Michigan & Illinois

8/17/12 Hi from the Daly Farm (which used to be the Cannell Farm, where Elaine grew up). Elaine’s sister, Georgeanne, and her husband, Dennis live here and we are parked on the grass on the other side of their driveway. Our rig will stay here while we drive our car to Chicago to the airport to fly to Copenhagen on Aug. 30. In the meantime, we are trying to get organized and packed, while also having social times with family members. One of Elaine’s sisters, Mary Sue, who we are especially close to from our days of having her live near us in California, is in the hospital after having a hip transplant. We have been in to visit her every day since our arrival, except today. Today she was moved to a rehab place where she will stay for the next 2 weeks. She has been doing very well, even walking around in the halls with a walker. On our way here, we have been having some nice social times with friends along the route. Our first stop in Michigan was in Dundee, where there is a very nice Cabellas (sporting goods store). The little town was slightly interesting and we walked downtown near the river and old mill building.

Here is a picture of the Cabellas store:

It was huge with a very large parking area all around it, a lake, walking trail, and the usual displays of dead and stuffed exotic animals inside. Of course, the part we liked the best was the free RV parking, including a free dump and water station, which we badly needed. We stayed there 2 days because we needed some down time to do laundry and catch up on stuff. It was fun walking around in the store and taking pictures of the animal displays:

Most of these had been shot by the owner of Cabellas and his wife on their various safaris. There is also a huge aquarium. They were having some sales, so we looked at the merchandise and I ended up buying some new sandals. I guess you could say we paid our “camping fee”. Then we proceeded on to Lansing for a visit with a lifelong friend of Elaine’s and her husband, Elaine and George Lewter. Here we are at Outback, having a nice dinner with them:

The next day we drove out to Duck Lake to visit Elaine Lewter’s sister Vivian, and her husband Harold, at their lakefront home. They very kindly took us out for a ride around the lake on their pontoon boat:

The weather was very rainy during our entire time in Michigan, but we lucked out on the boat ride because it was fairly nice while we were out. When we got back to Lansing, we had dinner at George and Elaine’s with one of their sons, Kelly:

He has his own chop shop for TV’s, and it was interesting to see it in his home before the dinner. George is also quite a good potter and he showed us his equipment, and then gave us 2 of his very beautiful coffee mugs:

Then we moved along to Benton Harbor, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Elaine’s aunt Joan lives nearby, so we drove over and had a visit with her, her daughter Chris, and her granddaughter Jackie:

Some of our cruises have been enhanced by the company of Pat & Daryl McGrath, who live in Joliet, on the outskirts of Chicago. We visited them 3 years ago on our last trip to the East, and were delighted to be able to park in their driveway once again for another nice visit. Here they are in the garage, next to Pat’s classic Corvette:

They were on our last cruise from New Orleans to Dubai, and hosted us for cocktails at their expensive and impressive hotel in Dubai, the Atlantis. Thanks Pat & Daryl for another nice visit! Now that we are here on the farm, we have been having lots of social times with Elaine’s family. And more to come when we get back from Europe and our cruises and Elaine has a reunion with ALL of her sisters (there are 6 girls in her family).