Visiting - October 2 - November 6

We stayed with our good friends Lanie & Rhonda (and Teddy) for three weeks in Roanoke, Indiana. We surely appreciated their hospitality. We went to our storage unit, checked on everything there and continued on to Fishers to visit with Lloyd (my brother) and Heidi. We had a very enjoyable time and a really great visit. We got to see Nick and Alec and had already seen Shelley a couple of days before. We worshiped at Huntington Baptist Church which we feel may be where God wants us to serve.

Eric (my other brother) and Martha came up from San Antonio and we spent a couple of days with them.














Then on the weekend Mavis (my sister) and DeVon came for the day from the Dayton area














and Deb and her friend Mary Lois came for the weekend.



















We had a great day of sharing, catching up and having fun at our dad’s.

In the midst of everything we did enjoy a lot of time with my dad playing cards, playing pool, attending the Shrine Band Concert and seeing the musical “Anything Goes”.

Then we started the house work. This is our mailbox and our lot.


(As I write this we understand that they are hanging and patching the drywall). We met with the builder to finalize the plans and with the decorator to choose colors, cabinets, carpets, flooring, brick, handles and even counter tops. Because the choices have already been narrowed down by the home it really wasn’t too difficult. We then did some furniture and appliance shopping. We found what we wanted for dining area, bedroom and sunroom. We will wait for the living room until we actually get there and have everything else moved in. We were originally planning to make a partial week stop in Hot Springs, Arkansas but cancelled that because we needed extra time to look at furniture.

The weekend of October 16-17 was Taylor University homecoming and Bob’s 40th reunion. We enjoyed reconnecting with classmates. We left Indiana on Thursday, October 22 and drove 2 straight days to Grand Prairie, Texas where again we found wonderful hospitality with our friends Jo & David. We were able to see many folks at FBC Grand Prairie even though we were just there for the weekend.

After flu shots and a doctor appointment on Monday, Oct 26 we traveled to Waco to visit with Phil, Susan and James. We also spent one day with our good friends Darrell and Gloria. It was a quick 1 ½ weeks but enjoyable. We left their house on Friday, November 6 and headed to New Orleans.

Michigan - September 25 - October 2

We drove south and west in Ontario and crossed back into the USA at Port Huron, Michigan. On the bridge we could see the Fort Gratiot lighthouse at Port Huron which was constructed in 1829

and had a beautiful view of Lake Huron.

We waited in line for 35 minutes at the border crossing and then it just took 25 minutes for them to clear us. Not too bad considering we have a fully loaded van. Once into Michigan we headed north and stayed at a resort in Boyne Falls about a hour from Mackinac Bridge. The accommodations were only a one bedroom but a very small one bedroom. There was absolutely no counter space and there was not enough light to read by. It was cool and rained for about half of the week. We made a trip into Petoskey which is located on Little Traverse Bay and walked through the town and stopped in many of the shops. We even found a Thai restaurant and had a good lunch. We drove to Charlevoix to see the lighthouse which we found on the end of a pier.

This unusual house was next to where we parked.

There were five wild turkeys walking along the road

and we also saw the black squirrels again.

We spent the rest of our time just relaxing and playing some computer games. We left on Friday and drove to Indiana. My camera doesn’t do justice to the actual beauty of the colors.

Ontario - September 12-25

As we left Quebec we chose to take some roads that were not the interstate type and really enjoyed the drive through the countryside with the mountains and beautiful colored leaves. What was really funny was Ms. Jezebel kept telling “Caution, ferry on the route”. We finally did get to the ferry which crossed the St. Lawrence River from Quebec into Ontario. It cost $8 and took less than five minutes.


The street signs then changed from French/English to English/French. We came into Ontario right near Ottawa. We continued west through Ontario on a highway just north of the major route thus missing Toronto. We crossed the upper edge of Lake Simcoe and then came a little south to the timeshare which was located between Lake Simcoe and the Georgian Bay.

This was a wonderful two weeks. We relaxed and took some day trips. One day we went shopping into Barrie. We took a tour trip into Toronto from the resort. We toured Fort York,

part of downtown Toronto and ate lunch in the revolving restaurant on the 115th floor of the CN Tower.





It was fabulous. We were even able to stand on a glass floor on the 113th floor and look down to the ground below.

Bob wasn’t excited about that part. We also toured a huge mansion built for Henry Pellott called Casa Loma.





It was started in 1911 and took 300 men 3 years to build. We saw black squirrels for the first time. I don’t know if I even knew that squirrels were ever black.

We took a day trip to the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron and were able to see six different lighthouses. We were only able to get a picture of five of them. This was the first an is in the Georgian Bay – Nottawasaga Lighthouse.


We could see Chantry Island Light out on the island as we were parking but the fog was coming in and we knew that a picture wouldn’t come out. In fact in less than 10 minutes we couldn’t see it at all. In Southampton we also saw the front and rear range lights.


This is the Kincardine Light.


This is the Point Clark Lighthouse and the last we saw on this day.



As we took this circular trip we stopped at a farm market and enjoyed these scarecrow creations.






This to our surprise as we entered the town of Meaford there was a sign that invited you to the “scarecrow invasion”.



There were scarecrows everywhere, on all of the light poles, in front of stores and houses, on roofs and hanging over the streets.





What fun! The circular trip ended with a drive through the farming area and back to the resort. There are many more lighthouses to see but that will have to be done on another trip. We think we will be back to this resort. It will only be 500 miles from Warren.

One day there were vendors at the resort with many items. We did buy some items that were made from maple syrup. We spent some time reading and also did some walking. There are ski trails that can be walked to from the resort so we also checked those out. We also did some reading and watched some DVD’s.

September 6 - 12, 2009

We were just here for 6 nights and I caught a terrible cold so we spent the first three days not doing anything. We had a good drive into Canada and it only took ½ hour in customs. Since we have a loaded van we weren’t sure how it would go. We drove through Montreal and to an area in the mountains. The small village is called Mont-Tremblant.

The area we stayed is noted for skiing, hiking, biking and lakes.


It is beautiful and the leaves are beginning to change. We enjoyed seeing a red branch among the green.



We took the gondola up to the top of the village.






I found a store like Build-A Bear.

We also found this Adirondack chair. Bob thought it probably had been soaked in water too long and expanded.

We did cross-stitch, read and watched DVD’s. Well, I am feeling better and it wasn’t a bad week, just different.
The travel day to near Barrie, Ontario was about 8 1/2 hours but a pleasant drive.