Mike and Denise- the Next Phase: June 2014

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Thur. - Sat. June 25-27,2014- Milwaukee

Scott and Colette left for work early this morning but we stayed and worked at their house this AM and Mike went to Best Buy to get a new laptop - his is on it's way out and will not consistently accept a charge. We left about noon and started our 250 mile drive out of Michigan through Indiana

and Chicago to Sussex, WI, a suburb of Milwaukee where we stayed with Nancy and Joe for three nights. Nancy and Mike worked together while interns together at Touché Ross in Chicago while still in college. The last time we we visited her was in the summer of 2001 when we were on our 2nd road trip in Chatty with the boys - the year we drove to Michigan and visited the remaining lower 48 states. Thursday night we had a get reacquainted visit with Nancy and dinner out at The Copper Dock.

Friday we all had a work at home day until dinner time when we went to a

good old-fashioned Friday night fish fry at The 5 O'clock club

followed by a visit to another restaurant/ bar where Nancy and Joe introduced us to our first Summer Shandy - a local seasonal beer

Saturday they took us on a driving tour of Milwaukee

- first stop - Nancy's downtown office at E and Y,

then to Burkes Tavern - the Irish Bar Joe owned with his brother for 30 years until he sold it in 2012.

Burke's provides a shuttle bus to Miller Stadium where we watched the Brewers neat the Colorado Rockies on a beautiful day for baseball.

We enjoyed the local baseball tradition of watching the hot dog race in the 5th inning,

and enjoyed the ball park itself with it's sponsorship from local businesses Harley Davidson and Miller Brewing

then left after the game ended to join the others waiting for the shuttle bus back to the bar they arrived from

which in our case was Burke's

where we had another Summer Shandy, and got some food to go

served by Nancy's daughter Jesse.

We returned to Nancy and Joe's house, had our take-out dinner and crashed early since Joe and Nancy are catching an airplane out of town very early in the AM. It was a great day and a really enjoyable three day visit.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Wed., June 25, 2014 - St. Clair to Kalamazoo, MI 185 miles - layover with Scott and Collette

Last night after we got home from out Ford House tour we discovered an electrical issue in Chatty. The coach batteries were not recharging properly and we were afraid we would lose the refrigerator. Good news is this morning Mike figured out how to re-trip the breaker and all was solved. That was goodluck for us. We spent the morning getting road ready and cooking up some of the chicken we bought last night, so we did not leave Thousand Trails St. Clair until almost 1:00.

Destination: Kalamazoo 185 miles where we had a date with Scott and Collette for dinner.

We parked Chatty on their side yard

and were grateful to sleep inside tonight - they made us an offer it would have been rude to refuse - and the house was so cute!

Tues. June 24, 2014; Private tour of the Ford House

Today we started at the St. Clair Shores Public Library

and then spent the afternoon with Suzanne at the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House where she works as a docent tour guide,

First we had lunch in the Costwold Café

We waited out a thunderstorm after lunch, then she gave us a private tour of the grounds.

standing in front of the playhouse

and on the back porch of the main house

Wouldn't be a trip to the Ford House without seeing a vintage Ford car.

Thanks Suzanne! That was a great tour!

Mon. June 23, 2014 - Met with Cousin Suzanne

Today we drove into Harper Woods where we met up with my 2nd cousin Suzanne

who works, (conveniently for us ) at the Harper Woods Library.

We worked there all day today except for

a personal tour of the library's Heritage Room
(where Suzanne showed us some history of our uncle Wally's careen as a Harper Woods police officer and then as a security guard for Ethel Ford.)
the nice lunch break we took with Suzanne and her husband Randy.

Sat. June 21, 2014 - bonus trip to Port Huron before visit with Dave

Since we are in a town we did not expect to visit, we drove in to Port Huron

about 5 miles north and enjoyed a view of Canada

where we knew we would also find a farmer's market on the St. Clair River channel

In addition to fresh greens and tomatoes,

we purchased buffalo stew meat

already frozen for some future meal.

Then we drove to St. Clair Shores in northern Detroit area

to meet with Mike's buddy Dave from college years as planned.

They called Jerry, a friend from college

And we all had a good time "remembering when".

Fri. May 20, 2014 - Where is St. Clair ( Shores)?

This morning we said goodbye to Cousin Linda and husband Paul. We left them with the redwood flower vase given to me by Mom T in 2008 which she purchased when she took a road trip with friends to see the redwood groves in northern CA. Paul had been talking about really wanting to see the redwoods, and when I showed him the vase we used as a centerpiece yesterday, he smelled it and caressed it, so I knew the vase had found a new home with some of Mom's family in Michigan.

Next stop - the library of course - this time Grace A Dow Memorial Library. Midland is a Dow town.

One of Linda's daughters works there - the plant is huge. They built a minor league baseball park on the grounds in town.

The library had this stained glass in the window ( notice Chatty sitting out in the parking lot in both pictures). We worked all day there with a break for lunch

Then drove on to our next adventure. We stopped at a Michigan rest area to admire how green it is here ( I'm continually amazed at how much grass they choose to mow)

then discovered that our Thousand Trails destination in St. Clair Shores in the northern Detroit area was actually in St. Clair, MI - about 40 miles north almost to Port Huron. It took us a while to get our heads around this minor but disruptive oversight on our part. We drove an hour longer than we needed to had we gone directly to the park from Midland, but no worries - we found a nice spot in a nice park and got settled in for a five day hook-up camping spot.