On the Road, Day 1

Once again, I did not get all the appropriate pictures. I'll start at the end point. Tonight I'm at Bill's house.

His wife Anne fixed a yummy dinner. Bill and I, of course, spent our time yakking about maps, testing (again) electronic maps, and telling trail stories.

But on the way I stopped to see blogger buddies, Chuck and Sylvia. Again, it's been two years since I visited them. Hard to believe. And I forgot to take a picture of them, or of the nice lunch they fed me.

But I did get pictures of some of Sylvia's flowers. She's embarrassed about the weeds. Ha. She's 82, and hasn't had time to get to the flowers beds yet because she's been putting in their vegetable garden.

Peonies and iris.

The rhododendron bush is spectacular.

We had a great visit, although it really seemed too short. Better than nothing.

The car is packed. Bill and I head east in the morning. I'll be able to blog tomorrow night, not sure about after that. See you then.

See Letting You In on the Plan

Rollin' in the Sonshine - 2021 Interior Tour

  I am on my way, although I'm not yet sure how I pulled that off. If I haven't forgotten something major it will be a winner.

These pictures were taken in a big hurry, but you can at least compare to last summer if you are tracking the progress.

The obvious interior difference is the table. It's really neat, but it makes it hard to get pictures because it's so glossy! This is the right side, which doesn't look much different. However, the wall is now done correctly. There are nice hooks mounted at the top edge of the white. These pictures don't show the overhead light, which is a huge improvement. You can just see the corner of a small mirror that is added on the divider wall. The cushion covers are still just pinned on, but the extra spaces are now filled with foam instead of old pillows. That doesn't look much different, but it's much more functional.

And there is the little sunny pillow gift from blogger friend, Lin.

On the left side, there are huge improvements, but you can't see most of them. The bench underneath the cushions is all new. You can see a little of the white front instead of the old broken paneling. The wall is in place, but not completed. But over half of it wasn't even in place last year. Perhaps you can see a small stack of dishes on the table. Corelle came out with a design with blue and yellow so Sunny got a present. Ha! And there's a new set of salt and pepper shakers too.

One thing that does show is that these three windows have the frames mounted. Last year, I couldn't use the rear frame because of the problems with the wall going around that curve. If you could see it close up, you'd notice that it looks pretty weird. But it makes it much easier to put up the curtain, so I attached it anyway. There are almost no changes in the kitchen end. Just the addition of the electric outlets and that little hanging basket thing. We'll see how that works. I was in such a rush, I didn't even move the last few tools out of the way for the picture, and the wires aren't all fastened up yet. If you don't know what it looks like and care, just click on the 2020 tour link. It's all the same.

As a reminder, the huge changes were outside with the completion of the paint job, and re-wiring to have LED lights.

I was shooting to leave at noon, and made it at 5 pm. Hey... this is me. At least I got out of here on the day I planned. Tonight I'm with Chuck and Sylvia. They have been very patient with my ever-changing timetable.

I'll tell you that having a distinctive trailer is going to be interesting. On the way here two different people engaged with me. One gave a thumbs up, and one yelled that he'd like to buy my trailer.

OK, I am d-o-n-e. Four days of full-tilt working and packing have gotten me to the ragged edge of tired.

See 2020 Tour See 2019 Tour See Spring 2019 See 2013 Tour- how I bought it

Where Am I?

  I thought I couldn't post tonight because I forgot to bring my card reader with me, but then I realized I can show you where I am with a picture taken with the phone and do the hike pictures tomorrow.

I'm with good blogging-and-real-life friends Sylvia and Chuck!

Lots of shopping (ugh- but I did "good"), a nice hike, and an evening with friends. Life is good!

See It Was a Round Trip

It Was a Round Trip

  I spent the last few days enjoying the hospitality of good friends Chuck and Sylvia. We met through blogging, but have become real life buddies. They are pictured in front of their bountiful vegetable garden. I've base-camped there in their driveway while I've been hiking the rest of Calhoun County on the North Country Trail But now I am home- the circle to NY and back is complete. Sunny is parked in his spot. My backing-up skills have improved on this trip, and I got him in his appointed slot on the first try. You might notice that the back rack is gone. I had Dick remove it. No regrets, and it tows a little better for not having 100 pounds of useless metal on the back. The leak fixes all held- no water inside. I probably don't have time to do any more work on it this fall. Big home projects to get cracking on. However, I won't cover it just yet. Maybe I could sneak in a weekend trip somewhere. I got to have my favorite dinner, a big salad (with tomato from Chuck and Sylvia's garden). I'm airing out the house and working on unpacking. I haven't started going through the mail yet. Tonight I'm pretty motivated to work on the things I should be doing. We'll see what happens tomorrow. I've been gone almost 5 weeks. "They" say it feels good to come home, but I think I could have happily stayed on the road. Sunny is truly homey, and he's not even finished yet. Life is much simpler when there are only a couple hundred items in your entire space to deal with. Each one has a place, and if it's not in its place it's in the way. When I'm home the mess just explodes.

See Finishing Calhoun County See On the Road

The Eyeball Knows

 
Is it really possible that I haven't visited Chuck and Sylvia for 18 months? No wonder it was feeling like a long time between visits.

Turns out that Chuck had cataract surgery earlier today, but it didn't slow him down much. Well, OK, reading required a little assistance, but with one good eyeball...



We visited and laughed and laughed some more. It's all good. Sometimes, online friends turn into really good friends.



Tomorrow, I head for Lansing to sell books at the Women's Expo.

	See Vocabulary Enrichment by Chuck and Sylvia
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Vocabulary Enrichment by Chuck and Sylvia

 
Although I'm at a new destination tonight, I spent last night and today with Chuck and Sylvia of Secondary Roads.

They are blog friends who have truly become real-life friends. Selfies are usually goofy looking, and this is no exception, but at least we are smiling.



They speak fluent Spanish, and spent several years in South America. Sylvia has continued to use her language skills, and stays in touch with a number of families. They (Chuck says only Sylvia) are advising me on some vocabulary and cultural pieces of the next children's book, The Bigg Boss.

So my vocabulary word, taught with a hands-and-teeth-on lesson is empanadilla. Sylvia makes the tortillas from scratch. These are filled with cheese. Pretty darn yummy lunch, and I won't forget what this food item is!



Their wonderful garden looks like a garden in early June in Michigan- a little empty! But look at all those rhubarb plants in the back. Rhubarb forever! We also had fresh red romaine lettuce and New Zealand spinach. Lots of promise in those little green plants.



We had some great visits. Talked about genealogy (I CAN'T let myself get sucked into that tunnel right now! but we had some fun anyway), played a game, and visited some more.

This afternoon I visited an "old haunt" in Ann Arbor. I'll tell you more about that another day.

	See Chuck & Sylvia's Garden in August
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Parting Shots

 
I'm on the road, and look what gave me a full display before leaving. All three poppy buds opened. I don't think I've ever had three blooms at one time. Nice with the raindrops on them too.



All hitched up and ready to roll.



Two hours later I arrived at my first stop.



Yes, here I am at Chuck and Sylvia's for the night. It's pretty amazing how an internet friendship can turn into one of the best in one's life. We stumbled across each other's blogs about five years ago because of a common interest in rural living.



Of course I wanted a tour of the flower gardens!

Rose in bud- very fragrant



And a peony glowing in the late sunshine.

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The Sound of Music

 
Don't even suggest that we should have made a video for you. This all comes under the heading of "make a joyful noise unto the Lord," rather than something of performance quality.



But, gosh! We had a good time. We sang and played until throats, fingertips, and arms were all done.



Chuck and Sylvia actually claim to enjoy listening to me fracture songs on the accordion. As difficult as this is to believe, they haven't thrown me out the door yet.

Meanwhile, Sylvia's secret pal gave her hyacinths. What a lovely whiff of springtime whenever we walked past the planter!



Now, I'm home again, and will head back to work in the morning, but much refreshed. Aren't friends great?

	See Time For Friends
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