Jackson

Sniders are in California, so we're spending the night tonight in Jackson at the Comfort Inn. It's a noon game tomorrow, so we want to be close, but not too close.

The roads were clear, traffic was light, and so we hade an uneventful trip, thank goodness.

The motel room is very nice, very comfortable, and no bed bugs :) I enjoyed their fall decorations very much. The pictures don't really do them justice - we took the pics at night - it looked beter in the daylight, but you get the general idea.
Cute table decorations in the breakfast room:


This display was over the exit:

We ate dinner at the nearby Red Lobster, and it was very yummy .

Visual Treats

In Traverse City, the number one visual treat currently is this mural of the waterfront. It's made up of hand-painted tiles, painted by many different hands at many different events. It's on the Ace Hardware Building on Front Street




Driving around town today we were in sunshine one minute and blowing snow the next. Our town has so much to appreciate - it should be appreciated before the blizzards of winter come galloping across Lake Michigan and cover everything up!

Soon we'll be surrounded by Christmas decorations, and this beautiful late fall November we've been enjoying will be gone. We enjoyed checking out some of the treasures of our town this morning.

This one's a real treat - on Union Street near 14th. I love the gracefulness of the bikes riding down the hill.






The Visitor Center entrance looks very welcoming.


Everybody's favorite statue is the bike lesson at Clinch Park.


Lady Liberty on the Boardman - she's behind a big ugly building - this is definitely the good side of the building!

On the porch at Folgarelli's:


Nobody's favorite - The Guardian of the River, by the Chamber of Commerce:


Fancy metalwork at the new hand surgery building at Front and Division:


Fall bounty at the Fruit Dock on Front Street.




In front of the old Courthouse:

A Streak

Oh boy! Two wins in a row - it's a streak! Our poor team is so inept that it would be laughable if it weren't so very sad.

Football Holds Off Purdue for Second Straight Win
11/13/2010
James Rogers had two interceptions and Cameron Gordon recovered two fumbles, including one he returned 58 yards for a touchdown, to lead a defense that forced five turnovers and held Purdue without an offensive TD in a 27-16 Wolverine win.

Tribute to Richard!

MiTuCats logged our Welcome to Traverse City cache yesterday. It's a nice recognition of the ingenuity of the leader of our team - well deserved, in my opinion.

November 10 by MiTuCats (1020 found)

It's been a long time since we had the privilege of finding a Basswoodbend cache, so this was high on our list of caches to find while the Best Half was attending a conference in Acme. The mention of the regional maps at the Welcome Center added to the allure.

Unthinkingly, I arrived at the site just as the workers at the Welcome Center were straggling in for the day. With two particular Basswoodbend caches in my mind, I was hunting in a likely location when a young lady came along and asked if she could help me. Since she was heading for the Welcome Center, I knew she would be aware of the existence of the cache so I told her I was just looking for the geocache. She said something like "Oh, I know it's here but not exactly where. From what I've heard, you're looking in the right place." I spent another 20 minutes or so searching with no luck, then went inside. I had a nice chat with the lady at the desk, left a signature card in the inside cache and signed that log and acquired a VERY nice map of the area. The lady then asked me if I had found the outside cache and I said "no". She told me it was NOT where I had been looking (contrary to former information) but she didn't want to give me any further advice because she figured I'd prefer to find it myself (she was right!). I then went back out and within a minute had found the cache in a location
that I would have checked earlier if it hadn't been for some well-informed but incorrect advice.

I hadn't been aware that the Welcome Center existed (in fact it didn't the last time we were in the area) so thanks for leading us here and for the caches.

I signed both logs, left a signature card inside and took nothing but memories. As usual, I greatly enjoyed your cache. There are about 6 geocaching teams in Michigan that we find consistently place higher than average quality caches, Basswoodbend is one of those teams and we greatly appreciate the few opportunities we have to hunt your hides.

Monthly Meet and Greet at B C Pizza

We were glad that we were back in town to attend this meet and greet. It was a small but intensely fun gathering of our favorite up north cachers. Had a chance to talk to Fins and Feathers, Halanski Expedition, Jerry and Lydia, Tim and Susie, Sherry and Denny, Team Peterson, Jeff of the Evil Eye, Don and Marty and somebody who left early and I didn't catch their names (blush).

We had an excellent time, ate some good pizza, and got lots of hugs.



Thanks to Halanski for the pictures.

Michigan Football? Or a Disney Movie...

This day had everything. Moderate fall temperatures, blue sky and sunshine for starters. No traffic jams on the way to the Stadium - what's up with that? All of our seatmates came today - so we had Tony and Sharron, George and Alice, Kim and Holden, and Young George, not to mention Justin and Emily! We were crowded but happy. It was great to have everybody there.

The band did our all-time favorite Blues Band number during the pre-game show - that's always a treat. There was a fly-over after the national anthem - always thrilling.



It was a day to honor Veterans, so during the pre-game show the gauntlet for the players was lined with gold star families and two huge flags were displayed on the field.

All during the game members and veterans of the different military branches were asked to stand and be recognized - that was a nice touch.

And then there was the game. Holy Cow. It took 14 seconds for the first touchdown to be scored, and little did we know then that we would see 132 points scored this afternoon. It was 31-31 at the half, and I jokingly asked Justin, "Do you really think they'll score 60 points today?" Ha! At the end of regulation time the score was 52-52. After 3 overtimes this scoring circus finally ended at 67-65. Does that sound like a football game score? Cheesh. Anyway the maize and blue pulled it out at the end amazingly enough. We were exhausted!



We all agreed that the half time show was the best of the season!


Then home to Sniders' for pizza and a nice warm fire. What a day.

From mgoblue:

Shaw, Hemingway Cap Come-From-Behind, Triple OT Win over Illini
11/6/2010
Roy Roundtree set the single-game receiving record (246 yards) as Michael Shaw's one-yard run and Junior Hemingway's two-point catch sent U-M to a 67-65 win over Illinois in three overtimes.

Snow! Oh No!

This is what our yard looked like this morning when we got up.





We drove through a veritable blizzard from home to Cadillac - it was a slippery white-out. Dick estimates 3 inches of the white stuff. The traffic on 131 was going 35 mph. South of Cadillac things cleared up, and the rest of the trip was uneventful, thank goodness.

Dick wore his new Lloyd Carr shirt so Bill could "appreciate" it

All Treat, No Trick

Lovely day for geocaching, so we ventured out in our new toy to try some. We didn't make it into the woods, but we had a good time just driving around. First we found two caches, and then we spent the rest of the time driving around town enjoying all of the little trick or treaters in their great costumes.


My favorite was a skeleton costume - that doesn't sound very original, but this person actually looked like a real skeleton - it was a great costume. Second favorites were all of the little girls in pretty pink pincess costumes. Some of them looked like real medieval princesses, and their conical hats even had chiffon coming out of the top. They were all very sweet.


Our first cache was in Grace MacDonald Park. We had the place to ourselves. I think everybody else was at home getting dressed up or at the grocery store stocking up on candy!

10/31/2010 You found Cache to Eagle #12 Scenic Trails-Bay Trails Dist
Out for a ride on Halloween afternoon. Brought back many memories. 60 years ago I was a proud and loyal member of Troop 36. Time spent at Camp Greilick was always fun, both camp week in the summer and the Klondike Derby in the winter. Having the field dedicated to Bert Zagers also brought back memories, none good. As the star of the Cadillac HS football team he ran over us.
Took a badge, left a bottle of hand sanitizer. TFTC

The second cache was at the Heidbreder Trails - nice day for a hike.

10/31/2010 You found "Back" to our Roots Visit Log
A nice brisk walk and a quick find on Halloween afternoon. Thanks for the hunt.

Low Expectations

It doesn't hurt quite so badly when you don't have hopes of anything going right. Low expectations can be a good thing when they're justified.

mgoblue:

Robinson Sets Big Ten Rushing Record in Loss at Penn State

10/30/2010

Denard Robinson rushed for 191 yards and three touchdowns to set the Big Ten season record for rushing yards by a quarterback in U-M's (RV AP/No. 25 Coaches) 41-31 loss at Penn State.

That's 41-31, OK? Another defensive struggle. As if.

Our New Toy

We've been thinking about getting a jeep for a couple of years. We've never found exactly the right one until today. We were driving by Fox Motors and there it sat, just waiting for us. It's a two door, rag top, manual transmission '04 Jeep Rubicon - just perfect! It will be great for "backwoodsin'", one of our favorite activities.

Hey It's Good to Be Back Home Again

...a fire softly burning and supper on the stove...

Last Day in A2

Bye bye State and Liberty Streets.




Bye bye Valley Ranch.

We Broke a Record!

Another absolutely perfectly gorgeous fall football day in Ann Arbor. Another 3:30 kickoff. Another loss.

Another record set by the coach who shall not be named. The record is that for the third year in a row we've allowed our opponents to score 30+ points in three consecutive games. Before this coach's arrival, this had never happened even in a single season in the history of Michigan football, going back to 1879. It has happened three years in a row on his watch. He's a real record breaker.

In a similar vein, consider this:

... a team that knew 40 consecutive seasons of never having a losing record ahead of Rodriguez's arrival. Now it's two consecutive on the other side of the ledger (so far).
One of the autumn's more amazing statistics: Mark Dantonio at Michigan State has now won as many Big Ten games at Michigan Stadium as Rodriguez

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101018/OPINION03/10180376#ixzz12oO2v1aW

Fourth-Quarter Outburst Not Enough in Wolverine Loss to No. 15 Iowa
10/16/2010

Despite 21 fourth-quarter points and nine catches in the game from both Junior Hemingway (134 yards, 1 TD) and Darryl Stonum (97), U-M (RV AP/No. 24 Coaches) suffered a 38-28 setback to Iowa (No. 15 AP/No. 14 Coaches).

Justin and Emily of Wolverine Warriors used our tickets - that was a real bright spot.



Other bright spots - the team did not give up, the defense showed improvement, Tate Forcier rallied the team and played well in the fourth quarter, and the fan whose knees were in my back left early.

Social Day

Hooray for breakfast at Cracker Barrel with friends! We planned to meet Dan there, and were all ready to go when Tim called from Metro and said they were heading our way - so they joined us at the Belleville Cracker Barrel. So hooray for starting the day with Dan, Tim and Susie!

After a couple of hours of lively conversation, we went over to look at the house we lived in when Laurie was born. It was just around the corner, in Quirk Sub. The neighborhood has held up really well - most homes have been added on to and refurbished. I thought our old house looked great.





Then we did some really enjoyable caching on another beautiful fall day. Here are Dick's logs:

10/15/2010 You found SQ - HotTub
We lived and taught in "Da 'Ville" for over 30 years. Many of the names here are very familiar to us. They bring back many memories. Thanks for this unique cache.

10/15/2010 You found Lonesome one
We pulled up and parked along the road and spotted the "Lonesome One" but the "Keep Out" sign on the nearby power pole gave us pause. Made a quick sprint in and out. If we were only there long enough to sign the log does that count as actually being "In" or can we claim we really did keep out?

10/15/2010 You found Quirky
This area brings back a lot of memories to us.
First, a mere 50 years ago, shortly before the birth of our first child, we rented a house on Borgman here in the sub. The houses were built at the end of WWII and sold to veterans for about $6000 with no money down. They featured two small bedrooms, living room, bath, and kitchen on a crawlspace with an unfinished attic. Perfect starter homes for the working stiff. Driving through the area today, you can see that all of them have undergone extensive renovations.
Then,for years, the micro maven taught second graders on this very spot. In time, the school evolved into a senior center before succumbing to the bulldozer.
Many thanks for placing and maintaining a neat hide that gave us a reason to visit here and relive the past.

10/15/2010 You found Take a Break
After breakfast with the Duo and a former co-worker, we said "Goodby" to them and our long time friend and made a short trip from parking. TFTC

In the late afternoon relaxing at home, Melissa P. came over so that Dick could how her how to delete pocket queries from her Nuvi. This really was a "social day".

Bright Day in Brighton

Today we headed up to Brighton to see what caches were up there waiting to be discovered! Guess what? There were several. It was another terrific fall day - just perfect actually. This is my favorite time of the year.

One of the caches (Innovative) was near a big parking lot and an alley. We saw this beautiful fall display set up in that alley - just an ordinary alley in Brighton - I was delighted.



One of our caching friends is called TreePlanter. We noticed that one cache was called Tree Planter by TreePlanter. Naturally, we had to check it out!

Found it 10/14/2010 You found [Traditional Cache] The TreePlanter
What fun! TreePlanter caches are some of our most favorite. This one fit right into our caching schedule this afternoon because after driving up to Brighton/Howell we were on our way back to Ann Arbor by the back roads. It was another brisk and beautiful fall day in southern Michigan. What a fun way to cap it off. TFTC

Some of Dick's logs:

10/14/2010 You found Cruizin' The Avenue #4
Pulled in and found it on our ride. After this grab we decided to take the back roads home. TFTC

10/14/2010 You found Cruizin' The Avenue #3
Just out for a ride on a brisk and beautiful fall afternoon. This time when Nuvi dinged, we pulled over. TFTC

10/14/2010 You couldn't find Scattered Fate - The Sun
GPS put GZ at picnic table but we didn't find it. Expanded the search out 30 - 40 feet but still skunked.

10/14/2010 You found Shrimper's Second
There is so much of Brighton we've never seen before. Part of the allure of geocaching. Took nothing, left nothing. TFTC

10/14/2010 You found The labyrinth
Once again, had it not been for geocaching . . . We wonder what the story is behind the labyrinth. Thanks for showing it to us.

10/14/2010 You found Scattered Fate - The Chariot
We decided to cache around Brighton this afternoon. we knew nothing of this series and will not be able to complete it but it sounds interesting. We have never seen this type of container before. TFTC

10/14/2010 You found "Innovative" Travel Bug Depot
A great urban cache! Thanks for maintaining it. Didn't see any trackables in it so we left nothing and just took some trash. TFTC

Back at Valley Ranch, I couldn't resist photographing these pretty flowers by the mailboxes. This has been a day of beautiful things.

Tom and Ji Ji

She's a real charmer! She speaks a little English - last night when she went to bed she said "Bye bye Tom".







Ji Ji and Daddy Peter:


Tom says she's the luckiest little girl in the world.