Simultaneous Road Trips

 

                                                             August 2, 2016

We headed north and crossed the Mackinac Bridge for the first time since we came exploring this area while still full Time Rvers.

View of the UP from the Mackinac Bridge.

 The ride across was much scarier in our "Nest" (or our motor home). Back then I was sitting up much higher and Joe drove the outside lane when we crossed. I insisted he drive the inside lane this time, so it would be less scary! This bridge is 5 miles long and I have a fear of driving across bridges anyway.

Back in the Upper Peninsula, since August 2013.

We never drove along Lake Michigan going west, so this was a new route and adventure for us, even if it is only in our new "Beast" (2010 Buick Enclave). The beaches at the top of Lake Michigan, looked to be really nice from the car at least. We saw tons of people at the beaches as we drove this route.

Meanwhile the Nana Kids were in route from Gulf Shores, AL, leaving 6 AM that morning. As we traveled, my daughter Tiffany, texted me pictures, and their locations. Thank goodness for McDonald's to keep the kids entertained. See video below!

And for the kid's mother's sake, thank goodness for tired kids.

One reason you leave early in the am I guess, besides putting in the miles.

After we got further on the west side of Lake Michigan, we stopped for a potty break for all three of us.

The beaches on the west side are nothing like the north and east side of Lake Michigan.

Thank goodness Mallery slept a lot too, because she is not the traveler she use to be, with many bathroom stops when she is a wake. My sister, Nancy had picked up my mom a week prior, as well as their granddaughter in Cincinnati. Her son, Dustin and grandson flew in from Florida, and they all spent  a week at a nearby lake resort. Video below shows my mom enjoying herself as well as my sister's grandson Bentley. The girls and Nana Kids made it to just across the south border of Indiana for the night.

We arrived at my sister Nancy and her husband Jim's home in Two Rivers, WI. after a 7 hour drive, of which was mostly a 2 lane highway. We enjoyed the evening with them as well as Dustin, Nancy's son and her grandchildren Kerissa and Bentley. Unfortunately, they were still in bed when we left so I didn't get a picture of those 3.

Mom left with us and we headed back around Lake Michigan to the Mackinac Bridge.

I was texting to the girls where we were, with google maps, while they told me where they were. The red dots on the map are of Boyne City and our home.

Tiffany, Blake, & Lennox were originally planning on flying to Boyne City. With Tiffany's leg accident, and then Blake's place of employment selling the business to new owners, Blake couldn't take his vacation until the end of August. With all the changes, Tiffany and Lennox rode with Alisha and her kids. Alisha won't fly, and hasn't for years. Tiffany found the ride a bit difficult on her leg. Somehow she got though the 18 1/2 hour drive.

The girls made good time, and on their 2nd day they crossed the Michigan border mid morning. I received this text, and I wondered if they were going to beat us home.

Luckily the kids were getting stir crazy and they made a stop for lunch giving us time to get back home about a half hour before they pulled into our drive.

It was a beautiful day to arrive at the lake.

Mom enjoying the shade while the kids swam. The water temperature reached 79.5 this summer with the extremely hot weather we were having.

Madalena found some bark from our birch tree and discovered a bracelet.

After swimming the kids and Alisha played a yard game while waiting for the rest of our family. And yes Alisha has some pants on, or should I say her swimsuit bottoms on! 
Late afternoon my niece Traci and her girls arrived from Florida after flying into Detroit and renting a car to Boyne City. My sister Karen took a train from Mt Pleasant, Iowa to Kalamazoo, MI., then rented a car to Boyne City. She ran into a few obstacles, and didn't arrive until 2AM that evening. 

To Be continued: Summer Fun With Family

July 2016 Part 2

                                                           July 2016

The trip back from Gulf Shores, AL was hard on little Mallery. As soon as we got through the weekend, I made another veterinary appointment. The video below, was what she was doing for the last few days none-stop off and on until she got wore down and would sleep. It was at times a howling, which we have never heard from her ever!

We had a half hour before her appointment, so we stopped at McDonald's for lunch in Petoskey. Mallery always knows we are at McDonald's, when we pull up to the drive through. She gets real excited. When she was young, I always gave her a few french fries. When she was diagnosed with pancreatitis at age 8, it was no more fries for her. But I still would give her a few bites of a plain hamburger. Fifteen minutes after a few bites of a hamburger the howling /crying started. I had been prepared for the worst, thinking the doctor was going to tell me it was time!

The doctor decided to do a ultrasound and said she was full of gas. No more hamburger for her, which had been her steady diet of turkey or chicken, or beef with veggies, and a starch. No more cottage cheese, creme cheese to wrap her supplements. No more peanut butter to wrap her supplements. No more yogurt or an occasional ice cream. The doctor diagnosed her with gall bladder problems. No more high fats for her. She was given prednisolone and another medicine to settle her stomach.

I left you in Part 1 with the bunk beds finished to this point.

We decided it would be best to put the mattresses on the first bunk before we assembly the 2nd bunk. In fact we decided to put the sheets on the bed too before putting the mattresses on the beds. The top bunk then was assembled in the very crowded small room. While assembling, we had to step between the slats. When the top bunk was assembled, we had to slide our big bodies between the slats (it being the hardest with Joe's big beer belly- he he!) and lift the bunk over our heads, then step between the bottom bunk slats and set the top on the bottom bed. Yes this project was a real puzzle to get accomplished!

Joe had long screws that had to be put in at angle because the beds were that close to the wall, and no room on any side to give him more space.

We had just enough room for a small 4 drawer dresser in the room also.

The bunk beds were new, the mattresses were new, and the pillows were new. A few sheets were new because I didn't have enough. I didn't have time to purchase cover/blankets, so I put the new beach towels I had bought, and called it finished. We had very hot weather when company came, so it didn't matter anyway, with one window, and no air conditioning in our home.

The room has low ceilings, so the kids have to watch their heads when in the bunks. I wanted to raise the ceilings in the two guest bedrooms, but it never got done. I am hoping it can be done in the future. Each bed had a chalk board name tag for each kid. We finished the bunk room just a couple days before our company arrived.

The Month Of July

                                                               July 2016 Part 1

On the first of July, we had high winds, giving us white caps on the lake. The lake isn't much fun for boating, but the breeze is great for cool-in down!

A basket of morels at the Farmer's Market! Unfortunately because this was a bad year for them in Northern Michigan, they were shipped in from the west somewhere.

A cool looking weed from our yard. Had to pick it before it seeded our whole yard.

Our awesome Farmers Market. (Got my pictures out of order. Sorry)

The lake was very busy on the 4th of July. I like to stay on shore and watch the action.

The water was choppy from all the boat action. I took this picture because I had never seen this water toy and thought it was really different.  The video below is of fireworks that neighbors were shooting off, that I took through our window. They were reflecting off the window, making it look like they were being shot out in our home.

On May 24 my daughter Tiffany torn her ACL, MCL, and Menicus, while jumping on a trampoline. She had surgery on June 24th. Her surgeon said arthritis sets in if surgery is done too soon. During surgery, it was discovered her ACL was completely gone. They had to use her hamstring to rebuild her ACL. After 2 weeks of a very painful recovery, I could tell Blake was wearing down on carrying the load that Tiffany usually did, and Tiffany was getting depressed on her slow progress and her household falling apart. I knew I needed to go down to help, but what was I going to do with Mallery? I decided I needed to take her, as I was going to be gone for 10 days, making it too long for Joe to care for her. Plus, I knew she would never make it with me being gone that long. She relies on me and gets very nervous even when I leave her with Joe for a few hours. I went to a vet to get something that would knock her out during the flight, she had never flown before. At this veterinary office, they put the pets name on the board when coming for an appointment that day. Mallery had one of the last appointments that day.

I asked if they could take an x-ray of her trachea to see how it was doing. Her trachea was not doing as well as her kidney's. This x-ray shows the very bad narrowing that is caused by a tumor or growth under her trachea.

Even though her trachea looks bad, the doctor said, surprisingly her breathing showed no distress. But because her breathing is compromised by her narrowing trachea,they couldn't give her any medicine to knock her out for the flight. Instead they recommended Benadryl. I also had Mallery's bladder infection checked, that we had been medicating for 2 weeks prior. All clear on this condition also.

We left Traverse City, MI on July 9 to connect in Chicago. Mallery had to be under the seat in front of me. I gave her some Benadryl, which didn't do a thing to calm her down. She barked, yipped, and whined all the way up and half way there.

I was next to the window with some guy next to me. I am sure he was tired of hearing her complain.

I finally got her out of the bag and put her on my lap. I am sure she was scared since she was feeling things she never had felt before. Luckily no one complained and the Flight Attendant never came by us.

From Chicago we flew to Charlotte, NC. She barked for about 10 minutes on that flight and fell asleep. By then she was exhausted. In Charlotte, I had to go out of security to let her go bathroom. (She wears a diaper which was a lifesaver, but I thought she might need to take care of #2. I got back through security and found my gate, just in time to connect and fly on our last leg to Pensacola, Fl. She slept again all the way. Blake picked me up in Pensacola, with a hour car ride to Gulf Shore, AL. What a horrible long day for Mallery.

Joe has been the cook in our house for years, with me being the chief clean up crew. I grilled a grilled cheese sandwich for my grandson Lennox, and realized I needed Joe or some practice.

Mallery adjusted extremely well. By the 2nd day she was finding her day and night bed with no problem. (Remember she is almost completely blind from cataracts.

One evening we got a rainbow over Tiffany and Alisha's neighbor. A sign things will get better for my youngest daughter.

The 10 days I was with Tiffany, I was the cook, the nurse, the maid, the vet (for Mallery- I had to give her her fluid treatments without Joe's assitance), and the chauffeur. I was glad I could help my daughter, mainly for emotional support. I saw huge progress in her, in the short 10 days I was there, even though it was so painful for her. She had to go to physical therapy 3 times a week and do daily exercises. I had had a abdominal hysterectomy in the spring, and my surgery was a piece of cake compare to her surgery and recovery.

Bella, her cat, and Mallery got so use to each other, I had to take this picture of them inches a part. 
 Our flight back home was 3 connection also. Unfortunately we had a hour delay in Charlotte, due to stormy weather, making me miss my connection in Chicago. I was told that I would not be able to get another flight out of Chicago until Saturday, and it was Thursday! To top things off, my luggage was already going to fly out on the already booked up flight that night, and Mallery's medicine, and fluids were in my suitcase. And of course, because it was a weather situation, I would have to pay for my hotel and food for the next 2 1/2 days. I was in tears, worrying how Mallery would make it though all this stress. I decided I was going to sleep at the airport on the cots they were going to provide all the other people in the same situation, and rent a car the next day. While waiting for evening, I asked if I could be put on stand by for the flight going out that night to Traverse City. I was 5th on the list. To make a long story short, because of continued bad weather, a lot of people didn't make it to Chicago to get to their connection, making openings for us on the 9PM flight. The flight loaded late, and we sat on the tarmac for over an hour until the storm had past. The flight up and all the way to Traverse City was a very bumpy ride. I prayed all the way. I arrived in Traverse City, MI at 2:30 AM and Joe and I didn't get back to Boyne City until 4:00 AM. I was just grateful to be home.

While I was gone, Joe had been sanding, priming and painting the smallest guest bedroom. Unfortunately I had given Joe the wrong paint chip, so he had painted it the wrong color. I had to repaint the room when I got home. The walls were a knotty pine stained color like the door, before painting.

The room is very small and has a small window, on the backside of the house. Trees line the back of the house, so that bedroom is very dark. We needed to paint a light color to brighten and lighten the very dark room.

Mallery showed signs of not doing well the first day I got back from our flight. She was waking me up during the early morning with urinary track symptoms reoccurring.

It was good to be home, since Gulf Shores, AL was insanely hot with it high humidity.

It was hot up north, but nothing like the Gulf! And a evening boat ride always cools you off.

While we were out for the evening boat ride, we saw this full rainbow around the setting sun, and wings of angels under the rainbow.

 First time I had ever seen Mallery sleep half on and off her bed.

With the room finally painted, it was time to put the new bunk beds together.

First bunk bed done in 3 1/2 hours. The fake window on the end wall use to be the original 2nd window, until the house was added on by the previous owner, closing it off, and making it into a shelf.

Over the weekend, Mallery continued to wake me up early in the AM.

With bad, there is always something good like this beautiful sunrise.

The color changes as the sun rises.

After some time contemplating our situation, we realized we needed to moved the built bunk bed to the back of the room and build the next bunk up front. Why? Because after the next top bunk is built, we need to lift it up, and place it on top of the bottom bunk. If we left the first finished bunk in the front, we would never be able to lift the new bunk in place. We were glad we figured this out before it was built and it had to be torn back down.

                                      To be continued.........................................