovely to boot! Grandma and Grandpa are very proud of all the kids accomplishments.

Pine Ridge R.V.

Thursday morning we are off to Birch Run. When there we hope to re-connect with a few old friends. We get to our campsite set up and off we go. We have a 4:00 at Tom's old boss' home. We meet with Carol & Jack Connell and Joann & Howard Beauch. We talk and catch up on old times then it is off to the "world famous Zehnders" for dinner. After dinner we head to Beauch's home to continue reminiscing about old times and to see all the work Howard is doing in hisyard. Howard hasn't changed in the 45 years I have known him. A regular "workaholic"about whatever he is interested in at the time..... be it building and flying model airplanes, landscaping his yard or raising geraniums from seed or just fishing in the Cass River.

Friday finds us headinginto Bay City I had brought my emerald I purchased in Columbia earlier this year. Need to get it set and leave with cousin David, the jeweler. Then back home til time for dinner. We head out to the yacht club to meet Ron & Sue Alles for dinner.

We left the yacht club life in 1984 so things have changed. The yacht club now serves dinner on Friday nights......so we had a lovely dinner there. Then when talking Sherry & Pat Long come in, then the Majors what a reunion this turns out to be. We leave for home about 10:00 much later than what we had thought we would be. Busy day.

Saturday finds us doing laundry in the morning. Then in the early afternoon we are off to Sainaw to see the Detloff's. John and their three pups are there to greet us. Bonnie has gone to a graduation party, but she arrives shortly thereafter and again catch up on old friends we have in common, hoping they can fill us into whose still around, which they do. Then it's off to dinner and then returning to play a new game. Really an enjoyable time.

Addison Oaks Campground

Sunday, the start of a new week. Tom was going to help Jeff do a few chores around the house. Both of them were having knee problems...so the work did not get done. But they did work on the computer all day long. When we arrived at their home the girls asked if they could go to church....so all of us headed out to church. Great way to start the week.

Forgot to tell you all....remember that elusive moose from last year? Wel, we found him at Red Knapp's restaurant in Oxford, MI.

Monday, ahhh the girls are in school, Amy and Jeff at work so we thought we would head towards Birch Run and find a campground, and where our new rear view camera will be installed at. Thought it would be nice for Charley to make the ride. She loves to go with us, so, off we went. Found the R.V. Fix it shop and the campground. Great!! The R.V. Service center has us down for repair on the 16th. And shown as "waiting". Golly, does that mean we are on a wait list instead of an actual appointment? No that means we will be waiting for the repair to be done. The campground is very nice, they tell us we shouldn't need a reservation.

Birch Run has a huge outlet mall and I don't want to let an opportunity to shop go by, so after a quick lunch off I go to shop while Tom and Charley wait in the car. Not much I wanted....so I didn't buy much! The Birch Run Outlet Mall is getting closer to a Ghost Town Mall every time we come back to Michigan. Then it was back home to Addison Oaks taking yet a different route. When we finally arrive home, Tom starts washing the car (really dusty) and we get a call from Jeff.....Amy came home sick, could we come and take Maggie to her softball game? It's after 5:00 we must get the soap off the car, race into town, pick her up and get her to the field before game start of 6:00! Forget about dinner...head out and go. We made it just in time for the 1st inning!! What a day!!!

Addison Oaks

Sunday the 29th. Was a quiet day. Just a great veg day. We did go into Lake Orion because Lindsay and Maggie were going to do a sleepover. We were just about to head out with the girls the sirens sounded and we were in a tornado watch. We all went down to the basement to wait out the storm. Afterwards two girls, Grandma and Grandpa all headed out to the park.

Monday Memorial day we invited the Lake Orion Milton family out to the county park where we have the motorhome. Our picnic was the usual stuff for holiday meals, hot dogs, hamburgers, macaroni salad, chips and can't forget the watermelon. But best of all was the wonderful time we had with our kids and grandkids. What a nice time. Amy's boss Ann and family were also camping at the park so we got to meet them.

Tuesday was a day to recoup, after the cook-out and having grandchildren out. But we took it easy and we looked forward to Wednesday.

Wednesday, we left early for Port Huron. Our friends Peg and Bill Heine just purchased a new condo in town last fall. We always look forward to at least one day, when we are in the area, to spend with them. Their new home is lovely, looks out on the Blue Water Bridge and the St. Clair River where it starts Lake Huron. Lovely home and sights. After lunch it was relaxing just

looking at the view.....then we stayed for dinner before heading home to the RV. Charley went with us for the day and she had a great time. New smells and green grass.

Thursday we headed to Sommerset Mall for a get together with LuAnn and Don Houseman. We meet for lunch at J. Alexanders and then went shopping. I did buy an ornament for my bracelet and Tom made a purchase at the Apple store. Then we left and went our own way. Another great day....just visiting old friends.