3 days to get back home - 9-27 to 9=29-2010

On the way home we watched all that corn being harvested that was standing so pretty on the way up to Michigan. Harvest had come during the time we were gone and returned. It was so strange to me to have been gone that long, to see the season change. The farmers were out in droves with combines and  tractors to load the yellow corn into big trucks with long trailers. All day the scenery repeated itself.

Hard working farmer in his combine

David got mesmerized by the windmills standing in the middle of farmland and had to stop to inspect them at close range. He took an eery picture of one behind the motorhome. The rv looked like it had an antenna from out of space!

Aliens taking over the rv

That evening we stayed at a very remote campground, found all the firewood we needed in the surrounding woods and one last time enjoyed an outdoor fire in the dark. David set up the tripod for the picture around the fire circle. It was sort of melancholy, the trip was really coming to an end. We only had about four hours left the next day to get home.

End of trip blues

You can see us the next day in our driveway back home. The decal of the US States map now had Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan filled in. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas were already visited from a previous trip. Eight states out of 50........42 to go, YEAH!!!!       

Hope you enjoyed reading about our Western Michigan trip!! We are home now and will blog again on our next trip.

Already to go on the next big adventure!

Last Day at Paula's House 9-26-2010

Sunday was our last day staying with Paula. She came to the door for an  early morning picture and got David in his robe drinking his first cup of joe!

Morning Coffee

It was so fun just being next door and being neighbors! She also took a picture of us standing in our living quarters, although the slideout was pulled in for traveling.

RV'ing Joy

We wanted to take the dogs for a nice, long walk and believe it or not, found a great bike/walking trail through town that Paula did not even know about. We just stumbled across it and walked for an hour. The dogs felt great and so did we. Here is Paula with two of her wonderful furry friends, Lilly Star and Honeymoon Riley. Poor Maggie could not come, even though she is a well behaved shepherd/rottie mix. It would have just been too many dogs to handle. The trail took us through some neighborhoods and wooded land, very nice! Paula decided that she would return after we leave to make use of the trail.

Paula walking her dogs

After having a relaxing conversation back at the rv and David getting in some time to watch football, we ended the day by meeting up with David's brother Tom at a local bowling alley. Paula came as well and even though none of us had great scores we still had a good time.

Girl talk while David watches football

1965 Utica HS Reunion 9-25-2010

Hard to believe but it's been 45 years since I graduated high school. Although I found out they have been having a class reunion every 5 years since 1975 this was the first time I knew about them. Actually, have Facebook to thank for that, as one of my classmates contacted me through it this past year. Through him the Reunion Committee was able to locate and send me an invitation. My graduating class was 500 that year and I probably hung with 1/2 dozen of those kids back then. About 100 graduates showed up for this reunion, so even though many of the yearbook pictures and peoples faces, and even their voices in some cases were familiar I had no actually memories associated with them. None of my high school buddies were able to attend. We'll try again in 2015!! Never the less had a great evening, meeting some new people and dancing to all those great hits of the era, like this one!!

1965 Class Memory Board (double-click to enlarge)

Band played great 50-60's music

Dancing the evening away!

Yearbook Photo

Visiting Paula 9-24-2010

Paula and I used to work together at Children's World in Detroit. Our friendship continued over the years per phone calls. Then one day, after 20 years of not having seen each other, Paula came to visit me in Kansas City. We resumed our relationship as if no time had passed. After that visit, David and I went to see her in Michigan a few years ago and of course on this trip up north  we stopped in to see her as well.  David always has his work cut out for him by installing and upgrading Paula's computer. Paula has a way of bringing out my intense silly side and, as you can see in this video, she succeeded again! We had so much fun in that pumpkin patch that some teenagers stopped and watched us and grinned at the older ladies having fun like kids. Paula made me my very favorite food.... her  famous pasta salad, yummy!!! She fixed breakfast, did our laundry and most of all, we just talked and caught up and watched our pajama movie we had produced when she had visited that time in KC. We had parked our rv right beside her house on an empty lot and so it seemed like we lived next door for a couple of days.

Helping Paula with Picasa editing

Not so scary scarecrows

Two prized pumpkins in the patch

BOO!!