Pahrump

We buttoned-up the farmhouse and began our annual westwardly migration on Saturday August 22. We again spent Saturday evening at the home of our good friends Dan & Pat Martenson in Escanaba, MI. Pat again treated us to a lovely dinner. We then stayed up late playing dominoes, swapping lies and catching up on the activities of mutual friends.
On Sunday we continued on to Appleton and set up for the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Mike & Toni visited us Sunday evening and then we retired early as we had to get up early Monday morning. Rose at 6am, dropped the Cardinal off at Appleton Camping so that they could replace the damaged fender skirts from lat spring's tire events and then hurried on over to Appleton Medical center for Teddy's 7am appointment for her annual mammogram. Had lunch with our friend Becky Welhouse, then back to Appleton Camping to retreive "The Roadhouse". We set up for another night at Wal-Mart and then attended "Monday Night Martinis" at Dick & Jenny Orrs. There we saw Wes, Greg, & Kate as well as Dick & Jen. A nice party with hors d'oeuvres by Jen and a fine selection of cheeses donated by Greg.
Tuesday August 25 we continued on West spending nights in succession at Albert Lea, Minnesota, Grand Island, Nebraska, Laramie, Wyoming, and Payson, Utah and arrived here in Pahrump, Nevada Saturday afternoon. We are at the Nevada Treasure RV Resort and plan on staying here through the month of October.

"Remembrance of things past."William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30

Now that Teddy and I have finished our farmhouse remodeling projects for the summer we are taking some time to relax and enjoy ourselves before heading back west for the winter.
With that in mind we took a day trip downstate to visit some of our old growing-up stomping grounds. We traveled south from Leelanau county on Hwy M22 which skirts the eastern shore of Lake Michigan from Northport in the Leelanau peninsula to Manistee in Manistee county. Our first stop was in the village of Frankfort where Teddy lived in this house until moving here to the farm in the 10th grade. Teddy enjoyed driving around the town pointing out friends homes and various POIs.
From there we continued down M22 passing through Elberta, Arcadia and Onekama in succession.

Just south of Elberta Teddy snapped this pict of her Grandmother Gilbert's house, now abandoned and in disrepair. I can remember having dinner there when Teddy & I were first married; it is amazing how quickly mother nature takes back what's hers if there is no human intervention.

Onekama, on Portage Lake, is where my parents lived while I was in the 7th and 8th grade. I pointed out to Teddy the hills where my brothers & I sledded in winter and where I swam and fished in Portage Lake. My father worked for the USDAs Soil Conservation Service. his office was in Manistee some 15 or so miles south of Onekama. When I started the 9th we moved to Manistee so he could be closer to his office and we lived is a succession of rental homes there.




This is where we lived when I graduated from HS in 1956. Surprisingly, some fifty odd years later, the house looks pretty much the same now as then.

I joined the Air Force soon after graduating HS and shortly afterward my parents purchased this house three miles south of Manistee. I'm pretty sure that they weren't trying to hide from me as they did give me their new address. ;-)
It was an old farmhouse and through the years my father transformed it to a beautiful country home. It lay pretty far from the road so he built a connecting road dead-ending just past the house and donated it to the county with the provision that they pave it and build a circular turnaround at the end.



That road ended up being named, ...TA DAH...
"PAGE ROAD"







We returned home via US31 stopping in Beulah, MI for an ice-cream. It was a perfect day filled with pleasant memories.