SOWERRVing: October 2017 Michindoh

After the September SOWER Rally we worked at the same location in Hillsdale, Michigan at Michindoh Ministries with one other couple, Roger and Char Quakkelaar. The Michindoh project is located around a beautiful lake setting. Every time we went to the dining hall we had to walk around this gorgeous view.

On our weekends Wayne and I tried to take in as many sites as possible surrounding the area. The Jiffy Mix plant in Chelsea, MI was fun and rewarding! Our cabinets are still full of boxes of cake mixes, cornbread and pizza dough boxes!!

One day we went to a local apple orchard, viewed the humongous pumpkins and picked some apples to put in the freezer and make our famous apple butter recipe. You may be wondering about the new addition to our family. Well, meet Spike! He accidentally was left in our rig by our g'daughter, Lilly. Instead of taking him back to Gastonia to his rightful owner, Lilly decided he could accompany us on our Fall adventure to Michigan IF we promised not to "loss him" and bring him safely back to North Carolina on our return in November!!!! Spike went everywhere with us, including the apple orchard!

Next, we took in an antique car museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan. Awesome place with the most amazing collection of antique cars. Not one building but at least 6-7 buildings of cars, each designated to a specific kind, era, or brand. Even one building of bicycles and one of motorcycles.

Now even the pinecones are humongous in Michigan. Michigan is noted for their production of Christmas trees and pinecones comes with the territory. Here Spike is showing you how big they are in comparison to him! Right behind our rig.

Then of course, a trip to Ann Arbor, MI for a bike trip. That "M" is for Univ. of Michigan!

Meeting fellow SOWERs on the road is always a highlight of our adventures. Mal & Debbie Wall met the Quakkelaar's and us at a Amish restaurant in Shipshewana, IN. Need I say that the food was terrific? You bet! The Wall's told us about a collection of statues in the area so we set out to find them............

The gardener is a statue, that is me on the right! Hard to tell what is real, and what is not!

Below is the postman delivering mail, he is a statue in front of the post office!

And then there was the man playing fetch with his dog, yep, a statue also! It was so much fun going around the town finding the statues. Like hide and seek!

So, this project was different in that after one week, Wayne was called away to go back to his former employer (Bridgestone Firestone) to help with a production dilemma. He flew back to NC to leave Gail at Michindoh to finish working the project with Char & Roger. Wayne and Roger started a siding project on the outside of the dining hall that had been unfinished for one year. Gail helped Roger finish the project after Wayne left!!!

Now mind you, Gail does not take a liking to power tools but by the time we were finished Gail was operating a chop saw and loved every minute of it! Up until then, Roger was having to climb up and down the scaffolding every time a board needed to be cut. This enabled the project to go more quickly.

Michindoh provided 2 meals per day.

Great food, our pants were tight

before the project ended,

may need to go shopping!

Ok, so I took in another apple orchard
trip while Wayne was gone, Yummo!

Fall in Michigan
Can't get any better than that.

My favorite sunset picture.

Char & Gail washing tables and
chairs in the dining hall.

Char painting scaffolding.

That was strong smelling paint by the way!

The view around the lake at Michindoh was so beautiful everyday. FALL, need I say more?

Then we took another sight seeing trip to a small town near by that had a collection of artifacts that looked like wood but made from cement. Story goes that a man owned a cement company and hired Mexicans to make these "yard ornaments" for his property. The house is long gone but the cement "yard art" remains. Looks like wood!

Another apple orchard. Here Roger is next to a pumpkin that won an award in a local pumpkin contest for largest of its kind.

And Char next to hers!

And Gail, well I sat myself down to an apple cider doughnut. The best!

Time to head back to North Carolina after 2 months in Michigan. Spike is on his way home, Lilly here we come! And well, outside of Maggie Valley, NC, it's bumper to bumper, sometimes it's not welcoming to come back to the city!