We are back from our latest trip! We didn’t have internet for the first four days and then when we moved, we had it, but it was really slow. So I waited to fill all of you in after we got home. We left last Thursday afternoon for Algonac State Park, just outside of Algonac MI, south of Port Huron. We met Dirk & Lori and Harry and Bobbi there. We were all there to celebrate Dirk’s 40th birthday! Deke and Aden joined us on Saturday morning. Everyone brought their own trailers and Dirk rented a really cute hybrid. This time we camped along the St Clair River. There were big (scary) freighters going by all the time, day and night. I could feel them rumbling as they went by.
Friday was warm and all the humans went exploring. (and left me in the nice warm camper to guard it from the freighters going by). They drove up to Port Huron and then across the Blue Water Bridge to Sarnia Canada. They ate lunch at a local pub and then went to a petting zoo. (I sure with I could have gone—would have been fun to chase and maybe catch some of the hundreds of ducks that were there). They drove along the river on the Canadian side and took a car ferry back to Algonac. Friday night was Halloween and several Trick or Treaters came to the camper. (I don’t like them at home---sure didn’t think they would be in a campground!). Nancy brought candy for them so they went away as soon as they were fed.
Saturday was cooler than Friday and everyone bundled up for the day. The guys shot skeet at the range in the campground and then they played bocci ball, croquet and euchre. Saturday night was birithday party time. It was cold, so they all ate in Deke’s camper. (Darn, they had steak and cake with whipped cream on the top---two of my favorites)
Sunday we packed up and headed out---the boys went home and we headed off to Frankenmuth with Bobbi and Harry. Check out their blog for more pictures and narrative: http://havetrailerwilltravel.blogspot.com/
Frankenmuth was fun. The campground we stayed in was the first place we took this camper, and the first time I went camping. There is an indoor pool and hot tub at the campground, which Ron and Nancy enjoy. They sure smelled funny when they got back from there—and so did their swim suits which they hung in the bathroom with my liter box. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the odor was!
The campground had a lot of dogs, so I had something to watch while the humans went exploring at Bonners, the outlet mall and then on Monday downtown Frankenmuth at all the little shops. The weather was beautiful and we were able to have the camper door open so I could chase the lady bugs that were flying all around and landing on the screen. We left early Tuesday and got home just in time for Nancy and Ron to get to work.
Be sure to check out all the pictures in the slide show on the left. You can double click on the show and see larger views of the pictures.

We're Home

I forgot to update the blog when we got home! I guess I just got too busy chasing sunbeams. R&N spent the day on the sand and then the guys played cards when they got back. The younger got his Aspen all the way to to top of test hill---only to high center at the top! R. pulled him off. H. and a friend came up Saturday and his Liberty did fine on the sand. It was a chilly week-end, but lots of fun. Sunday we went trail riding after breakfast out in Hart. On the way home we stopped at the petting zoo again--this time I could see the camel from the car and the grands got to feed all the animals.

Silver Lake Sand Dunes

We are on the road again. This time we are at Silver Lake Sand Dunes near Mears MI. We brought the Jeep so R&N can take it out on the sand. I'm going to stay at the camper to guard it------there is this huge bear at the entrance to the campground. It hasn't moved yet, but I'm keeping my eye on it!

R&N took off today and went sightseeing---to Hesperia and New Era. They went to an apple orchard that had a petting zoo. I still don't understand why they just didn't stay at the camper and pet me!

The dunes are beautiful here. Really big and look like a huge litter box. I'll include some pictures later.

I'm a couple days late letting you all know that we made it home ok. (I had to take a nap and recover from all the travel excitement.) The pictures from the trip are on the slide show (click to make them bigger) I saw a neat sign while we were in the UP...."there are two seasons in the UP---swatting and shoveling" I think as cold as it was while we were there, we were closer to the shoveling part! R. has the camper all cleaned up and we are ready for our next great adventure! For this trip we were traveling with R's brother and his wife---check out their blog at: http://havetrailerwilltravel.blogspot.com/ They have some really good pictures. Here is a picture of one of the moose we saw on our trip:

Another beautiful day in Michigan's UP. I'm going to hate leaving tomorrow---oh well, if the humans don't get back for work on Friday, there will be no cat food for me! It was cool again today and they bundled up and went off-roading. They drove to Seany nature preserve and drove around and then took snowmobile trails back to the camper and had a picnic along the way. After they got back we had supper cooked in pie-irons over the open fire. The pie iron pizzas were good, but I'm not sure if I liked the blueberry pies.

Finally---we have an Internet connection! It is pretty slow, so I won't be able to update the slide show today---but here is what I've been writing for the past few days:
Friday
We went North this time and took the Jeep instead of the truck. We had a nice ride and met R’s brother H and his wife B. in Grayling. They have a new Jeep Liberty and were towing their trailer, too. Next we went over this huge high bridge---I wasn’t scared a bit and looked out the window the whole time we were going over it. We took Route 2 along Lake Michigan and found a neat campground in Hendricks Township—about 35 miles west of the bridge. We camped right on the lake (we were the only ones in the campground, so we had our pick of campsites). The humans made a fire outside and cooked sausage for supper. Luckily they let enough flies into the camper that I was busy all evening chasing the interlopers. We didn’t have any electricity or TV reception, but R. hooked up the converter and DVD player—so we watched a movie. It was a really cool night (got down in low 50’s) so we all cuddled under the feather blanket—camper was 57 degrees when we got up in the morning!

Saturday:
Another big day. We got on the road fairly early and drove west to Thompson. We found another nice campsite on Indian Lake at the state park there. The humans went to Fayette Historic Park outside of Garden MI. It is a restored foundry town from the late 1800s. R&N and been there about 30 years ago and wanted to see it again. I guess it had really changed and was really neat. A lot of the foundry has been rebuilt and also many of the buildings. They said at one time over 500 people lived in the town and worked in the foundry.

Sunday:
We packed up first thing Sunday morning and then they left me to take a little side trip to Big Springs. It is a really deep springs. There is a pontoon rigged up on a pulley system that you can crank out over the springs. R said that there are lots of fish you can see from the raft---I should have been along, I would have has fish for lunch! We hooked up the campers and drove to Munising. We drove around and checked out the town and had pasties for lunch.(they were ok, but the fish would have been better!)
We found campsites at the Munising Tourist Park Campground. It is a city campground right on Lake Superior. After setting up the campers and a walk on the beach the humans were off for a boat ride to Picture Rocks. I stayed at the camper and I’m glad I did, because the rained really hard while they were on the boat trip. I think they had fun—the trip was over two hours long and they got some really good picture between raindrops.

Monday:
Today was an off road driving day for the humans and a nap day for me. They spent most of the day driving the Jeeps on two tracks and snowmobile trails. Along the way they saw waterfalls and other beautiful sites along Lake Superior. H learned that it isn’t a good idea to try to leave the trail and make a shortcut. He managed to get two wheels off the ground and the rest of the Jeep stuck nose down in a hole. R. was able to pull him out and they were off again. That was the second time today the R. had to pull him out of a mess. Earlier in the day he had gotten himself high centered on a sand hill! After supper they all went to a casino in Christmas ---R&N lost $4.00 (They told be that was my treat allowance for the rest of the trip, so I’d better not beg for any for a while!) . After the casino they stopped at Bay furnace...another old iron furnace in the area.



Today we drove to Newberry MI. On the way we stopped and got a whole smoked white fish. It sure is good. I sure wish I had an opposing thumb so I could open the refrigerator and get to it anytime I want! After setting up the camper and a lunch of smoked fish and potato salad, the humans went to see Tahquaqmenon Falls. (Too much water for me--I stayed in the camper and guarded the smoked fish! The whole camper smells like a can of cat food---yum)

On the Road again

Looks like we are going somewhere again! The humans are packing the camper. I can't see the big comfy truck outside. I wonder if we are going to take the Jeep instead?.......I'll keep you posted.

Home Again

We're home---I can't believe that we haven't had internet for most of the vacation. Thursday the humans went North from the campground and explored the lakes region and Green Mountains of New Hampshire. They climbed some huge rocks (called sculptured rocks) and went to a nature center and saw lots of wild animals (I'm glad I wasn't along!)

They got me up early on Friday and shoved me in the truck and we were off to Vermont. We visited Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory (they had Cinnamon Bun Ice Cream for breakfast!) and then on to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory! Next we got on a BIG boat (campers and all) and went across Lake Champlain. (One look out of the window and I decided the best place to travel was under the seat!). We camped that night at Ausable Chasm in NY.

Saturday we packed up and pulled out and only drove about a quarter mile to the parking lot of the chasm. R&N hiked down into the chasm and then took a raft ride out of the chasm. I hear it was beautiful and amazing---100' high walls on each side of the river! We drove to Buffalo NY and spent the night before coming home this evening.

Sorry no pictures today. We are at the campground in Concord, but you have to pay for the internet by the hour- so we are all sharing the one computer (not mine) and the access to check our e-mail.

I hung out in the air conditioning all day while everyone else explored. They went to Rye beach on the Atlantic Ocean and stayed cool. R. put a roast in the crock pot before they left so I got to smell it cooking all day. When they got home they went swimming in the pool. (Did I mention it was really hot today?) It was raining when it was time to eat so we all (there are 7 humans!) ate in our camper. After dinner R&N went exploring and checked out the capital building and went to the LL Bean outlet store. I'll post pictures when I have internet access longer.

Another Trip!

We are off again on another adventure. I think this may last a few days because we have spent the last two days in the car. It was great cat-napping, but I'm ready to settle down a chase some bugs.

Sunday we drove from home to the younger D's house in Ohio and then we all got on the Ohio Turnpike and headed East. This time we have two campers, seven people and me. We spent last night at the North end of Seneca Lake in the finger lakes region of New York. It was M's 9th birthday, so we had a little party for him. Today we drove south along the lakes. We visited a winery and a waterfall. Then we headed for Bennington Vermont. Tonight we are at a campground south of Bennington in the mountains. It is a beautiful place with a pond (which we are parked beside) and lots of huge pine trees. The pond had a lit fountain in the middle. I didn't like the narrow, bumpy road to the campground, but it was worth the view once we got here. Not as many bugs here as last night, but we are leaving tomorrow, so I can make do with the few gnats that have gotten in.

Tomorrow we are off to Concord NH. We will be there three nights. I don't know if we will have internet or not...I'll try to keep you posted.

I was right! We finally went camping again. Seem like it has been a long time since we got back from Florida. We didn't go very far, just to Archbold Ohio to stay at Sauder Campground, but it was a good time. N. had to help with the annual homecoming at Sauder Historic Village and R. and I just hung out for two days. Sunday R. looked around the historic village--there are lots of antiques and buildings from Northwest Ohio and working displays of the older occupations such as weaving and woodcrafts. Monday after N. was done, they went to several graveyards in the area to photograph some tombstones. After supper on the grill it was off to the indoor pool at the hotel by the campground. What a neat pool....hot tub, waterfall and a tree inside the building. After that we had a campfire. We had something new with time.....we were parked pretty close to a pen full of sheep! I couldn't see them, but they sure did make some funny noises. Not nearly as scary as the alligators in Florida, I don't think sheep eat cats!

The whole time we were there there was also a group with old 1 and two cylinder cars staying at the Sauder complex and touring the area. Neat old cars all 1903-1909.

We are home now....I hear the next trip will be to New Hampshire in July! I'll keep you posted.

It must be time again....the humans are packing clothes and putting stuff in baskets. I bet we are going camping! He Who Must Be Obeyed even put my new cat food in a container and in one of the baskets. (I was hoping that they would forget that the old food was in the camper and let me have it instead....darn!) Note from human: We found out a few weeks ago that Gracie's kidneys are not working properly. We have her on special food and meds. Our vet didin't seem too hopeful, but right now Gracie is doing fine and we are just keeping our fingers crossed that we can keep her healthy.

We are home. We pulled in about 4pm yesterday. We spent the night in Boonsborough KY at a Kentucky State Park. (see pictures above) R. decided to winterize the camper before we left the park so we would be easier when we got back to MI. I still don't understand why the humans just don't use a litter box---I don't have to do anything to my box! I slept most of the way home--so it was an easy trip for me. When we got home the younger D. was there and he has a DOG!!!!!!! now. I thought his little human A. was bad enough, now there is a DOG to contend with, too. Oh well, I chased it for a while and he wanted to play with me.....maybe the next time he comes. They called him a puggle (what ever that is). N. said it is a beagle and pug mix. I'm going to leave the pictures of the trip on the blog for a while--incase anyone wants to look at them. Well, I've got a lot of house to check out and a lot of naps to catch up on...so I'll say bye until the next trip, Gracie

Well, our trip is about over and we are heading home tomorrow morning. I have spent six weeks in this little camper watching the world go by. We have stayed in 17 different campsites. Pine Island at Ft. Myers was my favorite campground—the bugs there were great and they not only buzzed the windows, they also came in the camper so I could eat them. Sebring was neat too---we were parked close to a tree and there was a squirrel that could look in the window! Hugunot was not good---too close to the water and there was way too much noise. Gator Park was scary too---lots of good bugs and moths, but the alligators are noisy at night and the peacock was huge! I’m not sure about all the dogs in the campgrounds, but they were fun to watch out the windows. We've had Key Lime pie twice (I love the whipped cream on top) and lots of other neat food and treats. N. says I’ve done a good job at chronicling our trip, but she wants to finish up the story. I’ll let you all know when we get home...... Gracie

We have seen so many different faces of Florida that I can hardly remember them all! I’ve sat on the beach at Key West, slept under a palm tree at Ft. Myers, and drove through canopies of live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. Florida is truly a diverse state. We saw salt marshes in the panhandle, mangrove islands and sugar sand beaches on the gulf, a whole lot of grass and alligators in the everglades and lots of water, bridges and islands in the Keys. Miami area is one huge, busy, non-English speaking area with more stores that I’ve ever seen in my life, yet just a few miles away are miles and miles of farms growing vegetables, trees, and plants. The middle of the state is full of natural springs, orange groves, golf courses and tons of lakes (each with it’s own resident alligator)—and even Florida’s version of a mountain (at Lake Wales). This all being said, my favorite is still the east coast ( north of Sebastian Inlet) and the Atlantic Ocean. The diversity of vegetation and wildlife, friendliness of the people and ease of travel make for a great area. I love the big ships one sees in the intercostal waterways and around Jacksonville. Watching the ocean sure puts perspective in ones’ life. It is so powerful and holds promise that the next wave will always come. (And it’s a great place to get a tan too!). Today's picture is the flags that fly over Ft. Sumpter...what a great way to wind-up a trip! I hope you all have enjoyed this blog and have been able to live a little vicariously though our travels. There will be more in the months to come---much shorter trips, but hopefully interesting. Thanks for reading.

We left Ft. Clinch (and Florida) this morning and traveled to Charleston SC. We are going to stay here a couple days before traveling home. The weather is nice and we are going to tour Charleston tomorrow. Today's pictures are of the harbour at Ferdnandia and Ft. Clinch. We went out to eat this evening with a distant cousin that lives in the area (N. met him through her genealogy endevors on the internet). N. had a traditional low country dish---shrimp and grits smothered with brown gravy---yum....yum

I haven’t has wi-fi for several days. We were able to stop at the library and check the e-mail using their computer, but we couldn’t update the blog. We finally found a hotel parking lot with access today. We are at Amelia Island, just North of Jacksonville now. Slowly working our way home. We left Melbourne Friday morning and drove to Huegonaut Memorial Park, outside of Jacksonville. It is a really neat park that is between the ocean and the St. John’s River, right across from Mayfield Naval station. It was storming when we arrived, but managed to get set up (our site was right on the river) and take a drive on the beach (you are allowed to drive right on the beach) before the storms came back. The wind was pretty strong and the sand was blowing all night. We finally gave up and left about 8am—while we still had some paint on the camper and truck!. We were able to get into a spot at Ft. Clinch, the state park where we had reservations for the next three nights. We had to move campsites after the first night to the one we had reserved…but that was ok. We were out of the wind, somewhat…the first campsite was on the ocean, but was sheltered by a wide expanse of dunes and little foliage. It was neat to be able to take the boardwalk right to the ocean from the campsite, too bad it was cold and windy.(you can see the board walk behind out camper in the picture. Saturday we checked out some of the shops in Fernandina and took a trolley from the park to an archeological dig going on in the historical area of Fernandina. Sunday we moved to our reserved site on the Amelia River. We enjoyed not having the wind in the sheltered campsite. Monday it was off to the beach again. There is an area of Amelia Island called America Beach that is much like Idelwild in Michigan, a vacation area founded by an Afro-American group in the ‘30s and used until de-segregation. Beautiful nice wide beach. That’s where we spent the afternoon! (Had to use that beach chair we bought one more time!). We went to see Ft. Clinch this morning--interesting place- Civil War Fort. We are starting North tomorrow, will probbly spend some time in Charleston before coming all the way home. R. just told me to say "Hi Barb"--for a friend of ours at Wamplers Lake. Check out the pictures above. Do you see anything strange in the one of the archelogical dig? Sorta a strange mix--college students, civil war soldiers and park rangers. Time Warp? The picutre of the fort was taken from the beach on the Amelia river looking towards the Atlantic Ocean.

We didn't go to the zoo afterall---too nice a day yesterday--so we just hung out at the beach. Looks like that is what we are going to do today! Tomorrow we are off to the Jacksonville area for five days and then on North. I'm not sure when we will have internet access again. Hopefully I'll get another post or two in when we get there.

We drove from Sebring to Melbourne Monday. After having a picnic at the beach we drove to our campsite at the county park.. Check in time was 2pm and we got there at 1:40 and we had to wait the 10 minutes to check in! We set up and then went back to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. It sure is good to be back in the Melbourne area. I think it is my favorite area of Florida. The ocean is louder and the waves are bigger. Condos are shorter and further apart. The people are friendly and almost everyone speaks English as a first language. French and Spanish seem to be the norm anywhere south of the middle of the state! We got up early yesterday and went back to the beach before the sun went under the clouds that were predicted for the afternoon. We went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in Cocoa Beach in the evening and then took a walk on the pier there. Today are are off to the zoo and maybe back to the beach. It is cooler today and suppose to get a lot cooler by the week-end...darn! We have reservations to dry camp by the ocean Friday and Saturday---oh well........ Included are pictures of Melbourne Beach, a sign on Cocoa Pier. and the sunset over Lake Josephine the night before we left Sebring.

Beautiful few days here at Lake Josephine in central Florida. Warm during the day and cool at night. We are packing up tomorrow and heading to Melbourne. Since we've been here we have explored Lake Placid, Sebring and Lake Wales. Lake Placid has murals all over town. I think 40+. They were really something. Today at Lake Wales we visited Bok tower--really neat carrilon tower built in the '20s. Really beautiful grounds on top of iron mountain---the highest point in Florida. Included are pictures of one of the murals, a view from Iron Mountain and the citrus groves below and Bok tower. Click on the slide show for more pictures of the murals and the tower.

After leaving Pembroke Pines we headed to another Broward County Park, D.B. Smith. It had skeet shooting and R. was able to get in 10 rounds over the two days we spent there. While we were there we went to check out Ft. Lauderdale Beach. Beautiful, even though it was raining. We spent the afternoon in the biggest Mall I have ever seen. (Sawgrass Mill) I don't understand how that many stores can stay in business! Today we are in Sebring at a really neat RV Park. It is older with trees and a brand new pool and clubhouse. We are going to use this as a base to explore this area over the next four days. Lakes seem to be low here--docks on dry land and boats tied up to them and sitting on sand. Pictures above are of Ft. Lauderdale Beach, our camp site at Pembroke Pines and Lake Okeechobee. (I'm not sure where the water in the lake is---further out, I think---all I could see is this canal and lots of grass!)

We spent the last two days dry camping at Gator Park near Miami. It is a really neat place. We had the run of the park and got to look at the gators and birds all we wanted. There were lots of fish in the canal and they ate as many bread crumbs as the birds. Besides lots of gators they had four peacocks and two chickens to entertain us. We took an airboat ride just before sunset and saw an aligator show. We found a public skeet range near the campground and R. shot a couple rounds and then we went to the Indian casino. Right now we are in Pembroke Pines at a county park. It is really nice. Has a water park, miniature golf, and a spotless campground. We are just west of Hollywood FL. After we got here yesterday, we drove to the beach at Hollywood , spent some time and then came back to the camper and hung out in the air-conditioning. It has gotten up to 90 the past few days here. It broke a hundred year record yesterday! I can’t believe that Florida in the winter could be too hot! After two days camping without electricity (and no air conditioning) the cool felt good last night. At least the humans aren’t wearing fur coats. I seem to have shed a lot of mine. We will probably go back to the beach this afternoon. If it is too hot, there is a huge mall across the street from the campground and we may go hang out there in the cool air. Tomorrow we are off to Markham Park for two days…. another county park near Ft. Lauderdale that has a skeet range.