BACK IN NORTHEAST OHIO

We are back in Ohio, but not final destination yet. Saturday, July 21st, we arrived at Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds where they have full hook-up.  While there we made connections with Gary's nephew, David and wife Ryka,  who live in that area.

Ryka and David, great to see them!

We met them at Berea Depot Restaurant (a privately owned restaurant) right along the tracks.

Banquets are held in the pullman car.

Entrance

We had a great visit though we thought that they seemed tired after a full day of work following a weekend of tent camping in the rain. Oh, we remember those days many years ago!!
I had worked the better part of that day on our fulltiming spreadsheets. It's amazing how fast I can get behind. I also did a Blog to catch up on those!!

Our Tuesday was slow and we did nothing but loaf and read.  Wednesday, July 25th, we moved on to Painesville Ohio's ELKS and parked in their lot. The most we did while there was check out the local Thrift and Antique Shops, Walmart and had dinner there at the ELKS on Friday, which was great!

We also sat through a rain storm one day and
an evening with black walnuts falling on our roof.
 Guess a couple of squirrels were having fun!
We were amazed at how loud they sounded!!

On Saturday July 28th,  I remembered my next oldest brother, Wayne,  who had lived in Painesville much of his adult life, and also remembering that this would have been his birthday.  We  moved on.  We settled on southeast of there.  We stopped south of the small town of Jefferson, Ohio at Millbrook RV Resort. It was very pretty and clean, so we enjoyed our time there very much.

Our home!!

They had miniature golf, several play areas, with one at a
lake. They also had indoor swimming and an entertainment
building. 

It looked to be the geese's summer home also!!

This all put us so much in mind of our years going to Timashamie southwest of Salem with our camping trailer. Those were good years also! While at Millbrook we drove in to Geneva to meet up with Audrey's cousin, Larry and wife, Betty who live just down the road. We met them at CHOPS Restaurant near I-90 and Rt 534.

Larry, Betty, Audrey and Gary.

You are both looking very well considering all that you have been through in the past few years. And it was awesome to visit and enjoy such good food. CHOPS was a good suggestion!! You take care and we love you both. Hope to meet up with you again while here in northeast Ohio.
Then on Monday, we drove in to Perry, Ohio to visit with Audrey's niece, Cheryl and Audrey's sister, Pearl who is visiting from Indiana.

Cheryl, Gary and Pearl.
Cheryl, doing what she enjoys much, sun bathing.
But the sun soon disappeared!!

It was a great day with lunch at Perry's Family Restaurant. Seems all we've done is eat out. Not a good thing right before our doctor's appointments!! We wanted to stop back at an Antique Mall to re-check the curio cabinet that I thought I might want for the condo, but they were closed. So it will have to be another day!!  Gary went in toward Cleveland to go to Half Price Books only to find them closed. He was dissappointed.
On our way back to Millbrook we stopped at a Farm Market to get sweet corn and found that the fellow there graduated a couple years before us but in Lisbon.  Small world. He introduced us to the fact that there are about fifteen covered bridges in Ashtabula County and many, many wineries. Guess we'll just have to come back to the area!!  We know a couple we have lived in Ohio, AZ and FL with. Esther loves checking out the wineries.  We'll have to see how much time they have on their hands!!
Our last meal out was today when we went in to Jefferson, Ohio to a diner for lunch. Gary had met this couple on RVillage.com. they also brought another couple along who also frequent RVillage  It was a great time of sharing our years of RVing experiences.

Jefferson Diner

Ralph and Gail
Kelly and Julie
Gary and Audrey

Ralph and Gail are from this area and Kelly and Julie are from Colorado. As always, you soon feel like old friends!! We may also meet up with Ralph and Gail in Florida this winter.
After leaving the diner, we just had to go next door to a Consignment Shop. It was awesome and I found some neat things.  I really need to leave the credit cards at home. Oh, but it is such fun and I added to my daughter-in-laws Christmas!!
Tomorrow we will move on to Berlin Center, Ohio where we will be at a campground for the next two and half months.  Not sure how much Blogging I will get done there as we really plan to give the motorhome a good cleaning both inside and out!! Take care!!!

HOLLAND WINDMILL ISLAND GARDENS and BIG RED LIGHTHOUSE in MICHIGAN

Thursday, July 19th, we drove to Holland, Michigan for a tour of America's only authentic working Dutch windmill in beautiful annual and perennial gardens. They also had an Amsterdam Street Organ, which was presently out of order and an Antique Dutch Carousel for kids. It was another full, enjoyable day!! Of course, our first attraction to visit was the Windmill, which we climbed four floors to the deck to listen to the narration of the workings of the mill. They have an authentic certified female mill operator, but we did not see her. The bottom three floor brick section was built here in Michigan because of the need to be above the tree line for the benefit of wind. Trees were not an issue for the original top section when in Amsterdam.

 

The walls were built with bricks placed
on a slant to keep the water from penetrating.

There was also a Carousel for the children to enjoy. 

Note the bee!

I always enjoy the flowers. I worked hard to get the pictures of bees on them.  The bumble bee would not co-operate though. He was too fast!!

Street Organ out of order!!

Leaving the Garden Island, we drove through town to find the Historic Holland Lighthouse, nicknamed, Big Red. It was not open for an inside tour.  The gate keeper to the community only let us in because it was our first time there. I guess it is a gated community!! He also said it was about a quarter mile walk. Ha,ha. Maybe to the end of the community street only.  The walk continued over sand paths. I would bet it was a mile.  Good we didn't know before we began the trek!

The walk along Lake Macatawa to view the beach on the opposite side and the South Channel Pier was also enjoyable.

By time we left there, we were more than ready for lunch at 2pm.  We're talking about the guy who eats at 7 am, 12 noon and 5 pm, hungry or not!! This time we were hungry so stopped at the first place we reached, Burger King!
This ends our fun in Michigan!! Ohio next.