A Day in Rochester Hills, Michigan

After having breakfast at the hotel we were on the road around 9:20 am so we could get to Jackson, Michigan for the 10:30 am mass at St. John the Evangelist church.  It was a nice, older church and the music was incredible.  They had a flutist play with the organist and a large choir that sounded just beautiful.  I'm not sure if it was the acoustics of the church or if everyone was singing but the voices just seemed to echo in the church.  It was very nice.

Tanya and Karen

After church we had about another 90 minutes to get to Karen and George's house.  Karen is Tanya's good friend from University and though they only see each other once or twice a year at most they also start up where they left off.  Karen and George have a one year old named Georgie who the kids enjoyed taking turns playing with him.

Playing Ball with George

It was another really hot day so we spent the afternoon in the backyard playing games.  We played some softball, basketball and football and had a great time.  We needed to take a lot of breaks because the heat was so thick.  The kids really enjoyed trying to impress George with their different abilities.

Georgie and Andrea cool off in the pool

The kids love spending time with George

Karen prepared us all a lovely supper and then after things were cleaned up she and Tanya took Georgie for a walk around the neighbourhood while the rest of us played horse at the basketball hoop.  After we got all the kids to bed we had a chance to talk to them about our trip and they filled us in on what has been going on in their lives.  This is some of the greatest things about this trip, getting to spend time with great people and great friends.

Andrea, George, Natalie and David

Another neat thing that happened this evening was that I had gone out on the back deck to make a few phone calls and I heard a rustling in the bushes next to me.  I turned around to see this deer eating the leaves on the trees.  It couldn't have been more than 15 feet away from me.  It stuck around for the 20 minutes or so that I was out there.

George and Francois

Tomorrow will be a shopping day as we head to Frankenmuth to the largest Christmas store and a bunch of factory outlets.  We will probably make our way back into Canada tomorrow with some plans to visit Niagara Falls and then to visit my brother Michel and his family.  Good night.


Francois

Three States in Two Hours

The Waterpark

The kids were excited for the day to begin as we were heading into Lake Geneva with Chad, Jenny and the boys.  We starting the morning packing up our van again after having a wonderful visit in Franklin - it was great for us to have a chance to socialize with adults and for the kids to have other children to play with.  

David decided he wanted to travel to Lake Geneva with Chad, Jenny and Brandon so Mathieu joined the rest of us in the van.  He enjoyed playing Travel Bingo with Natalie and Andrea along the way.  Andrea explained how to play the game and Mathieu was excited to tell us when he got a line or two.

David tries to spray Brandon

We arrived at the water park shortly after 11:00 and the kids were ready to go.  This park had two huge indoor slides:   one was a flume ride and the other was a body slide.  The kids enjoyed having races to see which slide was the faster one.  There were also smaller slides and a rope monkey bar, which the girls really liked. 

Mathieu and Andrea enjoy the lazy river

We also enjoyed the outdoor pools at the water park, the water was nice and refreshing in the summer heat.  The temperature gauge showed 32 degrees, it was certainly a hot day!

Down the flume ride

Chad, Jenny, Tanya and Francois

We had a later lunch of yummy pizza and stayed at the water park until 3:00pm.  The kids would have stayed a lot longer, but we needed to make our way toward our next destination.  We said our goodbyes to Chad, Jenny and the boys.  We had a great visit and thanks so much to them for making us feel so welcomed during our staying in Franklin.   Special thanks goes out to Uncle Gerald in Miramichi who provided lots of suggestions of things we should do while visiting Wisconsin.

Saying goodbye to the boys

We made our way through the next three states in record time.  Lake Geneva is close to the Illinois border, and in no time we were driving by the city of Chicago.  The drive was going great, but then we saw lots of brake lights come on in front of us and then one police car and three fire trucks zoom by on the outside lane with their sirens blaring.  The kids were all excited with the activity, but Francois and I knew this could mean a delay in our travelling if the accident was too serious.  We were delayed about 30 minutes, which isn't too bad.  We also saw the two vehicles involved in the accident, not sure if there were any serious injuries or not.

Natalie just hanging out

The next state we crossed into was Indiana - we were only in the state for a short amount of time before we crossed into Michigan.  We stopped at the Visitor Information Centre, but it closed at 5:30pm.   We had supper and the kids had a chance to use up their energy as there was a playground nearby.   We also realized we lost an hour as we switched to Eastern Time Zone.   There were not too many campgrounds where we were travelling so we decided to drive a little extra and stay in a hotel for the night.   We haven't driven too many times at night and I was a little nervous as we had seen a deer and a wild turkey on the road just before dusk.  Mathieu had told us there was wild turkeys, but I thought that was only in Wisconsin.  I guess they are wild in Michigan too. 


Tomorrow we head towards Detroit to visit a good friend from university, Karen and her family.  We are all looking forward to this visit.


Our time in the USA is dwindling down, it is hard to believe we have a few more nights before we cross back over into Canada.  


Take Care
Tanya

Milwaukee's German Fest

Chad and Tanya - First Cousins

Another glorious day today and it was started with a nice run through Franklin, Wisconsin.  Actually, both Tanya and I took the time to get out for a run and I know my body wasn't long reminding me that I haven't been doing this that often on the trip.  The last time I ran was almost a week and a half ago when we were in California but it felt good to pound the pavement.  It was quite warm though, I'm sure it must have been around 25C at 7:30 am.

After we got ready for the day we made our way to the library to get some books, do some research and enjoy some family time.  Natalie got herself a stack of books and was very happy that Jenny could borrow some books for her so that she could read some new material while we're here in Franklin.  After the library we went back to Chad and Jenny's place for some lunch and then played oustide for a bit before heading to Germanfest.

David borrowed Mathieu's bike and he and I went for a walk/bike around the block.  He really enjoyed getting on the bike and ripping around as that is one of his favorite activities at home.  All the kids also played some baseball and spent some time hanging out and playing games.

At the Arts adn Craft Station

Mid afternoon we loaded up the van and headed into Milwaukee for the annual German Fest Festival that takes place downtown.  We had read about the festival in one of the brochures and thought it would be something neat to take it.  We arrived just before the grounds opened at 3:00 pm and the line was a few hundred people long.  Those numbers didn't seem to matter because once we got inside the place was so big people just scattered.

Dancing a Waltz

Supper was cooking

There was at least seven main stages that had different entertainment with German bands playing.  There was food and activity tents set up everywhere and there seemed to be a new beer garden every 10 to 15 feet.  They also had a market where vendors were selling various items that were either made in Germany, originated in Germany or included the German colors.  There was some neat stuff there.





Jenny and Tanya with Downtown Milwaukee as their backdrop

Because of the heat, the kids were keen to hit the splash pad and then we took them to the children's park.  To our surprise and delight, they had an arts and craft tent where you could drop off the kids, free of charge, for an hour while they did some activities.  In fact there was a big sign that said, parents are not allowed in this area - please drop them off and then wait outside of the fence.  The kids were eager to participate so we signed them up and then we went and toured the venue.  There were certainly some interesting sites.

David poses with a participant

There were people wearing the traditional German liederhosen (not sure if I spelled that properly but it is the german outfits), there were food vendors selling a variety of pretzels, sausages and meats.  One of the more interesting ones was the full pigs that were on the rotisserie and the sign selling pig heads for either $6 or $8 depending on the size.  We eventually stopped at one of the stages and listened to some music and watched some of the performers dance.  After an hour, we went back and got the kids and bought some food for them to try, took in a concert and then headed back to Franklin for a late supper.

Tanya and the kids dance to a song (didn't know the words but did know the actions)



When at German Fest.... do asthe Germans do!

 Chad and Jenny prepared a lovely barbecue with some corn on the cob which I had been craving since seeing the miles upon miles of corn through Minnesota.  Supper was wonderful as has been our stay in Franklin.  Tomorrow we are heading to Lake Geneva to spend some time at a waterpark and then we will start to make our way to Michigan to meet up with Tanya's good friend Karen and her family on Sunday.

Francois

Some Maritime and Wisconsin Hospitality

Andrea's windmill

We got an early start this morning and headed into Milwaukee.  I had found a free children's program offered this morning at the Marcus Center for Performing Arts and thought we would check it out.  It was scheduled to start at 10 am and we had about an hour to drive so it meant we needed to be on the road around 8:30 am.  This was the first morning in a while where we needed to wake up the kids and they weren't real enthused.  Natalie advised us to get use to it because she is preparing for her teen years.

David, Natalie and realistic statue of security guard

The theme of the program was science today and was offered by the staff of a local children's museum.  The girls were a bit disappointed that it wasn't performing arts based because I think they were looking forward to that as that was what was promoted.  We finished the program and then made our way to the visitor information center.  Here we found that for $1 per person we could get a trolley pass and visit the downtown.  The entire circuit was 45 minutes and you could jump on and off.

Grammy, look at our parking spot number

At the market in Miwaukee

We went to the Milwaukee market first and had lunch.  Everyone could pick what they wanted to eat.  Andrea just loves going to the bread store and buying her own loaf of bread to eat.  Today she had a french batard and gobbled the entire thing at once.  When she was done she said it would take a while for her belly to digest that but would let us know when it did in case we wanted to get her some dessert.

Aaaayh, it is the Fonz

After lunch we toured a few more locations in town which included getting our photo with the Bronze Fonze.  Happy Days was taped in Milwaukee and they have a statue of the Fonze by the waterfront.  

Brandon and Andrea color the driveway

Mathieu and Francois have a friendly race

It is karate time!

At supper we arrived at Chad and Jenny's place and they, along with their two boys Mathieu and Brandon, welcomed us immediately into their home.  We shared a lovely supper and the kids were quick to get together and play a variety of games.  Later in the evening, after playing outside for a while, we got the kids to bed and the adults had a chance to chat.  Tanya and Chad were talking lots about their extended family and sharing stories of years gone by.  All in all it was a great evening and thank to Chad and Jenny for opening their home to us.

Tomorrow we plan to spend some time hanging out and having fun.

Later,
Francois

First Day of Rain

We've been traveling for 43 days (over 14, 000 kms) now and today would be the first day we would say was a rain day.  The morning started with a thunder and lightning shower in Albert Lea and tonight while I am writing this we are enjoying some thunder and lightning in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin.  We have arrived in our 10th state.

Welcome to Wisconsin - our only photo today

After getting going this morning we hit the road unsure of where we were going to go.  It pretty much rained on and off the entire day so we just took our time and drove through Minnesota.  We were going to take highway 16, which is a scenic byway in Southeastern Minnesota which we were told was a beautiful drive.  With the low cloud cover and rain, we decided to stay on the much straighter I-90 and make our way into Wisconsin.  After crossing a bridge we were in Wisconsin and made our way to the visitor information centre.


We learned that in Wisconsin Dells, which is about an hour from the border, they are known as the waterpark capital of the USA and were ranked the #1 vacation destination in the US in 2009.  We decided to stop there to see what it was all about but in the pouring rain, there wasn't much happening at the parks - though they were very big.  The city was full of people walking around and almost every hotel had their own waterpark.  I'm sure the parks are great but I doubt they aren't nearly managed as well as Magic Mountain in Moncton which our wonderful neighbours and friends the Jelleys own and operate.  The kids were talking about going there once we get home.


Because it was raining Tanya decided to take in the factory outlets and I took the kids to the Library where we researched some of our next locations, read some books and played on the computers.  After a few hours we continued down the road to the next factory outlet location in Johnson Creek and stopped here for the night.  We got some stuff for supper, the kids and I went to the pool and Tanya checked out the 58 factory stores across from the hotel.  


Tomorrow we'll head into Milwaukee and then make our way to Tanya's cousins Chad's house.  We're looking forward to visiting with Chad and his family.  Happy Birthday goes out to our niece Jacklyn and Happy Anniversary to my brother Michel and his wife Jen and to my cousin Beth and her husband Doug.  We only posted the one picture, because that's the only one we took today.


Later,
Francois

Another Day, Another State

It was a lazy morning for the Caron family as we enjoyed a little bit of extra shut eye.  We got up for breakfast at 8:30 and then enjoyed playing in the pool until a little after 10:30.  Check out time at our hotel was 12:00 pm, so we made the most of our stay - taking showers and organizing our plans for the day.

Pictures and American Pride made with corn!

We stopped at the The Corn Palace, which was in the community of Mitchell where we were staying.  There was free admission to this place and the exterior of the building had designs made with different type of corn, it was pretty amazing.  We strolled through the palace where there were many corn related items for sale.  It kept the kids amused for an hour and it kept us out of the stifling heat.  The van registered 33 degrees, but it felt so much hotter because of the humidity in the air.

Another picture made with corn

David being corny

Andrea found a hat she thought Doug would like.

Natalie enjoyed her popcorn treat

Sioux City Falls

Next we made our way to Sioux City Falls, which is located near the border of South Dakota and Minnesota.  An exciting thing happened during this part of our journey - we passed a RV camper towing a car and both had PEI license plates.  Francois slowed the van down as we were passing by and we watched as the lady sitting in the passenger's seat read our license plate and then motioned to her husband who was driving.  We all waved and I must admit it made me a little homesick.  I was curious to know who they were and how long they had been travelling, but we did not meet up again.  Francois and I think this is the first PEI license plate we have seen since we left New Brunswick so many weeks ago.

Another portion of the falls

We stopped at Sioux City Falls for lunch and ate in Falls Park, which is a huge park located in the middle of the city.  There are five different falls in park and lots of different walking areas to view the water as it spills over the rocks.  The heat was stifling and the kids just wanted to sit in the shade as Francois made a late lunch of Kraft Dinner and veggies.  I couldn't sit down as there were many gophers and prairie dogs crawling around, I ventured out and walked around the park viewing the falls.

David and Tanya

Francois and the girls

After lunch we walked to the observation tower where you have a wonderful view of the falls at a higher level.  Francois wanted to take a picture of the four of us outside the tower, but I wasn't sure if I could walk out onto the platform.  Francois scoffed at me and said this was a miniature tower compared to what we had to climb in Yellowstone National Park - but still I wasn't sure.  As David would say, "It was easy peasy" and I didn't mind being out on the platform.  We took a few pictures and then rushed back to the comforts of our air-conditioned van.  Francois and I were astounded to see a few people biking and running in the heat, we don't know how they handled it.

Lots of windmills along the way in Minnesota

We made our way to the Minnesota border and stopped at the Visitor Information Centre.  They were very helpful and had a list of communities along the I-90 Interstate and what were points of interest for each community.  We decided we would make our way to Albert Lea for the evening.  As we drove towards our destination we could see hundreds of windmills on the horizon.  I think Minnesota has the most windmills of any place we have seen along our journey.  I tried to take a picture of it, but the result does not show the vast amount of windmills we saw along the highway.  We also saw miles and miles of cornfields - everything looks so green and lush, it was a beautiful drive.


As we drove along the highway black clouds loomed in front of us, I kept wondering if we were driving into another storm, but it was just a rain shower and we arrived safely at our destination.  After supper we played a game of softball in the side yard of the hotel ( the forecast is calling for thundershowers again this evening) and a young boy, Matthew, even joined us for a inning.  


The kids are now in the pool winding down before going to bed.  They have spent a lot of time in the pool over the last month and we can see a big improvement on everyone's swimming skills.  I think they are starting to miss home as they have made reference to it a few times.  Natalie and Andrea are looking forward to playing softball when they return and David just wants to visit with Grammy and play with his friends, including his big friend Darren, who he talks about a lot. 


Well this is the earliest I have finished this blog in a long time - I am waiting for our laundry to finish washing so I can put it into the dryer.  I hope I can get to bed early this evening, or maybe veg out and watch a show on TV.  Not sure what our plans will be for tomorrow - we may hang out in this town at least for the morning.


Take Care
Tanya

Running from the Storm

The title doesn't entirely describe the picture for the day but it was certainly an exciting part of it.  We started this morning with some serious dampness in and around the tent.  The campground we stayed in was in a valley between a couple of mountains and our site was right next to a pond.  I woke up to the sound of some dripping water and looked over at David's mat, because as usual he (and the girls) end up somewhere other than their mats, and there was a small water spot developing.  I looked up and saw that the fly of the tent was just sopping wet with water.


Tanya suggested I get my gear on and head out to remove the fly so things wouldn't get soaked.  I pulled off the fly and we used a couple of towels to clear off the water from the mesh roof.  It didn't take long for the sun to get above the trees and dry everything out.  At first I thought our tent was the only one that was having that problem but it wasn't long until our neighbors were all up trying to dry out their stuff.  They didn't take the fly off and all their stuff on the inside was soaked.

Having fun on the waterslide

Side profile of Washington

Mount Rushmore

Getting another Jr Ranger Badge

Tanya and Andrea

The campground had a lot of activities for the kids so we decided to stay until 11:00 am (check out time) and let the kids play.  They had lots of fun on the waterslide, playing mini golf and the full size chess game.  After 11:00 am we headed back to Mt. Rushmore where the kids participated in the Jr. Ranger program.  They just love those programs and they are great learning activities for them.  They worked for about 45 minutes to earn their badge.  We also took a few more pictures and spent some time exploring the museum and watching the video on the sculpting of the monument.  It was fascinating to see how they did the work nearly 100 years ago.

The Badlands

We left Mt. Rushmore and made our way to Rapid City where we needed to do some grocery shopping. Our supplies were low and needed restocking.  We found a Safeway on the drive into town and the kids were asking if they could get a cookie before we even parked the van.  If you recall about a month ago in Regina they were given cookie cards at the Sunday Liturgy program at church.  We stocked up our supplies, cleaned out the cooler and filled it with ice and were on our way.

The calm before the storm

Francois near the edge

Next stop was the Badland National Park.  As we were leaving Rapid City, we could see a few flashes of lightning and felt a few drops of rain.  They were calling for a chance of a thunder storm this afternoon.  Once we got on the highway, we could see the clouds behind us for a bit, but ahead of us was beautiful blue skies.  When we arrived in Wall, which is just on the outskirts of the park we stopped into the information center and a ranger told us that there was a fairly severe storm that was expected to hit the area in about 90 minutes.  We decided to carry on into the park which is a 45 mile loop from the I-90.  

Big Horn Ram

View from Info Centre when we arrived

Once we entered the park, the landscape changed immediately and it was just fascinating.  We could see the lightning flashes way off in the distance and that was enough to discourage Andrea from getting out of the van at the first viewpoint.  She, and the others got a bit braver and we eventually were able to climb up one of the bumps for a photo shoot.  Towards one of the last checkpoints before the Park Visitor Information  Center we could start to hear some thunder and we could see some impressive lightning in the air.

View of info centre 30 minutes later...storm clouds brewing

We stopped at the visitor information center and the kids wanted to participate in the Jr. Ranger program there.  They got their books, and got started and the first thing we had to do was watch a movie which talked about the incredible wind and rain storms that hit the badlands.  After the 17 minute movie we went into the museum and Tanya went and checked outside and the storm was very close.  I went to talk to the ranger as there was a crowd of people around him looking at the computer screen.  He said that there was a massive storm approaching, that had winds around 80 mph (135 km/h), lots of rain and hail.  He said it was scheduled to hit in about 15 minutes.


Everyone around him was heading West and he told them they better stay put.  I told him we were heading East and he told me, if I were you I would jump in my car and start heading East.  The storm was moving at 60 mph and you can drive 75 mph on the highway so you may be able to outrun it.  I quickly got Tanya and the kids and told them it was time to go.  The kids didn't want to leave because they hadn't finished their Jr. Ranger program yet and wanted to finish it to get their badge.  I explained the situation to the ranger and he made me promise that the kids would finish their work (since they were very close to being finished) and he gave us the badge.


We raced out into the 37 C heat, jumped in the van and hit the road.  The wind was swirling, lightning flashed and thunder could be heard all around us.  We had to drive 8 miles north to hit the I-90.  With about 2 miles to go the wind picked up significantly, the rain started coming sideways and the trees were bending back and forth.  This lasted for about 2 minutes and then we turned east and could see it behind us.  They were some of the blackest clouds we have ever seen.


The lightning was still flashing all around us but it wasn't raining and the wind was on our back.  We got about 80 km/h down the road when the radio station we were listening to make a long siren sound and then the voice came on and said that within the hour people in these counties (which we were driving in) should expect a very serious thunder and lightning storm, with flash floods, hail and road flooding.  They should seek shelter and stay in the corner of the ground level of their home or place of work.  Growing up and watching NBC Bangor, we would always see the "Emergency Test" screen on the television and I always wondered if I would be involved in one of those.   Today was my first.


We eventually outdrove the storm and made our way to Mitchell, SD which was the next larger sized community on the route.  We crossed through another time zone, losing one hour as we are now in central time zone.   On the horizon we could see another storm brewing.  We were treated to a lovely light show in front of us, though we never reached the storm, as we arrived in Mitchell at around 10:00 pm.  This was the first day of the trip we drove after dark and we decided to hunker down in a hotel tonight.  There are major storm warnings for the region we are in so we'll see what the night brings.


It was certainly an exciting day.  The adventurous person in me wanted to stay in the Badlands and witness the storm but the parent in me said let's get out of here.  Happy Birthday goes out to our niece Kerri Lee.


Tomorrow we may arrive in Minnesota.


Goodnight,
Francois