Happy Halloween!

Halloween used to be one of my favorite holidays.  Until last year, I always dressed in costume at work.  If Halloween was on a work day, that's the day I would dress up.  If Halloween was on the weekend, then I would dress up on Friday.  But last year, it seemed like the fun was blown out of my sails.

My husband had spent the summer doing chemo and radiation for his Stage IIIa non-small cell lung cancer.  At the end of August, 2009, we took off for "out west" wondering if it was our last big trip.  We didn't know then (and we still don't know) what to expect.  The word cancer still scares the bejesus out of me.  It's about the unknown, the waiting, the trepidation, the fear, the anxiety.  His cancer is in remission right now, but he still has to have CT scans and follow ups every 3 months.  We just got results this week and he's still in remission.  No new cancers. That's good news and we celebrated by making a big batch of Paula Deen's mac and cheese.

But still my joy comes and goes.  Halloween used to be the one day when I could still be a kid - pretend, make believe and play dress up.  I just can't get into the swing of it again this year.  I did buy a pumpkin ... a small white one.  Instead of carving it, I took his drill motor to it and made a face on each side.

I've been burning a candle in it every night.  The pumpkin goes into the refrigerator before going to bed and I've managed to use it for 2 weeks now.  The candle makes me hopeful.  And I guess that's all I need right now.

Happy Halloween, watch out for the goblins and don't eat too much candy.  As for me, I'm going to eat a bit of candy with a large cup of coffee.  Chocolate and coffee go together, right?

Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island

On Oct 8, we headed north on Friday morning with my middle sister and her husband for a weekend of leaf peeping.  Doug and I hadn't been to The Bridge for quite awhile.  On the way up north, we stopped at Pinconning to visit the cheese store.  We picked up 4 different kinds of cheese curds, some sesame sticks and some chocolate covered banana chips.  If you've never had cheese curds, you don't know what you're missing.  They are little bite size, irregular shaped pieces of cheese that are so yummy.

Here's what they look like:

This was the first trip in the motor home where I didn't sit in the cab.  It was fun to sit at the table with my sister, watch the landscape change and just gab.  When we arrived at Mackinaw City, we headed to the lighthouse to stretch our legs and take a look at the bridge.  Here's the lighthouse at Mackinaw City:

The lighthouse was built in 1892.  In 2000, a restoration was started to bring the lighthouse back to its appearance circa 1910.  It is well preserved and is a beautiful building.


There's a great view of the bridge from the park:

We then headed back to I 75 to cross the bridge.  The Bridge connects the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan.  From shoreline to shoreline, it is 5 miles long.  It is the 3rd longest suspension bridge in the world and the longest in the western hemisphere.  Most folks think of the Golden Gate Bridge when they think of big bridges, but this is Michigan's pride and joy.  After crossing the Bridge, we drove through the town of St. Ignace and then headed out of town aways to park and have lunch.  Here's the view from our lunch spot:

We headed back across the Bridge to Mackinaw City to find our spot at the campground.  We stayed at the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground.  It's a beautiful place with about 600 campsites and dozens of cabins. We had never stayed here, but they told us that in the summertime, the place is packed all the time.  There were other folks camped here with us, but we were able to get a lake front site and it was beautiful.  Here's some pictures from our site:

Doug took a nap, so Gloria, Ralph, the dogs and I headed to the beach for a walk:

 

On Saturday morning, we took the ferry over to Mackinac Island.  I hadn't been there in so long, I had forgotten how peaceful it is with no motorized trafffic, just the clip clop of horse hooves and the whir of bicycle tires.  So peaceful.

Horse and wagon

Famous May's candy and fudge

Old hotel, owned by the mayor

Grand Hotel horse and carriage taxi

Grand Hotel

Ralph and Doug in carriage taxi back to downtown

Kite flying

When we got back from the island, my sister and I decided to head to the casino in St. Ignace owned and run by the the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.  The casino tells us that the driver will pick us up at the entrance to the campground which is about a half mile from our campsite....no exaggeration....maybe a bit more than a half mile.  We walk up front and wait for the man.  The shuttle picks us up, stops at a few hotels in Mackinaw City to pick up some more people, including a man from Indianapolis who has driven a bus load of couples on a weekend retreat.  Small world, huh?  We get to the casino and the driver says, he will leave to go back to Mackinaw City at 8:00...be outside or the next shuttle is at 11:00.  Because we got there about 6:15, 8:00 gives us just enough time for a little fun (my sister ends up down about $2 and I end up winning a bit).  A couple of free pops and cups of coffee.  The coffee wasn't half bad.  Free makes it taste better, right?

We meet the group outside and of course by now it's dark.  New driver (the one on the way to the casino was such a friendly, polite man) and he asks for all the campground/hotel names.  You can tell right off the bat, this driver is a little impatient, and not a friendly type.  We ask if he can take us back last (we are the farthest out of town) because we want to get him to take us back to our site, not just drop us off out front.  "No can do, ladies.  I'm going to do it in this order".  Okay, we're good with that, we'll just wait until we get to the campground to see if he'll take us all the way to the site if we offer to tip him $10.

When we pull in, my sister says "Sir, I have this air cast on my foot because I had foot surgery in July that didn't heal right, it's awfully dark out and our site is way back in there by the lake.  Can you possibly take us to our site instead of dropping us here?".  He says "they generally won't let me do that...I will see if they will let me do that, but why don't they have a golf cart up here to take you to your site?"  (Well now come on buddy, how should we know why they don't offer front gate to front door golf cart service?  Do we look like the answer women?)

He comes back to the shuttle bus with a CG map.  The rest of it goes like this:

Shuttle Driver (SD): "They say okay, but how is the map going to help me?"

Me:   "I'll tell you where to turn to get us back there.  Take your first left."

My sister (MS):  "No, that's not right."

He slams on the brakes..

Me: "MS, it's the first left"

MS: "No, that's not right"

He backs up.

Me: "Okay, take the next left"

Dark, unlit winding CG road.

SD: "Are you sure this is right?""

Me:  "Yes...turn left here....okay, next right...okay, left here"

MS:  "Are you sure this is right?"

Elbowed MS and shushed her.  Really dark out, can't remember the last time I saw this many stars.  Hmmm....what are those cabins doing there where that's where the MH should be?

SD:  "How will I ever find my way out of here?"

MS:  "It's easy to get out, just follow the exit arrows"

MS:  "We passed it"

SD slams on brakes.

Me: "Okay, this is good...we can walk from here"

SD:  "These aren't campsites, these are cabins"

MS:  "That's okay, we can walk from here."

I still gave him $10 even though he was the biggest crabby patty I had seen in a long time.  The lady who was sitting in front of us says "There's no way you ladies could have walked this in the dark by yourselves" and she's only partially right.  We could have done it, it just would have taken forever.  SD takes off, we realize we're only a short way from MH, but MAN is it DARK outside.  We slow walked our way back trying to stay on the pavement (thank God the road in that part of the CG was paved).  We're falling over each other laughing and can hear the dogs barking ever so lightly.  I couldn't believe that they could hear my voice that far away.

We're still giggling as we walk in the MH.  Doug asked what was so funny and we told him that not only can I get us lost on the by-ways of small town America, I can also get lost in a campground.

A big thanks to my sister for taking the great photos.  She took so many, it was hard to choose.  Love ya sis!

The Green Grass of Home

We got home on Thursday, 9/24, after an easy drive from Niagara Falls.  My captain asked me to drive for a bit (I failed to mention that we were only about 40 miles from Toledo) and I said "Sure!".  He promptly falls asleep and I can't hear the GPS.  Sooo...from memory, I decide to take the I-75 exit (too soon, should have taken the next one) and promptly end up in a nasty road construction area, some how in the far left lane, speed limit 45 (which of course was the speed I was driving) when the captain wakes up and says "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?".

I calmly explained that because he was asleep, I did my best to remember which exit to take off of the toll road, obviously picked the wrong one and could he please help me get out of this lane.  I didn't dare take my eyes off the road as there were curves, 18 wheelers to my right (who kept crossing the white line into my lane) and I had my turn signal on for about a mile and couldn't get back over.  He'd say, go, you're clear now, no, wait and then a car behind me would get over and pass me on the right.  Okay, go now, no wait, a car's there now.  This happened time and time again.

Whatever happened to courtesy on the road?  When I see someone with their blinker on (whether it's a small car, a 36' motor home or an 18 wheeler), I let them over if I can safely do it.  I also never pass anyone on the right.  That's the way I was taught to drive.  Weren't you?  Aggressive driving is dangerous and what's the big hurry anyways?  These people are going to get to their destination 30 seconds earlier/later than if they let someone over?  Sheeesh!

Well, finally I get over and said my thank you to the Patron Saint of RV'ers, St. Sara  (well, technically she's the Patron Saint of Gypsies, but I figure RV'ers are Gypsies at heart, hence she is the Patron Saint of RV'ers).  I didn't swear off driving the MH,.  I mean, I have to do my share of driving (even though I think my captain prefers to do the driving himself), but I sure was glad to relinquish the driver's seat.

The dogs love travelling.  They ride well (mostly sleep) and adapt well at different campgrounds.  Towards the end of the trip, they were getting much better with the "quiet" command, particularly if I gave it before they saw the person or other dog that I knew would make them bark.  It's much harder to "quiet" them once they start barking,  That being said, they are very happy to be home.  They couldn't wait to get in the house and then they immediately wanted out in the back yard.

That's when I noticed how green the grass was.  While we were gone, we saw plenty of grass, but none of it looks like it does at home.  They say the grass is greener on the other side, but I don't think so, not literally and not figuratively. Home is sweet,  home is green,  home is where the heart is...and it's right here.

It's 7:30....it's not too late for a cup of coffee is it?