Lucky Or Unlucky, You Be The Judge

Sunday afternoon we decided to take the GTO for a ride, as we didn't take it to St. Ignace car show. Made a route to the Big Rapids Eagles, then the Moose in Reed City and then Evert.

I have a Michigan map and the Garmen and the Eagles Club book. Should be a breeze. The gps worked ok but it is hard to get an overview of the route. I prefer maps. Paul thought he could find it and he did. A very large club, lots of parking and the member room was in the pack with private parking. A bonus in case cops are targeting Moose members. Sadly, this was the one day of the year that they clean carpets, it was closed.

So we head out to Reed City, follow some locals through the maze that is Big Rapids, just a few miles before Hwy 10, there is construction. The detour goes west, we want to go east, closer to our goal. Drive until we run out of pavement, turn north, run out of pavement turn west. Miles later we are going north again. Wander through Reed City, no Moose Club. Go out to 10, find the road, signal for a left hand turn. A pickup coming up fast behind us doesn't see the turn signal and at the last minute, to avoid a rear end collision, Paul shoots ahead and the truck goes off the side of the road. Then we try to make the turn, not enough room, cars are headed right for us (me) honking. Like this is where we want to be? Why not slow down a little? We get turned around in time and end up at the club in one piece. FYI we have a metal dash board and 45 year old lap belts. Pretty sure they are past the expiration date.

We get back out on the hwy and the traffic is even faster. Make it ok to theEvert Club. We watch the end of the Tiger's game and head for home. The map doesn't have road names, thanks State of Michigan, and the gps isn't any help either . We turn down likely roads and find a nice one going south. But it ends at a lovely fertilizer plant. Turn around and take several other dead end roads, a deer runs right in front of us, pavement ends and we turn around again. And again, and again. Finally we give up and go back to HWY 10 and decide to just take it to Farwell and home from there. Gosh what a relaxing ride we had. The country side is all green from the rain we have been having, and the scents..... surely this was the smelliest ride ever. We ran into at least 7 skunk smells, dead deer in ditches, and the old standby, manure. Lovely.

Lucky we didn't wreck the car, I think that is my stand on the whole day.

St. Ignace Car Show 2011

Paul and I



Roger and Bev



Ferry heading for Mackinac Island from St. Ignace pier




Roger's Corvette



Deb and Bev at the car show with the cute dog


We left in pouring rain on Thursday for the car show in St. Ignace, which is a shadow of its former self, no burn outs, no cops, no drunks. Safe and tame. Lots of old people and families.

Since it was raining and Friday was supposed to be rainy too, we drove the SHO instead of the GTO. No clean up that way, and a very comfy, fast ride. Thursday night we went with Roger and Bev to the casino, I won $90 on the first and only three quarters that I put into a slot. We ate at the Mackinac Grill, the Whitefish was perfect. Yum. Then we went back to the Moose Club and had Chocolate Pudding Shots, only $1 and so yummy, vodka and Bailey's.

Still rainy and drizzly on Friday, we drove to Hessel, and the little casino there, then to a bar in Cedarville for lunch and talked about the good times we have had there with boats and the LeCheneaux Islands. That night we ate at the Moose Club and they lost our order. Not so much fun as we waited over an hour to eat. The Whitefish wasn't as good there as I had the night before. The long wait for dinner made us miss the parade, which was maybe a quarter of what it used to be. This is sounding like OPS!

Saturday morning met Roger and Bev and Fred and Deb at the Hilltop Restaurant for breakfast, it is on a hillside overlooking the lake, across from out hotel. Then we headed downtown to see the car show. Good food from the vendors this year, I had a Whitefish slider with garlic dill sauce and coleslaw on it, so good. Roger's cousin, Judy and her husband and kids had their 56' boat at the docks in town, and wanted us to come for a drink. The boat has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, like a motor home in many ways. We enjoyed sitting on the top deck, great view. The other boat people were all snobby and unfriendly. No reason for them to act that way. I only got a little snarky.

A Week at the Lake

Splash attack on Ryan



Ellie and Andrea



Ellie's new high chair, sits like a big girl!


Julia


This June is proving to be a bit rainy and cool, fewer sunburns and outside play time.

Moon Fire, June 2011

Kelly's beautiful moon photo



Jen, Marjie and Randy



Jen and Marjie making smores



Kelly, Randy, Ken


Ken, Paul, Kelly and Sherry

Bitching of weather .....

Emily and the fascinating plastic chipmunk. It used to live at Brenda and Pete's house, I think Stephanie liberated it when she was 4.


Sitting on my cute red chair at my little round black table in front of the window, space heater at my feet, and a hot cup of tea to my right. The lake is steamy as the hard earned heat is pulled out to join the dreary wet gray sky. A typical November scene. Except it is frigging June!

Last Saturday Paul took the GTO to the car show at the casino, it was a hot sunny day, in the 90s. Of course it is in an asphalt parking lot, just simmering in the heat. I was going to drive down late in the day, but then two of my good friends, Bev and Sandy were there, so I arrived at 11 am. Paul and I went in the casino to eat and he played some slots, went back outside, the car was as far away as possible from the nice cool casino. Had to be a half mile. Anyway, we get there and everyone is sitting on lawn chairs on the grass bank, in the sun. I lasted about 10 minutes and found a shady tree. Soon after Paul and I both came to the decision that I should go home, couldn't find Sandy, grabbed Beverly and we hit the road. The air conditioner on the car worked until we got out of the blistering parking lot, so it was a hot drive home. Found Bev a bathing suit and we got the tubes and floated in the lake, much better than an asphalt parking lot. Bev and Roger brought steaks and we grilled when they got home at 8 pm. Gee, I am so glad I wasn't stuck there all day. I felt so hung over the next day, which might have been funny if I had been drinking, but was just sad because I felt so tired and head achy bad without any fun that led up to it. It's just not right. I ended up hiding in the house until the weather broke on Wed. night. It was 95 that day. I was starting to feel like my old self, peppy for 63, and did some tube floating in the lake, which had warmed up considerably since Saturday.

We had, I am told, severe thunderstorms on Wed. night and a tornado a few miles from here. Slept right through it. We live just a few miles outside of Clare County so the weather warnings didn't show up on local TV. Since then it has been cold and rainy, temp got up to 54 degrees on Friday. Should be sunny and 70 on Sunday. Does this sound like June? At least this is the last rainy day, it has gotten considerably darker since I got up an hour and a half ago. The grass is green and the weeds are winning!

The weather channel says we are stuck in a weather pattern. Michigan is on the cool and wet side of the jet stream. The south side is hot and dry. On the plus side, Paul hasn't had to water the lawn from the lake yet. And in the cool weather I bake and make beef roasts for dinner. Yummy all over!

A few more pictures

Paul, Sean, Emily and Patrick



Julie, Steff and Tyson



Emily and Grandpa


Megan and Anna

Room for Improvement - Entertainment Wise

Sean, Emily, Julie Anna, Megan and Patrick




Megan making bubbles for Patrick and Anna




Patrick tooling down the road. Paul tried to bump him up to second gear but he hit a mailbox.



Anna


The hardest part of entertaining, for me, is figuring what to serve for meals and how much to buy. I have a small refrigerator and hate have it full of leftovers. I mean, how can I justify going out for dinner if we enough leftovers to feed a small army? Just saying. And what does anyone like to eat? I remember when Katie and Julie were 8 and 10, I would make their school lunch. And one would like mayo and one would like Miracle Whip. Who liked what changed daily. I had a new baby and a four year old, my brain was busy. Plus you lose 25% of your memory with pregnancy amnesia , I was running on empty. New rule, make your own school lunch the night before. Julie, of course, took it a step further and wore her school uniform to bed. Takes all the stress out of getting to school on time. What's a few wrinkles? By the time you walk a half mile in the dark in a snow storm, it's all the same.

So, sorry about all the hamburgers this week, although everyone seemed to like them. I will try to be more creative. So, Andrea, what do you want to eat?

Keenan Visit

Megan, Anna, Patrick and Grandpa Paul



Anna enjoying the lake for the first time!



Patrick driving the John Deere