Vacation Day, Suite Cleaning, Walkabout, Wagon Train, Calling a Friend, Happy Hour

When I felt mostly awake this morning, Thursday, Jan. 25^th, the clock read 7:15. I know I’d been awake around 6:30 but obviously dropped back into dreamland easily. I peeked out my blind without disturbing my bedmates and the gorgeous pink sky to the east encouraged me to get the heck up! As I was dressing, Bill and Clemson also stirred and got up.

And this is how the day started
No arguments here!

After letting the pooch out and snapping some pictures, we got our tea and coffee made. It was a pleasant 63F inside the Suite and quite comfortable.

And until the sun popped, it was quite the performance

I could tell without checking the outside temperature that it was warmer than yesterday’s start up. Sure enough, it was resting around 46F. Bill got cleaned up, had his cereal before going out to change the oil in the generator. Yup, he read the instructions that said to change the oil after the 5 hour break in period and purchased oil yesterday at Chevron.

Pop!

While he was outside, I made my bowl of yogourt, banana, flax seed and some of my homemade applesauce. I’m going to put in a forceful effort of cutting out the bread and cereal for a few days, slowly getting back on track with my paleo eating habits. Don’t hold your breath, I fall off the wagon quite a bit in my efforts and come up with bruised ego instead of bruised knees. It is all on me to do this.

It looks like a bowl of sweet goodness, but there isn't anything sweet in here and it was yummy

Today, we are taking a day off from the hustle and bustle. Ha ha, too funny. We have one busy day, then take a day off. Dad says in this life we don’t get vacation and as true as that is, we still feel the need to take a day off here and there. No holiday pay though. Bill chose to work on his vacation and replaced the bulbs that he bought yesterday so our scare lights on the 4 corners will be brilliant and more efficient now.

Last one

While he was prepping to do that, I cleaned up also and went for my walk, hoping to bump up the steps today from yesterday. 5 miles is a daily goal here during the winter and 2 miles at least back home. Some days I meet it, some days I don’t quite make it. That is another wagon I tend to slip off now and again. But it is good to have goals, right?

Here a rock, there a rock, everywhere a rock

First, I took Clemson for a walk back to the south and let him water the rocks a few times, sprinkles here and droplets there. Once he is done with that business, he walks pretty good, sometimes, usually, once in a while, you get the picture. I dropped him off at home and took my windbreaker off. It was warmer than I thought.

What was my first clue on the warmth?

I headed up the main road towards the gate and got as far as the garbage dumpsters and the rv dump station. I should have swapped out the sweatshirt for the windbreaker because I was almost too warm. I knew I wouldn’t make it to the front gate in all these clothes even WITH my water. So, I cut in behind the rv’s waiting in line and took a new route back. I came across this “Y” (why?) in the road and took the obvious choice.

Why, you ask?

All roads lead to home, eventually, so I kept on trucking. It meant only a 2.5 mile walk this morning but that is pretty good. By the time I finished my day, I’d made 3 miles. 

turning right at the Y would only take you to this campsite
they got lucky, tucked way back in there all by themselves

Something about this dead tree attracted my camera

When I got back home, Bill and I headed into Quartzsite both with a place in mind to stop at. It was a zoo. Let me repeat that. IT WAS A ZOOOO! What did we expect at 11:30, I guess? Did we really think people went home for lunch?

I had to clean my boots off before heading out again

No worries, we aren’t in a rush and it was a day off, remember? We saw many vehicles jamming up at the lights trying to make a left hand turn onto Kuehn St. (the main drag for the vendors) so we went straight through to Main St. Bill drove to Dollar General on the west end of town and I was thrilled to find my clear sheet protectors for a buck. Yay!

Bill commented on this rv in front of us from Alberta, Canada
Zac Brown's lyrics "Toes in the water, Ass in the sand"

From there we went to a vendor selling flags so Bill was able to get a 3’ x 5’ Canadian flag to match the 3’ x 5’ American flag he already has. In Canada, our flags are different sizes. Their length is exactly twice the width so our flag from home, the one we’ve been flying is 27” x 54". Bill wants to respect the appropriate flag etiquette and at the same time not upset any of our southern neighbours.

 

Still bumper to bumper to get onto Kuehn

When we got back home we made an important phone call. We knew our friend in Ontario was home recovering from triple by-pass surgery and coming along pretty well. We also knew, from his wife’s email updates, that Jim was on his computer near a phone for much of the day. Other than his who knows how many mile walker walks around the path in their home, I mean. So, we made a phone call.

Bill tried to get pictures to show his flag but I'm going to blame this blur on the wind!

I don’t know about your friends, but after the traditional pleasantries of the greeting, when Jim lights into a joke that has us rolling on the floor laughing (ROFL) we have all the answer we need. He is doing amazing! It was great to hear his voice, so chipper and positive. Our only regret was that we missed Sharon, as she was out line-dancing, two-stepping without the walker. We’ll definitely call again.

Some people call this double-towing but back home we call it triple-towing
In some states and provinces this is not allowed

That done, Bill took the time to make sure both same-sized flags were the same height on the poles before he was happy. I know the saying is Happy Wife, Happy Life but there must be something about a Happy Hubby too. He’s happy, I’m happy. We had a bowl of my chicken noodle soup and I did well by avoiding the tempting bun with peanut butter. In other words, I stayed on the wagon.

I have a small bowl left for one more lunch. I’ll have to make that again, it was a hit! We did the dishes up and I went outside with Clemson for awhile and I can’t remember what Bill did. I think he sat inside reading, it’s all a blur already. I did a quick sweep through with the duster, after having windows open you can guess what it did inside.

I saw George go by on his bike
Testing it out

I'm glad I only used half of this little bottle

At 2:45 even though it was windy, it was quite warm around 74F so I texted Suzie and Deb that we’d host Happy Hour after having missed yesterday. They joined us and we hoped that Ken and Shirley would also make their way here. Which they soon did. Yay! The gang’s all here! I made a coffee today and opened one of the small bottles of 99 XXpresso liquer to add to it. Hmm, not bad at all. When the sun slipped behind the cirrus clouds, it did cool down a bit and by 5 it was time to be heading home.

Suzie, Deb, Shirley, Ken, George, Tom, me and Bill's chair

Bill and I quickly agreed that we would boil the sausage inside instead of grilling on the Weber. No wind breaker yet. With the sausages on a gentle boil, I hopped in the shower while the Suite was nice and warm. We want to head out early in the morning so it would be best to take care of that now.

First time here that I caught this ruby-throated hummer

I made up a salad and after they were cooked through, I browned the sausages in the fry pan. It was quick to heat Bill’s bun under the lid for the last minute. I decided to try a Lettuce-wrapped Sausage instead of a bun and it worked not too badly. Messy, not perfect but still good and I avoided the bread tonight.

During our meal, I was a nuisance I suppose but the sky kept changing so I was up and down like a yo-yo. Can you blame me? 

the actual sunset

this one through our window with the saguaro pointing to it

And then the day ended almost as it began

The rest of the evening was me finishing with my pictures to post this and then both of us reading our books. 

Nothing on television tonight appeals to us so we don’t need to run the generator. It has been a great slow-going day.

And one of my favourites for obvious reasons
Good night from our Suite

Thank you for stopping by. I’d love to hear from you, I read all comments.

Silver Lake, Mi 2

So, the continuing saga of our week long vacation (do retirees get vacation?) in Silver Lake, Michigan comes to an end, but not before we have some more experiences in the sun, sand and water.

So Thursday at 7 pm 6 of us piled into 2 jeeps for our sunset tour. I mentioned this in our previous post but wanted to share a few more pictures. It was an hour and a half riding on the dunes. 

Five vehicles followed our leader Wild Bill, aptly named I might add, and we went up and down, over and around doing whatever he did. His favourite thing to say when he was about to embark on another really high dune was “if you don’t hear from me after I disappear over the top, don’t follow me”. Hilarious and quite the chatterer.

We all were connected by cb radios and Bill (our very own Wild Bill) followed his instructions to a tee. If he gets a chance to be reckless with the ‘pedal to the metal’ and still be legal and safe, of course he accepts the challenge. I rode in the front for the first half until we stopped for photos and then moved to the back for the sunset viewing and trip back. It is a hoot but hard on the body! The wind really plays havoc with the sand and what is calm one day can be a series of 2’ high bumpy ridges the same evening.  I have a wonderful bruise on my right buttock cheek where I was lifted off the seat and down again on the seat belt connector. OUCH!!  Lucky for you, NO picture!

Most of the time remaining at the park was just doing our own thing. A lot of relaxing, washing the front and back of the Suite etc. It was great!

The lab across the street was a hoot to watch, quite the performer!

 

I felt like baking something so made a peanut butter chocolate glazed pie for our evening treat around the fire. With a glass of wine, of course!

Made sure to save a piece for Amy and Rick and sent it home with Nancy

Sunday, Ken and Nancy asked us if we’d like to trek to New Era to go through Oceana winery with them. So off we went. When you get a chance to sample 5 wines for $5, why not? Naturally we found a couple we really like and came out with a semi-dry with raspberry and grape “Cayuga Jazz” and a treat of sherry “Amadeus”. Added to our 3 from Jomagrha “Afternoon de White” and West Short White” we have become quite the wine connoisseurs! We knew we would drink a couple of these before having to cross the border on Monday.

The weather was really good for the whole of our week at the park with no rain although it was forecasted a couple of evenings. That’s okay, we enjoyed our camp fires each night, either at their site or ours. One night we found ourselves caught up in a team challenge at the bean bag toss. 

The big thing this year, even more than previous years, was remote controlled cars. Fun to watch for a while but the constant buzz and crash was too much for Ken and Nancy’s munchkin, Molly. She is only 2 years old and just wanted to chase and mangle so had to be restrained to calm her or put inside their rv.

The best news of all was that our friends have sold their home in Antioch, Il after a painstaking year of open houses and viewings. We are very very happy for them although they dreaded the idea of going home and packing. Bill and I tried to be very encouraging and can only hope that they soon get caught up in the thrill of the life ahead of them that it isn’t such a chore after all. We remember how our excitement took over during the last month before closing and we just wanted to get rid of things with a vengeance!

As is typical on our last evening together, the 4 of us scoot down the road to enjoy a dinner together at the Open Hearth restaurant. 

Also a chance to fill up the truck with diesel. Prices were pretty good, well definitely compared to Canada, but we still didn't pay this much!

So, Monday morning, August 8, we were packed up and ready to pull out by 8 am as planned. Said our goodbyes to the Adamskis and set out shortly thereafter. Before we left, however, we all made sure to stop at the office and book our week for next year. When you’ve got something good going, you like to hold on to it.

Camping World in Grand Rapids was, as always, a stop on the way home again for a couple more items. Without having one of these stores in Canada, we have to take advantage while we are visiting the U.S. and plan for it from year to year. Hmm, what would we like to purchase this year?

Construction still going on on the opposite side. Kinda weird seeing it from this angle!

                                         

We made a quick stop at a rest stop for some homemade egg salad sandwiches and then headed for the border. 

The only other stop was for diesel at a small station off the beaten path.
Loved this little barn just across the way.
This was at Bancroft, $2.29/gal.
This trip was different than a week ago with a lineup across the bridge and a wait of about 40 min. but we soon made it to be greeted by yet another pleasant crossing guard who scooted us on our way after the usual questions “where were you? For how long? What did you spend?” Easy peasy.

Arrival at The Ridge was 5:30 pm and all set up shortly after It doesn’t take us long but we have determined that the day was too long, even with the short stops. 

Bill's picture from his quad copter of our gorgeous spot

We were so tired that I can’t even recall what we grabbed to eat when we got home. No matter, we ate and I was in bed by 10:30. At least we didn’t have any unpacking to do as in previous years and that brings a huge YAY!!! Wouldn’t trade that feeling for the world!

Well, that was our trip and we thank you for following along. All comments are welcome.