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.










We didn't see much wildlife--this baby turtle,
a water snake and a couple of kingfishers--













but the wildflowerswere magnificent!
A good time was had by all!

The next blog will be about our adventure in Grand Haven. Stay tuned!

7/27/07 (Friday): Another crazy week! Our laptop died. We think it's just the monitor because it sounds like it's loading up properly. I'm hopeful that my computer wiz, Mark, will be able to hook it up to a monitor and retrieve some of my files/software so I can load it on the new computer. Until I get the software for the digital camera, I can't post pictures, but bear with me and I'll keep posting without pics for now.

We've made settlement on our house--yay! It's kind of sad to give up our home that we treasured for so many years, but we believe it was the right decision for us. We plan to keep enough money to buy or rent another place when (if) we give up this roaming lifestyle. We both love Florida and want to be fairly close to our family and friends, but Orlando has gotten so busy that we probably wouldn't have wanted to go back to that house anyhow. We hope that our buyers will have as happy a life there as we did. It turns out that their previous address was right around the corner from us! We figure that maybe they were renting and wanted to stay in the neighborhood.

I forgot to mention that the day before the computer died and we made settlement, we had a bird day. By that I mean that we were at Lake Michigan and Wiley was fishing while I sat on a bench and crocheted. I was talking on the phone to the title agency about our upcoming settlement, when Wiley started hollering for me to come help him, he'd caught a seagull! I think the title agent thought I was crazy!! We managed to release the poor bird (the hook was in his beak), but he then got tangled in the fishing line when he tried to fly away. We released him a second time and he flew off, apparently none the worse for wear.

As if that wasn't enough birdly contact, we got back to camp to discover that a camper had found a carrier pigeon (it had two bands on its legs) that had crashed into the window of the camp office. We carried it into the camper and put it into a laundry basket, gave it food and water and covered the basket with a towel. The poor thing ate, drank and went promptly to sleep. The next morning, we contacted the bird's owners and returned the bird to them. They said that several birds had escaped a few days previously. They were really happy to have the bird back!

We continue to have a good time here. The weather has been beautiful--although we could use some rain. There are still lots of places we want to visit. I've settled into the routine of the store and feel pretty confident with most of the tasks. Wiley is constantly getting compliments from the boss about the speed and quality of his work. I think we'll be getting a pretty good reference from these folks. We're also enjoying socializing with the other workampers. We have two new workampers, and have already spent an evening with them. The insurance company has had investigators out here looking into the fire damage and they're gradually getting all cleaned up from that. Everything in the store had to be discarded because of smoke damage, but we have new merchandise lined up and waiting in the barn for when the store has been cleaned. The campers are being very understanding about sharing the one remaining restroom. We've got our awning back and really enjoy sitting outside in the evenings.

That's it for now--sorry I don't have pics for you. I have some on the camera that I'll share when I get my software back.

7/21/07 (Saturday): No pics today--just a quick blog to update everyone about what's up in our neck of the woods.

We traveled to Ypsilanti Tuesday afternoon right after work for a visit with Tom and his family. My granddaughter, Claire, had surgery the week before, and Kristin had asked for my help with the older girls so that she and Tom could go to Claire's post-op visit. Claire is healing nicely and there will probably be no future complications, other than (possibly) some work on the scar as she grows. We're really thankful for that! I took Anna and Margo to their gymnastics class on Wednesday, and that was a treat. They really seemed to enjoy the class. Thursday was Anna's swimming class, and I spent some time playing in the pool with them after the lesson. Great fun! We'll probably visit again next month.

We came back to a very upsetting situation here. There was a fire in the men's room that pretty much destroyed it. The investigators have been here for two days now, and arson is suspected. This, on the heels of the burglary, has the owners very upset. Most of the campers have been wonderful about it, taking turns using the remaining ladies' room and porta potties. Hopefully the campground's insurance will cover most of the losses, and maybe they'll even come out of it better than whole, because new rest rooms were in the planning stages anyhow. Thankfully no one was hurt. The owner's live upstairs, and their home was heavily smoke damaged and their little dog had to go to the vet. But the owners have an RV they can stay in until the mess gets cleaned up. I just hope the owner doesn't decide to close for the rest of the season, which would leave us looking for another position late in the season. Oh well, what will be will be, and we'll figure something out. Maybe we'll take something in California and finish out the season there!

I went out and bought the new Harry Potter book this morning at Walmart. I don't have to go to work until 5 PM today, so I have a cup of tea and some pleasant hours ahead of me! I'll post again as soon as I upload the pictures from my camera. Peace!

7/13/07 (Friday): Happy Friday the 13th! It was a good day here in the campground. Very busy--all sites are full up.

We have had lots of little adventures since the last time I blogged, so I'll get right to it.

We hiked part of a rail trail in Whitehall/Montague, about 10 miles north of here. The wildflowers are glorious--these are sweet peas in white, pale pink, bright pink and purple. That's the White River in the background.

Wiley did a little fishing in the White River from the rail trail bridge. He didn't catch anything, but he sure had fun trying! I sat on a bench in the shade and read for a while.










Next we drove northeast to the little town of Fremont. It's small, but very picturesque. We walked around and explored a little.
















The buildings downtown were very Victorian.













The bank has been continuously in business since 1902!


















We found this little restaurant around lunchtime. Imagine our surprise when the Dutch Bakery had an Indonesian menu! My good friend, John, is from Indonesia, and his wife Julie (who comments on this blog often) lived and worked in Indonesia for many years. So, of course, I had to try Sate, which was chicken on skewers in a spicy peanut sauce. Delicious! Wiley had chicken croquettes. He then proceeded to sop up all my leftover sauce with the French bread that came with our meal.

From Fremont, we continued in a big southeast loop, and stopped at this cute little orchard to pick some cherries. We only picked a pound. I've been snacking on them all week.





















On our next day off, we went to Hoffmaster Beach State park (I don't think that's spelled correctly). I walked a long way up the beach and Wiley did some metal detecting. It was a gorgeous day!









There were stairs up to the top of a dune that was about 775 feet high! The view was spectacular, but my poor legs felt like spaghetti when we got back down!
















Our final stop in the park was the visitor center, which was one of the nicest I've ever been to. There were all kinds of exhibits explaining how dunes are formed, what kind of wildlife is adapted to live in the dune environment, and some history of the area. There was also this big window overlooking a pond. The birds and squirrels were enjoying their baths. (The dark looking flying bird is a decal on the window to prevent birds from flying into the window.)




Finally, to end this blog, here are some random shots taken around the campground in the past week or so. This cute little "cabin" is actually an RV with a porch that folded up flat against the side. It was tiny, but very unique.









The sunrise this morning was lovely. It was quite cool overnight (50's), and the mist rising from our lake looked like it was on fire. I couldn't get back early enough for my camera to catch that, but this shot of the mist is still pretty peaceful, don't you think?








I almost forgot to show you these pics. Rather than try to re-format the entire blog, I'll just add them here at the end. This is billed as the world's biggest weathervane. It's in Montague.










We saw this deer one afternoon after work when we'd gone to the breakwater so Wiley could fish. She walked right up to us! She was eating the day lilies near the White River Lighthouse.















Okay--that's it for another day. Stay tuned (and send me those comments, please--they keep me going!)

7/9/07 (Monday): I'm back! The WiFi has been up and down, but I think he's got all the bugs worked out now. I'm so glad to be back online! I've got lots to blog about, so I'll get right to it.

We went exploring on one afternoon after work. Just north of us is the little town of Whitehall (it's where Tom and his family stayed when they came to visit over the 4th). It has a lovely lake with a bike path all around it. This train station has been turned into a trail head for the bike path. We took a leisurely stroll around town and part of the way around the lake.










This wood duck family was enjoying the warm day. It sort of looks like they're swimming in the sky, doesn't it?!





There are still lots of beautiful wildflowers in bloom here. Right now we're seeing cornflowers (at least I think that's what these blue flowers are called). We also have Queen Anne's Lace, black eyed Susans, daisies and sweet peas.

Tom, Kristin and the girls all came on Saturday. We had a great time. The first afternoon, we just hung out around the campground.











We had a campfire and the girls enjoyed their first s'mores. For the unindoctrinated, a s'more is a sandwich of graham crackers, hershey bars and roasted marshmallows--ooey gooey and delicious!









The next day we went to Summer Fest in downtown Muskegon. It runs for a whole month, with performances by big-name bands, art and craft shows, street performers and fireworks. We had a blast!















On their last day, we went to our favorite spot near the Lake Muskegon Canal, where it dumps into Lake Michigan. We had a nice walk beside the canal and the girls played on one of the several playgrounds in the area. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit.








The 4th was exciting in more ways than one! The campground had lots of activities all day--face painting, races and fireworks. But that night, around 3 AM, we were awakened by a huge crash. We tried to get out the door to see what was happening, but we couldn't get the door open. It was raining cats and dogs. Finally Wiley was able to get the door open wide enough for me to squeeze through. Our awning was just destroyed! Fortunately, the insurance will cover it, and we'll just be out our $50 deductible.

The next night, the camp store was robbed. I forgot to mention that the campground's router went down, and we only had one working computer in the store. So we had been working at a disadvantage even before the robbery. We'd also lost one of our Workamper couples unexpectedly, so we were short handed. But we all pulled together (we worked our days off), and got through it okay.

To end on a happier note, we're still enjoying working and living here. The people are great--we've visited just about every evening with them. There's lots to do in the area, too. Wiley has been enjoying picking blueberries and blackberries in the woods near our lake. I've made blueberry pancakes several times, and tonight I made blackberry dumplings. A couple of our Workamper friends came over and enjoyed them with us. They were quite good!

I'll blog again soon. Today we went to Fremont and had another adventure!

7/5/07 (Thursday): Wow--what a crazy week and a half! The campground's WiFi has been down, so I had no internet access. It was also down in the office/store where I spend most of my working hours. That was really the pits on a holiday weekend, because the computers are used to take reservations, register campers and as cash registers for store sales! We got through it, though, and everyone is still friends.

There were some other problems, too. We had to go buy a new phone because the kind of cell phone we had won't work any more due to some government regulation about tracking phone calls (due to 911). That was a huge hassle--I won't go into detail, but what a pain in the neck!

Then we had a bad storm in the middle of the night (7/4) and it blew down our awning, trapping us in the RV. We're waiting for the insurance adjuster now--we have a $500 deductible, so I suspect we'll be out at least that much. Plus the camper looks awful right now, and we're sitting in a very prominent spot in the campground, so I know the owners want us to take down the remnants soon!

To top it all off, the campground store was robbed last night! So this morning was chaotic--trying to do business as usual and not alarm the campers while a police officer took pictures in the store. I feel very bad for the owners--they're so pleasant and generous! They had activities for the kids all day yesterday. We're still having a great time working here.

I'm going to download some pics of the fun time we had when my son and his family visited last weekend and I'll post them on another blog soon. I just wanted to let everyone know what's been going on and why I haven't posted lately.