The forecast for today was for cloudy conditions in the morning changing to partly sunny in the afternoon with seasonally cool temperatures; a perfect fall day for our afternoon visit with Bill, Karen, Mike, and Catherine at the Jellystone Park Campground Resort in Frankenmuth, Michigan.
After our usual morning routine of feeding the cats, eating breakfast, and drinking our coffee while reading and writing, we showered and dressed for the day. We were going to work in the bus on the installation of the desk but decided we did not have enough time and did not want to feel rushed. We want the installation to be just right the first/only time.
I used some of the morning to continue studying the manual for the new Sony a99v DSLT camera and some of it to put the finishing touches on the FMCA Freethinkers chapter roster and e-mail it to the other officers and members of the nominating committee. I also got a text message from Chuck inquiring about local service options for the Cruise-Air air-conditioners we have in our buses. I replied that ours have only been serviced by Butch Williams who is five hours away in Twelve Mile, Indiana when he and Fonda are not in the desert southwest.
We left at 11:15 for Frankenmuth. We took Linda’s car so she drove. We stopped at the new Meijer’s in Birch Run for bottled water, grapes, and pretzels. M-83 was down to one lane and we had a bit of a wait at the temporary traffic signal. I called Bill to let him know we were there and he was waiting for us out by the road when we arrived at the park at 12:15 PM.
Bill and Karen Gerrie’s 1965 GMC transit bus conversion. They estimate that it will turn 1,000,000 miles in 2015.
Karen had found peanut butter pretzels and had a nice platter of fresh fruit that included sliced kiwi, strawberries, orange segments, and grapes. She made tea for both of us and we settled in to chat. Bill and I took up stations at the dinette while Linda and Karen sat on the “Chesterfield.” We chatted away until 2:30 PM, and somewhere in there Karen made cups of hot coffee. It was a cool day outside but warm and cozy in their rig. Bill and Karen have a mid-60s GM transit bus that they acquired and converted in the mid-80s. They have been coming to the Frankenmuth Jellystone Park from their home in Ontario, Canada for as long as they have had the bus. It is 50 years old this year and Bill figures it has traveled a million miles between its commercial service and life as a motorhome. Bill did a nice job with the conversion and it has held up very well over the years
The River Place shopping complex in Frankenmuth, Michigan. It’s built to look like a small Bavarian village center.
At 2:30 PM we drove over to the River Place outdoor mall and walked around”. River Place is one of the newer developments in Frankenmuth but stayed with the “fantasy Bavarian village” theme of the town in a really nice way. It is compact complex of buildings arranged with narrow, winding pedestrian corridors that occasionally open up into small plazas. The façades are all faux Bavarian with the appearance of being two or three stories tall, increasing the sense of being “in” the village.
After checking out River Place, and buying a small bag of jalapeño flavored popcorn, we ambled all the way to the other end of the Main Street shopping district and back. Along the way we stopped in lots of stores and bought a few things at the health food store that we cannot usually find locally. The light was wonderful and I captured a few images with my old Sony a100. I did not bring the new Sony a99v as I was not ready to use it.
This paddleboat travels a short ways up the river and back. The cascading waterfall is man-made. The covered bridge in the background handle automobile traffic going to the Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn on the other side of the river from Main Street.
We got back to Bill and Karen’s bus at 5:15 PM and sat for a while before going to dinner at 6 PM. Mike and Catherine joined us for dinner and we walked next door to the Black Forest restaurant. Our dinner choices were very limited but they had a flatbread pizza on the menu so we tried that with mushrooms and onions, hold the cheese. The tomato sauce was surprisingly spicy and it made for a decent vegan pizza. Our side salads were simple but the ingredients were fresh and the whole meal was quite acceptable, made better by the company of friends.
By the time we walked back to Jellystone Park it was 8 PM. We visited with Bill and Karen until 9 PM and then took our leave. We probably won’t see them again until the 2016 GLAMARAMA Rally in Goshen, Indiana. We stopped at the Meijer’s in Birch Run to fill the fuel tank and were still home by 10 PM. Although I would normally handle night driving I was sleepy so Linda drove us home.
Bill and Karen pose for their “dancing Bavarians” photo op.
When we entered the house we were not greeted by our two cats. We called but they did not come. This is unusual behavior for them and usually means they are up to something, with the odds highly in favor of something having to do with a mouse. We found Juniper in the basement “guarding” the folded up corner of one of the throw rugs and I spotted a small, motionless mouse partially concealed by the rug. It was dead, which is why she wasn’t carrying it around in her mouth playing keep-away with me. Linda got a small plastic zip lock sandwich bag and I used it to pick up the mouse and seal it inside before putting it in the garbage.
Jasper was nowhere to be found. In looking around the basement a second time Linda noticed that one of the boxes we keep on the window sills behind the sofa in the recreation room had fallen on the couch. That was a sure sign that Jasper was up in the suspended ceiling. He has gotten up there before via that window sill and the boxes were there to keep him from gaining access to that space. Apparently they were not the deterrent we thought/hoped they were. We called for him and eventually he responded verbally. He then stuck his head around the edge of the ceiling and looked at us upside down. He eventually decided it was safe to come down but seemed unsure of how to accomplish that. I moved the other box on that window sill, stepped up onto the arm if the sofa, and helped him down onto the sill, into my arms, and then onto the sofa. In some was he is just a big baby.
We had no way of determining whether he stayed up there because he wanted to or because he wasn’t sure how to get down but regardless was rather insistent on getting attention from us. That desire for contact and comfort followed us into bed until he finally gave himself a bath and then curled up next to me to go to sleep. I worked on this post for a while and then turned the lights out.