A Day with the Croxtons

 6-21-2021 - Monday

After last night's thunderstorm, which did some damage around the city but not at the campground or at Dixie and Jim's house, the weather was much more tolerable. It was cloudy all day, with the temperature and humidity dropping.  I think it stayed in the 70s all day,

We had a late breakfast with Cathy and Joe before they headed back to Bloomington.  Jim says he didn't know when he married Dixie that breakfast on their honeymoon would be the last breakfast he ever ate with her.  They just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary last week, so that's a lot of single breakfasts!  But she got up and went with us this morning, so that makes the second time, according to Jim.

They had their backyard landscaped a couple weeks ago, and Dixie has lots of flowers blooming in the front yard too, so she's back in her element.  We loved the split rail fence, what a great idea.

I took two loads of laundry over, so I got that done,  Joe had accidentally deleted his contacts in his cell phone last week, so we made a trip to the Verizon store to get that fixed.  (That's not the first time he has done that.)  Then Angie brought her 8-month-old grandson, Bryson, over to meet us.

What a cutie!  And such a happy baby.  He's just about ready to take off walking.  Dixie warmed up fricassee for dinner, then after Angie and the baby left, we played Mexican Train, all 13 hands!

Dixie had DQ ice cream cupcakes left over from last week's anniversary celebrations, so we had a little treat with our dominoes.  Jim was ready to quit about round 7, but he hung on until the end (and he lost).  It was fun, we hadn't played that in a long, long time, and I am pretty sure the last time we played it, Lucille was sitting right there with us.

It was 11:30 when we finished, so we were out driving Ft. Wayne streets just about midnight.  Luckily, we are only about 6 miles to the campground, so it didn't take long, and we managed not to get lost.  

Arriving Ft. Wayne, Indiana

 6-20-2021 - Sunday (Father's Day)

We had a short drive today.  We got on the road just after 9:00, crossed the Indiana state line at 10:40, and arrived in Ft. Wayne at 11:30.  Joe dumped our tanks at the dump station, and and we were set up by 12:00, then headed over to meet Dixie, Jim, Rick, Lori, Lori's exchange student house guest Ani, and Cathy.  Joe Myers had to leave yesterday when Bloomington got hit by a storm.  He went home to assess the damage -- they had water in the basement and limbs down outside, but no major damage that he saw.  He drove back up this afternoon, which surprised us all.  Unfortunately, we missed Paul and Becky, they left at 7:00 this morning to head back to North Carolina.

Ever since we saw the camel in South Dakota, Joe has been looking for an elephant.  We saw a rusty one the other day.  Today, I found him a pretty one in Ft. Wayne.  I googled it to make sure Ft. Wayne was where I saw it, and unfortunately, I learned that it a mastodon, not an elephant.  Oh well.

   We had a nice lunch with everyone, then went over to Dixie and Jim's house for the afternoon.  They had to go to a graduation party, so Joe and I got a little nap in before they got back.  That's when Joe showed up from Bloomington.  Eventually, we went out to dinner, then headed back to the RV.

We only drove 147 miles today.  It was very hot and humid when we got here, but eventually it clouded up and we had a little thunderstorm.  Of course, we got caught in the rain getting into the restaurant, but it cooled things off, and the temperature is supposed to stay in the 70s until we leave on Thursday.  

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers.  You certainly deserve a day of recognition.  Ft. Wayne is looking good, lots of green, flowers blooming, big trees.  It's good to be back.

Last Night in Michigan

 6-19-2021 - Saturday

It rained during the night, and most of the day, which kept the temperature down.  We had breakfast with the Ivers, and spent the day with them and their puppies.  They breed toy poodles, and had a litter of 4 adorable puppies, about 6 weeks old.  One of them is very sick, but the other three are just curly bundles of joy.  The little black one blends into the blanket so you can't hardly see him.

I played with them for a long time, they were fun. 

 They had 5 adult dogs there too (I think one was visiting), and a friend came over with a female to breed, so it was a dog day!  Joe said it was the first time he had ever attended a dog breeding.

After the breeding event was over, we left to go to Camping World.  Jan and DC are thinking about buying a motor home, so Joe spent a few hours educating them on that subject.  We looked at 3 on the lot, but they intend to try to see a lot more before they make a decision.  The salesmen drove us all over to the first one on his golf cart (Jan had to sit on DC's lap).  Joe was pointing out some of the attributes of the motorhome, and the salesman said, "hey, I love it, you brought your own salesman."  He let Joe continue "selling," and he backed off until someone had a question.  He did say he would split the commission with Joe.  We spent a few hours there, till they closed the place.  

 Then we stopped for dinner, and went back to their house and the puppies for a while.  Jan had bought a peanut butter pie this morning at the breakfast restaurant, and she wanted us to try that.  Finally we said our goodbyes to Jan and DC, and to the puppies, and headed back to the RV.

It was a fun visit with people we don't get to see very often.  When they get their new RV, maybe they will come to Arizona to visit us!

Tomorrow we are headed to Indiana, on our way to Florida.  We are moving right along!  Oh, I forgot to mention, we have run out of lilacs.  Looks like that season is over for me.

Driving to Grand Rapids, MI

 6/18/2021 - Friday

Well, I was right, we are both sore today after our day of rockhounding, and we didn't sleep well last night (too tired, I think).  But we de-camped this morning and headed south, where I know it's going to be warmer.  Ugh.  We got on the road about 9:30 after we dumped our tanks, leaving behind beautiful Lake Michigan.  This area has lots of orchards, mainly cherry trees, but other kinds of trees as well.  Strawberries aren't quite in yet, but fresh asparagus is at all the fruit markets that are open.  Joe kept trying to find some local strawberries, but the only ones we found at grocery or convenience stores were shipped in from somewhere else.

We also saw a couple fields of hops.  We only know what these are because Collins enlightened us a few years ago on our trip to Canada.

About 8 miles south of our campground we came upon a sign that said "45th Parallel, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole."  So now we know that.

Our campground here was only about 33 miles from Traverse City, so that was our first stop - to fuel, and get breakfast.  There was a McDonald's next door to the gas station, so I walked over there to get breakfast sandwiches.  But the doors were locked and the only thing open was the drive-through.  There was a sign on the door saying they couldn't get enough help for full staff.  We see "help wanted" signs everywhere we go, not just at fast food places.  

Traverse City is known as the cherry capital of the world.  We didn't know that, but their airport is named Cherry Capital Airport, so I looked it up.  Sure enough, that is their claim to fame.  July is cherry season, so again, we were too early.

Anyhow we drove on, and finally found a restaurant down the road.  Traffic was a lot heavier than we have been dealing with, towns were getting bigger, and it got hot.  We couldn't find a campground with any available sites, so we stayed on the parking lot at Gun Lake Casino, just south of Dorr where Joe's cousin, Jan and Don Ivers live. They have construction going on at the casino, so we parked way away from the building, in the front.  We checked inside with the security guard and told him where we had parked, and of course, we had to move -- to the back, where they had places marked for trucks and RVs.  So it was almost 3:00 by the time we got settled there.  Jan and Don picked us up for dinner at the casino and we spent a little time donating our $$ there.  No big winners in our group, but dinner was fun.

We drove 200 miles today.  We are staying here two nights, then heading to Ft. Wayne.  

Our Day of Rockhounding

 6-17-2021 - Thursday

Another chilly morning, 58.  I had to turn the furnace on just for a few minutes to get rid of the chill.  After it warmed up 10 degrees outside, I spent a little time out there, taking some pictures, finishing my coffee.  There is a playground and huge play area right in front of our spot.  We have enjoyed watching and hearing the kids playing every night, and I had a visit from our little chipmunk friend. 

We went out for breakfast at this fancy little spot just at the end of our campground drive.  The food was good, well presented.  Fancy dishes.  And they put ice in my glass of milk.  We laughed because they are so stingy with ice in this part of the country, and they wasted it in my milk.  But it kept it cold.  I had mooncakes with cherry sauce and real maple syrup.  In  the middle of the "mooncake" are some blueberries and one raspberry, with a little green foliage.  Joe had his standard sausage and eggs, with roasted potatoes and homemade toast.

From there, we came back to the RV and loaded up for a day on that beach we found yesterday.  It's only about 7 miles from our campground, pretty secluded, but there were other people there too (we thought it was going to be our own private beach).  The turn-off from the highway is Rex Beach Road, then straight on this dirt road to Antrim Creek National Area.  I am posting this information just in case we ever come back here again.  

The beach was great, a little cool when we first got there, especially if the sun was hidden by clouds, but it warmed up very comfortably.  There were just a couple other families there, but then a group of college kids showed up with tape measures, checking some kind of thistle plant to see how many there were because they were dying out.

It was a while before we found any petoskey stones, but we finally did have some success.  We ended up with a small bag full, and a bucket full of "pretty rocks."  And we were there all afternoon, from about 11:30 until after 5:00.  We had our chairs, so we could take breaks whenever our backs would no longer bend.  But it was a good time.

Joe thought he might grill hamburgers for dinner tonight, but by the time we left the beach, we were both too tired to contemplate cooking and cleaning up, so we went into Charlevoix for pizza.  And we sat outside right across from their marina, right on downtown main street (Bridge Street), watching the traffic go by, just like real tourists.

We passed the "world's largest cherry pie" the other day, so today we got a picture.  But there's only one piece left!  I don't know how they can claim "world's largest" when there is only one piece.

When we got back to Eastport, we decided to turn and drive into the little town, since what was on the highway was about one block long.  We found out there is a huge lake right here, just across the highway from Lake Michigan.  That was a surprise.  I think it is Torch Lake.  

It was 8:00 by the time we got back to the RV.  We were both tired, but it was a very good day.  Tomorrow we move south, we hope the weather stays nice but we know we are probably on borrowed time in that area.  

Petosky and Charlevoix, Michigan

 6-16-2021

I woke up this morning at 7:45 and it was 49 degrees.  Very chilly.  I got up and turned the furnace on, and went back to bed for another hour!  It had warmed up to 59 by then.  But it turned out to be another beautiful day up here, I think the high was 70.  We didn't leave the campground until almost 11:00, and we headed back north to Petosky and Charlevoix.  Both of these towns are very cute, clean, beach towns, lots of flowers line the main highway all the way through town.  Most of the towns of any size in Michigan have hanging pots of flowers lining at least the downtown area.  I think it says a lot about the pride the residents have in their city, I wish my home town would do this.

Petoskey sits at the mouth of Little Traverse Bay, while we are camped on Grand Traverse Bay.  

If you enlarge this photo, you can see where the open water goes through.

Joe finally found us a swan, this was in a little lake north of Petoskey, before we turned around.

We had passed the spot where we found the petoskey stones in 2019, but decided to drive on through town, then come back.  This is the other place we tried that year, where we clambered over the boulders, and the water slammed into us.  And we didn't find any stones.  That was the first spot we tried then.

We didn't even attempt this spot.  So we drove up, around and through the streets of town, had lunch, then headed to the other spot.  There are steps down to the water, which was good, but we had to climb over some tree branches once we got to walking the beach.  We had high hopes for this place, but no luck today.  There is a mossy scum along most of the beach from the pollen from the trees, and all the rocks look the same in the water, which is the easiest place to spot the stones.  We spent an hour there, but never found a single petoskey stone.  We have a little of this algae at our campground, but not as much as there was here.

We gave up, and headed toward the campground, through Charlevoix.  We did find some charlevoix stones on that beach.  We passed the place we thought probably should be Catalina's next residence, plenty of room for the horses she needs, and for her to ride.  This is the Bay Harbor Equestrian Club, very beautiful setting.

We had passed the "Old Dixie Highway" on our way into town, and Joe decided he needed to drive that.  And he found a dirt road too.  That dead-ended, so back to Dixie, then he found another side road that took us to the beach.  This turned out to be a real find!  

There were a few people walking, one lady laying on the beach that Joe thought was a dead body.  But one guy had a little bucket and was picking up rocks, so I asked him if he was finding anything.  He said, oh yeah.  I asked if he found any petoskey stones, and he said, yeah, they were all over out there.  "Here, I will find you one," he said.  And he did.  Then, "here's another one."  He gave us both of them.  So we got serious about looking.  We finally found a couple apiece, but we don't seem to have the eye for them yet.  But the beach did have a lot of pretty, interesting rocks, so we gathered part of a bucket full.  And we plan to return tomorrow.  

Joe took 3 pictures of me washing the sand out of my shoes, and he never did get my skinny side!

We spent about 1 1/2 hours here, with plans to come back tomorrow.  I also plan to take some ibuprophen before we leave the RV.  Walking on the rocks, and in the sand, wore us out.  We will probably go to bed as soon as it gets dark (maybe 10:30).  We do not like this time zone!

Joe wasn't able to get satelline TV here, but he does get some stations on the antennae.  He was getting stations out of Wisconsin, Green Bay, we think.  However, tonight, he lost some of those channels for some reason, so he is really limited in what he can watch.

The price of gas continues to climb.  We were paying $2.99 last week, this week in lower Michigan it's $3.19.  I hope it stops there, we have lots of miles to go.  Our only plan tomorrow is to back to our beach, then come back and start getting to move on Friday.  

Heading into Lower Michigan

 6-15-2021 - Tuesday

Today we were out of bed and on the move.  We got up at 7:00 and were on the road by 7:50, stopping one last time in Manistique for breakfast at the moose place.  It was 56 degrees when we started out, and got up to 70 by the time we stopped.  This was one of the nicest campgrounds we have ever stayed in, and this Big Bay de Noc is reputed to be the Walleye capital of the world.  We considered trying to charter a fishing boat here but we never followed through on it.   

 We stopped at a roadside park just before we got to the bridge in St. Ignace, and I could see a big ship just beyond the little island.  At first I didn't think it was moving, but Joe could see that it was.  Before we left, it had cleared the island and I got a better picture.

I found Joe another moose, I think this patriotic one was in St. Ignace.  We didn't stop so I had to take my picture as we were driving past.

We got to the bridge at 11:05, it cost us $14.00 in tolls.  We got a great view of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron here.

There is construction on the bridge.  People we talked to at the campground said it took them almost an hour and a half to cross it on Sunday.  We got lucky today, we never got stopped once.  It took us about 8 minutes to get across (speed limit for trucks and trailers is 20 mph).  

We came down I-75 for about 30 miles, then cut across county roads back to the coast.  That took a while.  We arrived at our campground in Eastport, right on Lake Michigan again, about 1:00.  Today was 201 miles.  This campground is nice, and our site is just a short walk over to the beach, down a few steps.  And it is a rocky beach!  We walked it a little and collected a few rocks.  I don't think the variety of pretty rocks is here, but at least there are some.  Tomorrow we will drive back up Petoskey and Charlevoix to look for those kind of rocks.  Hopefully we can find the spot we found the petosky stones in last time. We are here for 3 nights, so hopefully we will have some to take home.