Friday morning we left Traverse City, Michigan about 9:30 a.m. and drove about 56 miles south on State Route 37, a nice two lane road that passed through the Manistee National Forest, a land of dense trees and few people.

There were a scattering of canoe and kayak rental places along the slow moving Manistee and Pine Rivers, several lakes, some lodges, and a campground or two. I told Miss Terry we need to come back here someday and float the rivers, which really looked inviting. There was little traffic, and we used the occasional passing lane to get over to the right and let everybody get past us.

When we got to U.S. Highway 10 we followed it west 27 miles, through the little communities of Walhalla, Custer and Scottville. At one point Terry spotted two big deer standing on the left shoulder of the highway, and just as she told me to be careful, they bolted across the road right into our path. I had to do some heavy braking to avoid hitting them, and the incident upped our adrenalin level by quite a bit.

When we hit U.S. Highway 31 in Ludington, a divided four lane road, we turned south, and arrived at Fisherman’s Landing Marina and Campground in Muskegon a little after noon. We registered, dumped our holding tank, and backed into the same site we had a couple of weeks ago. As soon as we had water and electric hooked up and the inside of the bus arranged a little bit, we drove over to visit with Rocky and Berni Frees.

We always have a good time with these two characters, and this was no exception. We went out to dinner, and then returned to their apartment to play Mexican Train, our favorite domino game. In addition to their cat, they were babysitting a friend’s Chihuahua, and it was fun watching the two critters playing and chasing each other through the apartment. 

Saturday morning, while Terry and Berni had a girls’ day out, Rocky and I drove to nearby Grand Rapids for a gun show. Folks, I’m telling you, if you had invested your money in firearms instead of giving it to some stockbroker, you’d all be a whole lot better off today! I had quite a large gun collection before we hit the road ten years ago, and looking at how much the same guns I sold back then are going for now really made me hurt. Most are selling for almost double what I sold mine for, and some for even more! Try getting an 80 to 125% return on your investments anywhere else! Plus, playing with guns is a lot more fun than playing with stock certificates!

Of course, you do have to know how to buy them right if you hope to ever sell them for a profit someday. I’m not sure my pal Rocky really understands that concept.

Rocky was looking for a cheap beater shotgun to keep at the place where he parks his motorhome at a cousin’s place in the woods. He found one on a table at the gun show that had a price tag of $100 on it. “Do you think I should buy it?” he asked me.

I told him yes, but to see if he could get a better deal. Rocky asked me what he should pay for it, and I told him to offer the seller $75 or $80 and see what he said. I couldn’t believe my ears when Rocky said to the guy, “Would you take $75 or $80 for it?”

The guy looked at him a second and said “I’ll take the $80.”

We had a good laugh about that when we got in the car, and I had to explain to Rocky that given the option of two prices, you can just about bet that every seller in the world is going to take the higher of the two! If you’re shopping for a new RV or tow vehicle, I wouldn’t advise taking Rocky along to help you negotiate!

Thought For The Day – If you’re born again, do you have two belly buttons?

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Okay, I goofed, and I know it’s my fault. But I’m still mad about it.

A week or so ago we were discussing life insurance, and I logged onto Geico’s website to get a quote. The form I filled out included my telephone number, and ever since I get at least one, and usually two or three, calls a day from someone hustling insurance.

I’ve told them over and over again that I have the information I wanted, and if I decide to purchase a policy, I’ll contact them, but to please not call back. Of course, it does no good. They still call.

Now, I don’t know if Geico is any better or worse than any other insurance company. To be honest, I just choose them because I like their commercials with the cavemen and their cute little gecko spokesman. But if I get one more telephone call, I’m gong to track that pesky lizard down and stomp him flat! Folks, never, ever give out your telephone number!

Thursday night we had terrible thunderstorms that lasted for hours. We have crank out style jalousie windows on our bus conversion, and usually we can leave them open no matter how hard it rains. But this storm brought high winds with it that blew under the windows, and I woke up to rain splashing me in the face.

The storm put on a spectacular light show that just went on and on. Then yesterday afternoon and evening we had several more storms roll through, though they did not last as long. I went outside to take some trash to the dumpster and the ground was just saturated.

It was a good day to be inside writing, and I managed to get a lot done. Meanwhile, Miss Terry decided to put her amazing cooking skills to use, and made us a delicious dinner of shrimp scampi with linguini Romano. Yummy!

Since the television signal kept cutting in and out, we listened to music from our iPod played through the Bose docking system and just had a quiet day, with the only drama provided by the weather.

I’ve only got a few pages left to finish for the new issue of the paper, and we’ll be dropping it off to the printer Monday morning. Then we plan to run over to Muskegon, Michigan to visit with my cousin Berni Frees and her hubby, Rocky, and for a nice birthday dinner for Miss Terry. It’s been too long since we’ve seen Berni and Rocky, and we need a dose of the good natured nonsense that only they can provide. 

Thought For The Day – Enjoying life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning how to play in the rain.

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