Wednesday-Thursday

Yesterday Brad golfed with his old golf league, and Mary Jane and I went shopping.  Found a couple of cute new tops, picked up a few necessities, and had lunch at Fresh Palette.  We wanted to try out the newly re-opened Owl, but after walking in and seeing it all dark and not seeing any patrons or employees, walked back out to check their hours, and saw that for now, they don't open until 4:00.  Not sure why the front door was unlocked!  So we just walked around the corner and enjoyed a yummy wrap and taco salad.  Mary Jane and I met up with Steve and Brad later, and we all went to The Mountain for dinner.  I was still pretty full from lunch, so just ordered a Coney dog.  I don't know how I forgot to take pictures!

We're just puttering around the RV and campground this morning.  When we got home yesterday afternoon, we noticed all the people who had moved in after us had left, so besides the people in the cabin, we were the only ones here again.  I see someone else has just moved in this morning, though.  I would expect it to be a little busier here for the holiday weekend.  

This afternoon Dick and Marilyn joined us for a Lake Huron beach day.  It was a beautiful warm afternoon with very little wind.

Driving back, it was good to see that Jesus is still guarding the dinosaurs.

We rounded out the day with some Koegels on the grill, some home grown strawberries on ice cream, and a couple games of Euchre.  Fun day!

Monday-Tuesday

The last couple of days have revolved around the White Pine golf course.  Yesterday, Brad went golfing with the guys, and Budger, Bo, and I had a lazy day hanging out at home.  Then last night was trivia night at the Roadhouse, and the Nohren/Winslow/Elgert/Bachelor team came out on top!  This morning I went in and golfed with my old league.  We played a scramble, which is always fun and low-stress.  It's so fun to hang out with all the Hubbard Lake people.

The weather was really chilly and windy this morning, and has stayed that way all day... What a difference a day makes!  I don't think it got out of the 60's today, but that's Michigan for you.  I'm not sure what's worse... 95+ degrees, or sub-70 for summer... Had to dig out long pants and a hoodie!

We even kicked on the fireplace this evening!

A few pics from the golf course.

The last couple of days we've had a few more people move in to the RV park... What's up with that??  We liked having it to ourselves!  Some people even moved into the cabin a couple of sites down from us.  But everyone seems to be fairly quiet, and Budger still has lots of room to roam, so I guess we can share.  The holiday weekends are always busy up here around Hubbard Lake, so I guess it's not surprising.

Now we've just got ball games to listen to tonight.  Brad gets to listen to the Tigers for an hour before the Royals come on.  We both need to win, and someone needs to take care of those Indians!

Sunday

We got up and got ready for church this morning... Our old church is another place we're really close to by staying at this park.  Took us less than 10 minutes to get there, rather than the 20 minutes it took from our farm.  It was so good to walk in and see all the old familiar faces, get lots of hugs,  and chat with everyone after church at coffee and snack time.

And what's better than walking away with a sackful of delicious homegrown Michigan strawberries?!!  Thanks to Maureen and Ted for dessert tonight!!

Look at all that redness!!

We didn't really have any other plans for today, because it was supposed to rain most of the day.  There was a huge blob of rain coming across the whole state this morning, but it broke up and we ended up just getting a few showers, and now it is sunshiny and low-80's.

Brad is providing background music while I listen to the ballgame.  Budger is enjoying this park, because we practically have it all to ourselves (we did notice that a new travel trailer moved in yesterday).  But we are in the far back corner, the new trailer moved in kind of in the middle, and the guy who runs this park stays up toward the front.  It gives Budger lots of running space, and we've been letting him out without a leash since he's really good about staying close by.

I think Budger is possibly ready to come back inside now...

This just felt like a spaghetti night.

Brad gathered up some wood for a bonfire, but we decided it was a bit too warm tonight for a fire. We're ready for when it does cool down, though.  We know it will, because... Michigan.

Saturday

Brad went and visited with the farmers this morning and caught up on all the farm gossip.  He took Budger with him, so he could play with his buddy Buddy.  Bo and I just hung out here at the RV and enjoyed being able to have the door open.

It turned out to be a nice warm sunshiny afternoon, so Brad and Budger and I hit the Lake Huron beach.  We've realized that staying at this RV park, we are really close to a lot of the places we liked to hang out... Took us about 5 minutes to get to the beach.

This is peace...

Nice bright sun and clear sky.

There's my guys!

Here's my selfie... Toes in the water...

There's our vicious watch dog.

It was like old times tonight, going to the Eagles for burgers and wings and beer.  The gang was all there!

Back to old times...

We were really extremely lazy this morning.  Just sat around drinking our coffee.  Brad got out his guitar and played awhile, I caught up on my games, we ate our leftover pizza for lunch, and then met friends for golf at Monarch Ridge, and drinks afterwards.  The weather was really nice... Even needed throw blankets this morning when we were up early with our coffee.  Our golf weather was sunshiny and high 70's, and the girls beat the guys in our scramble!!

Budger and Bo had a hard time realizing we were not going to pack up and move again today... Once they settled down, they enjoyed just sitting and looking out the screen door, happy we didn't have to have the main door closed up with the air conditioner on.

Paul Bunyan Campground, Ossineke MI

We were lazy this morning and took our time drinking our coffee... Didn't actually hit the road until 10:00.  Arrived at Paul Bunyan campground about 2:00 and got set up and had lunch.  We went to visit with Brad's parents for a bit.  We just saw them at Seth and Brittanee's wedding, but with so much excitement going on, we didn't really visit much.  Then we caught up with friends Carol and Dan, and Ed and Peggy, at Mary Jane and Steve's house, before checking out the pizza at the newly re-opened Wagon Wheel.  Very good pizza, and it felt like we had just been gone a week, and not 9 months.

A few sights from today:

First peek at Lake Huron again

Our campground.  Nothing fancy at all, but we knew that coming in.  But we were able to pick our own site, and we chose one way back in the corner all by ourselves so Budger can get out and run around, and we have all the hookups we need, and we're close to all the people and places we want to see.

Here's Paul and Babe.  They aren't here at the campground, but just up the road, across from where we went to eat tonight.

I should have posted this a couple of nights ago, but I forgot until late at night.  And then I forgot again yesterday... But we got to add a new state to our map (Indiana), when we stopped overnight on the way up here.

A long Skype call with Jordan, Jackson, and Abby rounded out the day.  It's nice to know we don't have to pack up and move again in the morning, or anytime soon!

St Louis Campground, St Louis MI

Tonight we are staying in St Louis MI, which is just south of Mt Pleasant.  We hit the road early again this morning, to beat out the rain that was coming in at Amishville, and we considered just driving all the way to Hubbard Lake, but that would have been 6 or 7 hours, which would have meant a fuel stop while pulling the fifth wheel, and we try to avoid those.  And it's just mentally taxing for my driver to be pulling the RV for that many hours in one day.  We will certainly be glad to be stopped for a month after tomorrow's stop, and are really excited to see all our Hubbard Lake friends, and go visit all our favorite places.

This is a very quiet, almost empty campground.  It is actually a church camp, but is open to the public except when they are holding big church events or campouts.  The price is certainly right... $12.00 with our RV membership discount!

There are lots of RV spots for hookups, and also some "cabins" that are really just cute little houses that you can rent.

Lots of open ground!

Also a long line of windmills across the road.

We went into the town of St Louis just to see what it was all about.  Cute downtown area.

Lots of cool old houses like this one.  Reminds me of some of the houses in Atchison.

While walking around, we realized we were on Washington, crossing (the) Delaware.

This house is called Elwell Castle.  Very cool!

This was on the side of one of the buildings, and made me giggle.

Tomorrow we'll be at Paul Bunyan Campground, ready to catch up on everything Hubbard Lake!!  I'm so excited to see everyone up there!!

Amishville Campground, Geneva IN

We had a longer than usual drive today, and lost an hour due to crossing into the eastern time zone, but we were all set up by about 3:00.  This s is a very cool park, but had some interesting sites once we left the highway.

Had to dodge the girls on horses.

And when we first came around a curve, we thought we were supposed to cross this bridge. 

 Luckily, there's a new bridge!

Lots of Amish farms around, so lots of buggies to watch out for.  This Amish farm is right next to the park.

Swimming pond

Fishing pond

Bridges to an island in the pond.

Lots of fun playground equipment.

They also have Amish house tours, buggy rides, farm animals to feed, and a restaurant and gift shop.

Here's our site.  And even though it's called Amishville, we do have electric hookups!

We decided we deserved a reward for the extra-long drive today, so we drove to the next town for dinner at El Camino Real.

Brad almost ate his taco salad before I could capture a picture!

I had a fajita beef burrito.  Very yummy... And very large!  Half of it is coming back to the RV.