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Old 08-12-2021, 10:17 AM   #7061
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Biggby Coffee is delicious, and I not only got a to-go cup but some ground to add to my coffee stash.

Always have plenty of fresh water, propane, a small pantry of staples…and plenty of coffee.

Checked into Brimley SP, I pulled into their day use area to walk Lily and wait while my site was vacated, a very nice couple in a MB van they had had custom made came over to visit.

Retired, about my age and traveling in a similar manner, I of course told them about HistoriCorps and we shared favorite camping sites and areas.

They had never heard of Drummond Island, but are now going there next.

I have met really nice people this trip.

This is the most tightly packed state park campground I believe I have ever been in, and full up.

But, we had a reservation in anticipation of the Lighthouse project, and are right across from a bathhouse.

No dogs on the beach, however.

Maggie
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Old 08-14-2021, 07:52 AM   #7062
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While the swimming beach here does not allow animals, there is no prohibition along the more narrow stretches of sand that border the campground.

So, we are having a dose of lake time along with our more inland campsite.


A little bakery in Brimley, where I indulged this morning in a fresh cinnamon roll, also bakes these for our four-legged friends.

Pumpkin, natural peanut butter, and a little cinnamon.
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Old 08-15-2021, 10:32 AM   #7063
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Had to drive back into Soo to do laundry this morning, tho not that far and worth it as Up North Laundry has many washers and dryers, is very clean and reasonably priced.

Made a stop at Dancing Crane Coffee House, which I was told was a must-do in this area, and we are now hanging out where there is signal until I am able to talk with my daughter here after awhile.

We are overlooking the beautiful beach area at Bay Mills, and I thought about walking down there but it is sooooooo steep and nothing to hold on to….tho I could slide down on my butt if I took a notion to, I decided not to do that.

I had not realized this entire area is an Ojibwa Indian Reservation.

From where we are parked, I have been hearing some kind of broadcast coming from a nearby residence, and now tribal drumming.


I have been reading this week “East of Eden”, by John Steinbeck, which I finished last night, and enjoyed it so much that I may just read it a second time before I go on to a different book.

I’m sure I read this at some point in the past, in high school or college English classes, but I am impressed anew that the man really has a way with the written word.

Makes me want to read again everything he has ever written.
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Old 08-21-2021, 11:25 AM   #7064
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My first HistoriCorps session at the Point Iroquois Lighthouse ended mid-day yesterday.

Had a great group and good leaders, Lily was the only dog and we had a very busy, productive week.

Partnering with the Hiawatha National Forest, they have a couple of guys imbedded in our project who are locals and have been just wonderful to work with.

Project Supervisor John Beaty and Crew Leader Erin Crooks have been awesome supervisors and work partners, very skilled and patient in their instruction…I appreciate them.

I have seen some ugly group dynamics in my time with the SOI and since, and it is always soooooo gratifying to see the reverse be true.

Paint remover application, paint removal, neutralizer application, power washing, repainting with a more brick-friendly paint and some masonry repair work on the stone wall surround that is made of Lake Superior rock.

Alarm going off at 5am, not done with dinner chores until 7:30pm or so made for very long and tiring days, but it has been a great week on Whitefish Bay.

Used my solar suitcase each afternoon to top off my battery, worked just as advertised.

Spent last night at our campsite, cleaning the Interstate and readying to spend today a day and night in town, also picked up whitefish baskets for those of us remaining for dinner last night. Yum.

Didn’t take a single picture, but others did, so when those are shared I will post a few here.


Going back to our campsite on the lake tomorrow morning, have offered to do some cleaning of coolers et al before Erin returns tomorrow afternoon with food for the next work session.

When you see something that needs to be done, and you can do it, offer to take care of it.

Am going to make skillet bread one night for dinner and show Erin how to do biscuits in a skillet, she then will make sausage gravy for breakfast one morning…always a hit, in my experience.

Been a very satisfying week, and all is well.

Maggie
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Old 08-27-2021, 03:58 PM   #7065
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Second verse, same as the first.

Week 2 at the lighthouse was pretty much the same…same kinds of tasks, very busy, very long days, but very good.

Another good work group, people from all over the country have come together to spruce up this lighthouse.

Many people stopped every day to ask what we were doing, about HistoriCorps and to thank us for our work.

I have some pictures on my phone that are slowly loading to ICloud, and will post some in a day or two when better signal has allowed them to complete.

Back at the Casino RV park for the night, to clean, do laundry and catch up a bit on the news.

Eric Drake, one of the Forest Service staff working with us…who is an archeologist, I just found out…made me this spoon from plum wood, for my cooking efforts on behalf of our group.

He also has one for Erin, our crew leader. What a nice gesture.

Temps dropped bout 20 degrees here overnight, and it started raining early afternoon.

Cold and wet…yippee.

Heading East in the morning.
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Old 08-27-2021, 04:03 PM   #7066
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The Point Iroquois Lighthouse, where I have spent the past two weeks.

One more session there this year, then the plan is to do the tower next year…
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Old 08-27-2021, 05:04 PM   #7067
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Loving the spoon. Useful, thoughtful and full of memories.
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Old 08-27-2021, 05:19 PM   #7068
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It really is beautiful.

I’ve never seen anything made out of plum wood before.

Eric is the same age as my son, my oldest child, and we had an immediate rapport.

It has been a summer full of good people, and I am grateful.

Tho I have to say, these projects as Kitchen Helper are busy, long days.

I baked skillet bread twice, which was very well received.

Maggie
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Old 08-28-2021, 01:58 PM   #7069
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Got the laundry done, tanks emptied, fresh water topped off, Interstate cleaned/tidied and a few things picked up at the WalMart in Soo before hopping on I75 and heading south this morning.

6 hours on the road, up to 90 degrees outside and we are now in a shady spot at a rest stop until tomorrow morning.

I have not stayed at a lot of rest stops, but there weren’t many options around here and I don’t see a “No Overnight Parking” sign…so, we’ll see how the night goes.

Have my eye on a Blue Beacon with an undercarriage wash for first thing in the morning.

We did over the last two weeks a lot of slathering on of paint remover, covering it with this paper and then scraping it off the next day…before cleaning and pressure washing prior to painting with two coats of a more brick-friendly paint.

Also mortar repair and repointing on various areas of the rock fence that completely surrounds this lighthouse.

I learned repointing at my first HC project, and am pretty good at it, if I do say so myself…I did three sides of this particular one.

After it has set for a few hours, John goes at it with a stiff bristle brush to roughen it up a bit and make it look less “new”.
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Old 08-29-2021, 03:56 AM   #7070
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We spent a quiet night in this rest stop, the necessary vent fan masking traffic noise quite nicely.

I’ll keep these in mind for the future.

Maggie
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Old 08-30-2021, 04:10 AM   #7071
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Made it to western PA mid afternoon yesterday, even with a stop at Blue Beacon for a good scrub of the Interstate , and where we are now settled in for a few nights to visit with a friend before heading on to NY.

It has been a pell-mell couple of days.

I have some more photos from the lighthouse to post, but can’t get them downloaded into my Photos…tho I have data saving mode turned off, it appears my IPad is using it anyway.


I finished “The Girl From The Island” by Lorna Cook last week, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...rom-the-island, which was excellent, and am now into “Wayfaring Stranger” by James Lee Burke, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...aring-stranger, also excellent.

This passage last night struck me…it is all too true.
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Old 08-30-2021, 04:51 AM   #7072
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After reading many of your posts over the years, I just noticed you are from Normal. It's a very popular town amongst Rivian fans!
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Old 08-30-2021, 05:31 AM   #7073
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Yes!

Rivian returned a lot of jobs to our area after Mitsubishi Motors left.

Maggie
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Old 08-31-2021, 08:58 AM   #7074
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My friend and I were having a very nice visit until she called me at 11pm last night, was having a medical emergency and I called an ambulance to take her to the hospital.

She is stable but not yet targeted for discharge, and we have temporary custody of her little dog, Shaggy.

I left him kenneled in her little RV overnight, rather than having both of them in my bed at 1am while I was trying to get a little more sleep.

I walked her little guy early this morning, fed him, and then brought him in here…told Lily to be nice, his mama was sick so we had to take care of him for awhile, and that was the end of that.

No problems, we’ve had a pack walk, everyone has pottied and they are peacefully coexisting.

Her daughter is on her way to pick up the dog and little RV, and drive it back to her house.

I remember vividly when Doug was stricken in our campground in St. Mary’s, GA, and the neighbors who helped with CPR and offered to care for Lily while I went in the ambulance with him.

It’s what we fellow travelers try to do…take care of each other when emergencies strike.
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Old 08-31-2021, 09:03 AM   #7075
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“Wayfaring Strangers” is one of those books I find hard to put down, and will put on my “Read Again” shelf when I am done.

Part of a series, I will have to read the rest.

This author has personally known truly vile people, in my opinion, as he really hits the nail on the head when he describes their behavior.
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Old 09-01-2021, 01:25 PM   #7076
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Originally Posted by Lily&Me View Post
My friend and I were having a very nice visit until she called me at 11pm last night, was having a medical emergency and I called an ambulance to take her to the hospital.

She is stable but not yet targeted for discharge, and we have temporary custody of her little dog, Shaggy.

I left him kenneled in her little RV overnight, rather than having both of them in my bed at 1am while I was trying to get a little more sleep.

I walked her little guy early this morning, fed him, and then brought him in here…told Lily to be nice, his mama was sick so we had to take care of him for awhile, and that was the end of that.

No problems, we’ve had a pack walk, everyone has pottied and they are peacefully coexisting.

Her daughter is on her way to pick up the dog and little RV, and drive it back to her house.

I remember vividly when Doug was stricken in our campground in St. Mary’s, GA, and the neighbors who helped with CPR and offered to care for Lily while I went in the ambulance with him.

It’s what we fellow travelers try to do…take care of each other when emergencies strike.

And care for a fellow traveler comes full circle.....


Well done, Maggie!
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Old 09-01-2021, 01:36 PM   #7077
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Hi you two, and that was exactly my thought…it’s my turn.

Her daughter and granddaughter arrived yesterday afternoon to pack up her rig and drive it home, also the little dog that Lily tolerated remarkably well.

I believe she understood my tone, and responded accordingly.


My friend is still in the hospital, tho doing okay her presenting issue is unresolved.

We just never know what may sideline us, when or where.

I’m glad I was there, that she was not off by herself somewhere.


After some errand-ing this morning, we began to head east toward my daughter…Ida-generated rain turned to heavier and heavier rain, and then a few hours in the weather alarm on my phone went off…serious risk of flash flooding in our area, nobody should be driving anywhere unless fleeing a flood.

That was enough for me, so I pulled into the high ground in a rest area and here we will sit until the morning, by when rain is expected to stop.

And we will continue on.

Maggie
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Old 09-02-2021, 11:06 AM   #7078
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The heavy rains stopped sometime during the night, so we were back on the road early this morning.

No sooner onto the interstate than a semi was overturned in the median, then a miles-long, creeping pass by what appeared to have been a head-on collision between a pickup truck and another semi.

No rescue vehicles at either, the accidents appearing to have occurred awhile before we came along…likely in the torrential rains of the previous night.

All bodies of water we passed were very high and rushing fiercely, but we came across no flooded roads and made it to a campground near my daughters without incident.

No more driveway camping there because…ahem…of the pit bull which resides there that attacked Lily two years ago.

So, we will stay put and visit over the holiday weekend, then begin a southerly meander home.

Maggie
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Old 09-07-2021, 04:41 AM   #7079
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Have enjoyed my visit with darling daughter and we will be on the road towards home this morning.

Have been at the Winding Hills county park campground near Montgomery, NY, since Thursday morning, where I have stayed several times before but will never again on a holiday weekend.

Reservations required and full payment in advance, there were easily 250+ people with lots of children in this 51-site campground, 3-5 tents per site were not uncommon and a couple of very large groups were here with 10 or more vehicles all crowded into two adjoining sites.

Some noise at night was pretty well masked for me by the vent fan running, but it was loud and non stop during the day particularly from the group across the road whose preferred method of communication seemed to be shouting.

There’s apparently a group camping area somewhere out here, but no limit on the number of camping units per site and however many could fit in one site seemed the norm.

Yikes.

And Saturday there was no hot water in the bathhouse into the afternoon, dismissed by the young ranger I reported it to as being due to the large number of people in the campground…”you’re not the first person to report this, but there are a lot of people here using the showers, more than we knew were coming”.

Ummm. Only when I pressed him on this, as even when no one was in the bathhouse there was not even warm water, did he determine the water heater was not functioning…because it had run out of propane.

Then, absent from my site for about 6 hours on a day trip yesterday, I returned to find my 30 amp power cord and chair were gone. A first.

The cord had been carefully wrapped around the post, and I was paid up through today.

People were up and about and packing to leave when we left about 9am yesterday, and I’d been gone a couple of times during my stay without a problem.

The Rangers reported they had not removed them, but seemed unsurprised and unconcerned that they had disappeared during my absence.

So, I made a theft report to the Sheriff’s department, and the very nice Sergeant who took it told me these are not “Rangers” here in the usual sense of the term but staff responsible for bathrooms, mowing and other maintenance in the park.

No camp host or person with any authority present during this long holiday weekend…in a county campground packed to the gills with people, no one making regular rounds of the campground.

A beautiful and generally well maintained place in a heavily wooded area, and they must rake in a lot of money on these holiday weekends, but the neglect of any kind of order and oversight was surprising.

It is difficult to understand from a management perspective, also that these very loud groups seemed unconcerned that they were inflicting their experience on everyone else.

Many people walking around and complaining about the excessive noise day and night, and I hope they have used the “contact us” link on the campground page to voice their concerns.

Rant over, but be forewarned.


My friend left the hospital Sunday morning, having a rough week but doing much better at this time.

It’s really been a good summer, the last week’s issues the exception, but I’m looking forward to getting back to the little house, seeing the grands, etc.

Good to be able to travel, always good to get home.

Maggie
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Old 09-07-2021, 01:53 PM   #7080
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We had a long day of driving, even back roads seemed filled with cars and trucks of all kinds.

I am in a large shopping center parking lot for the night, as the Walmart I stopped at did not have a power cord, only an extension cord.

We may be booted out of here in the night.

Before I met up with my friend in Pennsylvania, my radiator light was on on the dash, and a stop at a Napa determined fluid was low.

The light came back on today, and I’m going to top it off again in the morning from the gallon I bought a week or so ago…because the guy showed me the where and how.

I had a new radiator and hoses in February, but something is apparently slowly leaking.

No overheating going on, as I’m watching that carefully.

Sigh. My luck seems to have turned.

Maggie
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