HOME FOR AWHILE

 we arrive back in ithaca sept 21st around 7pm after being away for 3 weeks...had a good time visiting family and friends long the way also a couple more national parks...


the last few days on the road we visit friends in south bend ,in who are getting ready to move to florida and they probally already have arrive at their new home...we at least had time to catch up on happenings and also some other long time habitat friends joined us for lunch we have not seen russ and peg for s few years...

then on to  indianna sand dunes lakeshore national park and of course we earned another junior ranger badge...after that we headed to adrian, mi and yep meet up with more habitat friends for dinner ...we forgot to camera so we didn't take a picture of this renuion..

now it is time to really start heading east and we wanted to make a stop in ohio to a national park we have often driven by on our way home and heading to flaconer to visit with lar's mom...she has passed so we decided to make a stop at the cuyoga national park...

lar sent out an e-mail saying where we were and low and behol

d we recieved an e-mail for friends back home letting us know that they were in the same park and only a couple rv sites down the row...we had been out for a walk around 7 and they arrived around 7:30 but by then we were back in our rig..so we didn't know they were there till the next morning..funny how things work ..so after breakfast the now 4 of us went off to the park..frank had heard about a steam engine and rides we would take on the train...so then it was a train ride fit into the schedule of things to do...then don't you know the day had been good weather wise except when we got off the train...it poured and i mean hard so we all took a shower again this time in our clothes ahhaha...just another one for the adventure book...


so the next day we went to visit lar's brother jake and sal outside pittsburgh...had a good visit with them and hadn't seen them since lar's mom funeral..

come monday morning it was time to head back to ithaca and it was a long day not one we usually do in the rv...got home in one piece tried but happy to be back...so now the rig is all unpacked and ready for winter all it needs is an inspection which will be while we are gone again but this time by plane...heading to costa rica for 2 weeks next sunday...

so life around 464 in busy but we are both good and trying to keep it that way....

GRAND RAPIDS/HOLLAND MI

we find ourselves in holland , mi and the state park here...on our bucket list is to go to all the presidential library/museum and gerald ford is here in grand rapids...so yesterday we spent the morning there then off to the meijer gardens...had heard alot about them form relatives here so we thought why not...one thing we didn't take into account was they you need at least a whole day to see it all...msaybe next time...

we called habitat friends from dade city jerry and sarah..so sunday of fto breakfast with them had a great breakfast then they took us on tour of the area as we had never been here...saw lots of the area..also took a tour of some of the habitat houses they are building here...i must say we would be very happy living in one of them...some very nice houses..some of the nicest ones we have seen...a lot of thought and enery has gone into them...we were told that the heating and electic bill for one month is about 100.00$$...now won't that be nice and easy to take....they mortage is 700. a month...

we have seen more in michigan than we expected to see so it is on our lis to return to...

life is good...god bless

SLEEPING BEAR DUNES NATIONAL PARK

 we arrived here in the national park area on tues...we had planned on staying at the park but when we called they were filled up so we found a nice park outside the park...it is very quiet and we have full services which we would not have had at the park...which is good cause we needed to dump..

yesterday was a glorious day so off to the park we went...we had been heard about 30 or so years ago with the girls and they spent their time running up and down the dunes...i must say it is not the pace we remembered..then there were only the dunes but not they have several museums in the park which of course we attended... of course we also worked on a junior ranger badge...we were stumped on one of the questions and when we had to booklet checked we asked the ranger the answer she had to think several which seemed like minutes to come up with the answer...we never would have..so i guess we learnt something...we always do...

now today is a different story...we had found a few bike trails and thought today e would take the bikes off the rack and go for a bike ride...we could if we wanted to get wet..we would have to drag out the rain po

nchos so instead we are cleaning and doing paper work...hope to adventure out later in the day when hopefully it might stop raining..

life is good god bless

MICHIGAN

We are on the road again...left enfield sept 1st and headed to jamestown where we spent our first night at brother bill and netta had a good visit ...judy was out of town so we didn't get to see her..


thenext day we headed to dundee, mi where we spent the night at cabella's in their parking lot and of course we had to shop..lar bought a new pair of short hikers but that was it...

then on to royal oak, mi to meet the new great grand niece...jessica and darwin's new wee little one...on thurs andy also came over and was the b-b-q chef had a good visit and it has  been nice to see them all..haven't seen them since sylvina passed away so it was good to touch base again..on fri we went out to dinner at an ethopian restaurant where lar was in his glory as they did NOT serve dinner with any silverware

...it was most interesting and very good...lots of lentials different colors and fixed in a different way......

on sat we moved on to roscommon to visit stu...arrived here around 3  and have been enjoying the visit..off to church yesterday then we adventured of to a farm which was from around 1930 had a tour and heard alot about why the farm was settled and made into a museum...to original man who founded was from attica, ny....also was a guard and good friend of president lincoln..

tomorrow we head towards sleep bear dunes national park...

hope to be able to post more about our sept adventure...

 this was dinner for four...and we had them fill up to plate a couple of times

lar rin hes glory no silverware

GARDEN

this year has been quite the year for our garden...early this spring and the start of summer we've had alot of rain and the garden looked like it...some days it was full of water and we thought that the seeds and plants were just going to float away...so we have been surprised that we are now beginning to reap the harvest from it...

we are enjoying cukes--zucchini--onions--radishes--lettuce--to name a few..

the corn is just beginning to make tassles and we hope in a week or so we will be able to pick some...i have even made some pickles this year and haven't in a few years due to the harvest of the cukes...our tomatoes have gotten the blight i think-- so the tomatoes will be few and far between...no canning of any of those not enough...oh well there is always the grocery store...tonight we will have fresh dug potatoes for the first time...no new peas to go with them thou...one thing i can remember as a kid  is new potatoes and fresh peas with a cream sauce that my mother would make to make you die for...mmmmm good...

the apples from our trees dot the lawn already it appears that we may have a good crop it they stay on the trees...haven't seen any deer under the trees eating them yet..but the rabbits are..

trying to get caught up on projects around the house before we take off for sept...home for a week or two then off in oct for 2 weeks..home then hunting season starts ...;leaving for florida before christmas as lisa and andy are moving there the end of this month...

lots of things going on here in upsatate ny...

 life is always good

LONG TIME

it has been some time since i have  put anything on our blog so it is kinda a rainy day so i thought it might be a good day to put something on the blog...

this spring we watched a pair of barn swallows make a nest on our back porch and lar has keep a picture record of them...when we would walk out the back door we even talked to them...the parents didn't like us so much and they would dive bomb us to drive us away so off we went to do what we were on the way to do...

it has been fun watching them from eggs to fledging ..that we never saw except we know when they did it...one morning i went out to hang clothes on the line and they were all 4 of them sitting on the edge of the nest..i told them it was time to jump and in the house i went to finish my coffee...about 1/2 hour later out went lar and they were gone...with lots of barn swallows flying around  the back yard...no mosquitoes...so they had left the nest...

life goes on in the country

FRIENDS

habitat friends are here from virginia and also from pa.a couple have been here in our driveway and the others are in the hickman's driveway...we  have all built in dade city and thought why not have a renuion in ithaca..so we have been busy seeing the sights of upstate ny for the last few days...

have toured the ithaca falls--cornell--ic--and the area around...made a trip to the curtiss museum which lar and i had  not been to the new one...which was a whole day of adventures...then on to bath and the national cementry where larry and mem had a friend buried this spring to visit the grave site...

we have checked out most of the state parks around they only one we  have hiked into as of yet has been taughannock falls which was an easy hike for me..not sure i want to do all the steps in the other parks...

yesterday off to corning we adventured to go the corning glass and also the rockwell museum...again lar and i had not been to the new part of corning glass so we found it most interesting of course we ran out of time to see it all and we were there early...the to lunch most of us had great reubens after lunch it was the rockwell museum and of course had to make a visit to the corning store...most of us bought something and lar even bought himself a new pie plate...

it has been a fun visit and we are even seeing things that have been on our list but don't have time nor do we take it when home...so this has been good for us...just marking things off our buckets lists...

we have had out our list to visit the new museums but hadn't gotten there now we have...

also this week i was discharged from PT but it is still recommended that i do exercises at home which i have been doing...

life is good and busy..

humnmer at one of the feeders

 mem finally made it to the falls

 walking across the bridge at the end of the hike

 the falls

 barn smallow and it;\'s nest on the back porch..it has 4 eggs