First week home

We have been home for a week and finally settled in to Traverse City Life. We went to the cabin last weekend and it was great to be there and enjoy a beautiful Sunday. Mike floated/fished with Dennis Carney in "the eyes of the river" and they had a great time...actually caught some fish. My garden is almost dead but weathered the summer without me pretty well. The black eyed susans are about done and the picture I included is the last bunch that have good blooms.

Tonight we went to a book premier of The Heart of a Priest. It is the biography of Father Fred. Mike wrote a section regarding the Father Fred Cigar Dinner and was asked, along with other people, to read a portion from the book and say a few comments. He looked great on the stage and did a wonderful job...funny and meaningful comments. The evening was a honor to a wonderful man and the book has many lessons for all of us...it is a good read. Patrick, along with other Hibernians, helped by selling books and tickets....came early, stayed late and worked hard....we are very proud of how hard he works at volunteering in the community!!

Tomorrow night we are going to Interlochen to see the GREAT Jackson Brown...then to the cabin for the weekend. Hope all is well with everyone...Love Kathy and Mike...and Riggs

Traverse city farmers market

Greetings. I have decided to continue on with somef blogs now and then to keep family and friends updated on our activities. Today is a beautiful sunny day in the 70's. Cool enough to sleep really well last night and not too hot during the day...I feel fall in the air. I went to the farmers market this morning and it was teaming with people and produce...saw friends and neighbors and bought lots of great stuff. The sunflowers are beautiful and we drove by field after field of them in North Dakota. The guy at the market said they are the sunflower oil kind...not like these. Got peaches, apples, honey, tomatoes and bread. I have spent the last two days unpacking the Big Bad Boy...finally about done. It is amazing how much we had in there! We are going to the cabin after Mike is done at the store and will be back in TC on Monday afternoon....we need our cabin fix...Love and hugs Kathy and Mike

Home

We made it home today at about 5 pm and Patrick was here to meet us...so nice to have a welcoming hug. The weather has remained cool and we had rain on and off all day as we traveled thru the UP to the bridge....note picture as we traveled over the big mac. The map on the side of the big bad boy is complete for this year with all the states we traveled thru accounted for. We have finally had cool enough weather to both wear our TC sweatshirts that Patrick and Heather gave us for the trip. I have worn mine and got lots of "so you are from TC Michigan" It was a great conversation starter. We have met lots of great people this summer. Fun to talk to and share experiences. Mike and I have enjoyed this trip so much...truly a dream come true. We thank all of you who helped us enjoy our time away from Traverse City.

Lesson for the day: Coming home is great and means you had a wonderful trip...so true!

Kathy, Mike and Riggs

on the way Home

We are back in Michigan!!! The trees are green, the water is blue and big and the temps are low...34 degrees at 9 pm tonight in Ishpming. It feels like fall. We have seen red branches of trees and gray clouds that look like.."snow" but actually held rain. We had spotty showers all day. We added the last sticker to our state map on the side of the RV..given to us by Patrick and Heather...note the empty spot for South Dakota. We will have to work on that next year. We had lunch with cousin Sally "Cookie" Ahnen Kivesto at the Italian restaurant owned by her daughter-in-laws family...The Liberty Bell in Hurley Wisc. It was a great lunch with lots of laughs and looks at pictures. Mike and I then dove thru Hurley with all the Bars...unreal(it was a wild west town during the mining boom in Ironwood and still has tons of bars..5 blocks with 50 bars!!)...and went to the cemetery in Bessmer where Kathryn Ahnen Nolan is buried. Mikes mom. We left flowers and took pictures for the siblings. We then traveled to a campground in Ishpming and will travel the rest of the way home tomorrow...Mackinaw Bridge here we come!

Backroads

This was a back roads day. The GPS routed us across Minnesota on 10 and 200 and then to rte 2. We were on long rolling roads with rolling hills of hay and corn. Little traffic so we made good time...very green!!! Lots and lots of small lakes...too numerous to count or remember the names and many,many farms. Small towns each with several bars and a Lutheran church. The land of the Norwegian bachelor farmers as Garrison Keillor talks about on Prariee Home Companion. We finally got to Duluth which is a spectacular view as you come over the hill and travel down to the lake, bridges and shipping docks. There was tons of construction and not a place to stop for a picture. We then entered Wisconsin and traveled toward Michigan. We stoped in Ashland Wisconsin on the beach of Lake Superior for Riggs to run around. They have a great waterfront with beautiful views, beaches and a trail to follow ..probably along an old rail bed. We are staying near Saxon Wisc in a cornfield campground...50 cents for a shower...himmm

are they only for special occasions? We are headed into Ironwood tomorrow to visit a cousin of Mikes...his family is all from that area. We will visit the cemetery and update ourselves on who is who. Campfire tonight!!

Lesson for the day: Its nice to see lots of big green trees and lots of lakes..almost home!!

Kathy, Michael, and Riggs

North Dakota

Today we traveled thru North Dakota...it is a big state. There are lots of fields of corn, wheat, green growing things(that I do not know what they are) and sunflowers. The hills roll on and on forever with large hills such as in the picture in the background. The weather is cool...in the low 60's and very very windy...I felt like the RV was all over the road. It was very beautiful and we enjoyed the changing vistas.

We saw some crazy signs for roads and got some great laughs. Rough Road (a dirt road..go figure), Home on the Range Road, Camel Hump Lake, Buffalo Gap road, Farm Frontage Road, Local Farm Road and Fort Sauerkraut(how did that name occur??)....and then some great towns...South Heart(were is north, east and west??), Buffalo, Alice, Kathryn and they all have "City Centers"..How big do you need to be to have a city center?? We are at a former KOA campground which is marginal....we see why they are former. Plan to travel US 10, sort of a back road thu Minn to Ironwood Michigan.

Lesson of the day: There is alot in a name

Michael, Kathy and Riggs

Saying Goodbye...on the Road Home

We finished our week in Big Sky with a girls trip to Yellowstone to show sister-in-law Colleen from Norway the park...We stopped and saw Old Faithful, the Firehole waterfall, and saw many other sites...including lots of wildlife. We came home singing the song..."Home Home on the range where the deer and the buffalo roam". You are lucky we did not record it as our harmony was terrible but we had a great time. Michael, Colleen, Kathy and Riggs took a 6 mile hike on the "Grizzly Bear Trail" near the cabin we have been staying at. It was a fantastic hike, and we had bear spray as a precaution...but lucky for us no bears. Everyone is nervous as two people have been attacked and killed in Yellowstone this year. The views were fantastic, some uphill and some downhill so we got our cardio workout. Today we all left Big Sky and traveled our separate ways toward home. Mike and I are now on the eastern side of Montana at Glendive at a campground. We will travel across North Dakota tomorrow and plan to get back to TC on Thursday the 15th

Lesson for the Day: It is sad to leave family...but we look foreward to the next gathering.