Duck and CJ

Dick picketed at the Ad. Bldg. with Shelly and Barb.  It was a pro-teacher picket, of course!

Derek and Carla arrived to camp in the campground in their terrific tent.  Their two dogs, Tortie and Rhino, are very well-behaved, and well-trained.  They are very affectionate pups!  Dick got home soon after D&C arrived.

After nice conversations on the deck, Dick grilled chicken for a really pleasant dinner.

Just in time for dessert - Adam, Melanie, Lydia and Izzy came to see their cousins.  Izzy really loved the dogs - she was entranced!  Everybody loved the ice cream.

Dick had laid a campfire for Derek, and it turned out to be the perfect end to the day for those two families.  It was kind of an early Genfest for them because none of them are going to be able to come in July.

The Old Home Town

Traverse City cruise report:

1. The parking lot at Thirlby Clinic is all torn up.  It was quite a surprise.  It looks like they're working on a new entrance - the steps to the front door have been removed.  They have really done a lot in the two weeks since we've been there.

2. Clinch Park continues to develop in front of our very eyes.  The concession/bath house building is almost finished - it's definitely a unique style of architecture - kind of resembles two double wides.  Oh, that's really too harsh.  Most of the mud has dried up, and there are puzzling circles of concrete with no obvious function.  They must be part of the Milliken Water feature, but it's hard to picture at the moment. I'm sure all will become recognizable someday soon.  The huge, huge piles of sifted soil are being dug into and distributed.  It's still not possible to figure out what it's going to look like. 

3. The marina is slowly filling up.  A couple of the really big boats are moored already.  There are a few more every day that passes.

4.  I would never be able to work at the Grand Traverse Pie Company.  I can't even describe their case full of sweet rolls, cookies, and donuts.  So gooey and delectable looking.  Their breakfast menu is a bit sparse - a far cry from the Omelette Shoppe.

5.  You're never next in line at Meijer.

Stone

OK.  There's a John Denver song titled "Some Days Are Diamonds".

 Just listen for a minute:



If you don't want to listen, or watch the beautiful video, then just read these lines from the chorus:

Some days are diamonds some days are stones
Sometimes the hard times won't leave me alone
Sometimes a cold wind blows a chill in my bones
Some days are diamonds some days are stones.

So this day is starting out as a stone.  Gouty toe for me, trick knee for Dick.  We're having a limping contest.  It's also rainy and kind of dark, damp and gloomy.  We'll have to make our own sunshine today.

I do have a list of condos to go look at later if we get in the mood for a drive.  We also have to limp through the grocery store sometime today.

Stone.

Another Perfect Day

Another perfect day for a jeep ride.  A cloudless sky, and very moderate temps - ideal.

 After the gym and breakfast at Randy's, Dick got the jeep out, and we were off to the Manton area to find some two tracks.  We were inspired by a new cache put out by the Hosta Hillbillies in honor of Frank, of Frank and Peggy.

It's hard to explain how shocked we were by Frank's passing.  He was a hiker and a biker, and always seemed healthy and fit.  He and Peggy have found over 10,000 caches.  He will be missed.

Frank and Peggy

Frank Jay Rens
CADILLAC — Frank Jay Rens, of Cadillac, passed away suddenly Wednesday afternoon, April 24, 2013, at Mercy Hospital in Cadillac.

In accordance with Frank’s wishes, no services will held at this time. Arrangements were handled by the Peterson Funeral Home in Cadillac. 

05/16/2013

You found Our Cache in Fond Memory of Frank

Visit Log

When this cache popped up last night, we agreed that we needed to rearrange our schedule for this afternoon and make the trip south to snag it. Frank was a person who made a positive impression on everyone he came in contact with. We were shocked when we heard of his sudden and untimely death. He will definitely be missed. We are overwhelmed at the thought of  the effect  his loss must be having on Peggy as well as Cricket. We took nothing, left our pathtag and flashlight. Thanks Hostas for placing it in his memory.

05/16/2013

You found STODDARD LAKE

Visit Log

Wow! This was quite an adventure! On this bright sunny spring like (at last) afternoon, we got the Jeep out of the barn and rode down to find the cache placed in Frank Rens' memory. After making that find, we thought a little back roads/two tracks would be fun so we came south on 33 and wound up driving a series of two tracks using an iphone for directions. After a number of attempts to find the road or trail which led to the cache, we gave up and I bushwacked in to GZ. Took nothing, left our pen. Thanks for the fun on a beautiful day.

Caring Fields

Dylan is doing some volunteer work on the weekends at Caring Fields. This is an animal rescue shelter for horses and cats.  Dylan hasn't worked at all with the horses, but he really enjoys his involvement with the cats - even with Henry, who keeps trying to climb the fence!

 The cats have small houses to live in.  They're free to move from house to house any time.  The houses are where the cats are fed and watered, and can seek shelter and find a place to nap.  I think I remember him saying that there are 5 or 6 of the little houses altogether.

 Dylan's main jobs are feeding and watering all of the kitties, petting them and keeping track of all of them.  He's usually there every Saturday morning for four or five hours.

When Dylan started his volunteering, Chip said "Oh now we're going to end up with a kitten!"  But I don't think that will happen.  Then there's Grandpa Dick who delights in telling his friends that Dylan is working in a cat house!  (Heavy sigh.)

http://www.caringfields.org

Mother's Day 2013

We were going to take a Jeep ride today, but decided it wouldn't be that much fun in the snow!  We did have a nice ride in the other car - out to lunch, and a cell phone call from Tom during our ride - real fun by our standards! 

 I have an avalanche of flowers and plants at home, plus a really sweet bracelet -  Mother's Day is so enjoyable!

The first gift to arrive was this beautiful big planter for the deck.  It has  six or seven different types of   plants - including geraniums, dusty miller, coleus (called redhead!). ivy,  and petunias.  This is really a knock-out pot - so pretty, and ready to just set out on the deck if it ever stops snowing!

Such pretty geraniums!

Another angle of this gorgeous planter from Teboe's.  The card said it was from all of  the eggs plus the grand-egg :)
That's a family tradition based on my habit of saying "I don't want to put all of my eggs in one basket" every time some dangerous adventure was proposed.

Then FedEX arrived with this gorgeous box of tulips and iris!  The blooms are so dainty and delicate looking - wonderful to behold! 

Such a terrific combination of blooms!

I also love the pretty pink vase - it's the perfect setting for the flowers.  Believe it or not, this gift is also from the eggs and the grand-egg!

My lovely silver bracelet with the secret Mom message on the inside!  I'm only posting one picture of it because my hand looks so old!  

50 State Challenge

Max B on the River has put out several Challenge caches.  One of them is for people who have found a cache in all 50 States.  It's located in Niles, so it was a good place to stop on our way home.  Since we were coming from Belleville, it was only not so much out of our way if you really wanted to get there!  We got off I-94 and drove through Decatur and Dowagiac to get there.  Niles is 3 miles from the Indiana border.

We met Maxine for lunch, and then she took us to log the cache.  We really do qualify big time, because we have all 50 States plus the District of Columbia!

We were home by 5 o'clock.

05/02/2013	You found 50 State Challenge Cache "See the USA in your ..."		Visit Log
Please excuse the length of our log but our philosophy is that the logs are for us, it’s our record of our adventure. You might see it repeated on Facebook or blog. We received a Magellan for Christmas to use on our boat. In the spring we read about Geocaching and on Fathers Day, decided to give it a try. 06/15/2003 Michigan Lone Pine Micro - GC69D9 On a trip to visit our daughter in Palm City, we introduced Sharkie Crew and Zoroan to the fun 03/18/2004 Florida A Downtown Treasure - GC5670 In 05 we went out to DC to visit our youngest and for the first time figured out how to load caches along a route 09/18/2005 Ohio A Walk in the Park -GCN5EB 09/19/2005 Pennsylvania Continental Divide Micro - GCM4W2 09/20/2005 Maryland Monocacy Marc - GCKQPE 09/23/2005 DC Church Ruins Park - GCA51C 09/24/2005 Virginia No bricks in this Wall - GCNTK9 On a visit to our son in San Diego, we showed him some in the area, he thinks it’s stupid but he let us use his car. Ever cache with a Porsche? 01/21/2006 California RB Bug Launcher - GCQQMW After finding all 83 Michigan counties and launching our coins, we set as our next goal to find all 50 states. 2007 was our first excursion for that purpose. 03/04/2007 Indiana Looking For Clarinda - GCKHAH 03/04/2007 Kentucky Cache Across America - GCXY7V 03/06/2007 Mississippi Chateau Shinault - GCXF56 03/06/2007 Tennessee Welcome to Memphis - Downtown - GCRVTQ 03/06/2007 Arkansas Down on the Farm - GCMM2A 03/08/2007 Missouri Geocache - GC1A6 03/10/2007 Illinois The Witch's Grave - GC7198 In 2007/08 on our trip to Florida, for the first time we cached our way down and back. 12/21/2007 Alabama Stairway to Salvation in Phenix City - GC17JF3 12/21/2007 Georgia Merry Green Acres - GCVTZ0 02/02/2008 South Carolina Furry Friends - GCX7BP 02/03/2008 North Carolina WEDDINGTON WILDCATS - GC18CZ8 02/04/2008 West Virginia bluestone service plaza - GCY0M0 The goal of 50 states let to an extremely exciting and fun western excursion. 06/23/2008 Wisconsin SVD BELL - GCY6HD 06/24/2008 Minnesota Just because - ..... GC18804 06/25/2008 North Dakota Goose Bugs Hotel - GCWVN6 06/26/2008 Montana Firebird - GC1593T 06/28/2008 Idaho Howard Springs - GC150TZ 06/29/2008 Wyoming Oh! Birdie - GCQ3T5 06/30/2008 South Dakota Kid Friendly #11 - GC14JT9 This was followed up by an eastern swing that fall. 09/07/2008 New York Bottcher's Landing - GC1BKZQ 09/08/2008 New Jersey A Cool Treat - GC1DE8J 09/08/2008 Connecticut Bennetts Tree Cach - GC13PCY 09/09/2008 Rhode Island 295 North Rest Area - GCWNE0 09/09/2008 Massachusetts Katahdin's Cache - GCYWAZ 09/10/2008 Maine Quack Quack - GCRK4H 09/10/2008 New Hampshire Learn to Earn NHTI - GCTNC8 09/10/2008 Vermont Wintermint - GC10YFK
05/02/2013	You posted a note for 50 State Challenge Cache "See the USA in your ..."		Visit Log
In October of 2009, while Michigan was playing a pair of away games, we made a swing through the southern plains. 10/14/2009 Louisiana A Welcome Sign - GC17J60 10/14/2009 Texas To All The Cats I've Loved Before... - GCQ680 10/15/2009 Oklahoma My Island Travel Bug Resort - GCE639 10/16/2009 Kansas Cloud County Museum - GC1X0ZT 10/16/2009 Nebraska South Buckley - GC1VZ01 10/18/2009 Iowa MM 259 Coin Castle - GCXC39 Then we realized that we had missed Delaware. An Easter trip to view the Cherry Blossoms and the monuments in DC. 04/03/2010 Delaware the Happy Lion rides a Subway (1) - GC10NW8 On a cruise to Alaska, we found that we were not the only cachers on board. 05/19/2010 Alaska End of the Road - GC17JF4 05/29/2010 Washington Do Drop Inn - GCXF8Z 05/30/2010 Oregon Original Stash Tribute Plaque - GCGV0P On our next to the last excursion we flew to Vegas. We figure we may be the only folks to spent two nights in town and never enter a casino. 05/19/2011 Nevada For Whom The Bells Toll - GC2AT7B 05/19/2011 Arizona Minnetonka - GC2TYCD 05/20/2011 New Mexico Blue Unicorn - GC1H88N 05/21/2011 Colorado T i M e P a S s A g E s Ver 1 - GC1XDNM 05/22/2011 Utah Pioneer First Camp Ground - GC16BX8 That left only one more and so last fall we bit the bullet and spent a week on Maui. It was brutal but just one more sacrifice we've endured for the sake of Geocaching. 10/23/2012 Hawaii Haleakala Glory - GCH33F

Retiree's Breakfast 2013

It seems as though we go to just one Belleville Teachers Retiree Breakfast every year, even though they meet once a month!  This year was especially fun for some reason - lots of good friends and good conversation.  We really enjoyed Bill and Jan, Ken, Jim M., Kirk, Dan, Dorothy, Kay, Dian, and Hunch.  So good to catch up with everyone - except they're all beginning to look old.  Why is that? 

After breakfast we went caching - it was the perfect day for it.

05/01/2013	You found Old Denton Cemetery		Visit Log
This winter got to be too much for us so we took a couple of weeks to hunt for Spring and visit our new winter home in Florida. When the temp broke, we came back to our old haunts (pardon the pun). We lived in Belleville for over 40 years and recognize many of the names here, parents and grandparents of some of our students. Thanks for many memories.
05/01/2013	You found Vernal Equinox 8		Visit Log
This year we discovered what Seasonal Affective Disorder is. A couple of weeks ago, our yard was mostly clear when a storm dumped1 1/2 in of frozen rain and sleet on us. That was it! We loaded the car and went in search of Spring. We didn't find it until Ky. We continued on and drove through the Smokies to find May Apples and Trillium. When the weather cleared, we came back north. We lived and taught in Belleville for 40 years and this park was in our back yard for 20 of them. Our girls worked here summers. Today was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky and the temp in the 80's. We spent our day reliving memories. This cache popped up on our iPad map and when we saw it was placed by Stan and Ruth, we had to go for it. Thanks for placing it and giving us the motivation to park the car and walk through the flowering Trout Lillies. This entry was edited by basswoodbend on Thursday, 02 May 2013 at 00:11:51 UTC.
05/01/2013	You found Birthday Celebration		Visit Log
We are in "da Ville" for the monthly retired teacher's breakfast, staying at a nearby motel. When we saw who placed this baby and why, we had no choice but to snag the smilie that goes with it and shout out our congrats as well. Thanks for the fun!