This day split the difference between the previous two, as it was pleasant & comfortable but (as forecast) "partly cloudy", actually mostly light overcast. We arose at dawn and sat on the patio drinking coffee and watching the sky change color as the sun rose behind the hills. Humidity was obviously high as there was a heavy dew and some patches of intermittent mist. It was a pity it could not be a crystal clear day, but the views and pictures were at least adequate.
This was a day of "all things Miner's". After our the usual excellent breakfast we repacked the foods into the van & took off, making our first stop the Miner's Castle viewing area and visitors center. We then took the footpath zig-zagging down to the steps (easily managed by Zoe) & out to the close-up viewing area, as over the last 20 years the true close-up approach has become forbidden. The return journey was a fair work-out for humans, but just a scamper for Zoe.
Next point of call was the access trail to Miner's Falls, where we were surprised to find the small parking area quite full of vehicles. We studiously ignored the "no pets" sign & started down the trail, listed as 1.2 miles there and back (total, that is). The trail was wide & well maintained, mostly downwards going & mostly upwards coming back. The last 50 yards were all steps, but nice smooth wide ones presenting no problems. We joined the rotation on the viewing platform of "viewers/photographers" and in our turn got in a few pictures. The falls were well worth the hike. John had temporary custody of the leash as we started back, and was appalled to find that Zoe's answer to the challenge of the steps was an endless & unbroken series of leaps! Needless to say John arrived at the crest with eyes crossed, heat thumping and lungs heaving! We carried on back up the trail with minimal delays, thereby fulfilling any possible requirements for the day's "aerobic exercise".
At the top we found Zoe's fur had acquired a lot of little sticky seed pods, so we sat her on a picnic table, with one of us each side & groomed her as best we could. She was happy to just sit and pant while we did so. After that we backtracked a little & then took the turning to Miner's Beach. After a "recce" we elected to have an early picnic lunch in the van in the parking area - a "well-balanced meal" of ham sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, chips (crisps), grapes and brownies! Marissa took Zoe & the "bookbag" while John took the lawn chairs & we walked the short boardwalk to the newly rebuilt steps down to the beach. As before, this is an exceeding soft powdery sand, so we didn't march very much further than the first large patch of shade from the trees behind.
Marissa & Zoe then proceeded to go paddling, with Zoe exhibiting a great deal more elan than Marissa. She continued to play exuberantly back up by the chairs, before eventually excavating herself a nest & settling down, while we read, or just looked out at the lake & cliffs, or maybe dozed a little. Later John went for a long plod down the beach, finding the damp sand no easier to stagger through than the dry stuff, with Zoe as a much more exuberant companion. At the point of return, seeing nobody else around except a distant Marissa, John released Zoe from her leash. She then covered five times more distance at ten times more speed than John on the return to Marissa. She loved it, and subsequently made a major game out of her eventual recapture & leashing.
By mid-afternoon flies and other winged insects seemed to come alive so we called it a day & headed back to town, stopping for ice and also for pasties to reheat in the room when the time came. Back in the room we took things easy for a while...zzzzzzzzzz (There were more ZZZ's for some of us than others, but Marissa did eventually surface!) We warmed up our pasties, having half each of chicken and of veggie, which were delicious.
This night the spa/hot tub was really, really hot, so while John boiled himself, Marissa did laps to work off the afternoon zzz's before John joined her for a cooling off.
We've really enjoyed our stay here, in all respects, but move on tomorrow. Two days of local sightseeing only totaled 77 miles, for a trip grand total of 798 so far.
To see Marissa's pictorial version of this day, see here.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Day #3 - Monday, September 21st, 2009
What a difference a day makes! Marissa rose about 6:30 to let Zoe outside to do her thing and found it was raining steadily. (According to the locals, this was the first rain in 22 days, so the ground needed it, although we didn't). Marissa climbed back into bed and proceeded to sleep solidly for another two hours. John meanwhile drank coffee and did assorted computer stuff, getting fairly well caught up.
Once we were up we headed to the Breakfast Room and found that this motel has a first class breakfast bar with a variety of hot food and the full range of cold foods also. They also had very nice coffee, so we indulged mightily.
At mid-morning it stopped actually precipitating so we decided to chance an excursion. We headed into town, first to the Visitor's Center, then a gas station for another 3/4 tank plus a bag of ice for the coolers, into which we have hardly delved at all so far. We went to Munising Falls, access to which is just a short walk, and John showed Marissa where it used to be possible to creep around behind the falls, now forbidden due to rock falls. Just as we had walked back to the van it began to rain, lightly but steadily again. We cruised on to the end of that road, but didn't disembark, just looked through the gloom and headed back.
We decided that Painted Rocks would be no fun in chancy weather, so stayed local taking another short hike, this time with umbrellas raised (how English!) to see the very pretty Wagner Falls. The rain was still coming and going, although mostly the latter so we gently returned to town & bought pasties at the shop that had been sold out yesterday. We then took the main road past the motel and towards Marquette until we came to the area where a series of Rest Areas are right by the shorline. We chose the second one we came to, moved in to the back of the van and lunched on the excellent pasties.
By the time we were done the rain really had stopped, for the moment, so we plowed down to the water line where Zoe had a ball, leaping about along the sand, running in circles and once again doing battle with Lake Superior. When we judged that she was wet enough and cold enough to not mind leaving we staggered up to the van and headed to the motel. First order of business was for Marissa to give Zoe a warm bath, mostly to remove two days-worth of sand & dirt. After that we did what Holidays are meant for - lay down and snoozed at length! By the time we had roused ourselves, and gone to the lounge for a "cuppa tea" the rain was well over, the clouds were leaving & by late afternoon the sun was shining.
We had lucked into one of the few premium parking spots up close, so we did some clothes sorting ready for tomorrow, and also brought a good selection of our picnic stuff in a thermal bag (we do have both refrigerator and microwave in the room) as we intended to laze away the rest of the day and eat in our room. Later we suffered through a picnic dinner - Italian bread, French Brie, Italian salami, cold shrimp & sauce, salads, cubed cheese, honeydew melon & brownies. It was yummy! Some time after that we made up for our lack of exercise by swimming, and relaxing in the spa, comfortably warm but not yet up to "hot" after being fixed today.
Our small mileage wasn't worth individually recording, but the day proved the wisdom of our having built in some contingency time. The next few days look to be lovely.
To look at Marissa's picture blog look here.
Once we were up we headed to the Breakfast Room and found that this motel has a first class breakfast bar with a variety of hot food and the full range of cold foods also. They also had very nice coffee, so we indulged mightily.
At mid-morning it stopped actually precipitating so we decided to chance an excursion. We headed into town, first to the Visitor's Center, then a gas station for another 3/4 tank plus a bag of ice for the coolers, into which we have hardly delved at all so far. We went to Munising Falls, access to which is just a short walk, and John showed Marissa where it used to be possible to creep around behind the falls, now forbidden due to rock falls. Just as we had walked back to the van it began to rain, lightly but steadily again. We cruised on to the end of that road, but didn't disembark, just looked through the gloom and headed back.
We decided that Painted Rocks would be no fun in chancy weather, so stayed local taking another short hike, this time with umbrellas raised (how English!) to see the very pretty Wagner Falls. The rain was still coming and going, although mostly the latter so we gently returned to town & bought pasties at the shop that had been sold out yesterday. We then took the main road past the motel and towards Marquette until we came to the area where a series of Rest Areas are right by the shorline. We chose the second one we came to, moved in to the back of the van and lunched on the excellent pasties.
By the time we were done the rain really had stopped, for the moment, so we plowed down to the water line where Zoe had a ball, leaping about along the sand, running in circles and once again doing battle with Lake Superior. When we judged that she was wet enough and cold enough to not mind leaving we staggered up to the van and headed to the motel. First order of business was for Marissa to give Zoe a warm bath, mostly to remove two days-worth of sand & dirt. After that we did what Holidays are meant for - lay down and snoozed at length! By the time we had roused ourselves, and gone to the lounge for a "cuppa tea" the rain was well over, the clouds were leaving & by late afternoon the sun was shining.
We had lucked into one of the few premium parking spots up close, so we did some clothes sorting ready for tomorrow, and also brought a good selection of our picnic stuff in a thermal bag (we do have both refrigerator and microwave in the room) as we intended to laze away the rest of the day and eat in our room. Later we suffered through a picnic dinner - Italian bread, French Brie, Italian salami, cold shrimp & sauce, salads, cubed cheese, honeydew melon & brownies. It was yummy! Some time after that we made up for our lack of exercise by swimming, and relaxing in the spa, comfortably warm but not yet up to "hot" after being fixed today.
Our small mileage wasn't worth individually recording, but the day proved the wisdom of our having built in some contingency time. The next few days look to be lovely.
To look at Marissa's picture blog look here.
Day #2 - Sunday, September 20th, 2009
After the long day yesterday we all slept fairly late. The in-room coffee was brewed & drunk while Marissa took pictures of the sunrise. A little later John walked over to the office/breakfast area & gathered an assortment of continental breakfast items to take back to be eaten on our patio overlooking the water. In due course we packed up, checked out, and headed northwards on our next leg, with the first destination being Whitefish Point via Paradise.
For reasons we don't understand Portia seems to be making her arrival estimates up in the UP based on snowmobile speed limits, so we arrived in less than half the time she thought it would take us. The sky was blue, the breeze was gentle, and the temperature was short-sleeve comfortable. Although (as usual in the UP) we had seen minimal traffic on the road we were quite surprised to find the parking lot nearly full by mid-morning, before we realized it was a lovely autumnal Sunday & "locals" were mixed in with "tourists".
After checking the "birding" building (the Point is a major migratory bird reference & stop-over area) we headed for the beach, plowing through very soft sand which made for hard going until we reached almost the water's edge where pebbles made for easier traction. After a bit we cut across the dunes of the point, trying not to disturb the dedicated, high-tech, serious bird watchers (counters, actually - a daily score is kept in the birding building). Facing east instead of north gave us somewhat larger "breakers". Zoe was intrigued and at first was nervous, scampering back as the water approached her, but it didn't last and she conquered Lake Superior with a flying leap into water up to her belly. She then tried to drink the lake dry!
Back at the complex we took pictures, passed on the museum, but visited the gift shop for a little memento each. Then we hit the snack shop and bought large hot spiced apple ciders, and pasties, both of which were too hot for immediate consumption. We then retraced our route back to Paradise & turned on to the road to Tahquamenon Falls. We reached the Lower Falls first, paid our entry fee (good for both Falls) & made our way to the big parking lot, where the first order of business was pastie consumption.
We then strolled along the path past the facilities to the first viewing area. Still feeling sprightly we chose to take the 1/3 mile boardwalk to the edge of the major fall of this multiple falls area.
Zoe's Great Adventure: Zoe was behaving very well and not fussing about her leash at all. However, as we passed one of the many built-in benches for the weary, for reasons we never did fathom, she suddenly took a flying leap on to the bench, another to the top of the fence, and a third into space, landing 10 feet down in thistles, nettles and weeds as tall as herself, where she just sat, looking pathetic! At least the leash was long enough to not hang her halfway down! John then had climb the waist high split-rail fence, work along & drop down praying the ground wasn't marshy - luckily it wasn't. Zoe was retrieved and handed to Marissa leaving John the challenge of how to rescue himself! After that episode, closely guarded Zoe gave no more trouble.
After checking out the gift shop, where Marissa got a pretty necklace at an astonishing low clearance price, we then returned to the main road for a few miles & headed into the more popular Upper Falls area. After another very respectable hike we arrived at the brink viewing area, that was only 94 stair-steps down, all steps being dog-unfriendly gratings. Marissa carried Zoe down, we oohed and aahed & took pictures then John had the dubious pleasure of carrying Zoe back up 94 steps. She felt quite light on step number one, but by step 94 seemed to have tripled her weight!
Back at the complex we revitalized ourselves with ice creams & then started heading for Munising. We cruised along to Newberry, where John eventually gave in to the whining Portia & took her ignorant directions that led to a section of dirt road that didn't improve the vans appearance. Soon we were on the longest, flattest, straightest road in the UP, whereupon Marissa joined Zoe in becoming dead to the world, missing completely the town of Seney & the little motel Maria & John had once enjoyed.
We passed through Munising & on up the hill to our nice new hotel with a lakeview. Again we got the ground floor with a patio that this time fronts a nice grassy area, and settled in. After a while we headed back to town, having seen a home-made pastie shop with an outdoor eating area, but they had had an exceptional day and were completely sold out. A quick tour located a promising looking restaurant with an outdoor eating area, part of which was a dog pound. Since she was in fact small enough to squeeze though the bars it wasn't very long before Zoe was sitting at the table with us! Nobody cared. Both the whitefish & the liver & onions were very good.
Although we were disappointed to find the hot-tub shut down for a problem we did don our swimsuits and go for a swim in the fairly warm swimming pool - as if we hadn't already had enough exercise for one day! We put about 190 miles on the van today for a trip total of 721 so far.
To see Marissa's blog of the day, click here.
For reasons we don't understand Portia seems to be making her arrival estimates up in the UP based on snowmobile speed limits, so we arrived in less than half the time she thought it would take us. The sky was blue, the breeze was gentle, and the temperature was short-sleeve comfortable. Although (as usual in the UP) we had seen minimal traffic on the road we were quite surprised to find the parking lot nearly full by mid-morning, before we realized it was a lovely autumnal Sunday & "locals" were mixed in with "tourists".
After checking the "birding" building (the Point is a major migratory bird reference & stop-over area) we headed for the beach, plowing through very soft sand which made for hard going until we reached almost the water's edge where pebbles made for easier traction. After a bit we cut across the dunes of the point, trying not to disturb the dedicated, high-tech, serious bird watchers (counters, actually - a daily score is kept in the birding building). Facing east instead of north gave us somewhat larger "breakers". Zoe was intrigued and at first was nervous, scampering back as the water approached her, but it didn't last and she conquered Lake Superior with a flying leap into water up to her belly. She then tried to drink the lake dry!
Back at the complex we took pictures, passed on the museum, but visited the gift shop for a little memento each. Then we hit the snack shop and bought large hot spiced apple ciders, and pasties, both of which were too hot for immediate consumption. We then retraced our route back to Paradise & turned on to the road to Tahquamenon Falls. We reached the Lower Falls first, paid our entry fee (good for both Falls) & made our way to the big parking lot, where the first order of business was pastie consumption.
We then strolled along the path past the facilities to the first viewing area. Still feeling sprightly we chose to take the 1/3 mile boardwalk to the edge of the major fall of this multiple falls area.
Zoe's Great Adventure: Zoe was behaving very well and not fussing about her leash at all. However, as we passed one of the many built-in benches for the weary, for reasons we never did fathom, she suddenly took a flying leap on to the bench, another to the top of the fence, and a third into space, landing 10 feet down in thistles, nettles and weeds as tall as herself, where she just sat, looking pathetic! At least the leash was long enough to not hang her halfway down! John then had climb the waist high split-rail fence, work along & drop down praying the ground wasn't marshy - luckily it wasn't. Zoe was retrieved and handed to Marissa leaving John the challenge of how to rescue himself! After that episode, closely guarded Zoe gave no more trouble.
After checking out the gift shop, where Marissa got a pretty necklace at an astonishing low clearance price, we then returned to the main road for a few miles & headed into the more popular Upper Falls area. After another very respectable hike we arrived at the brink viewing area, that was only 94 stair-steps down, all steps being dog-unfriendly gratings. Marissa carried Zoe down, we oohed and aahed & took pictures then John had the dubious pleasure of carrying Zoe back up 94 steps. She felt quite light on step number one, but by step 94 seemed to have tripled her weight!
Back at the complex we revitalized ourselves with ice creams & then started heading for Munising. We cruised along to Newberry, where John eventually gave in to the whining Portia & took her ignorant directions that led to a section of dirt road that didn't improve the vans appearance. Soon we were on the longest, flattest, straightest road in the UP, whereupon Marissa joined Zoe in becoming dead to the world, missing completely the town of Seney & the little motel Maria & John had once enjoyed.
We passed through Munising & on up the hill to our nice new hotel with a lakeview. Again we got the ground floor with a patio that this time fronts a nice grassy area, and settled in. After a while we headed back to town, having seen a home-made pastie shop with an outdoor eating area, but they had had an exceptional day and were completely sold out. A quick tour located a promising looking restaurant with an outdoor eating area, part of which was a dog pound. Since she was in fact small enough to squeeze though the bars it wasn't very long before Zoe was sitting at the table with us! Nobody cared. Both the whitefish & the liver & onions were very good.
Although we were disappointed to find the hot-tub shut down for a problem we did don our swimsuits and go for a swim in the fairly warm swimming pool - as if we hadn't already had enough exercise for one day! We put about 190 miles on the van today for a trip total of 721 so far.
To see Marissa's blog of the day, click here.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Day #1 - Saturday, September 19th, 2009
This was the "day of the Long Drive". Despite Marissa's mutterings about "crack of dawn" we were in fact fully packed up & ready to start rolling dead on 7:00 AM, which literally was at dawn, so much so that we actually stopped alongside the airport to take a picture of the pink sky over the fields. John took the first leg and all went well to and around Indianapolis, then (always a surprise) we drove due East for the first bit of I-69, squinting into the sun. We stopped at a MacDonald's for breakfast burritos, hash browns and coffee & Zoe had a chance to relive herself. We carried on and around 9:30 AM pulled into a Rest Area for a leg stretch and to change drivers. It was bright and sunny, but the temperature was still in the 50's F.
Zoe was behaving beautifully, mostly sleeping peacefully in her bed. We started listening to "Wife for Hire" by Janet Evanovich, a book on CD. By 10:30 we had crossed into Michigan, and by 11:30 we were closing in on Lansing and pulled into a large Rest Area/Welcome Center. We elected to eat lunch there, and take a bit of a break, since we had conveniently parked about 10 feet from a picnic table.
Side note - we decided a better name for Marissa's Tom-Tom GPS would be "Portia", since we both said, more than once "shut up, Portia" (an inside family joke started by Maria) whenever she told us off for not choosing to follow her directions. By the end of Marissa's stint we had considerably improved on Portia's estimate of our arrival time.
John drove around Lansing & on up through the one section of the trip that was not "Interstate" highway, and in Mount Pleasant we decided to replenish the 3/4 tank of gas we had consumed and change drivers again. During this next leg Zoe was finding this long drives with short stops in strange places a bit of a strain, and wound up spending a long time on John's lap.
At the penultimate Rest Area prior to the Mackinac Bridge we changed drivers again, so that Marissa could get the maximum enjoyment out of her first crossing of Big Mac, although we did slip into the last Reast Area as John had remembered it provided a great scenic overlook of the countryside. There are some small signs of color, but rather less than we had hoped to see. We crossed the bridge in bright sunshine, and in a gap between traffic so we did not need to hurry.
Once over we quickly slipped down to St Ignace, which was in chaos, due to the heavy truck gathering this weekend. We followed many detour signs around the neighborhoods (much to Portia's chagrin!), but we finally put back on the main road less than 1/4 mile before our hotel, arriving at 4:30 PM. The hotel was ideal. The van was parked 10 feet from the front door to our room, and the back (patio) door opened on to a covered patio followed by 20 feet of soft sand to the edge of Lake Huron & a view of the Islands. Shortly after arriving we were sitting on our patio, drinking tea!
In view of the chaos in town, we elected to have a pizza, etc delivered to our room by somewhere that said they could get there. It was very good. Meanwhile we looked at the day's pictures, and Marissa uploaded many to Flickr and also to her blog, despite the rather slow Internet connection. Later we decided to take Zoe for a walk, at around dusk and noticed people setting up chairs along the street. Inquiries revealed that we were on the parade route of the 100-odd semi-trucks that participated in the ceremonial bridge crossing. With walk completed, we grabbed our chairs from the van and joined them, chatting with all and sundry (Zoe is a great ice-breaker). The temperature was quite cool, so we armed ourselves with free coffee, a blanket and put Zoe in her brand new fleece sweater - very stylish! Eventually they arrived, very colorful (but hard to photograph) and very, very noisy as they were all blowing their air horns - Zoe was positively quaking in fright at first. We wouldn't have missed it for the world, but have agreed that "once is enough"! As peace returned we went back to the room and uploaded and blogged such pictures as were usable. Finally, exhausted from a long day, we collapsed into bed. Our milage for the day (and trip) was 531.
Pictures from the first half of the day on Marissa's blog are here.
Pictures from the "truck parade" on Marissa's blog are here.
Zoe was behaving beautifully, mostly sleeping peacefully in her bed. We started listening to "Wife for Hire" by Janet Evanovich, a book on CD. By 10:30 we had crossed into Michigan, and by 11:30 we were closing in on Lansing and pulled into a large Rest Area/Welcome Center. We elected to eat lunch there, and take a bit of a break, since we had conveniently parked about 10 feet from a picnic table.
Side note - we decided a better name for Marissa's Tom-Tom GPS would be "Portia", since we both said, more than once "shut up, Portia" (an inside family joke started by Maria) whenever she told us off for not choosing to follow her directions. By the end of Marissa's stint we had considerably improved on Portia's estimate of our arrival time.
John drove around Lansing & on up through the one section of the trip that was not "Interstate" highway, and in Mount Pleasant we decided to replenish the 3/4 tank of gas we had consumed and change drivers again. During this next leg Zoe was finding this long drives with short stops in strange places a bit of a strain, and wound up spending a long time on John's lap.
At the penultimate Rest Area prior to the Mackinac Bridge we changed drivers again, so that Marissa could get the maximum enjoyment out of her first crossing of Big Mac, although we did slip into the last Reast Area as John had remembered it provided a great scenic overlook of the countryside. There are some small signs of color, but rather less than we had hoped to see. We crossed the bridge in bright sunshine, and in a gap between traffic so we did not need to hurry.
Once over we quickly slipped down to St Ignace, which was in chaos, due to the heavy truck gathering this weekend. We followed many detour signs around the neighborhoods (much to Portia's chagrin!), but we finally put back on the main road less than 1/4 mile before our hotel, arriving at 4:30 PM. The hotel was ideal. The van was parked 10 feet from the front door to our room, and the back (patio) door opened on to a covered patio followed by 20 feet of soft sand to the edge of Lake Huron & a view of the Islands. Shortly after arriving we were sitting on our patio, drinking tea!
In view of the chaos in town, we elected to have a pizza, etc delivered to our room by somewhere that said they could get there. It was very good. Meanwhile we looked at the day's pictures, and Marissa uploaded many to Flickr and also to her blog, despite the rather slow Internet connection. Later we decided to take Zoe for a walk, at around dusk and noticed people setting up chairs along the street. Inquiries revealed that we were on the parade route of the 100-odd semi-trucks that participated in the ceremonial bridge crossing. With walk completed, we grabbed our chairs from the van and joined them, chatting with all and sundry (Zoe is a great ice-breaker). The temperature was quite cool, so we armed ourselves with free coffee, a blanket and put Zoe in her brand new fleece sweater - very stylish! Eventually they arrived, very colorful (but hard to photograph) and very, very noisy as they were all blowing their air horns - Zoe was positively quaking in fright at first. We wouldn't have missed it for the world, but have agreed that "once is enough"! As peace returned we went back to the room and uploaded and blogged such pictures as were usable. Finally, exhausted from a long day, we collapsed into bed. Our milage for the day (and trip) was 531.
Pictures from the first half of the day on Marissa's blog are here.
Pictures from the "truck parade" on Marissa's blog are here.
Apologia
There is quite a bit of difference between traveling with someone only mildly interested in the PC and traveling with a rabid Flickr uploader & blogger. The fairly slow Wi-Fi connection in St Ignace required a lot of time to upload the "me first & quickly" Marissa stuff, both before & after the couple of evening hours taken up by waiting for/watching the Truck parade, such that enthusiasm for blogging well after 11:00 PM was down to nil, so the initial Priddis blogs will be a day late & a dollar short, so to speak. However, a differentiation has already emerged. I will publish text and not bother with pictures & Marissa will publish the hihlight pictures with minimal text.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Day #0 - Friday, September 18th, 2009
Today was John’s last early morning “mall-walk” for a while. Later, after a decent breakfast we headed out to shop. We visited the bank to supplement our cash for the trip, did some window-shopping at the Mall (including looking at the winning entries, especially quilts, in a recent competition) then we did our big food shop for the trip at Marsh.
After that it was sift, sort, prepare foods for travel, etc and start the final packing of the van. After a lunch break this continued until we were ready for an extended shakedown cruise, to see what traveled as planned & what needed repacking/relocating, as well as check on a very annoying rattle that the van has had for some time. Once we established it was still there Marissa moved into the back & sat on both the chair for a while and then the bench & we determined that the bench was a problem. We stopped, John adjusted the bench just a little bit, and thank goodness that solved the problem.
Final preparations continued, Michelle & Don brought Ziggy over for a last exhausting romp, we had a steak dinner, watered the garden pots & planters for the last time, packed up outside, paid some bills electronically, held down a squirming Zoe for a grooming & toenail trimming, rechecked our lists, and… we’re ready to roll in the morning!
After that it was sift, sort, prepare foods for travel, etc and start the final packing of the van. After a lunch break this continued until we were ready for an extended shakedown cruise, to see what traveled as planned & what needed repacking/relocating, as well as check on a very annoying rattle that the van has had for some time. Once we established it was still there Marissa moved into the back & sat on both the chair for a while and then the bench & we determined that the bench was a problem. We stopped, John adjusted the bench just a little bit, and thank goodness that solved the problem.
Final preparations continued, Michelle & Don brought Ziggy over for a last exhausting romp, we had a steak dinner, watered the garden pots & planters for the last time, packed up outside, paid some bills electronically, held down a squirming Zoe for a grooming & toenail trimming, rechecked our lists, and… we’re ready to roll in the morning!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Day #00 - Thursday, September 17th, 2009
While John was cutting grass & otherwise preparing the house to be left for a while, Marissa was having a horrid drive up from Mount Vernon with Zoe. One big-time accident and many sections of “construction” (or Road Works) provided the bulk of the aggravation, while the lingering effects of both hay fever and a migraine a day or two earlier made it all a strain.
At the end of the working day we headed over to Pet Smart for some Zoe stuff (both for the trip & generally) and went on from there to Michelle & Don’s. With a field full of ragweed below them both are also suffering from bad hay fever. Ziggy & Zoe, however, were full of beans and played themselves into state of exhaustion, before we returned to eat & sort out some of the Marissa & Zoe stuff brought up from Mount Vernon for the trip.
At the end of the working day we headed over to Pet Smart for some Zoe stuff (both for the trip & generally) and went on from there to Michelle & Don’s. With a field full of ragweed below them both are also suffering from bad hay fever. Ziggy & Zoe, however, were full of beans and played themselves into state of exhaustion, before we returned to eat & sort out some of the Marissa & Zoe stuff brought up from Mount Vernon for the trip.
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