Ancestry - Air Card - Flooding Pictures

Have any of you ever wondered about your ancestors and what they went through. I think about this quite often only because I really enjoying researching our families to see what kind of dirt I can dig up (get it -ancestors-dirt -dig up--- sometimes I crack myself up) But anyway I’ve found some interesting things, some sad - many that have died young from fevers or in childbirth - some shocking - ggg-grandfather that was convicted of murder and sent to prison only to escape in 1860 & never found - some exciting - weeks of crossing the ocean to start a new life. I have many sites that I’ve been able to find information on and if any of you are interested in these sites send me an email and will forward them to you. But beware - you may think this is a hobby you can just work on during rainy afternoons but it is addictive. Especially if you come across that black sheep in the family that you didn’t no about, you just want to keep on digging. Pretty soon you get the reputation of “chasing dead people”.

Speaking of rainy afternoons, that is what we are having right now. It’s actually nice, we’ve needed some rain and there’s a cold front right behind it. It has been warm and muggy the last few days again and since we STILL haven’t seen the electric company we seldom use the air conditioner. Larry did call them again and talked with someone higher up. We have a schedule date on next Monday (1st) so hopefully they will show up. One of the poles they will be replacing is pretty darn close to the back of our trailer so I’m thinking Monday might be a good day for me to go away. Things like large poles falling on my home do tend to make me a little nervous and Larry telling me we’d get a new trailer from the electric company really doesn’t make me feel any better.

The new Verizon Air Card came today. The old one gave up the ghost (just can't get off the ancestry wave) last week while we were up to brothers place. Luckily we were able to get on nephews, not really sure what life is like anymore without our internet but I’m sure I don’t want to find out. We’ve become very dependent on these computers from finding out what is happening around the world down to just how far that thunderstorm is from our house. Larry has certain things he reads every day as I do and the most of them aren’t the same. That’s why we both have our own laptops and we are not good at sharing. So you can be sure of one thing, when a computer dies in this household it is replaced within a matter of hours.

As you probably can tell there isn’t too much to write about this week. I have one picture of the flooding down in Mission that one of the residents there has posted on FB. This is Chimney RV Park that is a couple of miles east of us.

Found this online of the Clubhouse

This was from FB, a little blurry but you can still see the damage

That's it for today. Tomorrow is little dude day. Not sure what we'll do with him. They have a kids day on Thursdays at the local movie theater so if I can talk gr-pa into it we may take him down there. For $2.00 (& that's the everyday price) it's a cheap afternoon in air conditioning.

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

Family and Friends

Tuesday morning we took off and headed for my brother Bob and SIL Dianes place in Houghton Lake. It was cloudy and a good chance of rain that morning but by the time we arrived it was a beautiful day there. Bob had a meeting after lunch with the Elks Club so

Larry did a little fishing

while Diane and I went shopping. It's just not the same if we don't make at least one trip to Arnies Arts N Crafts

Now my family and friends all know there is one thing I am "not" and that's crafty. When there is something going on at the clubhouse that pertains to sewing and I want one there are two things that I take with me. My sewing machine and Larry. But this does not stop me from going into some of the craft stores and looking around.

Especially this one that not only has crafts but a neat Coffee Shop
and Gift Shop

That afternoon we took their pontoon out on the lake and Larry/Bob/Diane did some fishing during our happy hour. The water was calm and hardly anyone out there. We ended the day by having some yummy steaks on the grill.

Wednesday we had made plans to go over to West Branch to see our Retama friends Grant and Donna Zinneckerg who have the lot right next to us in Texas. Donna had a tasty lunch ready for us and we took a couple of hours to do catch up on what's been happening. My SIL Diane invited them back to their place for dinner and boat ride so they followed us back to HL.

The wind had picked up by the time we got out on the lake and it was pretty rough. Things were going pretty good until the front of the boat went down and a wave went up. Donna and I were sitting on the front fishing chairs and yup we got it. Luckily we were both somewhat facing the back of the boat so it wasn't a full face hit but we did get pretty wet. Sorry no pictures of Donna or I but here's one of the rest of the group on the boat.
We had planned on stopping at one of the restaurants on the water but decided we would go back to the house and drive. Had a nice dinner at Limberlost where we all order Wet Burrito's and they were better than some we've had down in Mexico and Texas.

After dinner we went back to Bob & Dianes and enjoyed sitting on their patio

Was great seeing Donna & Grant and spending the afternoon with them. Hopefully we'll be able to get together again before they leave Michigan at the end of Aug but if not we don't have far to walk to see them down in Texas.

Bob and Diane have such a nice place on one of the canals that I wanted to share a couple of pictures.

Really loved bringing my morning coffee out here

and just enjoying the view.

That's it for now. I know there's been many new hits on my stats so want to say Welcome to all of you. Till next time.......................................

A Day at the Cleveland Zoo

Saturday morning we had to roust the grand-kids up early (at least early for Anissa) to get ready to go to the zoo. They slept downstairs in the livingroom and sometime after midnight they called it a night. Probably a good thing gr-ma didn't no about this.

Part of today's trip to the zoo was to attend the Michigan State Alumni picnic. Renee' is president of the alumni assoc for Northeast Ohio and our trip to her place worked out great to be able to attend their annual picnic.

Here's a group picture, some had already left but turn out was good.

Had a nice lunch of hot dogs & hamburgs that the Zoo prepared. A nice group of people.

The grandson had a bit of a challenge on having to wait until after the MSU event before we could go see the animals. Patience is not one of Darrius's strong points as this picture shows.
As they say a picture is worth a thousands words and right now I'm thinking those are naughty words going through that little guys head.

Finally the time came to go see the animals. We were given a map of the area when we entered and Darrius had our route all worked out. It was so hot there (90's) that day but luckily there were cooling off area's along the trails.

Darrius had to hit each one of them and I'm thinking he was the only smart one in our group.

We did wimp out and took the Tram to the last place as it was at the top of the hill.
Darrius looks a little happier in this one.
Even tho it didn't include a trip to the Mall, I think Anissa enjoyed the day.

Even with "I don't want to go" the day had to come to a end. We all had a great day. More pictures are posted on our Webshot site if your interested.

I guess this last picture says it all.
Good Night All!!!!

Grandkids, Daughter & Son-in-law

Friday we picked our grand-kids Anissa and Darrius up at 12:30 to head to Avon Lake Ohio for a weekend at our daughter Renee' and son-in-law Brian's place. On the drive over to get the kids Larry and I were talking and we were hoping we could get at least to the Toll Road in Ohio before someone asks when are we going to eat. Well we didn't make it to Ohio, if fact we didn't even get out of the apartment and one of them asked. We did make them hold off until we got to Jackson which is about a half hour.

Can you guess where we ate!!

Of course we had to make one more pit stop at one of the Service Plazas along the Toll Road. We were so cruel making our grandson walk pass three fast food places without stopping but I knew we would be going out to dinner that night.

Finally arrived at the kids house. Our normal 3 1/2 hour drive turned out to be 5 hr's but part of that was we took a 2 lane road across parts of Michigan. We went pass an area going into Dundee MI that had a tornado go through several weeks ago and you can still see the damage. Many homes and buildings with roofs and parts of the walls gone. If the tree wasn't down the tops were gone. This was the same storm that went through a RV Park and flipped several trailers and one person was killed.

As I mentioned we had planned on going out that night and Renee' suggested this place called

Dave & Busters Bar & Grill Here's Renee and Anissa waiting for dinner

Renee & Darrius racing each other while Brian checks his voice mail.
From there we went for ice cream than
for a walk along Lake Erie's Beach
Anissa had to cool off with soaking of the toes

The day ended back at the kids place out on their patio with a grown up drink and catch up on what's happening with Renee and Brian.

That's it for today. Tomorrow will post some pictures of our day at the zoo. Till next time........

Updated Photos of RG River Flooding

 This was taken when the flooding first started. Trees in back ground should be on land.

This was taken three days later.

I believe this is the road getting to the Palapa.

Than there's the Boat Dock

And three days later

 

Thankfully our park is far enough away from the river that we don't have to worry about this.

Today we were able to get back to our daily walk into town. One of the neat things about walking is we have so many homes that are over 100 years old that are just so unique and beautiful to look at. 

That's it for today. Till next time........................

Flooding @ Rio Grande River Mission TX

First let me say thank you to Pearre Davenport for the pictures he's been posting on Facebook of the flooding that's happening down south. Pearre and Becky are staying in Retama (along with a few other brave ones) for the summer and he's been keeping all of us up to date on the storms and flooding. For those friends reading this that are not Retama residents our Texas home is weathering the storms and rain amounts very well thanks to the development of the drainage system in our park. While many streets and parks were flooded and roads closed it sounds like (again thanks to updates) our streets emptied fairly quickly after the rain stopped.

We have spent time sitting under this Palapa watching the river float by.
See the palm trees in the water, that's suppose to be on land

And here is the new boat dock Rhodes just finished last year.
The lower level walkway where the pontoon and speed boat are normally anchor is gone.

If you want to see more pictures go to our Webshot site. I just wish I could find my pictures I've taken so you have some idea of just how much the water has risen. I'll keep updating the webshot site with pictures when they are posted so check back.

That's it for now. Till next time.................................................

Afternoon with Retama Friends

Well the heat is still with us - hence so is the generator. I'm thinking by now Larry is on first name bases with the local gas station people. I thought our wonderful local electric company was going to come this week to replace the wiring but guess that was either wishful thinking on my part or lack of listening to what Larry said. I'm sure Larry would pick the "lack" but I'm going the "wishful". I guess the engineer is working on the design to give to construction crews. So who knows when they will get around to actually doing the work. Maybe by this time next year.

We had a very special day today. Good friends Gary & Marilynn Orthober from Door Cty WI came to Grand Rapids for a convention and we met them for lunch along with Pat & Lon Garvey. After lunch at the Corner Landing in Ionia we were invited back to Pat/Lon's for dessert.

Here is Pat and Marilynn in Pat's back yard.

And Lon, Gary and Larry in a deep discussion,.

What better way to spend a warm, rainy afternoon than sitting on a beautiful screen porch with good friends.

Yesterday was grandson day. Since it was just to hot to play outside we spent most of it inside. Lets just say having a very active five year old confined to a 5th wheel living room tends to make for a very long day. We'll definitely have a Plan B on hand for the next hot or rainy day.
.
Since the weather is suppose to break and starting tomorrow cooler with less humidity maybe we can get back to our daily walks. I also will need to get the lawn mowed, can't believe how shabby it has gotten in less than a week of not mowing or weeding. Luckily the whole weekend is suppose to be nice, I'm thinking it's going to take a few days.

So guess that's it for today. Haven't welcomed anyone lately. There seems to be quiet a few new ones from Michigan. So here's a big Welcome to: Jackson MS, Pound WI, Topeka KS, Greenville MI, Mason MI, Grayling MI, Ann Arbor MI, Lamoure ND, Spring Grove PA, Buffalo MN.

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

Heat + lack of power = generator

I've decided that this old body can't take the heat like it use too. (yes Jack I hear you). I'm not sure if it's because of having such a cool winter that our systems did a about face on us or what. The heat index is only 97 degrees with humidity at a low 50% and we have the air on. I know part of the problem is where we are parked, we are surrounded by buildings and trees so we get absolutely no wind here. Out behind the big garage it's like a totally different place with an open field and large trees but that's not a option. I guess I'm just going to turn into one of those people that like it cool (low 80's) rather than hot (high 90s).

Speaking of air conditioning, did I mention that we have to run the generator in order to keep the power from kicking out when we want air conditioning? Actually depending on how much juice is being used the power goes out even without the air. Shortly after we got here we were having problems with the power management kicking out. The electric company came out and deemed that since we were the last ones on the line the line from the transformer is undersized. OK, fine - so change the line - oh no they say - they have to get an engineer out here to design it. So I'm thinking if you stand at the pole and follow the wire (everything here is above ground) to the other pole than over to the buildings this should pretty much be a no brain er. Sure!!! Two (or maybe it was 3) weeks pass and still nothing, so Larry calls the Power company again. Mmmm - unable to find a work order on this - another line man has to come out -which also says line has to be replaced - engineer design needed - is this beginning to sound familiar. After Larry explained to the second set of workers that all this has been determined they were nice enough to give him a direct telephone number to the person who would be handling it. So at this point the engineer did come and he/she is in the process of doing the "design". Probably no one wants to hear my idea of standing at the pole with a pencil/paper and sketching a picture from point A to B to C. Probably to simple ha? So until they use all the fancy equipment they spent big bucks on to decide how this wire should be strung, we are using the generator for air.

The week has been pretty slow. We're trying to get out every morning for our walks into town. I really enjoy walking the neighborhoods and looking at the houses. You see so much more than when you drive by.

Thursday we had Darrius and decided it would be a good day to go to Fitzgerald Park that is just on the other side of town.

It was a perfect day to walk the ledges
and maybe do a little rock climbing
check to see if there's any sharks in the Grand River
and of course hit the play ground on the way out

As I said before we haven't had a lot of time with our grand-daughter so Friday Anissa and I did the favorite teenage pass time. Shopping and lunch out with gr-ma's $$'s. I took some pictures of Anissa with my cell phone but for some reason it's not getting to my email. So hopefully at my next posting I'll get it fixed and I can share pictures of our beautiful girl.

That's it for now. Hope everyone has had a great Holiday Weekend. We always try to stay home on holidays, just way too much traffic to deal with. One of the benefits of being retired.

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