What a Dad - Wedding - Hurricane Alex

Now tell me is this a good father or what.

The daughters old car had brand new tires and brakes put on this winter and of course the new car needed both. Luckily Larry could swap the tires and since he had them off decided he might as well put new brakes/pads on. Of course the only time he could do this was last Sunday and you can tell from the picture it wasn't the best of days. He was able to get half the vehicle in the shed so that helped. Of course about the time he finished it cleared up.

Saturday we went to our nephew Mike Emery's and new niece Julie's wedding in Big Rapids. The day turned out a little warm but perfect for a wedding with reception outside.

Here's the happy couple.
Here's a big welcome to Julie and her kids to our family.

We along with many of our Texas friends have been watching Alex moving across the Gulf. They have Tropical Storm Wind Warnings out for the area where our park is along with Flood Watches. The local weather report says they could get as much as 15 inches of rain with Alex. Our developer did a wonderful job with the drainage system in our park but the rest of the area isn't the greatest. There has been major flooding on the roads surrounding us with just 3-4 inches. Luckily our other trailer down there is up quite high and we shouldn't have any problems with water, now the wind might be something else. It is tied down and surround on three sides with mobile homes so there's some protecting.

We went for our walk this morning into town and stopped at the cemetery to check out the flowers for our relatives. That's one good thing with all the rain we've had this summer, the flowers look beautiful.

Guess that's it for now. Oh our plans have changed and we won't be going to Houghton Lake next month, maybe next year.

Welcome: Edmonton Canada, Bay City TX, Fairbanks AK, Burns OR, Burnal Belgium, Bellingham WA, Bristol VA, Oalkland CA, Coxsackie NY.

Till next time......................

Yandee Doodle Day Parade

What is it with the weather this year. We have teaser days of sunny and warm than get dumped on with heavy rain. Yes this helps the farmers crops grow but it also helps the grass grow. Since I do the lawn, I’m starting to get tired of spending 2 1/2hrs every three days on the mower. But than it’s not like I have a busy schedule.

Saturday morning we walked downtown for the Yankee Doodle Days Parade with some of the family.
Front row - Sydney, Maggie, Darrius: Back row- Yvonne, Anissa, Dawn, Betty & Brandi.

I prefer being behind the camera but

had to share this one to show off my grandkids.
All of the parade walkers had candy
so it was a mad dash to see who could get the most.

I've downloaded more pictures of the parade on our Webshots if your interested. This is a three day event with lots of things going on for kids such as the duck race and the adults get the beer tent. After the walk home we had some sloppy joes and the little kids went swimming.

Brandi (daughter) got in a fight with a rather large object in the middle of the road Saturday afternoon and the object won. After talking with our nephew Brian who runs his own auto business and he gave us some over the phone estimates we decided the vehicle wasn't worth it. So good old dad helped her find a different vehicle this week.

Tuesday I met up with my old boss Dale Simmon who I worked with for almost 20 years and we had a nice long coffee catch up time.

Another cluster of storms went through on Wednesday. Luckily the worse of them were south of us. As I said earlier we've really had some nasty ones that usually don't come until mid summer when it's hot and humid.

Today was the Little Dude Day. Every Thursday Darrius will be coming to spend the day with us. Since we had to go to the bank we stayed in Lansing and had breakfast at Micky D's than got a few groceries at Walmart before heading back home. About four miles from Lansing we remembered the bank trip so had to do a quick turn around.

Here's Darrius with his favorite movie and new toy.

We love having him with us but sure are tired when he leaves. Haven't been able to spend much time with Anissa our grand-daughter. She just got out of school last Friday than went out to MSU for a four day thing, plus she wants to find a job. So I think we'll have to make a appointment to see her. The busy life of a almost 16yr old.

That's it for now. I know I haven't done a Welcome to new hits in awhile and when I went to look at the Stat's I saw there are a ton of new ones. So here's a few: Welcome Godwin NC - College Station TX - Glendive MT - Omemee, Alberta, London Canada - Modesto CA, Pittsbugh PA, Ok- there's too many so just going to say Welcome to everyone who's visited our site and hope you return. Till next time...................................................

Stormy night here in Michigan

When we first started out on this new adventure of living in a 5th Wheel Trailer one of my biggest fears were thunderstorms. Now I never was very crazy about them even when I had a house with huge basements to go down to, so the idea of sitting on six wheels during a sever storm-- well lets say I was not impressed. Over the years and especially since we moved into a much heavier trailer (bought the Teton two years ago) I've actually gotten use to it. That first year was pretty rough when a storm went through, I just new the wind was going to pick us up and roll us down the road. Now I've found that listening to the rain and thunder is sort of relaxing.

I hadn't realized how long it had been since the last blog until I went to post. Nothing exciting going on so not much to write about. I do have a few pictures to share.

Our nephew David decided they wanted to have a dock out in the lake so he and Larry have been working on building one from a old pontoon frame.
Here they are in the beginning stage. This pontoon is huge, they could have lots of parties on it.
It also came in handy when David needed to cut some carpet for one of his rental houses. Here's Larry, David, Rod (another nephew) and Josh (great nephew) laying the carpet out. We won't go into the color of the carpet.
The other day we were in Lowes and finally broke down and purchased a new faucet for the kitchen sink. We've only got the old one since last winter but it was just too short and could hardly rinse dishes. This one is great and it swivels to make things easier.


Thursday we had our grandson Darrius for the day. He just loves working with grandpa's tools so the two of them spent all morning working on the pontoon. Darrius was just in his glory

Darrius has to get it just right.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in the pool with his cousin Sydney. So I'm sure he slept good that night. I know gr-ma/pa sure did.

Guess that's it for now. Time to hit the hay. Till next time.....................

Quiet week here in Michigan

Not a lot to talk about. Tuesday we got the yard mowed and that was pretty much the highlight of the day. Wanted to get it done as they were calling for rain again. As it turned out other than a few sprinkles that night it's been sunny all week.

Wednesday we ended up watching our great niece Sydney for awhile as her parents had a gap on who was going to be home to watch her between their jobs. Schools here in Grand Ledge were done on Tuesday and she wasn't going to start her summer daycare until Thursday. So she and I went to the store to get milk and of course she needed to show me everything (had to walk thru the toy dept) that she was going to ask her mom to buy her. I told Dawn (her mom) that we would look for a lunch bag as she will be taking her lunch everyday to the new daycare. So we finally found them and of course they were all on the top shelf. It wasn't long and we had all 12 lunch bags lined up along the floor and she had to check every one of them out and explain to me why this one would work and this one wouldn't. She finally picked one that she thought had everything she needed, gee-sh - her mother is going to have a fun time shopping with her when she's a teen.

Thursday morning we took the big truck to the gas station and dumped over $300 in fuel in it. Sure glad it was only about half empty. The price was down to $2.87 so decided to fill it than we'll be set until we get half way to Mission this fall. Had to run into the bank this morning than we went for our daily walk when I got home. Exciting ha!!

This morning (Friday) we went to the Dive Shop where Larry had taken his scuba gear last summer to put it on consignment and most of it had sold. Than over to Sam's Club to drop our normal $100. What really makes me mad is when I come home and find I had purchased the same item last time I was there. My kids use to love it when we had a house cause I was always doing this. Like two people will use up 36 cans of tomato sauce. Anyway we wanted to stop at the bank so we went to our favorite Mexican place for their wet burrito's. We've tried several places in Texas and Mexico but we still like this one the best. Of course it's a family run business and they always remember us and welcome us back to MI.

That's it from this end. Pretty uneventful the last few days but than that's ok too.
Welcome: Spring Grove PA, St Clair Shores MI, Lamoure ND, Northwood OH,
Till next time.................................

Storms, New baby in family, Lunch with Bob/Diane

After some nasty storms this last weekend and lots of rain, today turned out to be a beautiful. Friday evening we had a nasty one that took down a barn that's been standing since 1855. I tried to find a picture but couldn't, it was such a neat looking big red one that pretty much fell apart. Luckily there wasn't any injuries and they said it was winds and not a tornado.

Shortly after the storm went pass our area and hit East Lansing.

Saturday morning the clean up begins.

Sad to see these 100+yr old trees gone.

Saturday night I was just getting to sleep and the sirens went off for the tornado warning. I had the TV on (timer hadn't shut it off yet) and the weather guy was saying that the tornado was in the southern area of our county. I thought about waking Larry up but than figured if the trailer started to roll he'd probably wake up on his own. He actually did mumble something about a warning and I said "ya for the last half hour" and he just rolled over. The damage that night was all south of us thank goodness and all we got was a lot of rain again.

Sunday was a pretty quiet day. Went over to Meijers and got a few groceries, had dinner with the niece and nephew. Oh we have a new great great nephew on Larry's side that made his appearance on Sunday

Meet Michael Timothy Craven

He's a little guy, just 5lb 5oz and he decided to make his entrance to this new world early (7 weeks) no matter what he's mom or Dr said. But he's doing good and should be home soon.

Monday we took a drive up to Houghton Lake. There were a couple of lots we wanted to look at around Harrison but nothing I wanted to put my $$ out for. We have a "must have" list and unless we find something with everything and in our "cheap" price range it won't happen. There's been a couple of places in the last year or so that would have been just perfect but by the time it's posted on the internet and I call it's been sold. I have a feeling that the real estate brokers are pretty much getting the best of the best before it's even listed for the public. Several of those places seem to be back on the market within a few months for a whole lot more $$. Oh well, that's fine, like I said we have our must have list and someday hopefully in the next 10-15 years we find it.

While up at H. Lake we stopped at the RV Park that we'll be staying at next month. Just wanted to make sure that their perception of we would fit and ours is the same. Which it is. Roads are pretty narrow but Larry said we wouldn't have a problem plus these are all pull thrus. Good thing is -there are no trees on our lot, bad thing- there are not trees and our door will be facing south. So if it's hot and sunny we may be using the air conditioner.

We also were able to have lunch with Bob & Diane (brother & SIL) at

the Lake Side Inn
Which is inside the Comfort Suites. I found this picture on their website.

Beautiful hotel right on the lake. But like so many business's things look to be very slow there. We were the only ones there during the lunch period except for one other couple. My brother said that weekends are much better so maybe that can carry them through the week. They do have a indoor water slide for kids so I'm thinking maybe when the grandson is with us we can give it a try.

So that about fills you in on our activities this last week. We've been trying to walk into town every morning for some exercise, than on the way back we'll stop at the cemetery and check the flowers. With all the rain we've had I'm afraid the flowers are getting too much. By going for our walk first thing in the morning the local ice cream parlor isn't open yet so there is no temptation.

That's it for now. Welcome: Mountain View CA, Gilbert AZ, Detroit MI, Calabassas, CA, Carroll IA, Monticello UT, Bow Island Alberta Canada, Arvada CO, Palos Hills IL. (not sure about some of the spelling on these but this is how my Stats have them)

Till next time.............................................................

Shopping, Historical Bld'ing & Naughty Gr-ma

Bet that title got your attention. You'll have to read further down to find out about Gr-Ma

The weekend was pretty quiet around here. We were invited up to my brother Bob's place at Houghton Lake but we've found it's best to stay off the roads on major Holiday weekends. Way to many idiot drivers out there. We'll go up there for a visit in the next couple of weeks when it's not so busy.

Stint (SIL) and I went shopping yesterday over to the Eastwood Towne Center.

This is a pretty big shopping center which is a nice place to go in the summer when the weather is nice and you can walk from one place to another but not sure about winter. We had a nice lunch at Mc Alister's, found some shoes and clothes for the grandson so it was a good day.

While standing on the bridge waiting for the parade the other day I thought you might like to see one of the neat buildings in our little town.

This is called the Opera House which was built in 1884

Several years ago they restored this building back to the original look. It sits along the Grand River and is a perfect setting for weddings and receptions.
Found a picture of the main floor but couldn't find one of the lower level. It really is beautiful.

I logged in to a new ancestry website the other day. Unfortunately once I get into researching family history I don't know when to quit. Larry always tell people that my hobby is chasing dead people and I guess that sounds about right.

This site has Historical Newspapers, Documents and Obituaries. I'm still learning how to move around on it but I did come across something interesting about Larry's great-grandfather. Seems back in 1909 Gr-pa Descom Goodrich sued N.J. Perry for alienated his wife's affection for the amount of $5,000. You go Gr-ma!!!! Will need to do more research to find out if Gr-pa got his money & kept his wife. Will keep you posted on any future developments.

I talked with my friend Jutta Frank's today. Actually it was thru Instant Mess. She and Doug are work camping at Adventure Land in Iowa this summer and wanted to see how they were getting along with the storms. They've had some nasty ones in the last day or so but thankfully the tornado's were a little south of them. This is one area that we RV'ers dread and that's being caught in bad weather while driving. So far we've been pretty lucky while traveling and only had a couple of times that a warning went off on our CB weather station while driving down the highway. A bit scary until I locate the area they are talking about on our GPS. Normally we try to stay put if there's nasty weather in the area we'll be traveling to until things clear up. One of the advantages of our life style - plans are always made in jello.

Guess that's it for now. Welcome - Rayne LA, Carver MN, New Franken WI, Langley Canada, St Paul MN, Monticello UT, Elkhart IN, Minneapolis MN, Miramichi New Brunswick Canada, Hamilton Canada, Rochester MN, Grand Forks ND, Leadville CO. I'm sure some of these locations are the same people just moving around so safe travels to you guys.

Until next time..................................