Tuesday, September 29, 2015
WE'RE HOME!  Because the weather turned cold, windy and rainy, we decided to just head for Wittenberg, so we arrived this afternoon at 2:00.  It's been a great trip and we're glad we did it, but we're also glad to be home.  We had no major problems on the whole trip, but our house batteries need to be replaced.  We discovered that when we visited Pat and Garry on Sunday.  That was another reason to come home.  We have two weeks to unpack, repack and head southwest.  Several people we encountered along the way, asked if we knew where home was, being that we're full-timers.  So I will post a picture to answer that question.  We've gotten a lot of comments and e-mails from many of you, regarding our trip, and we're just glad you wanted to come along.  We still have a bucket list, but it's getting a lot shorter.  We will always have some place to go, or something to do, as we aren't ready for that list to terminate!

I haven't edited the pictures I took today, so you can see that we are entering Wisconsin at Marinette today.

We received this awesome wall hanging from our former neighbors, John and Barb Dresen, when we sold our house and moved to Wittenberg in 2006 (and went full-time motor home).  We think of them every time we move or stop to set up, as this comes off the wall each time we travel.  It does say it all.  We've had many homes on this trip, and we have enjoyed them all. 

Monday, September 28, 2015
I am including Sunday and today in this blog, as we were so busy yesterday and we didn't have time to enter our fun and excitement until now.  We arrived at Garry and Pat Scribner's in Bancroft, MI early afternoon on Sunday.  We have gotten pictures and many updates from Pat and Garry over the years, about their grandchildren, and it was good to finally meet them.  They are very well behaved, and polite children, and quite active.  They are involved in a lot of things at home and at school, and that makes for healthy youngsters!  We met Pat and Garry in Arizona, several years ago, when they arrived in the same park as us, and we did a lot of hiking together, and attended social events.   Pat and Garry took us to see the Scribner Farm and we met several of their relatives, and saw where they spend a lot of their summers, at this wonderful pond!  We returned to their place and shared a meal of slow cooked ribs, salads, and apple pie!  We did stay up long enough to see the Blood Moon.  I will be 93 when the next eclipse happens, so "if I still have my memory", I will always remember where I was when I saw the last one!  We were lucky that the clouds dispersed just in time for us to see it quite well.  It was a wonderful, but short stay, and we struck off for northern MI this morning.  We had intended to go to the 2nd largest falls east of the Mississippi River (2nd to Niagara Falls) and also do Pictured Rock, but it looks like rain and the cold front is coming in. We opted to find a campground on Hwy. 2 that has cable and we will stay put for tonight and watch the Packers.  We'll arrive back at Eagle's Landing (our homey shed) tomorrow afternoon.  We are ready to plant our feet for a bit!  It's been a great trip, but we have two weeks to unpack, repack and leave for the southwest by the 16th of October!

Relaxing on the Scribner deck.  Seated: Pat, Garry and Zu  Standing: TK, Tamaki, Marlene and Jim.

This is the Scribner home, in rural Bancroft, MI.  Pat and Garry have made so many great changes in the house and still working on finishing part of the basement.  Our motor home fit alongside the house, quite well.

View down a beautifully landscaped pathway, through the vine covered archway, and you can see the gazebo and the pond where the family spends a lot of time in the summers. 

The Scribner Family in front of the barn, on Garry's grandparent's farm.  They are gone, but the family still owns the land and many members of the family have built home here. 

This is a picture of our approach to cross the Mackinac Bridge.  We did see Mackinac Island from the bridge and the Grand Hotel stood out like a beacon!  The last time we crossed the bridge, we think it cost us $5.00 with the motor home and car, and today it was $14.00.  Fuel prices are still great, though! 

Saturday, September 26, 2015
We arrived in Kalamazoo, and we're camping at the Markin Glen County Park.  It was recommended to us by this couple in Delton, MI, which isn't that far away.  We met Jim and Teri Enrietti, our dancing and music friends that we met in Willard, WI last year at their polkafest.  We had intended to go to the Italian fest when we came to Kalamazoo, but the committee decided to scratch it for this year, due to late planning on several things, and it would have been a rush, and then those things don't turn out successfully.  We told Jim and Teri that could could come to Kalamazoo, anyway, and meet up with them.  We are so glad we did.  They visited us at our park, then took us out to their place for the afternoon.  We found out that we have a lot in common.  Teri is a quilter, for one thing!  They live on a lake in Delton, so we sat on their deck most of the afternoon. They played some music for us, and then we went to a wonderful Italian restaurant for dinner.  We all laughed a lot and just enjoyed the day.  We are so glad we made this a stop on our trip back to Wisconsin.  They spend most of their summers in the UP of MI, so I know we'll see them more next summer.
Tomorrow we move to Bancroft, MI to see our good friends, Pat and Garry Scribner and their 3 children.  These are all bonuses for us to stop and see our friends, and family along the way.  We plan to be home by the 1st of Oct. 

                                         A leisurely afternoon on the Enrietti deck.

        Teri and her wonderful applique wall hanging.  She did all the hand quilting, as well.  Beautiful.

                                                    Jim playing 'one of his button boxes'.

Jim and Teri playing for us.  Jim plays both the button box and the accordion, and I might say, quite well. Teri's addition of the contra bass really adds to their sound together.  She can even dance while she plays!

Thursday, September 24, 2015
We left WV (I finally realized I was spelling that wrong), and had a good day's drive to Marysville, Ohio, just northwest of Columbus.  We will be staying with our friends, Tom and Karen for the night.  They have a lovely home and plenty of room for us to come in and hook up!  They showed us around their place, and then took us for a ride to show us the area where they live.  The weather is gorgeous here, and quite warm.  We'll head out in the morning.

We're all hooked up and ready to spend the night at Tom and Karen's.  They have a storage shed behind our motor home where they keep their motor home.  It's a lovely place with lots of hickory trees.  We'll pick some nuts in the morning before we leave.

Tom and Karen took us for a 'spin' around their area and showed us four covered bridges there.  It was a perfect day for a ride in a convertible!

                                  Tom, Karen and Jim at one of the covered bridges, that we saw.

Back to their house after our ride, to a delicious meal that they fixed for us.  It was a fun and relaxing evening, and they were the perfect hosts! It's nice to see where our friends are 'perched'.  We'll meet up with them again in southeastern AZ to get some hiking in before we arrive in the Valley for the winter.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015
We will be leaving in the morning, after a short little stay here in West Virginia.  We stayed long enough to get our geo-caching souvenir for W VA and a few others that are planted in this corps of engineer park.  What a lovely little park, and wonderful and friendly people working it.  The park ranger graduated from Stevens Point, WI in forestry, and knows our area back there, very well.  He even insisted that we all have a campfire, so he started it, and we sat around and chatted with the staff and had a great time.  It was foggy coming in here and we are hoping tomorrow morning won't be a repeat.  It will delay us in getting out of here.  We are high atop a mountain, and 'our heads are in the clouds again'.  We will arrive at our friends, Tom and Karen in Marysville, OH for the night.  They are northwest of Columbus, so we have good day's worth of travel ahead of us.  We met Tom and Karen in our park in AZ, and hike with them there.  Our internet is so bad here, that I won't post any pictures until we get some place else.  We are still enjoying our travels, and we're glad we made this stop.

Monday, September 21, 2015
We've had a wonderful weekend and time spent with our second daughter and her family this weekend.  Our campground was perfect for our 'reunion' and it was a very relaxing time for all of us.  We had it all well planned as for food and drinks, and didn't have to leave the campground at all.  Our grandsons had to leave on Sunday afternoon due to work related obligations.  Nick still lives at home and had to be at work Monday a.m. at 6:00, and Cam is working in Los Angeles area for at least two weeks, so he flew out of Baltimore airport yesterday afternoon.  It was great that the boys could make it this weekend, if even for  part of the time.  Karla and Worth left for home this early afternoon, to unpack and be ready for work tomorrow.  Karla is lucky to get a pass to see the Pope on Wednesday, so she is looking forward to that.  We are ready to move to West Virginia tomorrow and we will be at a corps of engineer park there. 

This shows our motor and truck next to the smaller cabin, and our daughter and family stayed in the larger end deluxe cabin for the weekend.  It was very nice and served us all well.  We had a couple of campfires complete with S'mores in their nice little pit.  They were next to a woods, so it made it very private.

This is the fishing pond on the campgrounds.  It was taken at sunset and I captured a very cool reflection in the water.  It was well attended during the weekend with lots of families taking advantage of the catch and release program they offer here. 

We ate all of our evening meals outside on the picnic table.  We just so happened to have German Sweet Chocolate Cheesecake, a request of the Hester's.

From left to right, front row: Worth, Jim, Karla and Marlene - Back Row: Nick and Cam Hester

We walked the campground this morning before Karla and Worth left, and wanted to check out all they offered here.  Some kids never grow up!  Isn't that wonderful?

Jim and Worth at the entrance of our campground.  We feel that this is the nicest campground that we have stayed at on our trip, excluding the corps parks, of course, as they are an altogether different type of park.  They are decorating for Halloween now and will be full every weekend for the next three weeks here.

                                     Karla and Worth at the campground entrance sign.

Thursday, September 17, 2015
Today was a travel day, so we left the Catskills of NY, traveled through Pennsylvania, into Maryland, and we are in a wonderful campground near Woodbine, MD.  It is rated 9.5/10/9.5 and it should be a perfect 10.  The last one doesn't even come close to what this campground offers in activities, layout, and aesthetics. They even have a catch and release fishing pond. We are glad we have such a nice one this time, as our daughter from McLean, VA is visiting us this weekend with her family.  They are in a cabin three sites down from us, and have a big fire ring, and lots of space for all of us to gather, and it's quite private.  If we get a little rowdy, it shouldn't bother anyone! I probably won't post anything until the weekend is over, unless we do something that we feel we should post.  We're here until Tuesday, and the weather looks great with possible rain coming in Sunday night late. We'll take it.