October 2008 Journal

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October 23^rd 2007

Michigan has been a wet and dreary state! We managed to get one nice day in Grand Rapids to get our windshield replaced. We had to stay overnight in the parking lot of the glass repair shop before moving the coach so we ended up driving downtown and had dinner at a place called “The B.O.B.” (Big Old Building). It’s the local hot spot, an old four story warehouse that has been refurbished and now houses a few nightclubs and restaurants. It’s a funky fun place and we had a really nice seafood dinner.

On the way downtown we drove past the Meyer May house that Frank Lloyd Wright built in 1908. It’s a prairie-style house that has been completely restored. I love his design and was hoping to get in for a tour but it wasn’t open so we had to be satisfied with just seeing the outside which was really beautiful. We also got to see the fish ladder on the Grand River that runs through the center of town. It’s called a “ladder” but it’s actually a bunch of wide terraced steps with water flowing down them and it has been built so that salmon and trout swimming upstream to spawn can get up river past the dam. It was so much fun to watch the salmon jumping up the steps of this ladder. There were so many of them and they are huge fish! (We saw another ladder similar to this one in Lansing last week although we only saw a few salmon on that ladder. I’ll post pictures of both).

Right now we are in Baldwin Michigan which is on the west side of the state. Michigan is made up of the upper and lower peninsulas; the Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten with the thumb on the right side. Detroit would be just below the thumb area with Lansing (where Nick lives) just west of Detroit. Grand Rapids is even further west and Baldwin, where we are now, is North of Grand Rapids. We also visited Traverse City this week, which is at the top of the peninsula on the west.

Baldwin is an outdoorsman’s dream! Life here is centered around fishing and hunting, off roading with some canoeing in the summer (probably canoes with fisherman in them). It’s mostly a wooded wilderness area with lots of lakes, rivers, fishing and hunting lodges. This is not a tourist area! It’s real “manly man” back country. There’s lots of dirt roads and even designated off road trails for motorcycles, ATV’s and 4 wheeling vehicles. You have to buy a permit to use the trails. Of course we got a permit and maps and set off to explore one day. The terrain was pretty sandy but we had a great time. It’s so nice to have a state with trails just to play on.

The fishing has been fantastic! The salmon are running up stream to spawn this month and Dan has been having the time of his life! They are huge fish, can grow up to five feet in length, and they put up a real fight, plus there are tons of them. If you walk along the Pere Marquette River, which runs down to Lake Michigan, you can see them sitting on the gravel bars. You can actually stand there and watch them spawning! They are very feisty, there is lots of fighting amongst them and you can see them splashing all over the river. It’s really amazing to be witness to this. Dan even met a few guys at the local fly fishing shop named Darryl and Todd and they went fishing together one evening.

We haven’t done much else in this area. The weather has not been very nice. It’s been drizzly and windy with temps in the 50’s. Dan doesn’t mind fishing in it but I have been hanging at home most of the time. I did get out for a few long walks during breaks in the weather and today we took about a six mile hike on the North Country Trail. The NCT is a long distance trail (similar to the AT). It’s still being built here in the north and when completed it will run from New York State to North Dakota and it will be about 4000 miles long!  I think it’s about one half built right now. In this area it’s a flat trail that runs through the woods. It’s nice and safe, no rocks or roots to stumble on although I did almost get run over by a buck! He came crashing out of the woods at a full run, straight towards me and then veered off about ten feet away. It was quite shocking. I don’t think he saw me until the last minute. There was another deer in the woods behind him and I think they might have been fighting. It’s the season of rut!

A few days ago we left this area for two days and drove up to Traverse City to explore the north part of the peninsula but it’s mostly a tourist area, off season, and there’s not much to do so we came back. The fall foliage was gorgeous and while there I did a little hiking on some local trails plus we drove to the coast and visited the Sleeping bear Dunes National Seashore. It’s a park on the coast of Lake Michigan and they have sand dunes 450 feet tall. We took a scenic drive along the top of the dunes and then went to another area where you can climb on the dunes and run down them. It was fun running down the dunes. The sand was so silky soft and your feet sunk in up to your ankles. Luckily I stayed up and didn’t fall!

Tomorrow, we head back to Lansing to see the Blue Man Group perform at Michigan State University. The jeep will get serviced on Thursday morning and then we’ll be leaving dreary wet Michigan and heading for warmer, sunnier weather. As usual with us, we don’t know where that will be, but will let you know when we get there.

October 15^th 2007

We finally made it to Michigan! The trip here was easy. We stopped by Niagara on the Lake and visited with Herb Cohen. It was so nice to see him after all these years. We went out for a nice breakfast and then took a quick tour of the town. The town is gorgeous, right on Lake Ontario, lots of beautiful old homes and flowers everywhere! Herb told us that the locally made Canadian wine is very good so we stopped at the local store and bought a case.

On our way out of town we were stopped at the canal lock and had to wait for two huge ships to go through. It’s amazing that they fit in the small space they do. Next, we stopped for two nights at the KOA in Port Huron. Port Huron is just over the border in Michigan. It’s a major shipping port on Lake Ontario. There’s not much happening there and it rained most of the day so we just chilled out, relaxed and caught up with some chores.

We made it into Lansing Michigan on Friday, and got to see Nick and meet his roommates. After lunch, Nick took us to “The Ledges”, the local climbing wall. It’s the only wall anywhere near the area and Nick and his friends climb there often. There were quite a few people Nick knows already there climbing so we got to meet them. It is amazing to see how well Nick climbs. I haven’t seen him climb recently and he’s really gotten good! That night we took Nick and his roommate Sanjay out for dinner at a cool restaurant that is also a tuba museum. Natalie, another friend of Nick, joined us too.

On Saturday, we went out to lunch with Natalie and her mother Zenovia. It was a nice Thai lunch and it was really nice to meet Zenovia. I think we would be friends if we lived closer together! She’s into a lot of the same things I am into. Hopefully we’ll get to see her again sometime.

Today Natalie and Nick came over and we did Reiki attunements with them and then this afternoon, Nick had to study, so Dan and I went to Potters Park Zoo. It’s a little local zoo and it was drizzling but we had fun. While there Dan had quite an experience with a lion! He was on the indoor part of the lion exhibit. It had huge glass walls and Dan was standing by one of these walls when a lioness turned around and seemed to be startled to see Dan standing there. She ran at Dan, growled, and lunged up on the glass with her paws, mouth wide open, just like she was attacking. Dan wasn’t prepared to be “attacked” by a lioness and was pretty startled. It’s probably going to be one of his best zoo stories to tell in the future. The rest of the zoo was fun, they had a 5 month old snow leopard that was running and jumping all over and batting his toys and food bowl all around. All of the animals were pretty active, probably due to the cooler weather.

We seem to be in some kind of cool front. It’s supposed to be cold and showery for the next week. We were supposed to go up north this weekend due to the weather but didn’t go due to the weather. Sometime this week we need to move west to Grand Rapids and get our chipped windshield replaced but we need two dry days to do that and it doesn’t look promising for that. It might have to wait until next week. From there we will probably head north but nothing’s written in stone yet. We bought tickets yesterday to see the blue Man Group at MSU on the 24th so we will be hanging around the state for a little while at least. Whatever we do, we’ll keep you all posted and let you know where we are! Hope everyone is doing well at home. We miss you!!!

October 10^th 2007

We had a lot of fun in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire! One day we rented a 20 foot motor boat and spent the day cruising around Lake Winnipesaukee. Dan did some fishing and we stopped in the town of Wolfboro for some lunch on an outside deck overlooking the lake.

That evening we drove into Concord to meet Nancy and Ted Milbury. I met Ted on the Appalachian Trail when I first started hiking in Georgia. Some of you might remember him in my pictures. His trail name is Try Again Ted! We met Nancy and Ted at a restaurant called 99 and had a really nice time visiting and reminiscing over dinner. It’s the first time I have met Nancy and she is really nice, I enjoyed meeting her. (Nancy and Ted, I hope you will give us a call if you are even in our neck of the woods, we would love to see you again)!

The next two days were spent kayaking and camping on Squam Lake. Squam Lake is where they filmed the movie “On Golden Pond”. We haven’t seen the movie, but we did see the film location while on the lake. We’ll have to rent the movie sometime. I’m sure it will bring back memories of our trip.  The lake is beautiful; the houses are set back and tucked in the woods so it allows for nice views of the natural shoreline.

We paddled out to Bowman Island and camped there for the night. It’s owned by the Squam Lake Association and we reserved the campsite (there are four on the island) for the night. We had the island to ourselves and it was so peaceful. We had perfect weather and there were a lot of loons singing in the evening. We even heard coyotes in the distance a few times during the night.

This past weekend was spent back at Scott and Barbara’s lake house south of Albany NY. Linda and Bob (Dan’s mom and her husband) were there and we got to visit with them. The house has come a long way in two weeks since we last visited. They got their CO and it’s really beginning to look like a home. I might add that it’s a very fine home too! One of the days I helped Barbara paint her bathroom and I spent one afternoon and one morning giving Linda her attunements for Reiki One. It was a relaxing weekend.

We left Scott’s house yesterday and began the drive to Niagara Falls but we were pretty tired and decided to stop off at a rest area and spend the night. That’s the beauty of traveling in the motor coach! Whenever you want you can just pull off and sleep for the night (in your own bed). Last Thursday we stopped off in a parking lot just to watch Survivor and then we spent the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot. We’re self contained and have everything we need. It is nice to have full hook ups though. I’m thrilled tonight just to have unlimited water and be able to catch up on laundry.

Right now we’re in Niagara Falls. Crossing the border into Ontario was very easy and we’re set up at Yogi Bears Jellistone Park. It’s only five minutes from the falls. We have a lovely view of the highway and high tension wires. It’s a big change from the wilderness areas we have been camping in for the past few months. We only have to tolerate it for a day or so and we will be back in the pristine wilderness of north Michigan.

We visited the falls this afternoon, walked around on top then took the tunnel down behind the falls. The power of the water is incredible. There was a rainbow over the falls when we came out. There were lots of people visiting the falls even though the tourist season is over. It’s been a long time since we’ve been in an environment with so many people. To me it’s overwhelming. I much prefer the wilderness. Tonight, we went to see the falls lit up with lights. They shine rainbow colored lights on them at night. It was pretty to see them all lit up.

Tomorrow we plan to meet Herb Cohen. Herb is one of Dan’s parent’s friends that we haven’t seen for years. He and his wife Lil live in a town just north of here, called Niagara On The Lake. Unfortunately we will miss seeing his wife Lil as she is out of town until Thursday. (Lil, we’re sorry we are going to miss seeing you! We’re so close and yet so far away)! From there, we will travel into Michigan to see Nick. We can’t wait to see our son; it’s been a few months! Who knows where the wind will blow us after Michigan. Stay tuned for more of our adventure to come!

Past Journals

July 2011

June 2011

September 2010

May 2008

April 2008

March 2008

February 2008

December 2007

November 2007

October 2007

September 2007

August 2007

July 2007