Dena and I started our 2014 West trip on August 15th.We left home about 2:30 P.M. Our first stop was at my brother Jerry's. We arrived about 9:30. I was late because I got tired and had to take a nap at a rest area.
Saturday I had my 60th high school reunion at the Arts center in Yadkinville at 4 PM. We had a good reunion. There were 52 in our original class but 22 have passed away. There were about 16 students at the reunion with there spouses and a couple of teachers for a total of about 34 I think. We talked a little bit about those that have passed and other things. We decided to have it again in two years and hopefully we can make it like a birthday party as everyone attending will be at least 80. (dancing in the street in Yadkinville Ha Ha)
Sunday, we went to church with Jerry & Rena and went out to the Depot steak house in Surry County for dinner with Jerry, Rena, Ronnie and Lynn.
Monday we got up bright and early to continue our trip, we left Jerry's about 8:30. It was overcast but we ran into rain by the time we got to the mountains and it rained on us all the way past Charleston, WVa. We started out on 77 and stayed on it till Parkersburg, WVa It was not to bad but we could not see Pilot Mountain from the overlooks. We gassed up in Fort Chiswell , a place I had never been. I was disappointed that we could not see much in WV, we were up in the clouds and raining. You cannot see anything from the turnpike anyway. We did see what seemed to be a seam of coal in the bank where they had cut when making the road. I do not like interstates and get off every chance I get. I found Hwy 33 that went from Blacksburg WV to Fort Wayne, Ind. We had decided to go to Fort Wayne and go North into Michigan and drive up the left side of Michigan to Macinaw Bridge. That was a very pleasant drive, it was a 4 lane most of the way and the Ohio country side is pretty, lots of corn fields and soybean crops except the lower part next to WV, that was not conducive to farming, just like WV. It took is by Columbus and Marysville where HONDA has a huge factory, we got all the way to Wapakoneta, Ohio and stayed at the KOA. It was hosted by a young couple and they offered home made food for guests.( for a fee) After a long day we chose the chicken Parmajon and Texas toast.
One of the problems on those interstates there were no rest area's except at commercial gas stations. Hwy 33 provided ample service but gas stations were few and far between as a result when I filled up this morning it took 45 gallons much more than I usually get but will probably have similar problems out West. We drove about 500 miles yesterday.
Today we continued on toward Fort Wayne , after gassing up we were on the road by 9. I set my GPS for Battle Creek, Mi about 3 hours away. We continued on admiring the corn and soybean fields. We passed an airport named after Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon. Our GPS directed us to turn on to 127 about 30 miles from Fort Wayne It took us by a windmill farm that was probably 10 miles long not but not clustered to dense and it was as far as we could see in depth. We passed trucks carrying blades for new windmills. We came into Michigan about 11:30 and stopped at the visitors center looking for state park camp ground information. We changed our destination to Grand Haven on the West coast. While going there we ran into a serious thunderstorm that we found out later dumped over 2 inches of rain in the battle creek area. We parked for a while and started calling for a campsite. We found the state park on the water front near downtown in Grand Haven. We looked at our weather maps and found out it was not raining here so we came on. It is a nice little park in the city at the entrance to there lake inlet. But it is crowded as the sites are only wide enough for our slides and maybe awning.
Sherril at Jerry's in Tobacco patch
KOA at Wapokita, Oh
Giant wind turbine , near Van Wert, Oh
Beach and CG
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