I have not done nearly as well this time keeping up with our daily happenings....usually I try to keep a log and then we have a record of each day, but I got a little lazy this time around. Ugh. So we'll enjoy the photos and I'll recreate the best I can.
Friday, August 25th we drove to Traverse City, MI. We stayed at the Traverse City KOA Holiday ($45 for my RVing friends) - nice park, huge lots and woodsy, just loved it there, so we stayed for a few days, enjoying some quiet time reading and relaxing with beautiful weather.
After setting up, we went into TC and ate Mexican - you know that's the first restaurant we look for everywhere we go. This had an unusual and awesome salsa! It was green, not TOO spicy, but a citrusy sweet, garlicky taste. Yum. I usually like the traditional salsas the best, but I ate more of this one this time.
On our way home, we stopped at a roadside vegetable stand, and WOW, look at the size of the zucchini and ! We ended up using it for several meals! We grilled it one time, sauteed it another time with squash and onions, and grilled again. Biggest I've ever seen! (and 3 for $1) - we only got one!
We purposely went to Leland, Mi on the recommendation of our friends, Kim and Sharon Adgate. They said we must go try the smoked fish, and it was yummy. What a quaint seaside town. So scenic and just a bit nippy, nice with a jacket, and the sunshine makes it all ok!
You won't believe how long I stood with my phone watching this beautiful butterfly, hoping he'd open his wings! He did a couple of times, but it was just a millisecond, and I'd miss it. Finally I caught him as he flew away.
Such a pretty little park!
Sleeping Bear Dunes.... nothing like the dunes in the Outer Banks that I was used to as a child, but still really cool. Lots of people hike the dunes, but not me, not this time, with my knee. It's been a little worse lately. I'm thinking I'll need to get an appt with Dr. Radnothy as soon as we get back home.
I kept asking Earl as we drove around, "Am I imagining it, or are we seeing tinges of fall color?" I'm thinking so....YAY!!
We toured several small towns during our day tour - Glen Arbor, Empire, Frankfort.... pretty little picturesque towns.
We got back late afternoon and still enjoyed a couple hours sitting outside reading. Check out the beautiful sky! This was taken from my chair looking up at the sky.
Tuesday we had a day of rest and Wednesday we headed out again - checking out Greater Traverse Bay (isn't it lovely?) and the Old Lighthouse.
This part of Michigan is famous for their cherries - here's one of many orchards we saw.
Chilly on the beach today but the beauty never gets old. No matter how cold it has been, we will almost always see SOMEbody IN the water! Brrrr they have be be native Michiganders.
This is Lake Michigan (actually the Greater Traverse Bay, to be more specific. I'm always amazed here with the Great Lakes looking so much like the ocean! And SOUNDS like the ocean with the waves coming in, etc.
We enjoyed touring the Old Mission Point Lighthouse, located at the northernmost tip of Old Mission Peninsula, north of Traverse City. What a picturesque drive to get there along M-37 through the cherry orchards and vineyards. They offer an opportunity to "Be a Keeper!" where you can volunteer there, live in the lighthouse, meet and greet people as they come and "man" the tours. Pretty cool! If you think you'd be interested in living in this gorgeous location right on the beach, check it out at www.missionpointlighthouse.com!
On our way home, this little roadside stand caught our eye, so we stopped and got APPLES! I wondered the other day if we wouldn't find apples here earlier than we do in NC in the fall, but this is the first time. They're actually pretty good, not my favorite, but still good, and we got some other vegetables and even fresh eggs!
Amid all this beauty, we keep seeing the photos from Houston, TX and it seems like a world away. How our hearts ache for all those dealing with the devastation of all this flooding there. At the same time, I'm so encouraged and inspired by Texans coming together and helping each other and the flocking of people from many states rushing there to just SERVE in any way needed, taking water and food and supplies. THIS is the America I know and love! We've contributed online but wow, I almost wish we'd been close enough to actually GO and see if we could help. But you have to give it to them - no place quite like Texas! God bless and provide!
Well this was a first! How nice to find this taped to our RV door when we got home this afternoon! Nice touch! Definitely a place to "come back to!"
I posted this on FB the day Earl wore this out - we always get really interesting reactions, almost all very positive (thumbs up, positive comments, and "where did you get that cool shirt?" etc., as well as the hat, of course. Guess it's pretty clear where we stand. ha
Today is September 1st - wow, time is moving right along, and the good times continue. We drove to Gaylord, MI today, staying at the Gaylord KOA Holiday ($65 for my RV friends) on a deluxe site with patio, glider, picnic table, grill, etc. and looking forward to a few good days of sunshine. It's starting to really cool down, but as long as the sun shines we're good.
We went in to eat at El Rancho tonight, and had the best shrimp quesadilla I've had since Los Tacos at home!
I snapped these two photos and texted them to Sheila and Orlan - we never eat Mexican but what we talk about our besties, wishing they were here with us!
GAME DAY! We stayed home all day - read and relaxed outside, and got ready to watch the Gator game. With 10 players suspended, we weren't terribly hopeful, and as we pretty much expected, Michigan pulled it out. Earl said we're in a bad location to be Gator fans. haha Actually Earl is the fan - I couldn't really care less, but it was kind of fun to watch the game from our camping chairs. I mostly read, in between the distractions of him yelling at the TV.
We met some interesting people this afternoon, who saw our FL tags and Earl's shirts, so they came over to chat and they're from Lake Mary, FL! Small world! Such nice people! They've spent the summer here as work campers - I've always heard about that but never knew how it works. They do it every summer. Last year they were in Idaho. They work from Memorial Day to Labor Day - get free parking, etc. and work as needed, but she said never more than a couple of hours a day, so they still get lots of free time to sightsee and relax. Not bad.
On the chilly side today, but nice for the game, and hot chocolate to drink while watching... We grilled out later and just enjoyed the day!
Monday, we went to explore Petoskey. Again, a beautiful scenic drive and another really pretty town! This is the park downtown on the water with beautiful walking trails and picturesque spots. This is Bayfront Park along Little Traverse Bay (off Lake Michigan). We drove all around Little Traverse and Harbor Springs.
We met a delightful couple who recently moved up here from Ohio. They were just enthralled with all our travels and said it's their dream to RV the country like we have. They said we had inspired them to "make it happen!" Cool.
Here we are at Magnus Park, where we searched for the famous Petoskey stones.
I have several friends who are into rock painting - I am about to be inspired to give it a whirl. Wow, the abundance of really smooth rocks here was just amazing.
I love the water here! Can you see the color variation - so clear and pale near the shore and then turns into an almost navy color farther out? So beautiful!
YAY! Earl found a great one!
Downtown Petoskey.... I looked for a necklace made of Petoskey stones, but they are PRICEY!! I'm thinking I'll buy a polishing kit and then make my own. I'll have to keep you posted on that.
We enjoyed a late lunch at City Park Grill. This is the oldest building in Petoskey, and Ernest Hemingway used to hang out here. We're told he used to sit at the 2nd barstool at the bar and write....writings that would eventually become world famous. Pretty cool.
We shared a yummy cheeseburger AND...Earl got poutine! He loves this stuff, and I had a couple of bites. Pretty good! This was shredded BBQ pork over french fries and cheese curds and gravy! hmmm
Then we continued our drive along the water to our left and on our right were beautiful farms!
This is the "Tunnel of Trees".....
Lookie lookie! Fall's just around the corner!
Monday, Sept 4th was Labor Day, and it was dreary and rainy all day long, so we just hunkered down and enjoyed reading. I do love the sunshine, but once in a while, I actually like a cool, rainy day to get some serious reading done!
Tuesday we drove over to Brighton to explore one of the reputed top 50 downtowns in America. Check out some of the more obvious changing colors on the trees. So cool to watch this - we can tell a difference almost every day!
We took a drive out to the Island Recreation Park - very pretty drive....
When we realized how close we were to our friends Gary and Charlene Coomer, we contacted them, knowing it was short notice, but we have no idea when we'll get to see them again, so they cleared their schedule and met us for dinner Wednesday night. I just realized Char texted me a photo our server took, but I forgot to transfer it from my phone to my laptop, so this is just one that Earl took of the 4 of us just before we left. We so hated saying goodbye to these two. We just love them to pieces and will miss them like crazy!
Tomorrow we leave to drive to Shelby, Ohio. Our plans were to spend Friday with more dear friends, Jane and Bob Rule, old friends from Port St. Lucie. However....best laid plans.....with Hurricane Irma looming, they had to fly back to FL to secure their house there, so we'll miss them, but we plan to drive over and see their farm, anyway, even though they won't be there.
Then Saturday we'll leave Shelby for Louisville, KY, where Lisa is supposed to fly up and spend a few days, but again with Irma changing all our plans, it looks doubtful that she'll be able to come. We anticipate all flights out of Orlando will likely be canceled.
Our hearts are with all our family and friends in Florida right now. This looks like a massive monster storm, and it's hard with all the media hype not to be scared of it, but we keep praying like Hurricane Matthew, God may just turn Irma around and put her out to sea!
I'm so grateful for good friends. Our friends at home, Dean and Ada Miklos are going over to secure our house as much as possible. We have never gotten shutters for this house (we'd had nice acrylic see-through shutters for our house in Park Place, but now they'll be protecting the buyers of our old house.) But they secured all our outdoor furniture, took down umbrellas, and got everything as secure as they could. So grateful to them. I'm a little concerned being right on the lake with the potential high winds, but hey, we know no matter what happens, God will be with us. Please join us in prayer for our family who is right there in the center of the state. It's supposed to be the safest place in Florida for hurricanes, but some predictions have Irma coming right up the center of the state, and she is so HUGE, we just don't know what to expect. But our thoughts and prayers are with our family and friends there.
We'll catch y'all next time. Thanks for traveling along with us.
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