Joyce & Wiley's Great Adventure: August 2007

8/28/07 (Thursday): Nothing special to report today. I just got back some photos from our trip to Grand Haven a couple of weeks ago. My battery got low, so I bought a disposable camera. I thought you might like to see some of those photos. This is us in front of the store. The President's Award is pretty prestigious. It's awarded based on a number of factors, including cleanliness, friendliness of staff, level of business, etc. We're proud to work at one of the nicest KOA's around. It'll look really good on our resume!

This is all of our Workampers except Al, who was taking the photo. From left to right: Claude, Steve (one of the owners), Maryanne, Ralph, Debbie (the other owner), me, JoAnne (Ralph and JoAnne live offsite), Wiley, Carol and Gary. Actually, it's not all of them. We have a night security guy (also named Gary).

This is the Grand Haven Pier and lighthouse. Julie - that photo you liked of Lake Huron where there were scallops along the edge? that was taken from this pier and the scallops were the edge of the pier. You can see the lighthouse in the mist at the very end of the pier. I walked all the way out!

That's it for this time. I had to get a new camera because the old one died a couple of days ago. I've taken some pics with it that I'll put on the next blog.

8/24/07 (Friday): Hi to all of you who have waited so patiently for this blog. We've had some wild weather here, and one of the storms took down the electricity, the office computers and our WiFi connection to the internet. We didn't have any damage, but some of our campers lost awnings again. We've finally cleared up and the forecast for the weekend looks good. Our temperatures have dropped from the mid-80's during the day to the mid-70's. Some of our trees are already beginning to change.

Things have settled down into a routine in the store. Our men's room is almost completed and looks great. We hope it will be up and running for the Labor Day weekend. The campground stays about half full during the week and fills to capacity most weekends. The owners tell us things slow down considerably after Labor Day.

We've been working hard to find a winter assignment, but have been unsuccessful so far. We had high hopes for a job at the Santa Cruz/Monterey KOA. It looks like a gorgeous campground, just 1/2 mile from the Pacific, close to Mark and his family, and with all the amenities we could wish for. They thought they might need some part-time help because a Workamper's child took a bad fall and was in critical condition. Fortunately, the child is recovering and the Workampers have decided not to leave, so there is not a posistion there. Needless to say, I am very glad the child is recovering, despite the job not being available.

We were off Tuesday and Wednesday this week. We did some work around the camper on Tuesday and on Wednesday we drove to Grand Rapids, about an hour east of here. We went to the new Camping World store and bought some RV supplies we needed and then headed for Meijer's Botanic Gardens. It's a really lovely spot, full of sculptures as well as gorgeous flowers. This is the children's garden. In addition to the sculptures of children playing a circle game, there was a section of the garden where all the flowers smelled like food--licorice, chocolate, peppermint and spaghetti to name a few.

There was also a trail through a wetlands. We saw lots of birds, including these ducks all lined up in a row.

Speaking of birds, we continue to enjoy our feeders. There are more goldfinches than any other kind of bird, including sparrows! They're such cheerful looking little yellow fellows. We also have a hummingbird feeder and see these tiny jewels several times a day. The other day, one of the hummingbirds got into the laundry room and the owner came running to our RV to see if I could help get the poor thing back out. We finally succeeded, but not before we made idiots of ourselves with a broom and a big crabbing net!

There was also an old farmhouse with gardens that would have been typical of the flowers and vegetables that would have been planted in the early part of the 20th century.

I know that farm kids probably had a blast riding horses and ponies, but I never would have guessed they'd ride a pig! I wonder if the pig would cooperate?!

On the way back home we stopped and bought peaches at the same stand we had bought cherries at earlier in the season. The hollyhocks have died back, but the apple trees are loaded with ripening fruit and the peaches smelled heavenly! I imagine this old wagon made many trips over the dirt roads laden with great produce in its day!

Wiley and I have been on a jelly making kick lately. He's picked lots of blackberries and blueberries that we've turned into jam, so we decided we'd try some peach butter (like apple butter, but made from peaches). We think it turned out great, and it was really simple. You cut the peaches and combine them with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg and put it in the crock pot. It's cooked for 5 hours covered and another 5 hours uncovered. It's a beautiful, rich brown color and smells heavenly!

We're going to Ypsilanti for another visit with Tom and his family next week. I can't believe that Anna is starting kindergarten, Margo is starting preschool, and Claire is starting to walk! Time sure flies. Wiley and I miss all of you and appreciate hearing from you. Have a great week, and check in again next week for some more of our ramblings.

8/16/07 (Thursday): When I got off work last night, I asked Wiley what time I worked today. He looked up Friday on our schedule, told me I worked 9 to noon, and I got up this AM and got ready for work. Both of us were firmly convinced it was Friday. We were sitting by the window, talking to Mag on the phone, when I saw JoAnn, one of the office Workampers, report for work. After a little confusion, I figured out that today is Thursday, not Friday, and I don't go to work until 1 PM. You know you're retired and having a great adventure when the day of the week doesn't seem all that important!!

Anyhow, here are some pictures from our latest mini adventure along the shores of Lake Huron. We traveled around Michigan's "thumb" (look at this map and you'll see what I mean). Map. We spent the first night in a nondescript (but clean) motel between Saginaw and Port Sanilac. Then we drove around the thumb on Rt. 25 to Bay City, where we spent our second night in a really nice Sleep Inn. It had an indoor pool and hot tub. We also enjoyed watching some cable TV (we only get 4 channels with our antenna in the campground).

Lake Huron had mostly flat beaches (unlike Lake Michigan's impressive sand dunes). There were more boulders and rocks than on the Lake Michigan shore, though. It was a warm, sunny day, but there was a stiff breeze and some rough surf.

We saw several lighthouses (of course)! This one is the Port Sanilac Light. The keeper's house was completely covered with ivy. The lighthouse was built in 1886. It's an octagonal brick tower with a flared top created by "stair-stepping" the rows of bricks. The keeper's house was connected to the light by a covered passageway, and it had the same stair-stepped detail as the lighthouse.

We poked around on the beach for a while and also walked around town. I love all the brick houses in Michigan and the Victorian details on even modest houses.

Our next stop was Harbor Beach. There's a lighthouse there, too, but it can't be seen from shore. But the Port Aux Basques lighthouse (the next stop), was fantastic. Wiley fished for a little while and I wandered around and enjoyed the scenery.

The final stop for the day was in Port Austin. The lighthouse there (Port Austin Reef Light) sits way out in the water. You can barely see it in the middle of the picture way out on the horizon. The other structure is a channel marker that sits out on the end of a breakwater. As you can see, the waves were really crashing on the breakwater.

After a relaxing evening in Bay City, we headed home, with a stop at Hardy Dam on the way. Hardy Dam was built in the early 1900's and is one of a string of dams. It was considered an engineering marvel in its time.

Land all along the Muskegon River has been set aside for fishing, hiking and boating. We hiked a 3-mile nature trail. It was lovely--there were a number of small creeks and great views of the river.

We've been enjoying our bird feeders--lots of goldfinches, and even a hummingbird. But I was thrilled to spot this cedar waxwing in one of the towns we walked through. There was a whole flock of them, and I'd never seen one before.

We also got a kick out of this old house and car. It's now a bed and breakfast called "Garfield House." President Garfield stayed there with friends.

This was an altogether relaxing trip. Hope you enjoyed traveling with us!

8/13/07 (Monday): We're at an inn in Sandusky (MI) this morning, getting ready for a mini adventure driving up the coast of Lake Huron. I hope I'll have some good stories and pics for you in a couple of days.

We decided after work yesterday (I got off at 3 PM) to head east--quite spontaneously! We packed a small bag and an ice chest and were gone within the hour! We're off today and tomorrow and Wiley has a list of lighthouses he wants to visit. The drive thus far has been beautiful--lots of huge farms (mostly corn and soy beans). Many of the fields of corn had signs indicating they were designated to become ethanol.

Stay tuned!

8/9/07 (Thursday): Well, I'm not an especially happy camper today. Maybe doing a post will cheer me up a little.

There's a plumbing problem at our site, and we're not able to dump our holding tanks. The owner is not being particularly helpful. We were able to dump on a nearby site yesterday, but now there's a camper on the site, and we're full up for the weekend. It doesn't look like any work will be completed until next week at the earliest, so we're out of options (other than not using our kitchen or bathroom). I guess we're going to have to be conservative in our water/bathroom use and then go to the dump station when we're full. That's a real pain, because we have to secure everything inside the camper, hook up to the truck, drive to the dump station and then reverse the process. Bummer. I'd be taking the whole situation more calmly if the owner was being more pleasant about it, but he's not helping at all and doesn't seem to understand why there's any problem. Oh well, we'll work something out.

We had a pleasant walk one evening last week on the dirt road that runs by the campground. There are a lot of dirt roads in this area and we love to drive or walk them.

There are also lots of interesting old barns.

There are still lots of wildflowers in bloom here. Unfortunately, there's a drought and the trees and ferns are beginning to drop their leaves. I fear there won't be much fall color this year.

We've had my cousin, Donna, her husband, Dave, and their two grandchildren, Ashley and Christopher, visiting for the last couple of days. (They're camping in their humongous motor home in a site near us.) That's been a bright spot in our week. We've enjoyed a couple of camp fires, s'mores, and fishing. They're having a problem with their refrigerator, so it's been nice for all of us to have a break from our difficulties. We enjoyed a great (late) dinner at a little beach restaurant on Lake Michigan. It was a spectacular sunset, but I was a little too late taking this picture to capture the best of it.

We went to Tom and Kristin's on Monday and Tuesday. Anna starts Kindergarden in September, and she was having some safety orientation, so I got to spend some time with Margo and Claire. It was awfully quiet with Anna out of the house, but I think the other girls enjoyed having some time with their Granny.

Okay. I do feel better now. I guess the owners are pretty stressed with the robbery and fire, so I'll try to bear with them.

8/4/07 (Saturday): Okay--I want everyone to send good vibes our way. We've been in touch a couple of times now with a campground between Santa Cruz and Monterey that would be absolutely perfect for us. They really need someone to start now, which we can't do because we're committed here through September, but they're considering whether they could wait until then. It's just turned into a KOA, and our experience here would really be helpful to them. We'd really like to get this job!

I forgot to post one of my favorite pictures of last week's canoe trip. Isn't this gorgeous?!

We worked today and we work tomorrow morning, then we leave for Ypsilanti right after work tomorrow. I'm taking the old laptop with me in hopes that I can retrieve some of my files from it. It's really been nice to have the ability to visit with Tom and his family.

8/2/07 (Thursday): Okay--I'm back in business! I've got the new computer running (boy, do I hate Windows Vista!) and a nice clerk at Walmart solved my problem of not being able to download my photos by selling me a device that reads my camera card. Yay! So, with no further ado, here are some pics of our great adventure!

Here's a picture of the carrier pigeon we rescued (see the previous blog). We were so happy to be able to help the poor thing.

Here are some pics from our trip to Ypsilanti to visit the grands. It was Claire's first birthday (gosh, time sure flies, doesn't it?). She really demolished the cupcake--it was her first taste of chocolate, and she sure has her grandmother's taste for it!

My present to her was a Fisher Price train. She's scared of it! Bad Granny!!

We had a lovely day yesterday. We went canoing on the White River through the Manistee National Forest.

It's a really pretty little river. The water is very clear and shallow. Wiley tried fishing, but the fish must have been able to see him coming, because he didn't even get a nibble.