Trip to Holland and the Beach

We’ve long been interested in lighthouses and have visited several, so we thought that going to Holland, Michigan, to see “Big Red,” would make a good outing. We picked Romaine up about 11:00 and headed south from Allendale to Holland, stopping along the way to pick up sandwiches at Subway. The first Subway we stopped at had a long line, so we went on to another. It also had a long line, but it had a better space to wait in line. We waited patiently and were very glad not to have arrived five minutes later, because a busload of teenagers came in shortly after we did.

Romaine doesn’t usually go to Subway, so she spent some time looking over the choices with Ken while I held our place in line. We all got oven roasted chicken breast (we must be in a rut….). We took the sandwiches to Holland State Park and ate at a picnic table on the beach.

The beach was crowded with people and colorful towels and blankets and umbrellas and chairs. While we ate, more busloads of people arrived and headed for the beach. We wondered how many could possibly fit! After lunch, we walked down the boardwalk, which ended about twenty feet before the water’s edge. From that vantage point we could see the lighthouse and took some photos. You can’t actually get to the lighthouse or tour it.

Next we drove through one of the campgrounds in the park. We were impressed by how extensive it was, with lots of trees. We saw camping units from tents to large trailers and a few large motorhomes. There were definitely spaces where Venture would fit—and quite a few empty spaces.

Romaine suggested that we stop by Captain Sundae for their famous Tommy Turtle sundaes, made with vanilla soft serve ice cream, chocolate and caramel syrup, and pralined pecans. We ate them while sitting in the Captain’s Clipper (a mock up of a sailing ship).

We stopped by some of the shops at the Dutch Village and saw wooden shoes and lots of hand painted delft china.
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More Fix-It Success

It was too late last night to take photos of the park and our site, so here they are today. You can see that the park is already crowded in anticipation of the upcoming holiday, so we're lucky we got a spot.

Today we reattached our cornice board. Closer examination of the installation revealed that the part of the board that broke was securely screwed into a wooden rafter. The board is made of compressed wood, so the screws held but the wood didn’t. We found three other points where we could screw into the wood and drilled new holes in the cornice board. Clearly this is what should have been done originally, so we can only think they missed the mark. Now we feel confident that we won’t have any more problems with this board anyhow.

The electric hot water is plenty hot again, so whatever Ken did cleared up that problem too. We’re batting 1,000 (and knocking on wood….).

We walked over to the cottage to visit Ken’s brother, Gordon, this morning. When we arrived, we didn’t see any cars, so we thought no one might be home. When Ken walked up to the door, his nephew Mike was there and didn’t recognize him at all. Between the beard and the slimmer profile, Ken had changed a lot since the last time Mike saw him.

Gordon was home, too, so we got to have a good visit with him. He isn’t as active as he used to be—his strokes have slowed him down quite a bit. Shellie came back shortly from her grocery shopping trip. We talked about Kindles and her source for inexpensive e-books. Gordon enjoys his Kindle especially because he can adjust the font size.
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Visiting Romaine

Our first destination today was the People's Coop in Kalamazoo. We had found it on the web and went to the Burdick Street address where we expected to find it, but it had moved to Harrison Street (actually, the new address is on the website, but farther down). Fortunately, the new location was only a mile away--and much larger than the old one. The folks there were friendly and the selection good for a smaller town.

Next we went on to Allendale to visit Ken's sister Romaine, stopping along the way for diesel and to get some quick haircuts. The last time we were in this area was almost three years ago. We parked at the Farm and Home store near Romaine's and walked to her condo.

It was nice to see Romaine again and have a chance to sit and chat. She caught us up on what her kids are doing. We noticed her very comfortable chair is a Stressless--the same brand recommended by our friends Tim and Rosie. She says there's a furniture store in Grand Rapids that carries them, so we're planning to check them out.

We went to dinner at the Walker Roadhouse, which Romaine's daughter Julie had recommended. She also recommended the blackened salmon, which is what we ordered. It was delicious, and the server was very personable and professional. We enjoyed our dinner. Romaine was going to drive us through the campus of the Grand Valley State University, but the Campus Drive was closed and detoured, so we put that off for another time.

When we got back to Romaine's, we decided to walk around the neighborhood, which is very attractive. It has a large lake and a smaller lake. Romaine's condo backs up on the smaller lake. We walked all the way around the large lake, called the Village Lake, and admired the flowers and trees and water that make the area so appealing. When we got back to the house, we had dessert. Romaine had strawberries and ice cream, and we brought a strawberry jello pie. Combined they were very good.

Before we ate, Ken called Blue Lake County Park to see about our arrival tomorrow. He has talked to them a couple of days ago, and we expected to be able to get in with no problem. But this evening he was told that they had only two spots that would hold a rig our size--and three parties (of unknown size) arriving later. We made a decision to head out quickly, arriving at the park at 9:15 p.m. That's later than we would usually want to arrive, but sunset here today was 9:29, so we had barely enough time to set up before dark. It's lucky we arrived when we did. The site we got has 50 amp electric. The other possibility had only 20 amp available. We arrived before the other parties, but just barely....
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Cute Critters

We've seen some cute, some lovely, and some eye-catching critters recently. As soon as we got into Michigan, we started to see lightening bugs. Those aren't so common farther south. When I was a kid, we used to chase and collect them in jars--until one time I fell down on a concrete driveway with my jar, which shattered. I got some nasty cuts, and after that Mom didn't seem so inclined to provide glass jars. This was (for the benefit of younger readers) before plastic jars were readily available.

Yesterday we spotted a glossy black squirrel with a reddish brown tail--quite a striking combination. My Googling seems to indicate it's not a separate species--just a color variation of the gray squirrel, but it certainly looked quite different.

We've been watching a large white swan on the little lake by our campsite. It glides majestically along, but then reaches its long white neck down and evidently finds food on the bottom. Wouldn't you just love to have to sort your dinner out from the muck?

Today we came upon a ground squirrel den with a crowd of babies. They ran down the hole when we approached, but some of them kept popping up to look at us. Curious critters! They're often looked on as varmints, but they sure are cute! (Of course it's not our lawn that they're digging up.)

We also saw a couple with two very large cats. They were carrying the cats and then set them down to walk home. They said that's the only exercise the cats get. What people won't do for their pets! It seemed to me that the cats might get more exercise if they got less food!

Our site backs up on Mirror Lake, a small lake that earns its name by being calm most of the time. Today we had possible thunderstorms in the forecast. None of them showed up, but some wind and threatening clouds passed through a few times, kicking up some waves on the little lake.

This afternoon we spent some time in the indoor pool and the hot tub. A family with a cute baby was in the pool too. Dad kept hoisting the kid up to do a slam dunk in the poolside basketball hoop, to excited giggles every time.
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Moving On

Today we left Detroit and headed west. We got a late start, partly because we set the alarm for 8:00 a.m. and partly because there was a long line at the dump station. It took us 45 minutes to dump.

We are stopping near Union City for a couple of nights to rest up before moving on to Allendale to visit Ken's sister, Romaine, on Tuesday. The weather today has been very nice, but thunderstorms are in the forecast for tomorrow.
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Last Dance

We caught the 10:00 a.m. bus to the Cobo Center and danced for an hour before lunch. We ate our picnic lunch on the River Walk, sitting by the Detroit Princess with a view of the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Canada.

After lunch we visited the River Days celebration and toured a tall ship, the Appledore IV. These tall ships are used mainly for environmental education. They are outfitted very similarly to fulltime RVs. The crews live aboard the ships.

Appledore IV and Appledore V, tall ships

Coast Guard vessel at River Days offered tours, but we preferred to head back to the Cobo Center to dance.

We had a wonderful time dancing this afternoon with Klaus and Uushii, Dieter and Martina, and Les and Deb.

Ushii and Klaus with us in the C1 hall

We met up with Bob and Pat in the Advanced hall and went to the RenCen for supper at the food court again.  On our way in, we ran into Jerry and Kristy Story. Jerry complimented us on our taste in dining facilities. Bob and Pat invited us up to their room to rest again (thanks, friends!).

We walked along the river back to Cobo Center. We enjoyed dancing to some really good callers again today, including David Heffron, Bill Harrison, and Doren McBroom.

The last square on the last night, we danced with David and Heidi, Klaus and Ushii, and another couple to caller Ben Ackerman--the end of a wonderful three days of dancing. It was great to dance with so many friends.

We ran down to catch the 10:00 p.m. bus, but it was full and leaving early. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since we got to watch the boats in the the fifth annual MGM Grand Detroit Parade of Lights.

Detroit Princess all lit up

Caesars across the river in Windsor

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More Dancing, More Friends

We took the noon bus in to the Cobo Center and ate our ham sandwiches while waiting for the afternoon dancing to begin. We danced to Betsy Gotta and Ed Foote and Shozo Nishimura. The latter is the club caller for many of the Japanese dancers in the C-1 hall, and they helped the rest of us when we didn't quite understand his calls.

Ed Foote

After dancing to Eric Henerlau we went over to the Advanced hall to get together with Bob and Pat and danced a tip with them before we all went to catch the People Mover to head over to the Renaissance Center (RenCen), a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers. This very large center includes a Marriott Hotel, where Bob and Pat have a room on the 43rd floor.

We decided to eat supper at the food court on the lower level of the Center. We ate our usual Subway oven roasted chicken breast, but with sweet onion dressing on Italian herb and cheese bread (gotta have some variety). Bob and Pat shared some fish and french fries. Then we found out way through the mazelike route to their hotel room where we enjoyed some of Pat's homemade cookies for dessert (yum!). We relaxed for a while and watched the news and looked out at their spectacular view of the river and environs.

Looking down on the Detroit Princess from the 43rd floor of the Marriott Hotel

Cobo Center seen from the Marriott
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Detroit Dancing

Today was our first full day of dancing at the 60th National Square Dance Convention at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit. What a whirl of a day--lots of callers (like Jerry Story and Barry Clasper and Ken Ritucci and Joe Saltel and Betsy Gotta and Eric Henerlau) keep us on our toes. We've seen and danced with lots of our friends from the Rio Grande Valley and some of the new friends we've made at the last two weekends of dancing.

Here's the fairgrounds we're camped at.

This archway symbolizes the struggle for workers' rights.

The Detroit River is right behind the Cobo Center. That's the bridge to Windsor Canada in the background.

Jet Roberts and Don Moger in the A2 hall doing a singing call together.

Front and center are Bob and Pat Boyink dancing in the A2 hall.
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Berrien Springs to Detroit

Today was a pretty routine moving day. We left Berrien Springs around 11:00 a.m. and got to the Wayne County Fair Grounds around 3:15 p.m. We had occasional brief showers all day. When we pulled into the Fair Grounds, friendly dancers on staff checked us in and gave us our packets. We were led out to site #68, a pull through in a grassy field.

Our first unpleasant surprise was finding that we had only 20 amp electric. We expected at least 30 amp. Then when we tested the outlet, we found no juice. I took our tester down to another site--same problem. A couple of neighbors said the power was out and an electrician had been called. We set up and went shopping. When we got back, we hoped to find the electricity on, but no such luck.

It did finally come on. Our next negative surprise was finding that our gas hot water heater would not come on, despite repeated tries. We finally ended up turning on the electric heater and praying that we wouldn't trip the circuit breaker. So far so good.

Tomorrow morning we'll get up early to catch the 9:00 a.m. bus in to the COBO Center in downtown Detroit, where the 60th National Square Dance Convention is underway.
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Fourteen Years

Today we are celebrating our 14th anniversary with a quiet day in Berrien Springs. While we were eating breakfast we spotted this little bird, a Cedar Waxwing, outside our window.

We decided to go to Stovers U-Pick Farm to pick some Michigan strawberries. First we stopped at the Big Red Barn, which turned out to be a historical building, built in 1865, and filled with an interesting mix of farm antiques, bric a brack, jams and jellies, and fresh fruits and veggies.

We picked five pounds of strawberries in no time at all, and we'd have picked more if we had any place to keep them. We also bought some fresh asparagus for dinner.

Next we drove to Andrews University, "the flagship educational institution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church."  Since it's summer, we didn't see many people on the campus, which is built on a bluff overlooking the St. Joseph River. This university and the resulting population of Seventh Day Adventists explains the abundant organic and natural foods we found at the market yesterday.

We stopped to visit the 1839 Courthouse Square, with its museum and jail and restored log home. Ken's attention was drawn to this carving of the Great Seal of Michigan.

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Sleep In

We finally got a chance to catch up on some badly needed sleep today. We got up at 9:30 a.m., only to find that it was actually 10:30 a.m. Eastern time. Half of the day was gone already, but we definitely felt more rested. It rained steadily but not hard all night last night, but cleared up during the day. On our morning walk we took some photos of the campground.

Mallet pool (pockets look like PVC caps)

Outdoor ping pong, mallet pool, and volleyball are new games

Ducks quacking along the river front. Maybe we'll give them some food?

Elegant streetlamps were moved from the bridge because they couldn't stand up to the vibration from big rigs.

Later in the day we took our laundry to the Clothesline Laundry in town. It was unexpectedly large and well equipped. We always like to use front loaders, and some of theirs are newer high efficiency models.

Then we went to the Apple Valley Market and Natural Foods store. For a small town, we found a good selection of organics, although the prices were a bit high.

We saw deer tracks on our walk this evening, and a bit later, a deer emerged from the trees and browsed along the edge of the meadow. I tried to get a photo, but it was too far away and all my shots were blurry. We were delighted to see lightening bugs flashing in the dusk. Like the cicadas, their show is all in service of passing on their genes to the next generation.

We are missing our friends already. We won't see them again until we meet in the Rio Grande Valley in the fall.
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Travel to Berrien Springs, MI

This morning we got up at 7:30 a.m., a bit later than our usual practice, because we got to bed quite late. We ate breakfast and packed up, and then started out on our morning walk. It was our first chance to walk around and look at the campground at Cliffside Park. We've been dancing so much (six or more hours a day) that we haven't had time or inclination to take our regular walks. We enjoyed seeing all the birds, especially one flashy yellow finch. The park has really extensive recreational facilities outside the campground, including soccer and baseball fields, tennis courts, picnic areas, and playgrounds.

When we looked out our windows first thing, Hardy and Judy were already on the road on their way to Gunbarrel City for a family event. John and Sandy came by later to say goodbye and wish us safe travels.

After stopping at the dump station to dump, we left the Milwaukee area at 10:30 a.m. and arrived at Shamrock Park in the Village of Berrien Springs, Michigan, at 4:00 p.m. That bare sentence encompasses a rather stressful day of driving. Traffic and construction areas contributed to the stress.

Our first stop was for lunch. There were no convenient stopping places along the toll road, so we finally gave up and took an exit. Wrong move. The exit led northward towards some casinos, but they were nowhere near the exit. Then we were stopped by a looong slow train. We found a Speedway that advertised diesel at a good price, but after we pulled in and I scouted all around, I couldn't find the diesel. I finally went inside to ask. The clerk told me that pumps 17 and 18 were diesel. When I went outside to look, those pumps were out of service. We pulled into an empty parking lot and ate a late lunch. We were in a rather poor neighborhood, so no appealing scenery to eat lunch by. Then we had to find our way back to the freeway.

Our next stop to try to get fuel, we pulled in behind another RV at the only diesel pump for cars and RVs at a TA Travel Center. After a wait, the RV moved on, and we pulled up to the pump. I had to go in to leave my credit card before pumping. Then the pump kept cutting off, so I ended up with less than a full tank. After paying, we waiting another ten minutes for the driver in front of us to return to her vehicle and pump her gas. Finally we were back on the road.

By the time we arrived at our campground, we were pretty frazzled. It's a nice park, but the site was not level. We had a hard time getting level, trying first one combination of boards and blocks and then another. We cleaned the bugs off the end cap and the truck, but had to spend lots of extra time and work to remove some tarry stuff that had been thrown up onto the side of the truck, probably from the construction.

As usual, being stressed led to our losing track of our routine. After leveling and cleaning, we put down the jacks and raised the trailer off the truck. When I started to pull away, I noticed that we hadn't unhooked the power cord or emergency breakaway.

Next, it seemed that something was stopping the truck, so we raised the trailer a bit more. After trying to pull away again, we realized that we had neglected to put a wheel chock behind a rear wheel and back into the chock to relieve the pressure on the hitch before opening the jaws of the hitch. We were trying to pull away with the jacks down and the hitch still hitched! Fortunately, nothing was damaged.

Then when we extended the bed slide, it didn't go out all the way before the motor clutched. We couldn't find anything in the way, so we brought the slide in and sent it out again, and this time all went well.

Oh, did I mention we "lost" an hour moving from Central to Eastern time? By the time we were all set up and went for our walk, we had a very late supper.

The park is on the banks of the St. Joseph River. We'll appreciate it even more tomorrow after a good night's sleep, I'm sure.

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Last Day

Today was our last day at AACE. We've met and danced with some really nice people (who are also good dancers and lots of fun in a square). So of course now that we are getting to know them, it's time to leave. Some will be going on to Detroit for the National Square Dance Convention, so we'll see them again there. Others we'll have to hope to meet around the squares.

We enjoyed dancing with Klaus and Ushiii, who came from Germany to square dance and will be in Detroit, too.

This morning Todd Fellegy and Vic Ceder workshopped phantoms (dancing with pretend people, who are very hard to keep track of!). This afternoon we danced with lots of phantoms again with Ann Uebelacker and Ross Howell. Again we had lots of great squares, lots of challenging dancing, and a very hot hall. Everyone was sweating.

A frequent sight: everyone gathered around the computer to find out which square they're assigned to

For the final half hour of the convention, all the callers and dancers were gathered in the C2 hall for the final tip. Callers thanked the dancers for their support and especially for donations. Ross and Sandie talked about Lee's long history with AACE and its predecessor MACA. After 44 years, Lee is retiring from AACE (although not from calling). Dancers gave his a cheer and a long, loud standing ovation.

Some of the staff standing by the state as final comments are made

For dinner tonight we went to De Rango's, a nearby family owned Italian restaurant with Pottingers and Walenters, of course. The food was delicious and unbelievably plentiful. Ken and I split an order of Chicken Cacciatore on Fettucini, and between us we didn't finish it. Everyone else took to-go boxes home.
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Dancing Day Fun Dampened

We had a great day of square dancing today, starting with two hours of workshopping the calls Scoot and Plenty and Plenty, with Sandie Bryant and Anne Uebelacker. We never knew those calls could be called from so many different positions. We ate our picnic lunch at a table in the Garden Terrace, a lovely spot with a fountain and lots of flowers.

Someone told Sandie Bryant today that she was hard to dance to because her voice was so sexy!

This afternoon we enjoyed an hour of workshopping with Vic Ceder and the next hour with Lee Kopman, two of our very favorite callers.

Vic Ceder!

Lee Kopman with a rare smile

We drove back to the campground for supper. John and Sandy had invited Hardy and Judy and us to a chili dinner. We brought coleslaw and multigrain bread, and the Pottingers supplied the cornbread. Sandy also made some delicious brownies. On the picnic table where we ate was a vase of lovely irises from the Walenters' garden.

Friends and Food

We talked about our plan to take a cruise to Alaska next summer. Both Pottingers and Walenters have been to Alaska more than once, and they had lots of suggestions. After the meal, the Walenters brought out a laptop and showed us some of their Alaska photos--lots of spectacular scenery, lovely flowers, a very striking photo of a bear looking straight at the camera through some branches, and a wonderful shot of an eagle swooping in to scoop up a salmon carcass.

Ken had a chance to rest a bit before we headed back over for the evening's dancing while I washed the dishes and watched the PBS Newshour.

We had to get back early for the evening dancing because I was scheduled to be the C1 hall computer operator from 8:00-10:00 p.m.

The day's fun was very much dampened this evening when we learned that AACE had suffered a major theft. The receipt box, filled with thousands of dollars in cash and checks, was snatched from the registration table by a bold thief, right in front of staff sitting at the table. Some of the staff gave chase, but the thief escaped. Police advised dancers who had given AACE checks to call their banks to stop payment. The callers carried on, providing the dancers with plenty of entertainment. Someone suggested that donations to offset this loss would be welcomed, since it's highly unlikely that the money will be recovered. How sad and wrong!

Lee Kopman called again tonight in the C1 hall. He is developing a really bad cold with laryngitis--just what a caller needs. His wife Lilith danced in one square with us, with Marvin, a single dancer. Marvin used to belong to the Trailblazers, the Advanced and Challenge club we belonged to in LA. We also danced with some other Trailblazers, including David and Heidi, David Morehouse and Barbara Lane, Paul, and John and Sandy Marshall. It was fun to dance with old friends.

Our last caller tonight was Ross Howell. He was bemoaning the fact that after Lee Kopman retires, he'll be the "old man" at AACE.

Ross Howell

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