In Michigan for a couple of Weeks

 If you drove down Route 50 and saw that our coach is missing, and are checking my blog….

My brother, who lives just down the road from our mother, in rural Michigan, watches over her. He goes to her house: puts drops in her eyes morning and evening, gives her the few meds that she takes, and takes her meals. He, his wife and their youngest grandson wanted to take a two week vacation to see the sights around Yellowstone. We volunteered to “Mom sit” while they were gone.

At 9AM Tuesday, June 10^th we left home and started making our way to Michigan. We planned on taking 3 days to drive the 570 miles. We decided to go “cross country”, thru Louisiana, MO, Springfield, IL, Lafayette, IN. I drove the first 200 miles, which was unusual because Kathy normally does the driving. Kathy took over driving and I started searching for a campground with a pull-thru spot for the night, I couldn’t find one. At 9PM, after 445 miles, we pulled into a Walmart parking lot in Wabash, IN and spent the night. It was a surprise that we couldn’t find one campground we could fit in along that many miles. On Wednesday we continued on the Branch County Fairgrounds in Coldwater, MI. Mom, and my brother live 7 miles south of the Fairgrounds. We stayed at the Fairgrounds overnight so that we could dump our waste tanks and fill up our fresh water tank.

Below is a photo of us parked at the Fairgrounds last year. $30/night for a full hook up. Other than fair time, the first two weeks of August, it is pretty empty.

On Thursday we drove out to Mom’s and parked out back, by the pond. Her parents lived on this farmstead when Mom was born in 1928, it has been in the family a long time. My brother David lives a quarter mile down the road, on the farmstead where my paternal great-grandmother lived most of her adult life, she was born in 1889. David moved into the farm house in 1987, shortly after our great-grandmother died.

Below is a photo of us parked at Mom’s pond last year. 

The water from Mom’s old well is full of iron and tastes NASTY. We used to fill our fresh water tank at Davids but some of his trees have gotten so big that we can’t get down his driveway with our coach. Now we stay the first night at the Fairgrounds, service out tanks and when we get to Mom’s our black tank is empty and our fresh water tank is full. We don’t worry about the grey water tank. I just run a hose over to the field and dump gray water into the field. After 3-4 days I fill a 25 gallon bladder with fresh water, at Davids, and pump it into our fresh water tank. After 5-7 days we go back to the Fairgrounds for an overnight stay and repeat the dumping and filling of tanks.

This year it is really HOT here and today, Saturday, June 21^st, we moved to the Fairgrounds for at least several days. Mom has minimal electricity back at the pond, not even close to enough to run our AC. In the past we have started our generator in the evening so that we could run the AC and cool the coach down for sleeping. This year it is supposed to be HOT for several days. Right now, 3PM Saturday, it is sunny and 89 degrees. The “feels like” temperature is 98 and the dew point in 74. Sunday, Monday & Tuesday are supposed to be just as hot, or even hotter.

One nice thing about parking at Mom’s pond is the wild life. One evening the bean field next to us had 17 deer, multiple turkeys and a couple of sand hill cranes feasting on the soy beans. I took the photo below this morning, thru the coach windshield.

David and family are to return next Saturday. We plan on heading back home on Sunday.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.