Mike
08/17/2009, Deltaville, VA

August 12th.... Deltaville, Va
When we arrived yesterday we found our scuppers clogged with pine needles and water pooling everywhere. It only took a few minutes to drain things, and no damage was sustained, but there was a mess to clean up which we put off until this morning.
In the afternoon we took the courtesy car to pick up some groceries, and opened all the packages that arrived here in our absence. We really didn't accomplish very much.
This morning I hooked up the hose, closed all the hatches and spent about an hour scrubbing our decks. Then, I borrowed a stepladder and went around the boat scrubbing the blue stripe which we've decided has faded way too much to be able to tolerate another year. I removed the Sapphire decal and our MC numbers and have things ready for sanding, which we hope will be tomorrow.
Next, we began the task of removing our toe-rail bedding. Kathy worked on the inside and I was on the ladder working on the outside. It was a slow job and one that we'd been putting off for abut a year, but by mid afternoon we were done and began the process of taping to apply new bedding.
It had been cloudy all day, which kept the temps down to the mid 80's but when the sprinkles became a shower, we changed and drove into Hurds (Hardware Store) for some supplies.
On our return we taped for a while but were rained out again.

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Kathy
08/11/2009, Lowell, Michigan

August 3-10, 2009 Michigan

Not much to say about the last week. We visited in Holland, Lowell, where we had a nice dinner with friends and family, Rockford, Crystal and Carson City, back to Lowell, Holland, White Lake, Lowell, Crystal and Carson City, and Lansing. Most of the time was spent talking and dining with friends and family. When we see the time left winding down we try to cram in as much visiting as possible, knowing we will probably not see most of them for another year.
We found our friends, Jan and Dan, at home and were happy to see them. They were not expecting us and their house was torn apart, as they were working on a project-Jan was in hysterics for a moment-apparently she has never seen a boat in the midst of a project-there is no comparison!
We had a nice afternoon lolling around on Crystal Lake in Debbie and Davey's new boat. Ahhh, boating!
Our friends at our old marina outdid themselves once again, putting on a superb lamb dinner with spinach pie and all the other fixin's. It was delicious. We also slept in a boat that night, thanks to Bill and Darcy.
All in all, we've had a great visit here in Michigan. There are people we would like to have seen more of, and some we didn't get to see at all :(, but it was a pretty good visit.
We are heading back to Deltaville now and I'm sure Mike will resume the blog and it will be all about boat work for the next 3 weeks or so. Hmmmm, wonder if I could come up with a reason to stay behind ? Actually, I think I'm ready to get back.

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Kathy
08/02/2009, Crystal, Michigan

July 21-August 2, 2009 All around Michigan

We finished the first round of appointments and all is well so far.
We stayed with our daughter, Abby, whose husband is in Minneapolis teaching a class for another week. Then we all drove to Holland to see my family and had a picnic at Tunnel Park on Lake Michigan. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. There were lots of people in the water, which they said was warm-69 degrees! We stayed on the warm sand.
We went back to Crystal and helped Dave cut, split and stack wood for the winter. We do stay in their fifth wheel much of the time when we are here, so we didn't mind helping.
We had promised our niece, Becky, that we would watch her children on Wednesday, as the grandparents, (Dave & Kristie) were unavailable. They are usually the Wednesday watchers. We were watching them at Mike's mom's where they are quite comfortable. Mike worked much of the day trimming trees and bushes for his mom with 2 ½ year-old Carter's help. Claire and I played some games in the house, had lunch, and watched a movie. It was a fun day, though busy!
Thursday and Friday found us helping Ellie and Matt with a project to try to keep water out of their basement. We took time to go to a Lansing Lugnuts minor league baseball game. It was a beautiful evening and we had a great time. It was thirsty Thursday, with cheap drinks.
Saturday, it was back to Crystal for the pig roast in the afternoon. This year the pig roast and washer tournament was hosted by our nephew, Jeremy, and his girlfriend, Tabby, at their rental home on Fish Creek. It is actually Mike's brother and sister-in-law's house. (Tom & Pam) It sprinkled off and on, but it was mostly just fine and a good time was had by all. My partner and I came in second in the washers tournament, in which you throw big washers into a box with a can or pvc pipe in the center, scoring points in several ways. My prize was six delicious pork chops-it was a pig roast, remember-and we ate half of them this evening.
We are back at Abby's tonight and going to visit my mom again tomorrow. I have jeans on-it is not warm here.

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