Leaving MI - Into Wisconsin

Yes we just couldn't resist stopping. With a picture like this how could we? That is Bill and John, by the way. It was an interesting tour by the way. Took about 45 minutes and we got to wear raincoats and hard hats. That made a pretty picture, but I got paid off not to publish them.
It was a pretty drive from the "Soo" to Iron Mt. across the U.P.

We are staying in a PP campground here in Two Rivers. It is a very nice area and close to the pennisula. We drove the pennisula one day and it was very touristy, but the cherry season was on and Bill, Marilyn and John all got sick tasting cherries. I had no idea there was so many ways to fix them.
On the way home we spotted a lady selling corn and tomatoes! Had to make a u-turn and was it worth it. She said her grandfather had grown the tomatoes $1.50 lb (worth every bite). As it turned out the corn was very good, also.


This is Lake Superior, in the distance is the town of Manitowoc about 5 miles from 2 rivers. They (whoever they are) have made a wonderful sidewalk that follows the coast of the lake and also made beach access.
This is John enjoying the view of the lake.

My planning on this part of the trip hasn"t been successful. We were going to watch the Packers practice today and didn't discover until yesterday that they have MOnday off!. A bakery that had tours, quit them in Jan. Kholer faucet factroy has a tour, but is 3 miles long! Didn't mention that in the book.
But the park we are in is right by the West River and it is very inviting to just sit by it and enjoy the sunsets.
We try the Packers tomorrow (Tuesday), but Brett Fauve is suppose to be there, so we might not get w/in 3 miles of the place. Then Wednesday we move to Milwaukee for 3 days.
Will let you know about the Packer odyssey(had to ask John to spell that one).

2nd Part of Tour of the Lighthouses

This is Whitefish Point lite house and the least attractive. There was a museum here that showed a lot of wrecked ships. This point saw more wrecks than any other place in the 5 lakes. Congestion, storms, smoke were 3 of the causes.










This lite house is Crisp Point. VERY remote. I had already warned John there might be some dirt or gravel roads. But this far exceeded dirt. More like mud (we all know how he feels about mud) holes. Of course it had stormed the night before. But was that my fault?

Anyway they have volunteers that man this litehouse and I must say I admire them. This week-end was a family in a pop-up tent. One of the boys said there was to be a wedding there next week-end.



Can you imagine going on this road for (it seemed like 40) 8 miles and then parking for maybe 4 cars at the likehouse?








We really laughed when we came to this, as the tracks you see are 4 wheelers. We did see boxes for telephones, but didn't see electric poles. Maybe all underground.
That is the fun in these trips, never know what you will see and if you will get out alive.
Will probably watch the cargo ships the next couple of days, that is how long it will take John to get all the mud off the suv

Lighthouse Tour

I have had more trouble with this darn blog. If you see pictures w/o descriptions, I don't know why. It seems to have a mind of its own

Anyway we went lighthouse touring Saturday. Very interesting places and remote. I have no idea what pictures you will seeing. I tried to delete these that you see, as I was experimenting. So you may see every picture I took! Hopefully not, but the way this day has been going, there are lots of gremlins in here. (That is what I get for not going to church ... instead did TV)



Our first stop was Point Iroquois, it had a display of living quarters of the 50's, it was fun remembering that we had some of those things in our house also.
These are our friends Bill and Marilyn traveling with us. Of course they may not anymore after this day. I said it would be about 140 miles to see 3 lighthouses roundtrip and it turned out to be 230 .





This litehouse was very well kept and in good shape. There is a society nonprofit that keeps these litehouses up.






There should be pictures of Whitefish Point and Crisp Point, but I don't see them. There are 2 pictures of a sailing brig and its crew. We were eating at a HB place (curb service!) and it went sailing by. It is owned by the commonwealth of Penn. It is a sailing school and ages 14 and above can sign on for 2-4 weeks. The time is 1800's and the info says the working of the shop under sail and the spartan living conditions onboard are authentic. The brig (not ship) is named the US Brig Niagara. I'm going to publish this and see what comes up. Hope it makes sense. If not, what else is new!

Our View of the "Soo" Ships

This is what we see on the St Marys river.

This shows how close we are when the ships go by
It is pretty awsome to sit behind the coach, drink coffee and wonder how on earth man can build a cargo ship 1000 ft long and then guide the thing down a river less than a mile wide. The locks are about 2 miles from here, we will go tomorrow and watch them go thru. Really I could sit and watch them all day.
There are about 6 or so every day. No time schedule, just all of a sudden you see them coming. That is another thing, they are very quiet.

More later

Satellite Fixed: Parked in 4 Sites in 2 Days

Here is John killing time waiting on the verdict for the satellite. After
2 hours came and told us found the problem and it would cost 150
dollars to fix it. Don't those people know us: that we will pay anything
to get our satellites up and going! ' Anyway it was repaired and was

heading home about 4. It worked perfectly on the way to the park, but
after we got into the park and all the trees we lost it. Parked in the
our friend told us he ALWAYS got it and we couldn"t. So stayed there for the night and tried another site, that looked promising, but to no avail. So finally went out in a field and it was good. After we got set up again, I went swimming. When I came back and went in the coach, the air conditioner sounded funny. So called John in and he looked at the meter and was in the red. So now we discovered we have a priority over the satellite ..... electricity.

So after the 4th try, here we are. We got really good (not that we weren't already) at getting ready to roll. It was almost as if we were practicing for a competition.
Also forgot to mention there is pickleball! We played yesterday and yes sored up. Took 2 aspirin for breakfast and was good to go. Sure have missed it.
Oh yes, finally got the awnings sewed. That is another story.
Later

Michigan Travels (or travails)

We left the CC rally Saturday morning early. Eight new coaches were sold and 26,ooo dollars was raised for the Cedar Rapids flood. I was surprised about the coaches, figured everyone was tightening up the purse strings because of high fuel. Wehad a good time at the rally especially seeing old friends.

When we left headed for Kalamazoo, MI. Michigan is a beautiful state, but getting there was a nightmare. Interstate 80 was horrible thru Iowa, Ill, Ind and Mi. There was a crash and when I checked it one of the bathroom lamps had (I guess) vibrated off and fell in the sink. When we got to the campground finished cleaning up the glass. Saturday night I went to bed at 9:00 (John kept telling me it was only 8). I didn't care if it was 6, I was so tired and sleepy. Rallys just wear me out ... I enjoy them, but all the sitting and going from seminar to home to seminar ....
Did I mention that we have no awing covers on the drivers side windows? They came apart while we were in Pigeon Forge. So have been looking for a repair place since then. Thought we had found one in Tx, John dropped them off one day, then a week later went by to pick them up and the guy hadn't even looked at them. So you can imagine how happy John was. I could tell whem he came out with them under his arm that something was unsatisfactory.
We are in a TT campground St Clair and it is pretty nice. Right off I=94, I thought it would be noisey, but not the case. Our friends Bill and Marilyn are here, we are going to travel up to Saulte St Marie (in futher posts that will THE SOO) together.
Oh yes forgot to mention that our satellite didn't work when we got to the TT campground and now we are sitting at a repair place getting it looked at. It costs 15o dollars up front to look at it and diagnose the problem. So far (from the way it looks) they have started the generator, turned on the air, left the front door open and left. So John went to check on THAT and was told that a gage that was needed to check the satellite is missing and they are looking for it. So John asked (politely I'm sure) if they could shut the gen and air off until they were working on it. They said "Oh sure!"
Will keep you posted on how THIS turns out.

Volunteering :Coming To A End

This is where we spend our time when we are on call. Check residents off as they come in to eat. If they haven't called that they aren't coming we call to see if they are ok.

This is the first thing you do when you come into the kitchen, then go get an apron.

Here is Joe (he is a paid worker) washing pots and pans. He also has a side job cutting hair. Great for the residents, there is a place in the Care Center building for a cutting chair and hair washing basin. I told him he gave me one of the best hair cuts I've ever had and he said he wanted it to be the best. First time he cut my hair, just as a conversation starter, I asked if he use to cut hair. He said " No, I just took it up a couple of years ago." My stomach did a flip as he said, "Does that make you nervous". But by that time I realized he knew he was doing. Come to find out he was a barber for 48 years and taught. Wonderful razor cuts.

We will be leaving the July 1 and we are ready. A month is about long enough as you are on the go most of the time. We have enjoyed it very much ..... the residents and the other workers. We will do it again .

We looking forward to being on the road again. We are going to NW Arkansas for 4 days and then head for Iowa to a rally. The rally site is untouched by the floods, but the rally people decided our charity giving would be for the surrounding area. After the rally we will head for MI.
We wish everyone a safe and wonderful fourth of July!

BIRTHDAYS

There is a milestone coming up this month. On the 20th our daughter turns 45!! As I told her it seems as if her dad and I should be that age, and she should be in her 20's. You know looking at that picture of John, he really hasn't changed a bit. He is exactly 20 years and 2 days older than her. Yes the month of June if pretty full. Father's Day - John's birthday - and then (everyone is always tired of them by the time we get to me) it is my birthday. By the way, that is Dave with what is left of his quilt, you can just barely see it. It started out about the size of a crib quilt. By this time it had been burned, washed about a million times and drug all over country. His birthday was in Jan on the 20th of 1962.

Notice the socks, other wise it doesn't look too pitiful. I always think how pitiful I look in the old pictures, I say pitiful, because I always think I was in style. Trice was a BIG baby, almost 9 lbs.

I've always loved this picture, it is so sweet (she will probably kill me). It was about Sept. or Oct when this was taken.
I'm writing this on Saturday evening as we have on call. That is staying the day room all day by the phone so if someone needs help, we are just a phone call away. I dislike this duty .... give me dishes to wash, or laundry to do any day. There just isn't enough to do. We are either very busy or very idle. The head of volunteers is still tweaking the schedule. We are gradually learning everyones name, by the time we get it down it will be time to leave.
There is a resident here that has Alzimers and she was working a puzzle one day. Finally she refused to do any more, said she was not getting paid to do it! She and her husband (he's ok) are retired Air Force Majors. As one volunteer said, you never know when you will be like them.
So on that note, I quit.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRICE ..... WE LOVE YOU, mom and dad

VOLUNTEER WORK

Here is John doing what we do 90 percent of the time. Either washing trays or cleaning up pots and pans that have been used in cooking lunch or dinner. They have a big meal at lunch and smaller meal at dinner time.

John and I are getting ready to dump a pan that the corned beef had been cooked in. The meal was cabbage, corn beef, boiled potatoes, salad, angel food cake w/strawberries and cool whip topping. You can't really eat all meals here as you would be so big, couldn't get in the door! Especially since no pickleball playing available, not even a tennis court.





This is the cook on the left Terry is her name, then Doris a volunteer who lives here all the time. Terry is a great person who loves all the residents. She is so good and patient w/them.







There is a resident here that is in a motorized chair. He can't go in the building anymore since he used to run into the other residents all the time. We also can't open the front doors any earlier than 7:20 because of him. So you see him every morning at 7 waiting for the doors to open. Also the automatic door can't be turned on until then because he used to make it bang against the lock for several minutes by breaking the automatic line ..... all because he wanted in. I could see how that would be aggrivating, but really all I see is a lonely old man who has no family and would like some attention and that is the only way to get it is to annoy everyone.
I have done fairly well about getting into trouble myself, I mean to say haven't gotten into trouble. The worst thing I did (so far) was give the cooks lunch away. A lady came up late after we had finished serving and wanted to know if we had her to go box lunch ready. I looked around and saw one sitting on the cabinet and gave it to her. Later as I was doing trays I heard the cook say what happened to my lunch box! She was looking everywhere for it, so I told her what I had done and she said that was MINE. Anyway she wasn't angry for long as the lady I gave it to: she and her husband are having a lot of physical problems.

Tomorrow is laundry for me. They still haven't hired anyone to do it. One man applied for the job, but said he had to have hip surgery in 2 weeks and then he could. Now why on earth would anyone apply for a job where you have to bend, lift and stand on your feet for 4 hours and getting ready to have surgery? Suppose to interview 2 this week.
Probably won't publish much more for awhile unless I do something really disastrous. The weather is just like we like it. Hot and Humid. 95 today with 65% humidity and a nice breeze.

ESCAPEES CARE CENTER

Monday June 2 - 08

This is a really nice building for the residents of Care. In the background you can see the rigs where people stay in their rigs while being taken care of at the center. We got here Thursday, the directer said park your rig (temporarily), take it easy etc. So we did that, then wandered over about 4 to observe how things were done. We didn't get home until about 9 and have been "observeing" ever since. Two of the volenteers are sick, the man we talked to before coming, resigned (no we haven't been long enough to cause that), so has been a mild form of chaos. Yesterday was suppose to our day off, John went over to get some sheets for info and I didn't seen him for 2 hours. I finally went over to see what was going on and he was making salad. Said someone didn't show up and only 2 people in the kitchen and he was helping. We didn't get home until 8:30.

I seen another rig has driven up (hopefully another set of volunteers) headed for the volunteer sites. The sites are at the back of the building.
So far we have met a couple of real characters. Will describe them more later. So far we have mostly been washing trays (me) and John does the pots and pans. I enjoy doing that, in fact being in the kitchen is a little foreign to me if I don't have a menu and directions on when to do each thing. Oh yes I forgot, John did get to mop last night.
Really we are enjoying it, and will enjoy it more (on Johns part) when it is more organized.

From Nashville to Livingston Trip

We spent 2 nights in this state (sort of) park . Very nice and peaceful, no cp or internet service. It has an excellent museum, full 50 amp hookups: 15 dollars per night. The river is within walking distance. Moreso when we were there as it was in flood stage as you can see below. Also the next picture shows what you need to live in if you live near the Ms River.



The site we parked on was a little short, of course we didn't discover til too late there were longer sites futher up in the campground.
Getting back to the museum, it is about the civil war and the history of the town of Grand Gulf. It does not exist anymore due to floods, yellow fever, and hurricanes. There were 2 places where the Rebels dug in, we toured one of them there on the grounds. Then had to drive a mile up the road to see the other one, called Fort Corbin. As you all know there are 2 things (both #1) that John hates mud and gravel roads. I was driving and out of the corner of my eye, I see Johns neck come up. (It was like 2 antenna came out of his head that said WARNING WARNING). He said.." Is that mud?" (of course it was, it had been raining for 3 days!) I said "looks like it, but it doesn't go very far" and kept driving.
Later we were talking about it and I described what I thought he looked like, and he said yeah, that was the pay back he got for all the times he drove by some store and then said "Oh did you want to stop". He said I plowed right thru the mud...... of course I didn't, I slowed to at least 20.
The Escapees Park is about 7 miles south of Livingston (pop 5800). We will start observing tomorrow and figure out how we are suppose to do things. Took a t.b. test today, first one we've ever had. Didn't even know it was still around. We are looking forward to getting started. I am real excited and John is a little tentitive. (He read the rules, I mean really read them and I scanned them) I told him, I'm sure they are not as strict as it reads.
Will keep you posted

GRADUATION!

Proud dad enjoying this milestone in their lives.

Proud grandparents enjoying her happiness

Waiting on evefryone to get thru taking pictures so we all can go eat!

This whole week-end was an eye opening experience. Truthfully I'm worn out. Had to dress up for 3 days, or I should say GOT to do it. I ventured out in heels for Bacc on Saturday, thinking I wouldn't have to walk very far. Boy did I pay for that. The Bacc was downtown Nashville in a Catholic church. The church looks very old, but they have taken very good care of it. In fact it is in the vicinity of Vanderbuilt collage. I couldn't remember Dave and Trices Bacc and Dave said his class voted not to have one. But don't thing the Catholic kids have that much voting power.
Dave came in on time Saturday night, went by to eat and then on to watch Kate's dance class perform. They were invited to do one of their routines in theater that was honoring women and their work. Got home late from that. Kate wanted to go eat breakfast with all the family and her favorite place ... yes downtown Nashville. (That was where the theater was) We are getting to know Nashvillle pretty well. Then home, showers and get dress up (one more time) . The guys looked pretty sharp. The ceremony was really good. The speaker was the head master and he did a agreat job. Talked about accepting failure and learning from it, to keep trying. He is leaving the school for a position in Liverpool, England. I know they hate to lose him.
Then it was picture time (again) and off to go eat. There were 10 of us and we headed for .... you guessed it downtown Nashville to eat at a Cheesecake Factory. It was very good first time for us at one of those. Of course it is one of Kates favorite. By the way the size of her class was 163 and the whole shooting match to get them graduated took about 2 hours. Not bad at all, also it was held at the Grand Ole Opery.
Dave left today (Monday) at6:20, so we left the coach at 5. Dave and I both told John to get us up about quarter of 5 ..... just enough time to get eyes open and clothes on.
Well I know you all are about worn out reading this, but wanted to share our experiences with you. Oh yes, I wanted to mention it was so wonderful to hear God and Jesus talked about all 3 days of these ceremonies!
We leave tomorrow headed for Livingston,Tx.