8-31-10 (Tuesday):  Well, the medical saga continues.  Wiley is just not healing up as quickly as expected.  We visited the infectious disease doctor yesterday and the neurosurgeon today.  They both recommended that we have the rest of the deep brain stimulator system removed.  After a course of antibiotics and then a couple of months free of infection, we can have the whole thing done over.  We decided that that made a lot of sense to us.  The doctors speculate that the bacteria continue to live on the implanted material even though antibiotics have stopped the infection in the tissues.  Then, when we stop the antibiotics, the bacteria grow again and the infection recurs.  We go for pre-op tomorrow and the surgery on Friday.  He'll stay overnight.  We'll plan to return to Florida for all my appointments by 9/11 or 9/12.  Our Florida doctors can supervise Wiley's recuperation.  Then, come Spring, we'll return here for the new implant and another visit with the grands.

We've really enjoyed our time here in Michigan (when we weren't visiting doctors).  I've had the opportunity spend some time with my girls.  The pigtails went over big!

They're getting ready to go back to school.  Anna was excited to get her first pair of glasses.  Aren't they cute?!

We gave Mom a break one day and took a trip down the Huron River.  Tom, Ann and Margo went in the canoe and Wiley and I took out our kayaks.  What a fun day!  The weather was beautiful.

There were lots of dragonflies and wildflowers.  Unfortunately, though he tried very hard, the fish were not biting for Wiley.

It's going to be tough leaving them, but we're looking forward to getting back to Florida (and our bigger home on wheels).  Hopefully, we'll be able to come back in the Spring for more fun times and to get my bionic man back up and running.

8/17/10 (Friday):  I'm trying to type this with a cat sitting on my chest!  Poor Lily missed us a lot because we took off on Wednesday to Niagara Falls, Canada.  Tom came over both days and fed her, but she's stuck to me like glue now that we're back!

More about Niagara Falls in a minute.  But first, I want to share some pictures of our wonderful day at the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival with Tom and Kristin and the girls.  It was a huge festival with all kinds of exhibits and vendors.  Anna really enjoyed the bird rescue exhibit, where you were allowed to touch and hold many different kinds of parrots.

Both of the older girls got to ride on a camel.  The handler told Margo that the camel was very relaxed with her.  He could tell because his mouth was open.

In the butterfly enclosure, all three girls got to dip Q-tips into Gatorade and feed the butterflies.  Claire was fascinated (and we got to stay as long as we wanted)!

Now, about our overnight trip to Niagara Falls, Canada.  We decided to go on the spur of the moment.  Wiley had never seen the falls, and I'd only ever been to the U.S. side.  Tom graciously agreed to come over both days to feed and cuddle Lily (Kristin is allergic to cats).  It was about a 5-hour drive through some beautiful farming country.  We breezed through Customs with just a few questions about where we were going and how long we would stay.  Then we went over the bridge and were in Canada.  The speed limits are posted in kilometers, which took some getting used to!

We checked into a Comfort Inn just a block from the falls.  We could see the mist from the balcony of our room.  We walked over and took this incline people mover down the steep bank to the head of the falls (you can see the horseshoe falls in the background of this picture).

The falls were almost obscured by the huge plume of mist, so it was difficult to get a good picture.  From the Canadian side, you can actually see two cascades, this horseshoe shaped set and

this set by the bridge to the U.S.  The Maid of the Mist boats travel right up to the base of the cataract!  We didn't go on the boats.

Two-thirds of the horseshoe falls are on the Canadian side of the border and this cataract is on the American side.

The mist caused several beautiful rainbows.


We're back in Ypsilanti now, enjoying the gorgeous cool weather.  We see the doctor again on Tuesday (the infectious disease doctor).  He's going to do a culture to make sure the infection is entirely gone.  If all is well, we'll head back to Florida in two weeks and wait for 6-8 weeks to make sure the infection doesn't come back when he's off the antibiotic.  Then we'll come back to Michigan to get him reconnected.  He's a trooper!

8/22/10 (Sunday):  Yesterday was rainy (and very cool), so we didn't go to the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival as planned, but we're going today, so this will be a quick blog just to catch you up.  We're enjoying the weather as well as lots of visiting with family.  We try to have a small adventure every day and then some quiet time reading, looking at the lake and taking walks around the campground.  We haven't met any of the folks here yet.  There don't seem to be a lot of them who stay longer than a few days.

We also enjoy riding around in the countryside.  There are lots of back roads with pretty farms and historic towns.  Ann Arbor, home of University of Michigan, is also nearby, with lots of museums and culture.  We've enjoyed shopping at Trader Joe's (which we remembered from California--wish there were some in Florida!).  And a couple of days ago, we went raspberry picking at Rowe's Produce Farm just a couple of miles from here.

Last week, we rode out into the countryside to visit a crane sanctuary, hoping to see whooping cranes, or at least sandhill cranes.  Haehnle's Sanctuary is about 450 acres owned by the Audubon Society.  They have sandhill cranes there, and for a couple of years have had a whooping crane or two.  We've seen lots of sandhill cranes in Florida, but whooping cranes are very rare.  We've only ever seen one.  Anyhow, long story short, there were no cranes there that day at all.

However, we took the scenic route home, and discovered a neat little town called Chelsea.  The first thing we noticed was this clock tower, which dominates the cute, historic downtown.  The warehouses/factories surrounding the tower have been turned into a small block of shops with an atrium in the middle.  We had lunch at a very good Mexican restaurant there.

The next thing we noticed was the Jiffy plant.  It was very clean and neat looking.  We hoped to get a tour, but discovered that they'd closed the plant to tours the day before while they re-did the tour facilities.  I later read about it online and found out that they mill their own grain, manufacture the mixes and even make their own packaging right here in Chelsea.  I especially love Jiffy cornbread mix, so I think we'll be going back for a tour if we're in the area long enough.

That's another week of Joyce and Wiley's Great (and small) Adventures.  Check us out again soon and maybe we'll have some information about Ypsilanti Heritage Day.

8/15/10 (Saturday):  Not a whole lot going on here, and we're liking that.  No doctor appointments until next week.  No obligations except laundry and meals and the usual day-to-day of living.  We try to do at least one fun thing every day, but no major trips.  Sit on the patio and watch the hummingbird at the feeder.  Dinner with the grands.  A walk in the park.  Nice!

We had seen on a home improvement show one time a report of a very long yard sale.  Turns out, we were just in time for it.  It's a 180-212 mile long series of yard and garage sales all along U.S. 12 from Detroit to Chicago.  We went last Saturday and were disappointed.  For whatever reason, there were not all that many sales going on.  This one was interesting because of the colorful old house where it was held.

We enjoyed an evening with Tom and family at an outdoor concert in Saline, a nearby town.  The band was quite good (Motown music) and Kristin packed some goodies. A very pleasant way to spend a summer evening.

We've enjoyed several drives on historic route 12.  There's some beautiful farm land and several historic towns.  On a recent drive, several trucks carrying these huge windmill blades drove by.  This one was in Clinton.

One of the particularly attractive areas here is called Irish Hills.  It's part old time kitsch and part gorgeous, green farms.  These twin towers were no longer open and it's not clear what their original purpose was.

One of our favorite little towns along U.S. 12 is Clinton.  Lots of neat architecture.  This antique inn is still in business.  I'd love to stay there sometime.













Wiley has follow-up appointments with the doctors next week.  Then, we may visit the Canadian side of Niagara Falls or take a longer trip.  For now, we're content with a laid back time with family that we haven't spent much time with.  Hope everyone is doing well.  We'll be back in Florida for the winter and hope to catch up with friends and family again.

8/6/10 Friday:  We're still hanging out in Ypsilanti.  Wiley goes in next week to have his stitches removed and the week after that he sees the neurosurgeon and we'll talk about having the stimulator re-implanted.

In the meantime, we're exploring the area a little.  We went back into historic downtown Ypsi the other day.  There are so many gorgeous old homes there.  Some have been turned into apartments or shops, but they've maintained the gorgeous exteriors.  It surprises me that many of them are brick.  I guess clay was abundant in this area.  This one looks like the haunted house at Disney World to me.

This one has a museum in it, but it wasn't open the day we were there.

This one is made of stone and has rooms for rent.

This one was turned into an attorney's office.

Click on this one to enlarge it--the engraving on the arch over the door proclaims it to be "The Ladies Library"!

Most of the homes pictured here were in Depot Town, which has numerous restaurants.  The old depot is apparently unused, but behind it is an old building that now houses the farmer's market on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  We'll have to check it out next week.

The Huron River runs right through town and there are numerous parks along it.  Wiley is fishing in Riverside Park and also tried his luck at Frog Island, both in the historic downtown area.

Another recent exploration took us (eventually) to Shipshewana, Indiana, about two hours from here.  As often happens with us, we found the journey there more interesting than the flea market we originally headed out for.  There were many, many interesting looking sights and lots of history on the drive there and we'll have to head back that way to explore the area more another time.  This old looking stone cross was on the side of the road when we pulled off to look at a map.  No sign explained its purpose.

Shipshewana was crowded with tourists, but there were a good many locals (including Amish) as well.  There buggies were everywhere and we drove past some of the neat, productive looking farms.  We visited the flea market (one of the biggest in the Midwest) and then headed home again.  It was well worth the drive.




That's it for now.  Hope everyone is having a good summer.

8/2/10 (Monday):  Things have settled down a bit and we're feeling optimistic about salvaging our summer.  Wiley continues to heal up and we've adjusted medications (again!) so that he's reasonably free of tremor and also side effects of pills.  It's a real balancing act and not perfect, but hopefully he'll be able to have the lead re-implanted (again) soon.  The neurosurgeon will see us again in 3 weeks to remove the stitches and then again the next week to discuss possible further surgery.

To backtrack a little:  The drive up was pretty laid back.  Lily decided that the back of the seat between me and Wiley was her spot.  She doesn't like to ride in her carrier and it was too hot for her to ride in the trailer without air conditioning.  She seemed fairly relaxed and didn't try to get out when we stopped.  When we stopped for meals, she went into the carrier and we took her in with us and put her under the table.  No one ever told us she couldn't come in, so we figured that was the best way to handle it.

While Wiley was in the hospital, I took a brief break and went to Anna and Margo's swim team pep rally.  Both of the girls are really good swimmers and later won ribbons in the championship meet.

On a drive through Ypsilanti, I saw this building.  I later found out it's a historic landmark--the water tower.  (I can hear the laughter and suggestive comments beginning to form already.  Check out this link to a Wikipedia article about historic Ypsi so you'll have some idea where we're now living, including a little info about the tower.)

On another day, Margo and Anna had a tennis lesson.  I really enjoyed their enthusiasm and I think they're going to become pretty good players.  Claire has to grow into her racket a bit before she'll start lessons.

Shortly after Wiley got out of the hospital, we took a short trip to see Lake Erie.  We'd seen in from the other side, but we're very close to Sterling State Park and this nice beach.  We enjoyed a short walk on the beach and stopped on the way home at a stand for some fresh corn and tomatoes.

Yesterday we drove into Detroit to visit Belle Isle Park.  This is a very historic park located on one of the busiest inland waterways in the country.  There are spectacular views of Detroit and Canada.  We saw a big freighter very close up!

We were looking for the Livingstone Lighthouse, which I knew was on the island, but we got thoroughly lost.  I asked a Detroit policeman how to get there, and he said "follow me!"  He led us right to the parking lot!  The Livingstone Lighthouse is the only one in the U.S. built of marble.  It's quite lovely.  It was built in 1929 as a memorial to a popular Detroit resident.  Its light is visible for 16 miles to the East.

On Sunday, I joined Tom and the girls for a walk in a local park.  We wanted to give Kristin a little time to shop and pack for her upcoming high school reunion.  The park (whose name I don't recall) has a long boardwalk beside a nice lake.  We had only just gotten started when Anna accidentally knocked her hat off and it fell in the water.  Daddy cleverly snagged it with a branch.

We saw lots of birds and beautiful wildflowers.  Altogether a great day.








We're planning some more trips, maybe even a hop over to Canada, so keep checking in for updates.

8/1/10 (Sunday):  Well, it looks like we're once again in the medical loop instead of the vacation loop.  The day we got to Michigan for a visit with the kids, Wiley got an infection in the pulse generator in his chest.  Long story short, he spent several days in the University of Michigan Hospital and had the lead removed.  They were able to leave the electrodes in the brain.  He took massive doses of IV antibiotics for several days.  He's been released now on oral antibiotics.  We decided to cancel the trip to Boone :( and stay here in Michigan.  Hopefully, once the infection is cleared up, they'll be able to re-implant the pulse generator and lead.  We wanted to stay near a major hospital and near family in case (God forbid) anything else goes wrong.

The good news is that we're in a beautiful campground and are enjoying visiting with Tom and his family.  We hope to do some traveling around this area and possibly even into Canada (we're only a short ride from Toronto).

For those of you who keep up with us via Facebook, I'm having some trouble with my connection.  I'm able to read your comments and I can access it from my phone, but not my computer.  So, be patient and in the meantime, let's keep in touch via email and/or this blog.

Peace!