Here we are, on the road: We’re still in St. Clair, Michigan

August 18, 2013 Lorraine’s Report

Hello everyone. We are still at Thousand Trails in St, Clair, MI. We got moved into a very nice spot right across the road from Beth and Eric last week. We have enjoyed being in such a nice spot, and I have been able to do laundry and such.

So this week was fun!

Several days we just stayed home, caught up on things to do around the rig. One day we went on into Canada, Ontario just to see if we will be going that way over to Buffalo, NY. I think we decided not to go that way.

One day we went over to the big Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. That was quite a trip, and I was exhausted from that trip. There was so much to see there. I loved the limousines that were used to carry our various presidents. They had one there that President Kennedy rode in, in Dallas, when he was shot. Then there was the chair that President Lincoln was killed in in Ford's Theater, still had the blood on it, We sat on the bus that Rosa Parks was on and asked to move to another seat; she didn't move and that inspired a new era in the quest for America's freedom and equality. There were the trains, the planes, and just about every form of carrier you could imagine. This stop was one for our bucket list. Well worth the time and effort, should you ever get into Dearborn, MI.

One day we played 10,000 with Beth and Eric, I remember not getting on for at least four games, maybe more. That same day, Beth & I went into town and found a Catherine's, a shop where I found some socks. They have the socks I liked, and they don't bind or cut off your circulation in your feet, mine have blood from the infection, and I can't get them out of the socks.

Yesterday we went to the 19th annual Woodward Dream Cruise. This is another "Bucket List" must do's. The Dream Cruise is about cars-every shape, color, brand-you name it, all getting together for a rally that goes on for a week in this area. The townspeople all love the cars and the money it brings to the area.

We went in town around 9:45 am, the cars we already starting the big cruise. This event went on for miles, up and down Woodward Avenue. Channel 7 and a bunch of other local teams covered this big event. When we got home after 5 pm, we watched what had been going on, and truly there was lots going on. I'm not sure how many cars were at this event, but must have been thousands upon thousands. They had stories, families, and just about everything you could think of for this cruise.

This was like when we were in Minneapolis last year and went to the "Back to the 50's" at the Minneapolis State Fair. We toured that area; we never covered all that area, there were thousands upon thousands of cars then too, only all parked on the grounds area. I have to say, these people in these Northern states have their hobbies that keep them busy all winter long, fixing up their old cars. Sure was pretty and colorful to see them all.

So this week is my sister, Thelma's anniversary, their 48th. Just want to wish them all a "Happy Anniversary!"

That's it for me, see you all "down the road".

Hugs,

Lorraine

8/18/13 Chuck’s report

Yes, we’re still in Michigan and still liking it! Plus it’s nice not moving every couple of days, this way we aren’t on the go every day. We’ve been spending some time with Eric and Beth and getting better acquainted with them too.

Let’s see, last Sunday we went our to dinner with them, went to St. Clair and set outside on the patio watching boats go by while we ate, very nice. There are lots of small towns around here to drive through and we hit a few of them on the way there and back.

Monday was laundry day for Lorraine, then she and Beth headed into town for a shopping trip. Eric and I stayed behind and played a few games of cribbage, I’m still not up to counting hands like I used to be but at least we aren’t playing cut throat where he gets the points I didn’t count. I am getting better but still slow.

Tuesday ended up being a “rest up” day, we didn’t go anywhere. Eric and Beth headed out but we didn’t feel like going anywhere, nice. Eric and Beth did make a quick trip into Canada and bought a fresh salmon and invited us over for dinner that evening. I’m not big on eating fish so Lorraine fried up a pork steak for me and we had a good time with these fine folks over dinner.

Wednesday we decided to head North and check out the town and local area of Port Huron. Boy are there some NICE homes along the waterway. And the water in Lake Huron is a nice shade of blue, must be why the bridge across into Canada is called the Blue Water Bridge, funny the way that worked out.

After checking out Port Huron (and getting stopped for a draw bridge to let a small boat go through) we decided to head over the Blue Water Bridge and tour some on the Canadian side. There is a fee to cross the bridge, I believe it was $3 over and $3.50 coming back. And of course, we went through the border crossings too, Lorraine had dug out our passports so we had those with us.

Crossing into Canada was a bigger problem for us than coming back, the gal kept questioning me about guns. I think I figured out why after she kept asking about handguns and other, wanting to know how many I owned and where they were currently located. When we drove to Alaska in ‘09 I declared and paid for my shotgun when we were in Canada. I think the gal kept asking about guns until I finally got what she wanted and told her about that time, she seems to “settle down” after that and only asked a couple more questions then wished us a good trip. So it must be in our records that we carry a shotgun and maybe she thought I was carrying the shotgun in the car, I don’t know.

We drove into the town of Sarnia, sure a lot of industry, manufacturing and refining along the shore on the South side of town. We decided to head East a few miles and see what there was out there but all we saw was fields of corn, beans, hay and cows. Our first trip into Ontario was short but nice and the return trip back to our coach was fine too.

Thursday was another day of sightseeing for us, we drove into Dearborn, Michigan to the Henry Ford Museum. I had heard there was lots of displays there, not just cars and that was the truth. There was lots of cars of course plus history displays, planes, agriculture, furniture, timepieces, railroad engines and cars and the like but what I liked the most was some of the HUGH steam powered engines and motors on display. These were using in industry for running conveyor belts, producing electricity, pumping water and lots of other uses too. Some of them were really works of art, I really liked looking them over and trying to figure out how they ran and what all the gears and pulleys did.

I was surprised to see they had the car President Kennedy was in when he was shot, the chair President Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot and the actual bus Rosa Parks was riding in when she refused to move to the back. I would have expected to see these in the Smithsonian Institute instead of a private museum. If you are ever in the area and want to see this museum, plan on it taking most of the day, we didn’t have to hurry and get back as Eric and Beth were watching Misty for us but it still took us over 5 hours to walk through this museum.

We stopped at a Subway place for dinner on the way home then later went over to see Eric and Beth in the evening. Eric and I played a couple games of crib again, I think he skunked me on one of the games.

Friday was to be another quiet day so we went over to Eric and Beth’s again and played a dice game, 10,000. Last time we played this was with Dave and Sandy and I couldn’t get any good rolls. This time it was Lorraine’s turn to not get any luck but a good time was had by all anyway. Beth fixed lunch for us too, very nice.

Later Lorraine and Beth headed into town for another shopping trip while Eric and I met with some other folks from Washington who happen to be here. They aren’t full timers but they are going to be on the road for 10 months or so touring the East and wintering in Arizona. We’ve found that it really is a small world and I bet we see them again somewhere down the road, hope so anyhow.

Yesterday we followed Eric and Beth in our car to Birmingham to see the Woodward Dream Cruise. This is the 19th annual cruise and they have over 1.5 million visitors in town to watch over 40,000 classic cars as they cruise the 16 mile route from from Pontiac to Detroit and back. This is the world’s largest one day automotive event and they have cars dating across several decades. I know we saw cars from the ‘30s to current cars, over 9 decades of cars driving right in front of us, most, of course, were from the 50s thru the 70s. We set on our chairs and watched the parade of cars for over three hours before we left, sure a lot of nice cars. We all talked about which one (s) we would like if we happened to win a lottery. But big wishes and smaller wallets meant we left with the cars we already had, shoot. The cruise continued on throughout the evening, after we got back to the coach we watched the TV program the local station had going. This is a big deal for the area, folks come from around the country, even other countries, for this cruise the third weekend in August.

After we left there, Lorraine and I found a Costco a few miles away. Lorraine wanted to pick up a few things from there so we headed there first. By then we were almost to where the casinos are in Detroit so we picked one and checked it out. I think it was called the Motor City Casino but I didn’t see any classic cars on display so we tried the slots instead. No luck for either of us, we stayed for less than an hour as we had to get back and check on Misty.

We watched a movie last night that Lorraine picked up this week, Olympus Has Fallen. It is about a terrorist group that take over the White House and kidnap the President while one secret service guy saves the world. It is not destined to be one of the all time great movies for sure. In fact, a couple of times I had to comment about some of the bad writing/acting/directing as I laughed. Even though the special effects were good, I wish we had not bought the movie instead of waiting for it to come to TV.

The weather this past week has been getting a bit warmer during the day. Early in the week the temps were getting into the low to mid 70s and it warmed up to the mid 80s yesterday. The humidity has not been too bad either although there is lots of dew on everything in the mornings. And the nighttime lows are better too, it was getting into the high 40s but now it’s only dropping to the mid 50s. And everything is still nice and green, still somewhat reminds me of Washington in this area.

Our plans have changed just a bit, I’m thinking we will stay on the US side of Lake Erie as we head to Niagara Falls instead of taking the shorter route though Canada. That means we will travel through/around Detroit, Toledo and Cleveland and see them out the window as we go through. At least that’s the route I’m planning now, that could still change a dozen times in the next week.

We plan on leaving here on Friday then head to another 1000 Trails park in Jefferson Ohio. We have not been to Kenisee Lake park before but have seen a bit of it on our Lewis and Clark friends Bill and Sue’s blog. They are there now but I think they are planning on leaving the day before we get there, they did that here too. (Humm, with that pattern going on, maybe I’m starting to get the hint.)

We will probably stay in that area for a couple of weeks, that will put us right on the schedule I’ve worked out to travel the NE states and be there during the turning of the leaves. I’ve checked with some campgrounds up there and some of the Passport America parks have restrictions that I will have to work into our schedule. We’ll see how that all works out over the next few weeks, however.

Now to add some pictures of our week. We have taken a bunch of pictures so it may take awhile to go through them and pick out which ones to add but as soon as I’m done, I’ll get this posted.

Downtown St. Clair. that’s the St. Clair river, it runs between Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair then into Lake Erie.