Postcards from the Edge....

Well, since it's been a while due to weather conditions and poor computer access, I am once again behind in my postings and ramblings...thought I'd take a different way to tell you all what's been happening in our neck of the woods, at this point, still Muskegon MI.

Thursday...This picture postcard is awash in grey skies, spitting, irritating rain and Dennise trying to rip off her ears. Paulie convinces her to take a road trip north to visit the Michigan Lake Shore Scenic Drive. OK...We head out and have a really nice time checking out all the waterfront properties that are up for sale...found a few new campgrounds, mostly no reservation county preserves. We had a horrific fried chicken sandwich at McDonalds and I tried their new Mocha coffee...ick ick ick. It amost gave me a diabetic coma from the amount of chocolate syrup they put in...it's not supposed to be like a thick chocolate spoonable thing...its supposed to be a coffee with a HINT of chocolate flavor...MOCHA is light chocolate not fudge for gosh sakes. After one sip, I dumped half out and asked the gal to add black coffee. Much better but still extremely sweet...I will pay for this later when I check my sugars. We headed home as it started to rain a bit harder and I was longing to lay down.

Friday--- Hurricane winds and rains...ugh, I guess leftovers from Chicago. The picture on this post card is of the TV clicker. I slept and Paulie watched the history channel.

Saturday-The picture on this postcard is us attending the chicken dinner Veterans Fund Raiser at Elks Club. Now in this picture is a plate of shriveled up half a chicken that was cooked 10 hours ago, the most hated veggie in the world, green beans(oh my gosh, they cooked them with BACON and there is GREASE floating on top....I am gonna toss my cookies if I smell this stuff...) but salvation! At the end of the line is a huge tray of sliced homegrown tomatoes! I can eat those! Three servers behind the counter ask me if I want bacon grease beans...don't they understand the look of horror on my face and what the word NO means? Paulie and I had a margarita(brought from home) and then lost on all of the silent auction items. I really really wanted the pink flamingo wine bottle holder. *Sigh* Maybe next time. Don't count on it, lol!

Sunday-This postcard is the sun shining brightly over the big lake, lots of folks at the beach and us just relaxing out on the patio. We are having dinner at Tom and Mary William's house (cousin Larry's folks). So we just veg, read the paper and relax until its time to get ready and shower. Oops...the power is off...how can I shower and dry my hair? Hmmmm, Paulie takes his shower, I do a polish shower and do the best as I can with the hair...the more glop I add the more it looks like a tin helmet on my head. Oh well, I could always wear a hat. Paulie says it looks fine and we head out. Tom and Mary live in North Muskegon, in a very nice home in an area that butts up to Lake Muskegon, I believe. We had a great time, Mary and Sue had made lots of salads and had wonderful fresh fruit. We always enjoy Tom and Mary...they are wonderful hosts. Around nine the party started to break up so we headed back to the rig. By this time, the power was back on so all was well...

Monday...this postcard is of Holland and Sagatuck. We did the south route of the lake drive. Very pretty homes. We stopped for lunch in Holland and had a real Chicago hotdog. Must be a demand for them here...lots of folks from Chicago have summer homes in this area. As we were leaving Holland, sitting at a red light, some ditz rear ended us. She was pissed at US! We had no damage on the Vue...she hit the tow hitch. Serves her right...we were shoved into the cross street which could have been fatal, except there weren't any cars traveling thru right then. I had snapped my head forward and it was sore, but then I can never tell if it is Fibro or something else. She was really nasty to Paul when he asked for her personal information and she wouldn't give him her insurance card...of course her Voyager front end which is all plastic took quite a hit from that little steel hitch let me tell ya.
I am fine tho, no problems so why create any? Altho her manner was nasty it would have been worse if I needed to get checked out and call an ambulance right? She hit US...at a red light no less...what is her issue?

We continued our trip south along the Big Lake and stopped in Sagatuck. Lots of little shops, outrageous prices...$4 for an ICE CREAM CONE! Well, it was a waffle cone and had sprinkles but jeesh, I could buy ice cream and make my own for dozens at that price. We did stop in one shop and found a marked down swim suit for Paulie. His yellow one took a hit when he wore them while trying to fix the broken leveler jack in Missouri. Yanno, if I cleaned house in my bathing suit and got bleach on it, do you think he'd be as nice as I was about replacing it. I think not.

We got back to the rig about 7 pm and it was starting to rain again. I guess they need it around here so I'm not gonna complain too loudly. We watched TV and then went to bed.

Well, that brings us up to date...Tuesday is errand and bill paying day. We are tracking our expenses and if we don't get the big lotto we may not be able to continue to live the "high life" LOL! We had a lot of extra expenses this month, but I do see that we spend a lot on those little trips to the grocery store, that $4 Starbucks(I confess, that's my vice) and the high cost of campgrounds is more than I had been lead to believe. Fuel is high, and we have been moving around a bit. I think as we plan our future travels we will take advantage of the discount RV clubs like Passport(which we have used and get 50% off the reg price) and find a cheap resale campground membership for C2C, RPI and Thousand trails. Timeshares always scare me, but I think in this area, the cost is justifiable. Staying at a private or out of state campground is between 22 and 40 per night! A membership would hold it at $8 or $10. It will all depend on how many nights are spent at the membership place per year to breakdown the dues and buy in. All confusing at this juncture...that is our winter project...to find out the pros and cons. There is also a seminar at the SKP rally coming up. Plus we just re-upped for Elks and now American Legion and VFW. They always let you boondock if they have room in their parking lots and some even have full hookups!

We are scheduled to pull out of Muskegon and head for Elkhart, IN on Thursday. We are looking forward to the SKP Elks pre-rally and the SKP escapade (which is kinda like a low key FMCA area rally). I hope they have wifi at the campground and then at the fairgrounds...I have some more pix that I want to upload.

take care...

hugs

dee