Taking off on Wednesday

Here's the plan.  Wednesday we'll leave Wellington, Ohio, where many years ago I grew up and where we've been staying with my Mom for nearly a month.  We'll head north to Tawas Point State Park (known as "the Cape Cod of the Midwest," says the park website) in Tawas, Michigan.  Tawas Point SP is on a little peninsula in Lake Huron.  We have reservations there for two nights.

Jim asked me to contact a nearby brewery to see if we could park there on night 3, and the brewery said yes.  Now Jim's not so sure that's a good choice.  Bottom line:  We're leaving Wednesday, heading north into Michigan and plan to explore Michigan's upper peninsula.  Then we'll meander west until September 4, when we have reservations at Rainbow Beach Resort on the Coleville Indian Reservation west of Inchelium, WA.  As for our plans after two days at Tawas Point and before September 4 ... those are just penciled in.  We were going to make the trip via Canada, but now maybe not. We'll figure it out on the fly.

To get ready for this leg I've washed the rig, Jim's cleaned up the tow car, and we
both cleaned the inside of the motorhome.  Jim replaced a holding tank vent cap he noticed was missing in Muscatine, Iowa.  We bought a new Verizon MiFi hotspot for our Internet connection (I'm anticipating Internet connection along the upper US to be bad, however, but we'll see).  Today Jim got some prescriptions filled and I bought groceries. 

This past weekend, however, we did more family visiting.  Saturday Jim and I drove to Port Clinton, Ohio, to see Neal, my ... well, technically he's my ex-brother-in law, but the ex in-laws will always be my relatives as long as they'll have me.  EBIL (I guess that's the acronym) Neal and his wife, ESIL Toni, live on the Ohio River in Bellevue, Kentucky, but also have a home in Port Clinton.  Port Clinton is on Lake Erie, almost midway between Toledo and Cleveland.  It’s the gateway to several of Ohio’s Lake Erie Islands, including Kelley's Island, South Bass, and Middle Bass, and is near Cedar Point Amusement Park and wineries. 

(I looked up Lake Erie Islands on Wikipedia and Lake Erie has 28 islands.  I did not know that.  Ten belong to Ontario, one to Michigan, one to both Michigan and Ohio, and the rest to Ohio.  Other sources list even more islands, but I think they are pretty small.)

Toni couldn’t be in Port Clinton, but it was fun talking with Neal and seeing their beautiful home which is rightonthelake.  I mean Right. On. The. Lake.  What a view.  Thanks Neal for hosting us and see you next time, Toni.  Best wishes for the soon-to-be-born first grandchild.

Yesterday we picked up our son, Paul, from his home in Lakewood, Ohio -- a west side Cleveland suburb -- and drove to my brother and sister-in-law's home in Brecksville, which is southeast of Cleveland.  Bob and Suzie had just gotten back from Vermont, where they've vacationed almost every year for decades.  They gave Jim a jar of Vermont IPA jelly and  a four-pack of Heady Topper IPA beer, also made in Vermont.  Jim likes the beer and says it packs a punch.  They jelly we do not yet have the nerve to try.  But we will.

Today is Bob and Suzie's 41st wedding anniversary, so happy WA!

Jim, Bev and Neal.   

Jim with three of Bob and Suzie's seven (at the moment) resident miniature poodles.  Bob and Suzie have raised poodles since they've been married and Suzie for longer than that.  Suzie is retired and an officer in the Poodle Club of America; Bob is a veterinarian.

Son Paul holds the week-old single puppy of one of the poodles, Evilyn.

Digging in to a great dinner of  grilled chicken, corn on the cob (the first Jim and I have had all summer), wild and brown rice and some sort of yummy cake drizzled with lime.  From L to R:  Mom, Jim, SIL Suzie, brother Bob, son Paul.

This is weird but I like the effect.  It's a reflection of me (with Bob and Paul) taking a photo of Mom through a window.  I'm outside on a deck; Mom is sitting in Bob and Suzie's  living room.

Suzie making a point during a discussion with Paul.

A man and his dog.  I can't tell one poodle from the other (except for a brown one named Leroy) but this may be Squirt, who goes to Bob's vet office with him every morning and believes he's the office manager.  Bob, either I got you mid blink or your eyes are weird.