Busy, Busy, Way too Busy!

Where do I begin....lets start from last Thursday, June 18th
We were getting the last of the items we needed for taking 3 of the Grand kids camping. I pulled the MH onto the side street so I would be able to hook up the car dolly. Got it hooked up and then loaded the Malibu onto the dolly. Wilma said she was going over to get the Grand kids and by the time she returned I should be ready.
Well no it didn't work out that way. I had trouble attaching the straps to the front tires and buckling them down. The ratchet was too far into the wheel well between the tire and the front bumper, I just could not get it to lock in. It was getting warm, the sweat was starting to leave my body, and my last nerve was being tested.
Wilma arrives with the Grand kids ready to leave. I had to give up and we ended leaving the dolly and car home.

Off to our resort in Davison, MI for a weekend of fun.
We arrived around 2pm. Found a campsite and began setting up. Pulled the awning out and "BANG" the tension spring broke. The awning unrolled with added speed. Trying to hold in and not show my temper, I had to think, well its 13 years old with no problems, I guess it has served me well.

With all the excitement Dakota and Savannah just couldn't decide what to do first. Needless to say we all had fun and were completely wore out by 8pm.

Friday, June 19th.
We walked and walked.... Only having 2 bikes we decided we could use the exercise and let the kids use the bikes. Boy O Boy are we out of shape! We had to of walked at least 20 miles today. Evening came with a campfire and "Pa's" really happened ghost story. All hands were in bed by 9:30pm.

Saturday, June 20th.
Was kept awake for at least 3 hours as a strong thunderstorm went through. Today was warm, sunshine all day, just a perfect day. We all did just about everything the park had to offer. Wilma and I did take control of the bikes when we went anywhere though. Our legs were too sore to do much walking today. Another campfire with smores and hot ham & cheese were enjoyed by all. Another wonderful day making memories.

Sunday, June 21st. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!
Another night of thunder storms, lost about 2 hours sleep this night. By morning the sun was shinning and it was another perfect day! We were so lucky and fortunate.
I made a phone call to my dad to wish him a happy fathers day. I could tell it in his voice something was wrong. He said mom hadn't gotten out of bed as of yet and it was 11:30am. She is really sick, might have to call 911.
Dad...do you need me I'm at the campground and won't be home for at least 2 hours. No don't come home, Judy (my sister) will be over here in a half hour after church. OK I said, call me and let me know how she is doing later.
This had me considerably concerned and they were on my mind all the way home.
Arriving home I called Judy to find out what was going on. They admitted Mom to the hospital, she has pneumonia and possibly other things wrong.
Judy and I set up our "duty" evenings, meaning every other evening we would go see Mom in the hospital, help her with supper, put in her eye drops, and just make sure she is comfortable for the evening. Dad would go see her just before lunch, staying through lunch and leaving around 1pm.
The Grand kids each thanked us for such fun all weekend camping and Wilma took them home while I unloaded the MH.

Monday, June 22nd.
After working 9 hours and arriving home I changed and headed out to the hospital. Mom was pretty much "out of it". Being confused why she is there, not knowing how to breath through the oxygen nose piece, and wheezing ever so often. Her bed had an alarm if she fell or tried to get out of it, as she was placed on a "fall alert".
I helped her with dinner. She ate just about enough food to keep a large bird alive. After 3 hours I left for home. It's been a long, long day. Exhausted I was in bed by 9pm.

Tuesday, June 23rd.
All day at work thinking of Mom, the vacation coming up in July, and the Tow Dolly not working for me. I arrived home and started measuring the heights of the tow dolly and the ball on the bike hitch. The dolly was level at 16 inches height. The ball on the bike hitch was at 19 inches. That explains it! So off to "General Trailer" to purchase another hitch, preferably an adjustable one.

Success, purchased one, installed it on the MH, hooked up the tow dolly and loaded the Malibu. Tire straps went on with no problems. Relieved that I can now take my car with us on our vacation next month, I entered the house around 7pm.

Wilma told me of a fantastic thing Savannah did today! Tina took her to get her first hair cut, and being 5 years old her hair had a length down to the middle of her back. The hair stylist told Savannah of a program that was for donating hair to little children who have Cancer and have lost all there hair. And with the amount of hair Savannah wanted cut off she would be making 2 little children be able to have hair. Savannah said yes she would like to donate her hair! Her mom, Tina had tears in her eyes, she was so touched. Kinda put a lump in my throat also as Wilma was telling me the story. What a wonderful thing little Savannah had done. Before they left the salon, they took Savannah's name and address. I would presume she will be getting a little thank you card from the organization that makes the wigs for those little children with Cancer.

Wednesday, June 24th.
Another HOT 9 hour work day today, temperatures hitting the mid 90's. Got home and noticed some of the grass had been cut. What a surprise, Wilma had cut some of it before it got too hot outside. I was not feeling quite up to par so Wilma took my blood reading to see where my sugar was. It read 135.....a bit on the high side I think. Usually it runs low when I feel this way. But within a half hour of eating I was feeling better and off I went to see Mom. She is doing a little better this evening. The Dr. said she might go home tomorrow. Then she said she got out of breath and thought she was having a heart attack just walking to the bathroom, which is only about 7 feet from her bed. Three nurses came and immediately put on a face mask with the oxygen hooked to it. This seemed to help her and she felt better within an hour. I mentioned that I didn't think the Dr. would release her tomorrow as she is just not strong enough. Maybe in a couple days.
We had a nice Mother and Son visit, tending to her needs, both feeling good when I left 3 hours after arrival.
It's now 10pm, I've just got to get to bed, as I'm just bushed today again. I will be adding pictures maybe tomorrow of the camping trip. (Seems like we took a ton of em).

Sorry for such a delay in posting...it's been way too Busy, Busy, Way too Busy!


Until our next adventure, be safe and God Bless.

Dinner with Joe & Diane

Joe phoned last night asking if we would like to get together for dinner.

(Joe & Diane are on the picture to the left of me and Wilma in the picture of "Our Camping Friends" to the left of this Blog)

I said sure, where would you like to go? Joe named a few restaurants, and we both decided on Dimetre's Rendevous, (not sure of the spelling). So the plan was to meet there at 5pm this evening.

As Wilma and I pulled out of our driveway, on our way to the restaurant, she made a comment that Joe has not seen our new car yet. I realized that it was just too full of salt from the roads so I stopped at a car wash. Yep that did the trick...it's looking like a new car again. It doesn't take much road salt on a dark blue car to make it look really bad.

We arrived about 15 minutes early. While pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant, I told Wilma to keep a look out for Joe's Chevy Van or Diane's Buick Century. Neither vehicle was there yet so we sat in the warm car waiting.

In 10 minutes Joe pulls up in a (new to him) 2006 Chevy Denali. A white vehicle, and he didn't think to get a car wash, to show it off to us. But that's ok, it is a beautiful vehicle. He said it has all the options that Chevy could put on it. So for a couple minutes we both examined each others new vehicles. Then we all went inside to eat as we were all pretty hungry.

Our meals were delicious, the bill was not bad for the quality of food we received, and after we paid our bills we remained to chat for almost a half hour.

We did notice that the restaurant wasn't filling up like it usually does this time of day, and that there wasn't a line of patrons waiting for a table. Another sign that times are getting bad and people are cutting back saving their cash.

Tomorrow evening we are taking Mom & Dad out to Red Lobster for Mom's 81st. birthday.

I called her this morning around 9am to wish her a happy birthday, as today is her actual birthday. I then proceeded to tell her we where going to take them to Red Lobster for dinner tomorrow. Did she ever get excited, she just loves shrimp. The local "family style" restaurants that they usually go to just have the pre-frozen sea food. You know the type of food I'm talking about. It's the type that if you close your eyes you really can't tell what your eating because of the heavy coating of batter.

So tomorrow evening around 6pm, Mom & Dad should be returning home from Church, and Wilma and I will be waiting to take them out to Red Lobster. I think we all are looking forward to it except Dad. He isn't a big fan of sea food, but I told him they must have other choices on the menu. Now let's hope I'm right!

Until our next adventure, be safe and God Bless.

Back Home

We are back home from our "Week-end" get-a-way. We decided to cut it short by a day for two reasons. One, the weather....just too much snow and cold! Two, Mom goes into the hospital today for surgery.

So....here is what our weekend was like...

Friday, Jan. 16th.
We had Dakota and Savannah sleep over last night, the phone woke me up around 6am. Angel calling to let us know that school has been canceled because of the cold. So that means that I won't have to drive Dakota to school this morning, and he gets to sleep in!

I decided to get up and let Wilma sleep in. Got the coffee going and proceeded to get my "stuff" together that I'm going to take on our weekend trip. With the temperature hovering around 5 above 0, I wasn't in any hurry to get the car loaded with "our stuff".

Everyone was awake and ready for the day by 10am, so I took Dakota and Savannah over to Angels home and dropped them off. Angel was watching them until Tina gets home from her job.

By 10:30am we had the trunk packed and were ready to leave on our week-end get a way. We weren't in any hurry as we weren't supposed to check into our cabin until 3pm. I assured Wilma that as the Park isn't busy they would let us check in early, whenever we get there.

As it turned out we arrived around 1:30pm. No problem checking in, as the "office" was closed and the security guard checked us in, giving me the key to Cabin #1. We drove over to the cabin only to find out that the water lines were frozen. Drove back to security letting them know; he told us that the manager would meet us at the cabin. The manager checked the "heat tape" making sure it had power, which it had, and then checked Cabin #2. He apologized for the inconvenience, and asked if we would mind moving to Cabin #2. Not at all we assured him, and he left as we moved our "stuff" to Cabin #2.

The first thing we noticed different, was the heat! WOW was it ever warm in the cabin, I'd guess around 80. Wilma made a comment about it being way too hot to sleep in that heat and we would have to turn off the heat, which was a combination air conditioner/heater built into the wall. I saw this was going to be a problem if I had to keep getting up during the night to turn it on and off as needed.

The second thing we noticed is that this cabin was a little larger. That was a good thing, seeing as the cabin was a total of about 8 foot by 14 foot max.!

After getting all our stuff moved in, I commenced to see what was wrong with the heater, while Wilma made the bed.

I noticed how cold the frame was, and the control knobs were next to the outside frame. Could the cold be radiating to the controls making the heat stay on longer? So I proceeded to remove the front grill and filter, then pulling off the 2 control knobs I was able to remove the face plate by the controls, then put the knobs back on so I could turn them for adjustments. Within a few minutes the heat turned off. GREAT, now lets hope that turning up the heat knob will cycle the heat with the temperature of the cabin. Yep it worked! So I was now confident we at least could control the heat in our cabin if I left the front grill and filter off. Just a lucky hunch I had, and I guess Karma was on our side for this one.

As we forgot some food left in the fridge at home, we decided to make a trip into town and get a few groceries and stop at a restaurant for supper. We did that and returned to the cabin for an evening of watching one of the three TV stations available before turning out the lights.

Saturday, Jan. 17th.
Woke up and noticed we forgot Coffee filters! Improvise...Wilma handed me a napkin which worked just fine. Turned on the TV for the local weather, more cold and snow for today and tomorrow. Brrrrr. It was 0 degrees outside, and 72 degrees inside. Another 3 inches of snow fell since we arrived on the already foot of snow on the ground.

Our plan for today was to go to the Casino and donate to the local tribe. But after seeing that the weather was going to go from bad to worse tomorrow, we decided to switch our plan with tomorrows plan. So we will go to the Casino tomorrow, if we aren't snowed in!

So today we are going to head further North.....more cold and snow.....about 47 miles to visit Denny and Kathy.

The ride there on I-75 was pretty bad.

It was 11 am and the plows had not completly cleared all lanes of the expressway. Plus the wind was blowing and snow falling adding more to the snow that we got last night.

We arrived at Denny and Kathy's home around 12:30pm safe and sound in the blowing snow. They have a beautiful home to be very proud of. Their fireplace insert wood stove kept their home very confortable, and Denny said as long as its on, the furnace doesn't come on. A great savings in his fuel bill.
We went out to a restaurant for lunch and returned to their home. Denny then showed us his Pole barn that he and his son built. Wow is that ever nice! He has all the room he needs, and we could tell he was very proud of it. I know I sure would be! Looking how high it was I made a comment to him about how I wouldn't be able to put shingles on the roof because of the height, he said it was pretty high as he fell off of it once putting on the shingles. I'm glad for his sake he wasn't hurt as it looked about 12 foot high to the edge of the roof!

Back inside their home, they taught us a new game. Mexican Train.

Wow did we have fun. We laughed and joked with each other while playing, and Denny told us that the game can be bought at Walmart for around $10.00. Guess where we will be heading in a few days? Angel phoned us while we were at Denny's asking how the weather was. We told her the weather we were having, she said they were having a blizzard with expected 3 to 5 inches of more snow expected. Booo Hooo. More snow to shovel when we get home.

We kept an eye on the snow falling as we played Mexican Train, and around 5pm we decided that we should leave for the trip back to our Cabin. Wilma and I had a wonderful time with Denny & Kathy, and we know we will see them again in the future, as they have invited us back out in the summer.

Our trip back to the Cabin was slow because of the wind and snow covered roads, but we made it without incident. Kybee sure was excited to see us when we opened the Cabin door, as we were glad to see him also. The temperature now around 2 above outside and a confortable 72 inside the cabin. As we were still not hungry for a large meal, Wilma and I decided to eat a sandwich and watch a little TV, (because all we could get on the small 13" TV is 3 channels!) before turning in for the night.

Sunday, Jan. 18th.
Sunday morning drinking our coffee, looking outside and noticed another 5 inches of snow fell. But the sky was clear and blue and the sun was starting to come up.

Wow....haven't seen the sun in quite a while!

Kinda cheered us both up at how pretty the sun glizzened on the fresh snow....at least for me as long as I was in a warm cabin. :>)

Watching the morning weather forecast, it was saying it was now 5 above 0. Brrrr...
We talked about going home this afternoon instead of waiting for Monday morning. Both of us agreed we would be more comfortable sleeping in our bed at home, and the weather could turn from bad to worse Sunday night. So we packed all our stuff and got it ready to be put in the car.

We wanted to make our donation to the Casino, so off we went for a little fun and to see if it was time for our dream of "hitting it big" was going to happen.

Sorry to report....our dream did not happen. But we both had an enjoyable time and will return in the future. Leaving the Casino, we stopped at what Denny called "the really big store". He gave directions to us when we visited him yesterday. And Denny was right, it is a "really big store" with everything you could think of. And great prices too. When we come back to this area in the future, I'm sure we will stop back in this store also. We left the store and stopped at a restaurant for lunch, as it was around 1pm and we knew it was at least a 3 hour drive back home. After lunch we went back to the cabin, loaded up the car and headed home. The roads were pretty clear, I-75 had been plowed and were only a little snow covered. We made good time getting home, arriving around 4pm.

Walking into our home, where we set the heat down to 50, was quite chilly to say the least! It took the furnace an hour and a half steady running to get the temps back up around 70. I even lit the oven and left the door open to help heat the house. Wilma and I donned sweatshirts to help keep warm until the house warmed up, Kybee found the heat vent in the bathroom as the perfect place to keep warm. It feels great to be back home! The neighbors even snow blowed my sidewalk and drive! So there was little snow removal for me to do.

Monday, Jan. 19th.
Today is a paid holiday for me! So I'm planning on going to St. Johns Hospital this morning to be with Dad as Mom has surgery planned. She has blocked arteries in both legs, and the surgeon said it should take about 4 hours for the surgery to place stints in the arteries. She is scared about the surgery, but talking to her on the phone yesterday, I assured her this would be "a piece of cake" compared to her 5 stints put in around her heart a couple years ago. Hopefully it would relieve her anxiety a little, even though I realize any surgery like this is risky. She is scheduled to stay in the Hospital for 2 days, so she should be back home on Tuesday morning.

Monday, Jan. 19th. update:
Mom made it out of surgery ok. She said it was pretty bad pain wise, not where the surgery was but with her back. (She has a very bad back and has had 5 surgeries on her back alone, nothing else can be done to help her with her back.)

The surgeon spoke to Dad and I after the surgery, telling us that her right leg now has 2 stints in the main artery. One by her hip the other a little lower just above her knee. The rest of the artery looked good. Her left leg artery is also 80% blocked, but there was no hurry to repair that artery for at least 6 to 8 weeks.

So if all goes well through the evening, she should be released from the Hospital tomorrow morning.

Until our next Adventure, be safe and God Bless.