Steak Night, Cherries, and a Whole Lot of Miles
June 29 we started a new adventure after an eight-week stay in Findlay.
Our first stop was at Red Gate Garden, a Harvest Hosts location in Newaygo, MI. It is a beautiful private location owned and hosted by Steve and Cindy McCahill. We became friends last winter in Tucson and made sure to stop at the beginning of this chapter of our journey. We had a great time and recommend our RV friends look up Red Gate Garden on Harvest Hosts when they are in the area!
On to our yearly visit with Bob and Mimi Mihaly in Epworth, MI. It is always a fun stay at Epworth, but this year was extra special because their kiddos and their families were there. It had been several years since we had seen them all at one time. Fabulous food cooked up by Michael and, of course, enjoying the sunsets from the porch overlooking Lake Michigan.
Whenever we are home, we work in a trip to Alto, MI, to stay with Ken and Carrie Wurm. We got to spend time with Kendra and her fiancé, Andrew. Unfortunately, we will be in Colorado and miss their August wedding. What a lovely couple. We wish them forever happiness! Of course, Krista and her family popped in. Those little boys are adorable! It was fun to see them all.
We spent several hours walking around Frederik Meijer Gardens. The incredible Chihuly exhibit is in Grand Rapids until November. Meijer Gardens should be on your bucket list!
From Michigan to Indiana! Wabash, IN, is a great town! Bill and Lois Rettig, Tucson wintering friends, invited us to stop by for a couple of days when we headed west again. Lois has one of the most beautiful yards in Wabash! Bill took us on a tour of their town. Modoc's Coffee is named after the most famous elephant in America. He broke loose from the circus in 1942 and went on a rampage through the town. Fun story to Google! We spent an afternoon in Shipshewana. Tim and I have driven past many times but never stopped. Fun spot! Yoder's Meat & Cheese Company was fantastic. Best cheese and liverwurst I've ever had. Can't wait to see them again in February at The Voyager!
We spent a long day driving into Wisconsin to spend a couple of nights with our friends Clair Carty and Sherry Pethers. Sherry is a great chef and made incredible meals while we were there. We played cards and enjoyed lots of conversation. Love their wooded property and log home. Always a perfect stopping point on our route.
We found a Harvest Hosts location in Rochester, MN, that was 10 minutes from my nephew, Andy Kinn, his wife, Sinery, and their beautiful daughters, Natalie and Sophia. We were pleasantly surprised when his sister, Kathy, who was visiting her daughter, husband, and new baby in Minneapolis, came down and spent a day with us. Sinery made delicious lobster rolls for dinner! They have a great home in Rochester, MN. So glad they were home this time. We took advantage of their washer and dryer! Feeding us that well was probably a mistake. We will definitely return very, very hungry for more!
In March, we spent a couple of nights with Brian and Barb Sykora at an Airbnb in Scottsdale. We played lots of Five Crowns. I lost every time! I challenged them for a rematch the next time we were in Minnesota. From Rochester, MN, we made a stop in Deephaven, MN, to challenge them again. I lost every darn time! I think I was the biggest loser in both locations. Even Tim beat me! I won't give up hope that I will prevail next time!
Brian and Barb Sykora
We joined the Findlay Moose last year. If you are a Moose member, you can park your RV overnight at any Moose lodge in the U.S. We stopped at Moose Lodge 302 in Bismarck. We were their first overnight RVers, and they were our first Moose stay! We were greeted by some of the friendliest folks ever! The ladies called themselves "The Lennon Sisters." They are loyal Moosettes! Every Wednesday is steak night, and luck would have it, we happened in on a Wednesday!
It is tradition that when you stop at a Moose Lodge, they give you a Moose license plate to take back to your local lodge. When we got ours and said we were from Findlay, they pointed up to a Findlay Moose license plate hanging above the bar. We spent the evening getting to know this fun group. They recommended we stop at the recently opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library when we headed out the next day. So glad we did! It is another destination you need to add to your bucket list!
Our destination by July 30 is Denver, CO. What to do until then? After just a little thought and surveying my U.S. map, we headed west another 1,077 miles to Flathead, MT. We have spent several cherry-picking seasons with Mike and Heidi at their cherry orchard. We decided we didn't want to miss it this year. They opened the U-Pick season on July 17. We rolled in late that afternoon. The orchard was full of chatter and pickers! Always fun watching the activity! Mike's uncle Dewy, his wife Brenda, and Aunt Marlene come up every year to help. The cherries are delicious! Wish we had room to bring some on the road with us! Typically, the picking goes on for days. They had so many pickers this year that the trees were done in three days! So now we are just hanging out waiting for Mike to get the boat hooked up to take us out on Flathead Lake later today. What a beautiful area of Montana, about an hour from Glacier National Park.
Headed out tomorrow to find more sites to see while heading to Colorado. Curmudgeon will start hiking the Colorado Trail on Aug. 1, from Denver to Durango. More to come when the hike begins.