trip # 12

Good morning.
Recapping the previous week.....
The work week ended very busy, with us leaving early on Friday for one of our last weekend trips of the season.
This trip took us back to Indiana Dunes State Park. On Lake Michigan, about 10 miles south of Michigan City Indiana.
The weather wasn't the best. We drove down with gusty winds, and it was windy all weekend, including the drive back. But, we got there safe, arrived home safe, and without incidence.
The weather wasn't a big issue, since this was our casino weekend. From the park, we are with-in a 30 minute drive to 4 casinos. And over the weekend, we hit them all. When all was said and done, we came home with over 3/4th of our gambling budget. Not bad, a good value for the entertainment.
We started out Friday afternoon, after arriving at the campground, we headed a short drive into Michigan City, and the Blue Chip Casino. Here, we spent a couple of hours playing the slots. Left with Craig up a tiny bit, and me down a little. Headed to the truck stop by the highway and got Popeye's chicken for dinner. Was delish! After a cozy night in the mo-ho, we headed over to Gary Indiana, where 2 casinos sit with-in a few blocks of each other, the Majestic Star, and Ameristar. We did one, had lunch, and then the other, taking a break to watch some football, where our Sparty's beat Michigan. Left for the campground with me up quite a bit, and Craig down some.
Had turkey kielbasas for dinner.
Sunday, we awoke to more wind and this time rain also. We headed out toward the Four Winds Casino, about 25 miles north, just across the Michigan border. This is one of the largest, nicest casino's in the area, and it was busy. They must be doing good, as they are adding a large hotel expansion. It's probably form all the money they're wringing out of customers, as we both did poorly there. So it was lunch at the Stray Dog in New Buffalo, and back to the Blue Chip Casino.
There, I got lucky and hit a couple of small jackpots, while Craig's bad luck continued. But like I said, when all was said and done, we didn't do too bad over all. :-)
Back at the campground, we relaxed with cocktails and the Sunday paper. Dinner was delicious sirloin steaks on the grill with potatoes and grilled carrots.
Monday morning, we packed up, dumped, and arrived home early afternoon.
It was another good trip. :-)

Our Ft Wayne trip

Good morning.
I've just returned from cleaning the Salon, since I wasn't in town Sunday. :-)
After finishing an incredibly busy week on Friday afternoon, we headed out with the mo-ho down I-69 south about 2 1/2 hours to the city of Ft Wayne, In.
Here we stayed at the Johnny Appleseed campground.
This campground is run by the city parks dept. and is located right in the city on the St Mary's River. The site had 50 amp electric and water at the site for only $18 a night.
We had a spacious pull thru site. We arrived near dinner time, set up, and decided to have an easy dinner. Since we were right in the city, we drove a few blocks to KFC for some tasty chicken. There was to be no campfire that evening due to too much wind. It was also a very cold weekend with highs in the mid 50's to near 6o.
Saturday we awoke to 44 out, but were nice and warm in our mo-ho. The campground was mostly rv's, but there were 3 tenters. Now they are true campers. :-)
We headed out with our coffee's to the South side Farmers Market, where we picked up some taters, peppers, and carrots to go with one of our meals, and we also found in their flea market section a carafe to replace one we had broken. When we travel, we like to support the local economy. :-)
Then we headed downtown to the Headwaters Park for the Ft Wayne Chilifest.


For $5 we got to try numerous chili's as much as we wanted. We received 5 tickets to use to vote for our favorites. After trying all the different chili's we went back an retryed some of our favorites. We settled on 2 that we liked and did our voting.

Back at the campground, with the sun out, we took a walk along the river across from the campground.
With so much chili in our bellies, we opted for a lighter dinner of turkey kielbasa's.
Sunday morning greeted us to 41 out, but with the sun, it quickly rose to 58. :-\
The event of the day, was Brickworld. A Lego extravaganza!



I'm not into Lego's, but there are people very passionate about them and theses displays showed that. It was a very interesting day, looking at all the different Lego creations.


They even did portraits with Lego's!

They did an amazing job recreating the worlds famous skyscrapers.
All of these things were made with those tiny little Lego blocks. For the rest of the 30 some pics if your interested, see my webshots album here.
Then it was lunch time and we went to a place called Granite city Food and Brewery. I had a tasty Buffalo Chalupa, and Craig had the Prosciutto Olive Flatbread Pizza. They were very good!
Then on the way back to the campground, we took a stop at the historic Ft Wayne.
This was a replica of the fort that stood here. Glad I didn't live back during those times. :-)
Then back at the campground, we took a short hike over to the namesake of the park, Johnny Appleseed's grave site.

It sits on a hill that now overlooks the Ft Wayne Coliseum.

And if you look closely, on the right, behind the solid fence is the campground, and next to it, some of the parking lot for the Coliseum which is off to the distance on the right. So our campground was truely in the city. Made for an easy drive to everything.
For dinner, we had pork cutlets on the grill with grilled tater's, carrots and peppers. Delish!
Monday morning, we broke camp, and arrived back in Lansing just after noon. We got there safe, we arrived home safe, and no incidences. It was a very good trip. :-)

trip #8, they're going fast!

Good morning.
The beach pic in the previous post was from Hoffmaster State park. Just a few miles south of Muskegon.
We did just a short 2 niter there. My Mom's birthday is coming up, and I spent Sunday with her. So we went up on Saturday after work, and came home on Monday. I cut her hair, did a few chores for her and took her to Applebee's for lunch followed by the VFW. We had a nice day. Later back at the campground, Craig and I went down to the beach. They had just put up the red flag, but the swimmers didn't seem to care. The waves were pretty high, but without a lifeguard on the beach, people still went into the water. It was nice to relax, sit in the sun, and people watch.
Monday morning, we packed up, dumped, and made it back home safely.
The one incident I mentioned yesterday was on the way to Muskegon. Our mo-ho has a 3 piece front grill. The passenger side section has been loose every since we bought the mo-ho back in 2005. I had wired it in place, and it did okay until this trip. We were going down the highway through a section of rough road, when we heard this noise as if we had run over something, except we hadn't seen anything on the road. We drove until the next exit, pulled off, and got out to see.....
We'd lost that passenger section of grill.
We decided it wasn't worth the time to go back and search for it. It was several miles, and we weren't sure exactly when it happened.
Well, on the way home, we decided to loop around and drive back down that stretch and see if we could possibly find it.
It was a nine mile loop back, and we didn't see a thing. We saw a lot of stuff,but not the grill piece. It might have tumbled down the bank into tall grass, or someone may have seen it on the side of the road and stopped to get it.
Anyway, back home, I e-mailed Newmar to see if it was possible to get a replacement. They promptly e-mailed back, and I'd have to order the entire front grill, and it would cost $509.00 plus shipping. For some reason, even though the entire front bumper cap is fiberglass, these grill pieces are heavy metal. Shipping will be expensive.
Craig said we'll think about it. He has other ideas that may work. I'm not so sure, but we'll see. :-)
Now, I'm going out to clean up the mo-ho for the next trip before I need to get Craig up at 8 for his 9am physical.

another trip

Good afternoon.
We've just returned from our latest weekend trip.
here's a pic of the beautiful beach. Can you guess where we're at? hehehe
We did have a nearly major incident, but got lucky.
Details tomorrow morning!

the train museum, car show, medeivel times, and trip #7

Good morning.
Sorry for the late post, but I got up late, cleaned the Salon, and was time to get Craig up.

Our trip took us all the way to Union Illinois. A small town northwest of Chicago. Me met our friends from Wisconsin, Tom and Dean. The reason for this destination was correctly guessed by mark, The Illinois Train Museum. The largest collection of train and train related stuff in the country. Dean is quite the train buff, and was eager to go here.
Instead of leaving our usual Friday afternoon, we decided to leave bright and early sat Morning. We thought the traffic around Chicago wouldn't be as bad Saturday late morning, as it might late Friday afternoon. We were right! A fairly easy drive, about 6 hours. Stopped halfway for a little lunch and a road break. I drove the entire way, and it went smoothly. We arrived, set up and visited with Tom and Dean whom arrived the day earlier.
That evening we had tickets to the Medieval Times dinner show.
The pics aren't very good due to the low light, and me not being very camera savvy. :-)

It was a very entertaining show! Decent food and plenty of it. The horses were beautiful, and the 2 hour show was fun. The crowd was 'divided' amongst 6 knights who battled through various challenges. Of course, our knight was defeated. :-(
Sunday morning, Dean fixed us breakfast, and then it was off to the main attraction, The Illinois Train Museum.
This place was ginormous! An amazing collection of engines, cars and accessories of the by-gone eras.
Craig was trying to get me to take a picture. It wasn't suppose to be of him...:-)

The sleeping cars were so tight and cramped, it was impossible to get pics of them.

Of course, Craig was much more interested in the massive car show they had there that weekend.
So, we wandered around, looked at a bunch of stuff, decided we'd seen way more trains than we cared to so we left Tom and Dean to take in everything else while we left and went and got the Sunday paper and some groceries.
Back at the campsite, we relaxed with afternoon beverages and read the paper. When Tom and dean returned, they decided to cook some of the Koegel Hotdogs we brought from Michigan. They can't get them in Wisconsin. They served them with a tasty homemade chili sauce and corn on the cob. It was good.
Monday was a shopping day for Tom and Dean. They live in a very small town in the middle of no where, so shopping is limited. They were here to get their shopping fix.
Dean once again fixed us breakfast and then we parted, them heading toward IKEA, us toward Elgin, Ill and the casino. ;-)
This trip, Craig won, and I lost. We really need to get on the same winning page here. ;-)
Then to an RV dealer we saw off the highway. Always fun to look at new mo-hos. ;-)
Fortunately, we didn't see any we had to have. :-)
Then, it was lunch and an outlet mall. We didn't find anything there to spend money on either. :-)
Back at the mo-ho, we loaded the car, and did some site prep for an early Tuesday morning departure, which was a good thing since a series of storms moved through the area through out the afternoon. During the rain, I played on the puter and Craig read the paper.
Tom and Dean returned later and they had found some good buys.
For dinner, they cooked a delicious beef roast which they cut into strips and served on buns.
We watched a movie together and headed to bed.
Tuesday morning, I finished breaking camp, and we said our good-byes. I tried to dump at our site, but the macerator pump whined weird and wouldn't pump. Craig thought something might be plugging it and we should try to dump at the dump station. I had doubts, but at the dump station, it worked fine.
The drive home was even easier than coming. Not nearly as much traffic. We stopped for a late breakfast at one of the service centers and returned home around 3pm. We got there safe, returned home safe, and everything functioned properly.
It was another good trip!
And if your interested in the rest of the so-so pics click here for Medieval times, and here for the train museum.

another trip

Good afternoon.
Yep! My lack of posting means we were on another weekend trip.
here's a couple of pics of the places we went. Any guesses? :-)

More about the trip in the morning....

weekend trip #6

Good morning.
This past weekends trip took us to a campground between the cities of Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo.
We arrived Friday afternoon, driving through a horrendous rain storm. But the storm had past by the time we got to the campground, so the set-up was easy. We took a walk around the campground to find it about 2/3 full. The park sits next to the Kalamazoo river, which is popular for boating. The river is still closed from the oil spill a year earlier. They estimate only about 10% of the oil has been recovered. The rest is sitting at the bottom of the river in various stretches. That may be why the campground wasn't full.
Anyway, we fixed turkey sausages for dinner and watched a couple of DVDs. No campfires this trip. 90 is too hot for a fire, although many campers had one.
I awoke Saturday morning to another rain storm. Thunder and lightening all over the place. Decided to put down the antenna. Just in case. By the time I woke up Craig, it was over. Had our coffee walk, and headed out to the MSU Bird Sanctuary on a nearby lake between us and Kalamazoo.

It was a really beautiful setting, with a large assortment of birds eager to get some of the corn they sell you when you come in.
The birds of prey they have are in small pens scattered through the park.
After that, it was off to the Taste Of Kalamazoo. We were quite impressed with the number of restaurants and the entertainment they had. We've been to the grand daddy of tastes, the Taste of Chicago, and this was every bit as good if not better. The food seemed expensive at first. Tickets were $.50 each and most things were 8 tickets. But we soon discovered that these were full size portions! I had some tasty ribs and a fried oyster sandwich, Craig gobbled down a beef tip wrap, and a beef burrito. Washed it all down with some beer, and to the sounds of live entertainment. A very nice afternoon. As the sky again darkened, we headed back to the campground, arriving just before another round of rain.
We finished the evening with cocktails, snacks and DVDS.
Sunday morning, I went for a bike ride, since it was a nice cool 73 out. :-) Came back, took a shower, woke Craig up, and had our coffee walk. Back at the campsite, fixed us breakfast of eggs, toast, and vegi sausage links. We really like these vegi products. Good texture and taste considering they're not meat. We use Morning Star brand.
Anyway, after breakfast we decide to get a little gambling fix. Fire Keepers casino is just a few miles down the highway. There, we spent a couple of hours, Craig losing as usual and me winning. Came out about even all together. We stopped at a Meijer store for ingredients for a pasta salad Craig was going to make for dinner. Back at the campground we decided to go to the beach. They have a nice lake inside the park.

Even with a rainy weekend, you can see how dry it's been here in Michigan.

We brought our camp chairs, relaxed on the beach reading the Sunday paper, and people watching. Back at the camp site, I helped Craig prepare the pasta salad, and as it 'rested', we went for a walk. They were talking of possible severe storms for during the night, so we broke down camp, taking down the lights, and rolling up the awning. I grilled chicken thighs and legs to go with the pasta salad. We finished the evening with more DVDs.
Monday morning, I went for another bike ride, and then strapped them back on the bike rack. Cleaned the grill and stored it away. Took my shower, woke Craig up, made him coffee, finished preparing the mo-ho for the trip home, and we arrived around noon. Another good trip!

trip #4

Good morning.
We've just returned from another weekend trip. This one took us to Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan about 10 miles south of Michigan City Indiana.
And finally, we had an entire beautiful weekend! We left Lansing Friday afternoon with sprinkles in the air, but they gave way to sun as we arrived. Saturday morning, we planned to go into Chicago, but the weather was soo nice we thought of just hanging around the park. Then I watched the morning news to see the Dan Ryan expressway, (which is the main highway into the city) was backed up for miles due to a bad accident. That cinched it. We would stay in the park.
We went for our morning coffee walk, and then a bike ride. Decided we need supplies for dinner and ended up doing lunch in Michigan City at a place called Matey's. A multi level decked restaurant with a nautical theme. Many bar food, but was good and a nice view from the upper deck. back at the campground, we took a hike through the back woods of the dunes. Then we relaxed and enjoyed the great weather. Dinner was kielbasa's on the grill, and then a campfire. Sunday morning, after our coffee walk, I made us breakfast of eggs, toast, and Morning Star Farm sausage patties. Craig and I are big meat eaters and we are trying to cut back a bit. Morning Star Farm makes a variety of meatless choices. Most are really quite good!
Then we decide to go to the outlet mall. Craig discovered during our hike the day before, his ankle was hurting. Turns out the rigid plastic liner in the back of the shoe had worn through the liner. He needed new shoes. We stopped at the Nike store and they had a real good sale. Besides good prices to start, they had a buy 1 get 1 half off. So guess what, I got a new pair also!
Back at the campground we biked down to the beach. The beach trail is still closed. More about that later. The beach was busy, and we sat and enjoyed the sun and the people watching.
Back at the mo-ho, Craig made a pasta salad for dinner. While it 'rested' we did another easy hike. Then I grilled some pork cutlets to have with the salad. Another campfire, and a breaking down of the campsite for an early morning departure. Monday, was cloudy and breezy. I saw on the early news, rain heading in. I woke up Craig extra early, (7am) and we got going. Managed to load the car caddy and car, dump the tanks and hit the highway as the early sprinkles turned into a steady rain. We made it home by noon, and the rain followed us later. But we made it there and back with only a minor issue. When we went to plug in the tow lights, I discovered 2 of the 3 prongs had broken off into the connector, so they wouldn't work. We decided to go with out since the car caddy had lights and the tow lights were just an extra safety precaution.
So all in all, a good trip! Back home, I cleaned out the mo-ho while Craig did laundry and bookwork. With gas prices dropping, (we filled up at $3.35) we saved $35.00 over the previous trip, and $60.00 over our 2nd trip. Lets hope they keep going that way. :-)
And now, I'm off to clean the Salon.....

trip #3 Ludington State Park

Good morning.
Like I said earlier, we've just returned from our 3rd trip of the season.
This one took us to Ludington State park on the shores of Lake Michigan. The campground is very popular as it sits right between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake. And although it was a cold wet weekend again, the campground was full.
We arrived Friday, driving most of the way in rain, but it finally stopped before we arrived and was able to get set-up. As has become a tradition of sorts with our camping trips, we headed into town for our first meal of the weekend, KFC. :-)
Back at the mo-ho, we took a quick walk around to see the campground nearly full. With a low around 45, and a high only mid 50's, we saw many tenters. Now there are some dedicated campers. At this point in my life, I prefer to have our heated condo on wheels. :-)
Saturday morning, we awoke to rain pounding on the mo-ho roof. I love the sound of rain. I wonder if the tenters do also. :-)
Now what do you do when your camping and it's raining? Yep, your right, head to the nearest casino! Which in this case happened to be the Little River Casino in near-by Manistee, Michigan. Just a short 20 minute drive. And this time, I actually left with more money than I went in with. :-) Now of course, we both didn't win. Poor Craig, he just won't listen to me. He was way up on 1 machine, and I said time to take and move on, but he sat there and piddled it all back in. From there we decide to have lunch in downtown Manistee. We like supporting the local businesses, because like most towns, there's a lot of closed business here too. We had a nice lunch and headed back to the campground, where it had actually got a bit better out. No rain, but still cold. We bundled up and took a walking tour of the 3 campgrounds. We like to see what types of rv's there are besides us. The biggest mo-ho we saw was a Phaeton by Tiffin. Looked to be 40 ft with 4 slides. Nice! After our walk, we returned to the mo-ho for dinner and movies.
Sunday morning was pretty nice. Finally sunny, though cool. 52 out, but we bundled up and went for our morning coffee walk. Then we decided to go on a hike. We've done the light house hike, the skyline hike before, so this time we chose the lost lake hike. Here's some pics from that one...

The hike made us hungry, so into town we went to eat at James Street Brewery. We've eaten here on previous trips. It's a neat old building, and they have very good food. I had an Asian Salmon Sandwich with a tasty Asian barbecue sesame sauce. Yum! Craig had a beef and Cheddar that looked good also.

Then we got the Sunday paper, and back to the campground. Later, we went for a bike ride to see how many people had left. Usually, by Sunday afternoon, the campgrounds are pretty empty, as most campers go on the weekends, but this one filled right back up by evening. This is a popular park!

With a late lunch, we decided on kielbasas for dinner.

Monday morning had us breaking camp, and heading back to Lansing. It is normally about a 3 hour drive, but the trip back was delayed by an accident, (by time we got to the actual site, it had been cleaned up)and 2 different construction zones. So a little more than 4 hours. But that's why we try and leave early.

So, we got there and back without any issues. Another good trip. :-)

trip #2

Good afternoon.
We've just returned from our 2nd trip of the season.
The weather again wasn't the best. Cooler than normal temps only in the mid 50's and mostly cloudy. But at least we weren't in a tent. :-) And there were a few tenters in the campground.
This trip took us 200 miles north to Young State Park on beautiful Lake Charlevoix.

That weekend was Boyne City's Morel Tastefest.
Does everyone know what a morel is? It's a special mushroom that for some reason can't be grown commercially and can only be found this time of year. I understand they can be found across
most of the country, but grow mainly in certain soil types.
Anyway..... we left Lansing around noon on Friday and headed north. Part way up I let Craig drive. I usually drive all our trips. He doesn't like driving the big guy, but he knows he needs to once in a while, especially on longer trips when I need a break. Of course, while he was driving, the jacks down warning siren went off nearly causing him to lose control. But he got the mo-ho safely stopped on the shoulder of the highway. I turned on the hydraulic jack pad and saw the light showing the front passenger jack wasn't up. I pushed the store button, and the light went out instantly. I don't know what caused the alarm to go off, the jack wasn't down, but obviously wasn't making contact with a sensor that says it's up. So, Craig was happy to get me back driving. :-)We arrived at the campground with no other issues. :-)
We reserved a nice pull-through site with a view of the Lake.
Got all set up, and ordered pizza from a place we found on the net, Spicy Bob's. An easy drive from the campground there and back. We got 2 med pizza's, a traditional beef and mushroom, and a specialty, philly cheese steak. The philly cheese steak was very good, the traditional, so-so. We finished the evening watching Toy Story 3.
Saturday....

I awoke to cloudy and cool, 53 out. Played on the puter for while. Then, went out and scrubed the bug guts off the front of the mo-ho. It looked as if we drove through a swarm . It was nasty!Went back inside and wrote part of this post on notepad to be published when we returned. I took my shower, and discovered a small stain by the skylight. That means we have a leak on the roof around the skylight seal. The stain wasn't wet, so it was an older stain. Probably from the heavy rains we got during April. When we get home, I'll have to get on the roof and reseal the skylight.By time I woke up lazy bones, it had started to rain. And it rained a-l-l day. Little did I know, 53 ended up being the high for the day. :-\

But, we had plans, and a little cold rain wasn't going to stop them. We bundled up, I made our coffee, grabbed the umbrellas, and off we went to the Morel Mushroom Festival. It was just a short 15 min drive from the campground to downtown Boyne City. They had an arts and craft show, a farmer's market, and a carnival, besides the big tent for the Morel Mushroom Taste Fest. We wandered the grounds and Craig bought some cherry apple salsa.

Craig wanted one of these ugly large carved mushrooms and I said don't even think about it. he said it would look good in my shade garden. I said don't even think about it.

Then we went into the big tent for the tasting.
They had numerous area restaurants serving Morel infused dishes. We ended up trying, the Chicken bacon Morel spin rolls, the Home on the Range Buffalo Morel Perogie, the Steak and Morel Pasties, and the Morel and Steak Pizza. We wanted to try Cooper's Morel Mushroom Soup, but by the time we got through the others, the tent was so crowded, and the line for the soup was ridiculous.

We left the festival, and wandered through their downtown, looking through the different stores. Managed to not buy a thing. :-)

Since it was still raining, and we couldn't go biking or hiking, we took a drive around Lake Charlevoix.It was a nice drive. Back at the mo-ho, we played Parcheesi on the puter, where I beat Craig twice. :-) Then I played a couple of other games, while Craig fixed us kielbasas for dinner. With our TV only getting 3 stations, and nothing we liked, we watched a couple of DVDs. It was still raining when we went to bed, but we slept good.
Sunday.....
I awoke to 46, but no rain, partly cloudy. Played on the puter awhile and watched the morning news. Woke Craig up around 9. Made us coffee and off we went. Stopped at Micky D's for a sausage,egg muffin and headed about 20 miles north to Petoskey, MI where there is the Odawa Casino. And as you know, that's almost never a good thing. :-)
And today wasn't any different. But I left only about $10 down, although Craig was down a bit more than that. But it's a nice casino, and wasn't busy at all. On the way back, we stopped and picked up the Sunday paper. Back at the campground, we read the paper, and then got the car loaded on the car caddy for an early Monday departure. It had finnally gotten nice out. It was near 60, sunny, and the wind was being blocked by all the trees.

So we took a walk through the campgrounds. there's 3 here at Young State park.
The original Pines and Oak, and the newer one Terrace. Way back in the 80's when we camped in a tent, the terrace campground was new and just a big field with campsites. It's also huge with 8 loops compared to the Pines and Oak campgrounds with just 2. Well, the planted trees through that one too and now it looks much better, but still not near as wooded as the others.

After our walk, it was getting sooo nice, we got the chairs out and relaxed and enjoyed some nice weather and the beautiful lake.It ended up getting all the way to 65, after a forecast high of only 54. You can never trust the weather people. They're almost always wrong.
For dinner I cooked pork steaks on the grill and had them with a pasta salad we picked up with the paper.Watched some TV and called it a night.
Monday morning, 38 out with a beautiful blue sky.
Finished typing this post, and started to get the mo-ho ready for the drive back to Lansing.
And now I'm typing this from home, as we returned safely. Got there and back safe, and every thing functions normally.
It was another good trip.

it's still not over.....

Good afternoon. We're back! Yep! We've just returned from our first mo-ho trip of the season. It was a short 100 mile trip over to Lake Michigan and Holland State Park. And I must say, it was some of the worst weather we've had for our first trip in the 6 years we've been doing this. Friday afternoon, we left with gusty winds. Fortunately, the wind was at our back, so it wasn't a big deal. Saturday, we had wind and a cold rain, all day long. Sunday, was cold, windy, reaching a high of only 46, but at least the sun came our and it looked nice from inside. And here's a pic from the inside. :-) Monday, we awoke to 2 inches of snow on the ground. It's very unusual to get snow this late, though it has happened. It's been a very cold spring here in Michigan. But, we arrived there safe, and returned home safe. Everything functioned properly, and we still enjoyed getting away and using the mo-ho. Friday after we arrived and got set up, we ran back into town for our traditional first trip meal, KFC, original recipe. Damn that chicken's good! We relaxed in the mo-ho with cocktails and DVD's. A total of 8 brave souls camped here that weekend. Of course, none were tents. :-) Saturday, with crappy cold wind and rain, we ventured over to Michigan's newest casino, the Gun Lake Casino. We spent a few hours leaving our contribution for their continued prosperity. We then stopped at a local bar and grill for lunch. Back at the mo-ho, was computer games, and DVD time with chicken kielbasa's stuffed with spinach and mozzarella cheese. We re-watched battle L.A. Sunday, we met my brother Bruce with his son Ben and friend Tammy, and another brother Brian and his wife Ruth for breakfast in downtown Holland. I don't see my brothers very often, and we had a nice visit. From there, we drove a short 12 miles south to Saugatuck, where we did a little shopping, stocking up on various cooking marinades. Back at the campsite, we decided with the snowy forecast, we'd hook up the car caddy and load the car. Our site was just long enough to do it. We also managed to take a nice walk around the campground, as the dunes helped to diffuse the cold wind. For dinner, we pan fried some pork cutlets, as it wasn't very pleasant out side to grill, and we used a marinade we bought in Saugatuck called Wasabi ginger sauce. It was very tasty. And we watched 10,000 B.C. And it's a good thing we loaded up the car Sunday, because this morning.........

2 inches of that nasty stuff!

I typed this this morning at our campsite while Craig got his beauty rest. With iffy roads this morning, we didn't want to leave to early and be in any rush hour traffic. fortunately, all the roads were just wet and we got home just fine.

So despite the crappy weather, we managed to enjoy ourselves as we usually do. :-)

snow, snow, go away

Good morning.
I've just returned from clearing the driveway.....again. We got about 2-3 inches during the night which was a surprise since none was forecast. :-(
I've got a l-o-n-g day at work today. I'm going in an hour early to get in a customer I had to cancel last week due to illness, and now with the snow, I'll need to go in even earlier to clear the walks. So that will mean a 12+ work day. Hope my energy holds up. :-)
And they're calling for more snow tonight and tomorrow. whoopee.....
And as I'm sure most of you have noticed, the gas prices are going up and up. If they keep going that way, we may have to curtail a few of our trips. Right now, they're still all on. We've banked a nice little gas fund during the winter, and we've got some time before our first few trips to see where the the gas prices will be. Unless the gas prices hit the $4-$5 range, I think we'll be okay. :-l
So, time for my shower and on with the day.

weekend recap

Good morning.
I've just come back inside after clearing the snow out of the driveway. We got about 3+ inches during the day yesterday. The main system looked like it went just south of us.
Yesterday, was playing on the puter, and confirming a few more camping dates. We have a possible 14 weekends this season. With gas prices, we may pare that down to 10 or so. We'll see.
We have 5 definite weekends planned and another 4 to set in stone, so to speak. And just when you think there's nothing else to see or do in a 3-6 hr radius, something new pops up.
And I did hear from Tom and Dean, and Mark and Craig. That helps clear up the schedule a bit more. Thanks guys for responding so fast! I know, we do plan things way to early, but it helps us through this long winter. :-)
And I also got a call from the insurance company. They're sending me a 2 party check for the claim. I'll be interested in seeing what this is costing.
And nothing too interesting for dinner this past weekend. It was home made pizza on Saturday, pork and saurkraut Sunday, Monday was turkey burgers, and Tuesday was chicken helper. All good, but nothing exciting. :-)
We also ordered Craig's Zetia. (cholesterol medication) It's pretty bad we have to get it from Canada, but we have no prescription coverage, and it's $100 a month here. There, it's $13 a month. Big difference.
And now it's time to get ready for another work week!

another trip planned

Good morning.

Winter has settled in good. So far, not a lot of snow, just very cold. 9 getting up. High around 27. They are predicting a few inches today and tonight. We'll see.

We got the Kia in at 8am yesterday, and we were third in line with a collision issue. It looks like their body shop is keeping quite busy.

They said they'd call and let me know when and what will be done. Didn't hear anything yesterday, but like I said, they looked very busy. And fortunately, I don't need it back right away. Of course, that means Craig has to drive his 1998 Honda Accord, which up until this winter, has never seen snow. I told him by the time this year's salt starts to do any visible damage, he probably won't have the car by then.

Then we went to the bank, the post office, and the township offices. Craig needed to pick up a form the township won't mail out anymore. They want everyone to do it on-line. Well Craig needed to make some changes and didn't want to mess with any on-line problems. Craig's a little anal that way. :-)

Then a quick stop at Meijer's and back home.

Craig did laundry, and helped me scope out more places to go this summer. We booked another campground. This one up north near Boyne City at Young State Park.

We will be attending the National Morel Mushroom festival.

Now we've never ate Morel's, but They're suppose to be quite the delicacy. Should be a fun trip!

And it looks like a long weekend to Toledo, and Maumee Bay State Park which is having it's Harbor Lighthouse Festival and Toledo's Polish Festival.

The light house was built in 1904.

And it's the oddest looking of all the

light houses we've seen to date.

So we're still searching for more destinations, and waiting to hear from our Wisconsin camping friends, Tom and Dean, about another trip. hint, hint.

And maybe we can hook up with out Memphis friends, Mark and Craig, in Cincinnati or Columbus, on their way to or from their east coast trip this summer. hint, hint.

So the summer camping season is beginning to take shape. Let's hope the gas prices don't get a lot higher.

The good, the bad, the real ugly......

Good morning.
First, the good.
As you read in the last post, we went to Detroit for Craig's BIG 60th birthday.
We stayed at the beautiful Greektown casino Hotel.
We splurged a little and got an Executive corner king room on the top (30th) floor.

Here's the birthday boy with the view we had.
looking left out the window is the Renaissance center, home of GM.
And straight out is the downtown area. Greektown sits on the east side of downtown.
We checked in on Sunday afternoon for 2 nights. Shortly after we arrived, the Detroit Lions, who were playing their last game at Ford field just a few blocks north let out.
See the crowds of people streaming out of the facility?

And just below us sat the Greektown area. Lot's of great restaurants there. We went down to the casino, which was very busy. We did manage to find enough machines to play. We left around 8pm. Craig was up $100 or so, and I was down about 30. I called Pizza Papalis before we left, and ordered a pizza. Went back to our room, grabbed my coat, and went to pick it up. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV and eating and drinking.

Monday morning, we hit the breakfast buffet, then hopped on the people mover, to get a little view of the city. Detroit has lost nearly half it's population over the last decade, and it shows with many boarded up buildings. Yet, there are pockets of life and urban renewal projects going on.

If you look close, you'll see a Christmas tree and ice skating rink. This was in a park about 6 blocks from the hotel.

We ended up going over to the MGM casino. The largest one out of Detroit's 3. We enjoyed this one a lot! Probably because I left with $90 more than I arrived with. :-)

Then it was lunch at our hotel, and over to our casino, which wasn't nearly as busy as the night before. We ended the trip with all the money we brought, plus about $150 extra. Very good!

Dinner was gyro's at another greektown restaurant.

Tuesday morning had us up early and arriving back in Lansing around 10:30.

Now the bad.....

Upon arriving at home, I had 2 messages on my answering machine. It was a very good customer wanting me to go in on Tuesday and do her hair for an unexpected trip to the Mayo clinic in Minnesota. Ugh!

I never work on Tuesday, but decided to go in since she did give me a very good Christmas tip.
I could have just told her the next time I saw her that I was out of town and didn't get home in time, but that's not me.

So, I went in. It was snowing when we got home, but the main roads were pretty good, so I took Kia to work. Did her hair, and headed home.

And now, the very ugly.......

I decided to cut through a neighborhood on the way home to avoid all the lights and a major intersection. Halfway through I went around a tight cure. But I didn't make it.....

As I started the curve, the car just slid forward. It was sheer ice, The anti-lock brakes didn't do a thing to stop me. It was like slow motion as I slid right across the road and head-on into a light post. I was only going about 15 mph, and just bumped the post. The airbags didn't even deploy. I backed up, got out to find my new KIA with a crunched front end. Now back when I had my '61' Ford Galaxie, I wouldn't of even had a scratch, but 50 years later, these cars don't even have bumpers. It's all just molded plastic, which in my case, split right open.

So after 40 years of driving, my first accident. I suppose I should be happy I didn't hit another car, or that I didn't get hurt, But I felt terrible!

And no, I didn't take a picture of it. It's in the garage where I can't see it. And it'll stay there until we take it in next Monday for an estimate and repair.
They say, no good deed goes unpunished. Well, they're right.