July 31, 2007 Grand Blanc, MI Tomorrow's The Day!

We finally heard that our Montana is finally fully repaired. We pick it up in the morning and head for Waldenwoods RV Resort in Hartland, MI for a week "shakedown" to confirm that all is well for our trip in three weeks to the Eastern Civil War battle sites. With the temperatures in the mid-90s for the rest of the week, the ac and refrigerator will get a good workout. 'Till tomorrow, adios.

July 29, 2007 Grand Blanc, Port Huron, MI plans for Aug/Sept

Yesterday we traveled to Port Huron, MI to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. 27 years ago, we spent our first married night in Sarnia, Ontario, just across the Blue Water Bridge from Port Huron. That was the start of a tremendous journey - some happy, some sad, all very much better than prior to 1980. We were talking and agreed that we are eagerly anticipating the next 27.

We will start with the next journey with the Montana. We will pick it up from the dealership Tuesday after receiving some warranty repairs and take it to Hartland, MI, Waldenwoods Camping Resort, to assure that all is now in great shape.

In mid-August, we will be traveling east to tour Civil War Battle sites. We are also hoping to tour Johnstown, PA, the site of the tremendous flood that took over 2,000 lives. This portion may be with our sister and brother-in-law from Virginia that suggested it. The only thing that we know now about dates and locations is that we will probably camp at the Shenendoah Resort in Gordonsville, VA (near the area of three Civil War battles - Fredericksberg, Spotsylvania and The Wilderness) over the Labor Day week. The rest is up for grabs. We will leave about August 16 and hope to be in Goshen September 16 for the Montana Owners Fall Rally. In between, we will just see where the road takes us. That is the nice thing about RV travel and being semi-retired - no schedules.

July 23, 2007 Holland, MI

Today we went to the Ottawa County Fair in Holland, MI. We enjoy seeing harness racing at the county fairs and this one did not let us down. The weather was perfect - sunny, warm and low humidity. The crowd was relatively large and enjoyed the show as we did. We were late arriving and only saw the last eight or so races. That surely did not stop our enjoyment. The 4H kids put on great shows by showing the animals that they have been raising. Would you believe - kids taking their young goats (they are kids, too, aren't they?) into a ring and showing them for the judges? It is really nice seeing the pride that the youngsters have in their charges and the hesitancy that they show during the judging. The "goat judge" was not only judging but also teaching them how to act and show for the best results. We thought that was a very nice touch.

July 21, 2007 Grand Blanc and Midland, MI

We took our grandson to Midland to see the Class A Midland Loons play baseball. As we approached Midland it began storming hard and a tornado warning was sounded for the Midland area. We turned around and returned the next day. As we stood in line waiting to purchase our tickets, the family in front of us said "Oh, look. We go the last tickets." We lost out again. We were not slated to see them play, I guess. Gotta order some in advance for next time.

Today, while sitting on the porch planning our itinerary for next month to the east to see Civil War battle sites, I heard a commotion coming from the area of our bird feeder as birds' wings flapped and squirrels ran. I looked up and a lone turkey was coming out of the woods to the area of the feeder. This loner has been hanging around lately and we never saw other creatures flee before it before.

We hope to meet my sister and brother-in-law in the area of Johnstown, PA and then go on to Harpers Ferry, WV, Antietem, MD, Gettysburg, PA and maybe Fredericksburg, VA area. Then on to Goshen from wherever we are in this journey.

July 12, 2007 Grand Blanc, MI

We have a question to answer and soon - do we go on to Mt. Rushmore, long distance with rising fuel costs and fires, or do we go east and travel some of the Civil War battlegrounds. Monty is now in the dealership getting some last minute warranty work done and then we will camp locally until we leave to wherever we decide to go next. We will leave for the next extended trip in Mid-August. We then will be traveling to Goshen, IN for a Montana Owners Rally in Mid-September and then up the Michigan West Coast to see the fall colors. If anyone reads this and has any suggestions to the above question, please let us know your thoughts. If we do go East for this trip, we hopefully will make Mt. Rushmore after our winter Southwest trip to Texas and Arizona.

July 6, 2007 Grand Blanc, MI

We brought Monty home today. Now we plan for our mid-August trip to Mt Rushmore and then on to Goshen, In for a Montana Owners Rally. Maybe on to northwestern Michigan after the rally to see the fall colors. Our home park, Lake Shore in Davison, MI has continued improving their campground. The other side of the lake is now opening up sites and they have many more cabins operational now. Seems like too many people, though, but it may just be because this is the holiday weekend.

Next week we take the rig to the dealership for some final warranty tuneups. Then we will probably do some local camping and then leave soon thereafter. We probably will also do some painting on the condo. Been putting that off for too long now.

Finally got some photos in. Bambi was right alongside the road, a beautiful fireworks display including this one and Monty, all set up and comfortable.

July 4, 5, 2007 West Branch, MI

West Branch put on a beautiful fireworks show. It was short, maybe 20 minutes, but a great show. There were thousands of people scattered around the countryside in fields and lots with lawn chairs, hot dog and bar-b-q venders, families, a great crowd. We parked in a dentist's parking lot and were as close as we have ever been to the fireworks. There are so many new types now that we have never seen before. How they can make shapes of circles, rectgangles, etc come out of the blasts blows our minds (didn't see the pun until this was printed). We counted 60 some deer before the show. Here in the north it gets dark later than we are used to. The show didn't start until about 10:30PM. They said that they were going to wait for dark and they sure did. Tonight we took one last drive to see the deer before we leave in the morning.
We take the Monty back home and next week to the dealership for some warranty work before leaving for Mt. Rushmore in mid-August. There were storms around us today with hail and winds and rain but we missed most of it. It is a beautiful night now and this is being typed outside in the rapidly fading light. Hopefully we can get photos published tomorrow of the deer and fireworks.

July 3, 2007 West Branch-Tawas, MI

Last night , we were driving in the area looking for deer and turned into a private drive. We were stopped along the roadway looking at some deer, when a SUV pulling a trailer pulled along side us. The car contained a family and the man asked what we were doing. When we told him that we were looking at the deer, he began a conversation by explaining that he had been born and raised in the area. He asked us if we believed. When we answered that we did, he introduced us to his wife and several of their children. She is carrying their eleventh child at this time. He explained that this area is the "heart of the heart" of deer country. He described a one mile square drive that passes our campground that, on an autumn evening, will display several hundred deer, many of them bucks. He then took us to his farm and introduced us to two of his beautiful horses, a Syrian Jack Ass with a cross inscribed on his back and even his hair. He explained that this is the type of ass that Jesus rode. We also met a large family of goats, with the babies running and jumping all around. He pointed out one baby goat standing on another. He said that the baby was standing "on his grandma. Grandma lets him do it and he loves it." The children and the animals have biblical names. Today, Carol took them some Christmas ornaments that she had made as a token of our thanks for their kindness last night. What beautiful people we are meeting as we travel our wonderful country.
Today, we drove to Tawas, Mi to see Lake Huron. What a beautiful area this is. Tawas has a city park right on the Lake Huron shoreline. included in the park is an RV park. This is a very clean park. It has full hookups and cable. The only negative that we could see was that it is crowded. There are some sites right on the shoreline. We could just picture watching a sunrise on Lake Huron from our picture window in our Montana. We put off a walk on the pier out onto Lake Huron because it was cloudy, windy and somewhat cool on the water. Maybe next time. (tomorrow?) Tonight, we drove the mile square drive that we had heard about last night and counted 96 deer and six turkeys.
Still having a problem posting our photos. Will send when we get this problem taken care of.

July 2, 2007 West Branch-Grayling, MI

We went to Grayling today just to see what was there. It is a small town but abuts a National Guard training base that has been around for a very long time. We used to see convoys of National Guard driving north and south, from and to this base, for their annul two weeks of active duty. They were once called "Weekend Warriors." No longer is that a proper label. We salute you, the brave men and women, who are here either having just come home from or preparing to go to or return to the Middle East. We also thank you for helping us to be free and safe.
On the way from West Branch, we saw about a dozen buzzards along I-75, near the highway. By the time we were able to turn around and return to photograph them many were flying away, leaving two. The others flew overhead waiting for us to leave. Having trouble with placing photos on the blog and so, either they will be on here with this one or we will play catch-up when we get to a stronger signal area.
Tonight we saw several dozen deer in fields near here. A local farmer said that he has seen 200-300 in a night upon occasion. We will try again tomorrow night only later and let you know our count.