John picked up the mail Tuesday-Jo had made her usual weekly trip to the post office on Monday but they had the nerve to be closed for Columbus Day. We received a delightful book about traveling the rivers from Sarah and Benjamin, but the rest of the mail... Wednesday Mary took a few items to the consignment shop then met John at Michigan National Guard Headquarters in Lansing to replace her expired military i.d. John then went home to blow leaves and go on-line to figure out why Mary's Kindle wouldn't power up and Mary went to St. Johns for some girl time to make cards with people she had worked with. She then traveled to Tawas for a loving overnight visit with her parents. They gave her a cute swimsuit cover-up.
Thursday John had his eye exam and we met Kathy and Mike in Midland for dinner:
Friday we drove back to Midland for flu shots at Dow medical then on to Lansing for Mary's 6 month hip check-up. Everything's exactly as it should be, although it is a bit disconcerting to see the threads and the point of the stabilizing screw in the x-ray. We met Jackie and Paul for dinner in Mt. Pleasant (they delivered the beanie baby hippo Janice had bought for Mary back in April) and came home to find an early Christmas gift from Matthew and Christine leaning against the garage door. A spray bottle of natural spider repellant may not seem very sentimental, but boaters know that anything that may reduce the spider population is welcome!
Saturday we enjoyed the best unexpected bonus of this trip home-because the weather has been so conducive to travel, we arrived at Joe Wheeler State Park earlier than expected and changed Mary's hip appointment and came home a week earlier than planned. Our Sarah was here from Boston to celebrate her mother's birthday! She came to our house and we surprised her by celebrating her birthday early, as we will be back on the rivers when it actually occurs:
Sarah took us out to lunch at the new restaurant at the golf course in Shepherd and we immensely enjoyed our time with her.
Sunday we met Jo for brunch in Shepherd. She told us she was meeting with her estate planning lawyer, Sarah, the next week. We had a great visit and discussed many things, but the lawyer comment became relevant when a woman turned when leaving the restaurant to greet Jo. She then glanced at us and stopped short as we all realized that the Sarah who is Jo's estate lawyer is the same Sarah who was Matthew's girlfriend for a few years back in and right after high school. Her dad was with her and we caught up on families and we got to meet her husband Eric when he came back into Jenny's Diner to see what was keeping her.
After lunch we delivered birthday and Christmas gifts to our great-nephews Luke, Nick, and Noah-Jo's grandsons. We had hoped to see the youngest great-nephew on the Leatherman side, but gave Camden's Christmas and birthday gifts to Jo to give to his grandma, John's sister Janice. Mary drove to Bay City to meet her sister, Sue, and exchange hugs with Sue and her daughters, Amber and Sara. Mary had already given Sue and Amber their birthday and Christmas gifts, but sang "Happy Birthday" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as Sara opened her gifts. They presented Mary with a birthday gift-2 bottles of Michigan wine and some dipping pretzels and dip, also Michigan products. We are loving meeting people on our trip, but we do miss those back home.
We can go on a color tour in our own yard:
Monday John drove to Midland to buy oil for the boat and, hopefully, a light bulb. We used our spare back at Joe Wheeler. Mary went to the eye doctor to have new lenses trimmed and installed. This will be the third set of lenses in these year-old glasses. We will not buy anti-glare again. At least they've all been covered under warranty. Spoke to others who have the same problem with the lenses scratching or filming and even those who haven't had that issue don't see that the anti-glare makes much difference. Mary can see the laptop screen better on deck (John doesn't have anti-glare), but that seems to be the only advantage. We don't use the laptop for navigation, so that sure isn't worth the aggravation. Not to mention Mary has to wear her "lined" bifocals, as her last pair of glasses is on the boat and we only have an older pair at home.
We'll pick up a few groceries and some vinegar to dump in the toilets tomorrow, then go to bed early tonight as we plan to be back on the road in the mornng. We borrowed Nevada Barr's 2 books (on cd) set on the Natchez Trace to listen to as we travel. If you like mysteries and national parks, give her a try. She actually is a national park ranger. Oh, yeah, John did manage to reset the Kindle using "help" at Amazon, but he had to "live chat" to get the 3G network working again.
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