Friends, History, & Great-Grandkids

FRIENDS




As mentioned in previous post, we met our friends for Breakfast, had a GREAT time. And of course, Shirley & Laura needed to visit Mt. Pleasant. :-) Here are a couple more pictures of them.










HISTORY

Now a short, different history lesson. Many years ago, Laura started selling Jewels by Park Lane, working for Shirley. Since our children were the same ages, we became good friends, and had many fun times together. And some not quite so good, sometime ask me about the "drunk on crutches" :-) In 1985, Ted & Shirley witnessed Sam & CJ's wedding on Dec 31, since our anniversary was the next day, we were invited to celebrate New Years Eve with them. We celebrated and stayed at the Marriot Inn. Instant friendship, and New Years Eve became a tradition. Some years it was at one of our houses, others were at different hotels. In 1987, it was the Amway Grand Plaza with Tux, and all the trimmings. Picture of Jerry & Laura, sorry guys, couldn't find the picture of the six of us. Another year, we went to Mt. Pleasant to their Hawaiian Luau, so much fun!

Then Sam & CJ moved to Arkansas, and then Ted & Shirley moved to Florida. But, we have managed to meet in Arkansas, Florida, Tunica, Miss, and of course, Michigan. Thank you guys, for being our friends, we look forward to seeing you again soon.


MORE FRIENDS

Saturday, we drove to Long Lake to visit Sandy & Rudy. We last saw them in Las Vegas 2 years ago, and lots has happened. About 3 weeks ago, Rudy had by-pass surgery, thought I had lied to him about it being an ok event, and now is well on the road to recovery. Of course, we had to compare scars! Oh, and my pillow is bigger.


GREAT-GRANDKIDS


Sunday, we drove to Hart for dinner, and a chance to see Paula, Bart, and the five kids. Austin, Tori, & Logan have grown sooo much in the 2 years, 9 months since we saw them. And Madi & Gabby are just precious. Needless to say, we had a great time with them. As Paula mentioned in her blog, we had a cake for Logan's birthday, and Dad, Grandpa, & Great-grandpa went to the playground with the kids. I will post 4 pictures, 1 of the family, 2 of the kids sliding down the big slide together and one of the biggest kid as he is falling off the slide after showing the others how "not" to do it. :-) Then back at the house, still playing, trying to keep up with all that young energy. Now I know why I had MY kids when I was young. We are looking forward to spending more time with them all in a couple of weeks.



















BTW - Did I mention that the Red Wings defeated the Dallas Stars for the Western Conference Title, and lead the Stanley Cup Finals 2 games to none????

We return to Michigan

So finally we return to Michigan on Friday, May 16. Sure enough, Fri nite we have a thunderstorm, and it rains again Sat afternoon!! Ahhh, but then Sunday the sun comes out. We drive to Hart to have dinner with Cindy, Mom & Dad Ruder. Then a nice drive to Pentwater so we can see Lake Michigan for the 1st time in nearly 3 years. Monday am, 34 degrees (brrr), Tues, 37, highs low 60's. Welcome to Michigan. :-)

Tuesday, friends staying in Big Rapids come for lunch. Sam & CJ from Arkansas, Ted & Shirley from Florida. The six of us used to do New Year's Eve together. It is good to see them again, 1st time since Oct of 2005. Tomorrow, we will visit them in Big Rapids.

Rain Rain, Go Away !!!!

12 days we have been in Indiana, and it has rained 8 of those! Sunshine, what is that???

So tomorrow, we will return to Michigan after nearly 3 years. We are looking forward to seeing Family & Friends. But, we sure would like to see some nice, Spring weather! Our itinerary has been updated, please feel free to make any suggestions for changes. We are pretty flexible with our travel plans.

Expect to see any & all of you soon!

Mother's Day in Indiana

The pictures are of the site of our Mother's Day Brunch at White Oaks, and our cook & waitress, Ron & Linda. We met them at Valley Vista in Benson this winter. Ron prepared a delicious breakfast casserole for us. This afternoon, we will also attend the Mother's Day Dinner in the Beachfront Cafe.

White Oaks has some of the nicest facilities we have seen. 1500 foot sandy beach, beachfront cafe, heated pool, jacuzzi, game room, coffee shop (picture), ice cream parlor, and a dinner club/ballroom.

Weather is rainy, so will not stray far from the park. Hopefully, we will get some sunshine the next few days.

Chanute, KS and Octave Chanute

Another history lesson.

With settlers arriving as early as 1856 and the railroad set to arrive shortly thereafter, the early residents of the area needed an innovative solution to an escalating dispute between the towns of Tioga, Chicago Junction, Alliance, and New Chicago. With each town vying for the right to house the LL&G Railroad’s new land office, a compromise was needed to settle the dispute. However, the towns were unable to settle their differences until an individual by the name of Octave Chanute came to town. Octave was the Chief Engineer and General Superintendent of the LL&G Railroad. In 1872, he suggested the towns merge together to end the bickering. On January 1, 1873 the towns merged and became chartered as the City of Chanute.

However, Octave Chanute should be remembered for another history-making event. He moved to Chicago in 1889 and began working on solving “the problem of the ages” – heavier-than-air flight. He corresponded with men all over the world interested in flight. He gathered all the information he could find, looking into records of experiments going back 300 years. In 1891, he wrote a series of articles, which were republished in the book, Progress in Flying Machines.
Progress in Flying Machines made Octave Chanute the world’s first aviation historian, but, more importantly, for the first time experimenters could read of work done before them and not have to waste time by repetition.

In 1896, at the age of 64, Chanute began to actively experiment with gliders along the shores of Lake Michigan near Gary, Indiana. During his glider experiments, he developed the biplane. His biplane design was so successful that it underwent few changes during the next 50 years. It was the Chanute Biplane that the Wright Brothers modeled their Kitty Hawk after. The Wright Brothers received their copy of Octave Chanute’s book personally in 1899 from the author, who became both their friend and advisor. At their invitation, Chanute visited the Wrights at Dayton, Ohio, and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and it was Octave Chanute who, at a meeting in December, 1903, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science announced to the world that the Wright Brothers had flown in a heavier than air machine.

I'm Mad As H...!! - Part 2 - Whew

So we left Chanute, KS Sat am, windy but able to drive ok, across MO, stopped in Bowling Green. Sunday am, temp 35, furnace won't work! Ok, hit the road, stop for breakfast. Half way accross Ill, stop to check things out, tires on right side only 1/4 inch apart. Short story, stopped at Sears, one tire has a cut on the inside, should have blown out, but for some reason didn't, WHEW! Put spare tire on, and continue, arriving in Monticello, IN that evening. So now we are in our membership park, White Oaks, and seeing several people that we met in Benson, AZ. They are volunters at White Oaks for the summer. BTW, did I mention, the furnace worked this morning just fine, go figure!!!! Going to just relax for a few days before heading up to Michigan. Gee, only been 2 1/2 years since we have been there. :-)

I'm Mad As H...!! - Part II - Update

Repairs are done! Visited the factory in Chanute, KS early Wed, put on waiting list for drop-in repairs. "No guarantee, maybe Friday". Sure enough, call late Thurs, be here at 7:00am. Picked trailer up around 1:00, repairs done, but with 20-30 mph winds, higher gusts, went back to campground for another night. The campground here is part of the city park, electric & water hook-ups, dump station, restrooms. Cost - first 48 hours FREE, $10/nite thereafter!! Several ball fields, lake, playground, golf course next door.

We got to meet several of our neighbors last night, huddled in the Men's bathroom for some 2+ hours, as tornado sirens kept going on & off. At least 3 tornado warnings issued for the county during that time. As far as we know, only 1 confirmed tornado just west of town. We were lucky, Arkansas had 7 deaths from the same storm system. Another front came through around 2 am, lightning, thunder, RAIN, wind. Today, neighbors reported seeing a couple of cars in town with fresh HAIL damage. Soooo, tell me again why I am in Kansas Tornado Alley!

Tomorrow, we will head for Indiana, try to stay between storm systems. More later.