Day 34 - Sunday, July 28 - We Are in the UP, Hooray & PTL

 We had a good night at the Grayling Rest Area. This morning I visited with a guy who also spent the night there in a motorhome. He was originally from the UP (Michigan's Upper Peninsula) but had been living in Texas for several years. His wife, also from the UP, was diagnosed with cancer. She told him she didn't want to die in Texas so they sought treatment at the Cleveland Clinic. She recently died and he was carrying her ashes to the UP. She was native American and wanted part of her ashes spread in the UP and the remainder spread in either the Badlands or the Grand Teton's. After that he planned to return to the UP to live. We both were amazed at how little traffic went through the Rest Area during the night. The overnight low was 49 degrees. We slept with all our windows open, it was great.

I have previously mentioned the problem with the front passenger side leveling jack not wanting to retract. It seems to be getting better. It retracted on its own when we left the Fairgrounds yesterday. We didn't put the jacks down nor the slides out while at the Rest Area. We also didn't dump the air from the suspension air bags. After a couple of hours we noticed that the front passenger side air bag had deflated so we dumped the air from the other three. It seemed to inflate OK this morning. When I went to start the car, to pump transmission fluid through the transmission prior to leaving, it wouldn't start. I had forgotten to unplug the system that applies the car brakes when the coach brakes are applied. I don't know if that ran down the battery, or if I screwed something up when I jumped the guys battery yesterday. I carry a set of cables that easily reach between the coach batteries and the car battery, so it was easy to "jump it" and get it started.

We knew we had another short day, 150 miles, so we didn't leave the Rest Area until around noon. Traffic was fairly heavy until we crossed Big Mac (or Mighty Mac). It is so cool crossing it. You can find some information on it at

https://mackinac.com/about-mackinac-island/mackinac-bridge/

Our first glimpse of Big Mac today.

For those not familiar with the bridge the two inside lanes are grating while the outside lanes are concrete.

The "speck" on the left is the 450' long container ship the Goderich. The speck on the right is the 800' long bulk carrier the Arthur M. Anderson, headed to Burns Harbor, IN full of iron ore.

It took about 20 minutes to get through the toll line at the end of the bridge. Our toll was $10 for the motorhome ($5/axle) plus $4 for the car.

About 20 miles into the UP traffic had seemed to evaporate.

Driving around the UP you pass many 50-75 acre fields of hay.

But not to many herds of buffalo/bison.

Upon arrival at Soo Locks Campground I dumped our tanks while Kathy checked us in. I also unhooked the Flex. I had to jump it again to start it. The electrical cable connecting the coach to the Flex is supposed to charge the Flex battery while the coach is running. I jumped it again to start it. It will be interesting to see if it starts in the morning, without jumping it again.

Parked at Soo Locks. The view is the St. Mary's River & Canada.

Through our windshield.

When we exited I75 for Sault Ste. Marie we stopped and filled up at a Meijer store. Fuel up here was $3.89/gallon. In Coldwater it was $3.99/gallon. How can it make sense for fuel to be 10 cents a gallon cheaper up here at the Canadian border?

Today's high was a mostly sunny 83 degrees. Sitting outside in the shade it felt cool. I took a nice nap in my lounge chair. At 10:20PM the temperature has dropped to a damp 72 degrees. The overnight low is supposed to be 68.

A freighter just passed us heading to the locks, the 800' long Herbert C. Jackson. She is headed to Marquette. I wish I had a good enough camera to show you how great it is to watch them go past.

The campground only has water and electric connections, no sewer. When here I take showers at the "clubhouse". Its time to head that way and call it a night.

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

Days 32 & 33 - Friday & Saturday, July 26 & 27 - On the Road Again

Friday - Kathy went grocery shopping in the morning and I did more searching for campgrounds with available site. I also washed the coach. I didn't do a great job but I got the worst of the dirt off. Later I picked up my Mom. We went to the Bull Pen Cafe in Fremont, IN for lunch (good food at reasonable prices), had lemon ice cream cones for desert and then went for a drive. Wow has the 44 acres I grew up on changed. It is 8 miles out of Coldwater and is now full of houses. The house I grew up on is barely recognizable. It was a two story house with a one story "back room". The only heat in the back room came through an open doorway into the kitchen. There were two decent size bedrooms upstairs, one for my brother and I and a second for my sister. The "back room" was removed and a large two story  addition was added. In the evening David, Colton & Mom came by so that David could give us some tomatoes and cucumbers from his garden.

Saturday -  Hallelujah!!! heading north. We planned on taking two easy days to get to the Soo Locks Campground in Sault Ste Marie. We didn't leave the Fairgrounds until 12:30. About an hour later we stopped for a very leisurely lunch at a Rest Area just south of Lansing, MI. We were there at least 2 hours. 

Part of the time was because of a "God incident". We were sitting at a picnic table up near the building and I noticed a guy standing in front of a well used Class C unit, with the hood up. He was down near the far end of the parking lot. I did my best to ignore him because I didn't want to be bothered. I saw him talking to a young couple who parked down near him and I was relieved, let them deal with  the situation. They  left and he was still there. Understand I am not nearly a nice enough guy to offer to help but God wouldn't let me ignore the guy. I finally told Kathy that I have to go see if I can help guy. I walked down and asked if I could help. (For some reason he was backed up into the parking space. I wonder if he had previously had battery issues and if he had spent the night at the Rest Area.) I unhooked the Flex from our coach and drove it around into the car parking are so that we could hook up his jumper cables. For some reason we could not get enough "juice" to his starter to turn over his engine. Finally, after being connected at least 15 minutes his coach started. During that time I got most of life story. He injured his back during a construction incident and can no longer work. He was homeless, living in a tent in some park in Lansing, MI until a person gave him the Class C. I didn't understand all that he told me about going to South Carolina to pick up the woman who was with him. After fishing for catfish at several different places in the area they plan to head back to South Carolina. They both thanked me for helping and they left before I got the Flex back over in the truck parking lot and hooked back up to the coach. I don't tell you this so that you think I'm a nice guy. I mention it because, even when I resist, it is still a cool experience to know that God used me (I have no idea why) to do His will in that couples lives.

There are a lot of wind turbines in the area, and more are going up.

About 2 hours later we stopped at the Clare, MI Michigan Welcome Center, mostly to stretch our legs. 

Wonder how much this "art" cost taxpayers?

And then it was on to the Grayling, MI Rest Area where we plan to spend the night. Traffic was light all day. There is much less road noise here than at our house in Centertown. Only a couple of semi's have come through while we have been here and maybe a dozen cars.

After supper Kathy made herself a cup of tea and I made a cup  of coffee and we went over and set in the shade.

Watching the sun go down through the trees was nice.

At 9:50PM the temperature is supposed to be 75 degrees with 57% humidity. Sitting here next to an open window it feels a little cool. By morning the temperature is supposed to be in the high 50's.

Time for a shower and bed. It has been a good day.

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

Days 29-31 - Tue, Wed, Thur, July 23-25 - Nursing Home Visits

 On Tuesday David and I visited two local memory care facilities. Both seemed OK but one was definitely more upscale. Per day costs, which varied between the units and the level of care needed, ranged from $145 to $415. The more modest place quoted the $415/day for someone with no long term care insurance. The lady told us that if the person qualifies for Michigan Medicaid the monthly cost is the amount of the person's Social Security minus $60. My guess is that all their patients are Medicaid. What little we have learned about Michigan's Medicaid program leads us  to believe that it is very easy to qualify for it. Your home, as long as the value is less than $500,000 doesn't count against you, nor does your car. Other than the home and car you can't have more than $2,000 in assets.

Below is a photo of the door that leads from the memory care unit into the main facility. The doors are locked but I guess the goal is to keep people from thinking about exit doors. The fire exit doors to the outside, at the other end of this corridor, are alarmed, but not locked. They are painted like normal doors (the Fire Marshall required it).

Ed and Cindy visited on Wed and had lunch at a restaurant that is in the old firehouse. Food was OK. 

I spent most of Wed morning searching for upper peninsula campgrounds with vacancies. We want stay at the Paradise Resort in DeTour Village again. We have stayed there a couple of times in the past. Their first open date for a site with 50 amp service is August 28. That should give you and idea of how busy things are.

Today I again spent the morning campground searching. David dropped Mom off for her Thursday morning hair appointment. Kathy picked her up and brought her to the coach. Mom had lunch with us. She and I  did maybe a half mile walk around the fairgrounds. David picked her up after lunch and took her to a routine checkup with her Doctor. Physically all is well. I took the car to a glass place and had a chip in the windshield fixed. I ran a few errands and then washed the car in the afternoon. 

We are planning on heading north on Saturday. We now have reservations made for the nights of July 28-August 6 and August 11-13.

The 4H kids have been working with their houses every night. Tonight was the first night there were some boys in the group. Its been fun to watch them.

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

Days 24-28 - Thursday thru Monday, July 18-22 - At The Branch County Fairgrounds

David and Kathy, my brother and his wife, made it home safely on Saturday, after their two week trip out west. They had a great time.

One of my brother's dogs spent several nights down at the pond while we were there. I thought it was cute when when she found a dirty paper plate somewhere, carried it over to near where we were sitting and proceeded to lick it clean.

Mom & Kathy by the pond.

Colton, one of David's grandsons, rode his mule down from David's house. a piece on the bridle broke and they are doing a temporary fix. Colton is 14 years old, he starts the 8th grade this fall. 

Our time was pretty much take up with more Mom sitting. The weather has been spectacular the last couple of days. We had a campfire Saturday and Sunday nights, and it felt good after sunset.

Today we packed up and moved to the Branch County Fairgrounds camping area, in preparation to our heading north later this week ($30/night for a 50 amp full hook up). We still don't know when we will head north. David and I will meet with people from two different local Memory Care facilities tomorrow. Hopefully that will firm up the date we leave. I'm wondering if we, or at least David since he has Mom's Power of Attorney, will need to meet with an Elder Law Attorney before we make any decisions on moving Mom out of her house and how we handle paying for the Elder Care.

I flushed our black tank when we arrived at the Fairgrounds but probably need to flush it at least one more time before we leave. I also need to wash both the car and the coach. I'm afraid to run the Flex through an automatic car wash because I thing the "brushes" will break off the electrical plug for the braking system.

On our way to the Fairgrounds we stopped at Tractor Supply and filled our propane tank, it was almost empty. We ran out of propane once and it took 27.9 gallons to fill it. Today it only took 24.5 gallons. We were at Mom's 2 1/2 weeks using propane to run the hot water heater, the refrigerator and for cooking. The last time we filled the tank was in Harlingen, TX on February 27, 146 days ago. Tractor Supply charged $3.29/gal. That is the least we have paid for propane. We paid the guy in Harlingen $4.20/gal, but he came to the campground and filled tanks so that you didn't have to drive somewhere.

We will miss watching the deer while at Mom's. Mid morning this doe walked up  along the lane grazing. I took the photos through the coach windshield.

Clear at the back there is a swingset with shooting targets on it. The doe is by it. I think I've mentioned the old dozer, on the right, before. It was my Uncle Richards. He ran it the doing some grading the before going home and having a fatal heart attack in 1997. My Dad pulled it up to this spot and it has set there since then. The clutches were about shot back then so its only value is a reminder of Uncle Richard.

She saw me get up in the windshield to take the photo.

She continued walking a ways up towards the coach before climbing the hill on the left and disappearing into a corn field.

There are an unbelievable number of deer around here. About 8 of 10 times when you drive to town you see at least one deer. Most of them are within 50 yards of the road. 

Parked at the Fairgrounds.

I walked up to the office to tell them we had arrived. The mini ferris wheel actually rotates.

The flowers along the road to the office are lined 4H flower projects.

I wonder how long it took this young lady to collect all these smooth little stones. To me it looks like a streambed running through her flowers.

We had not managed a meal at the Buena Vista Golf Course yet, so we did this evening. This is the left overs. We had an appetizer of onion rings, they are great. I had a half rack of dry rub ribs. Kathy has a chicken breast with bacon, mushrooms and cheese. Both meals came with two sides. We both had salads. Kathy chose fries while I chose a baked potato. I had eaten a late lunch and wasn't real hungry, which is why I only order the half rack. After the onion rings I could only eat half my meal, Kathy was the same, both will make great "left over" meals tomorrow. My half rack was only $14, a full rack was $22. 

Back at the Fairgrounds we enjoyed the "entertainment". Some type of girls 4H horse program was going on. All the photos were taken from the front of coach.

The next two are blown up a little.

Thank you Lord for another good day.

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

Days 19-23 - Friday to Wednesday, July 12 to 17 - BORING!!

Kelsey and the kids left last Sunday. Ed and Cindy, and Nancy, two of Kathy's sisters and a brother-in-law, came up one afternoon and stayed for an enjoyable evening.

A "high point" was one evening the generator shut itself off, after it had been running for 12 continuous hours. We had been running it so that we could run the coach AC, it has been hot and humid here. It appears that the "low oil cut off" shut it off. I had checked the oil before we left Missouri and it was almost full. When I checked it after it shut off it was down a quart. I added a quart, started it and it seems to be fine. Since the oil was changed last December we have run the generator a total of 37.3 hours. This may be the most we have ever run a coach generator in a year. A quart every 37 hours of run time seems excessive to me. Today the weather finally got back closer to normal lower Michigan weather. Today's high was 84, last nights low was 69 and tonight's low is forecast to be 56. Normal high/lows are 83/60. Forecast highs are 80 or below for the next week. We are LOVING the cooler weather.

David texted me about noon today. He and his Kathy were crossing Big Mac and heading into Michigan's lower peninsula. They have thoroughly enjoyed their trip out west. They will stay a few days at some property Kathy's family owns near Baldwin, Michigan, before heading back home on Saturday.

On next Tuesday David and I have appointments at two Memory Care facilities in Coldwater. It appears that, depending on the facility and the level of care needed, the cost ranges from $4,000 - $10,000 per month. Michigan appears to have some type of special Medicaid that once your assets are almost totally depleted the state picks up the cost. I'm wondering if we may need to hire an attorney who specializes in Elder Law to advise us.

Hopefully by next Wednesday or Thursday we can finally start making our way up to the UP (Michigan's Upper Peninsula for you non Michiganders). Learn about the UP from a Yooper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHfGI2k_H7M 

At 9:20PM the outside temperature is 67 degrees with a humidity of 51%. Kathy is still sitting outside reading, wearing a hoodie.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me. A thought that I need to remind myself of more often, "What if tomorrow I woke up and the only things I had were what I thanked God for the day before?".

Days 13-18 - Sunday to Friday, July 7 to July 12 - BUSY

 A lot of stuff going on so I  have not been putting up regular posts. 

David and Kathy (his Kathy) left for out west Monday AM. They left us their Polaris Ranger and one of their cars so that we have lots of vehicles. The Ranger has been a lot of fun. They are having a great time.

Kelsey, Lydia & Nolan came Monday PM (I think) and are enjoying the pond. They went to Kathy's sisters home for one night. They spent part of the day at the lake in Hamilton, IN. 

Mom's old dog was with us down at the pond one day but did not come home that night. We looked at looked but could not find her. Two days later we found her dead. She was in bad shape so its kind of a blessing. 

Mom has been a challenge. Physically she is in pretty good health. She can walk the 200 yards to the pond, and back, without much problem. Mentally she is a mess. After my grandmother died,  30 years ago, Mom moved back to the old home place, where they lived when she was born 95 years ago. Her mind can't grasp the her Mother is dead, nor that my Dad has been dead for 15 years (they were divorced for many years but were friends for at least 5 years before my Dad died). We can tell her and she accepts that they are dead but less than 5 minutes later she starts asking if we think it would be a good idea for her to move back here and live with her Mother. Her brain is locked on the fact that she rents a place, which she did for many years, and regularly comes to visit grandma, which she did. She talks non-stop, just repeating the same things.

We had a day and night with rain from the hurricane. Tuesday night the power went off at the coach and I thought a fuse at blown at the pavilion electrical box. It was raining hard. There is only one circuit that comes from the barn down to the pavilion. It splits into several circuits in an old fuse box. The fuses were good. I unplugged the coach and got out my multimeter. I was reading 250v where it should have only read 120v. I walked up to the barn to check the old fuse panel in the barn. The meter was reading 250v there also. I woke Mom up and told her I was going down to the basement, you enter from outside, to check the electrical panel. I didn't want her to hear me in the basement and get scared. When I grabbed the door of the panel I got buzzed, scared me. I popped it open with a piece of wood and used the wood to turn off the 100 amp main. Then I went outside to look at the service entrance. This is what I found.

I took this flash picture in the rain, at night. The box you see is the meter box pulled off the wall.

I called Consumers Energy trying to notify the of downed lines. What a joke to go through a punch the number system to report down lines. I ended up calling 911 and asking them to call Consumers.

The next morning I took these

The limb that came out of the tree to the left was at least 20" in diameter.

Looking down Mom's driveway.

My brother's grandson lives down the road. He came down and helped clean up. Numerous loads of branches hauled out back and a full load of wood on his pickup.

Fun at the pond. Lydia on a raft.

Nolan learning how to row.

Lunch at the pond

When we were ready to leave Thorntown one of the levelling jacks would not retract. I used a lever and got it retracted. Yesterday I went to Camping World in Coldwater and had them look at it. The told me they were not equipped to work on the levelling system. This afternoon I am at Stoops in Fremont, IN having them look at it.

The waiting lounge.

I am enjoying the quiet, the cool and good free WiFi. I told them not to hurry.

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

Day 12 - Saturday, July 6 - Family Get Together

 It was wet/humid and cool this morning but the day turned out to be perfect for a family get together.

Don't have to call this crowd twice when its time to eat.

Kathy across from my 95 year old Mom.

Can it get any cuter?

It was a great day. Thank you  Lord! 

It is probably our last 4th with our Mom. Her mind is going fast. She was in the coach with us all morning and every couple of minutes would say, "I think I just ought to get my stuff and move up here." We would tell her that she has lived here 30 years. She would wonder why "Momma" wasn't at home and we would tell her that our grandmother died 30 years ago. She would accept what we said but in no more than a couple of minutes she would start the cycle again. Maybe every 10 minutes she would throw in a question asking if we lived in the coach all the time. Yesterday she asked "Are Momma and Daddy were divorced?" I told her yes and that many years after the divorce our grandmother married Carl Herman. I told her they were married many years before our grandmother died. She has no recollection of our step-grandfather, even though he did all kinds of fix it work for her over the years.

The campfire is finally burning, at 10PM. It's 64 degrees and the temperature is still dropping.

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