September 15, 2017

After such a late night we slept in. I was awake at 7pm but tried to get to sleep again, unfortunately Scott got up at 8am and was very noisy. We had a slow start but fixed breakfast, did our Bible studies, and then Scott put my new phone holder on my bike. Around noon, we headed out on our bike ride. This time we headed south looking for the trail to Holland. We had a lot of hills to climb and my bike wasn't shifting correctly. When I would shift down it wouldn't shift at first then it would shift down to first or second and then pop back up into like 5th. This made it pretty hard on the hills so I ended up walking a lot. We finally decided we should go to the bike shop and see if they could adjust my chain. After going the wrong direction once, we finally got on track. We had ridden about 6 miles by the time we found the shop. He said my chain, gear cluster on the back wheel, and the gear shifting cable were all too rusty to fix. They needed to be replaced. Soooo we rode back to the campground and loaded my bike in the truck and took it back to the shop. While we waited for the call we headed to the beach. It was beautiful. We got in the water about three times. The last time we played in the waves. It was a lot of fun. In between we layed out and read our Kindles. It was very relaxing. My phone said to was 80 degrees. We got the call about my bike about 5pm so Scott went and picked it up. I layed out a little longer. When he returned I came back and we fixed a fabulous dinner: steak, fried potatoes, and baked beans. During dinner we watched a really stupid movie. At 7:30pm we went out to see the sunset. There was a really cool part but then it was cloudy on the horizon so it petered out pretty quickly. Overall it was a great day!!

 

September 14, 2017 Thursday

I woke up about 6am and laid there waiting to see when Scott and Philip would wake up. Philip got up and headed for the restroom a little after 7am and Mom texted me just after that. We decided to meet at Russ' for breakfast. Around 8am we took Philip to his car at the community center and he followed us over to Russ. We visited with Mom and Dad and Russ until about 9:30am when Phil left, we all headed back to the campground. Mom and I went for a bike ride down by the water. It was probably about two miles. When we got back Dad was rested so we headed to check out the pier. Dad and Scott stopped and talked to EVERYONE. Mom and I finally went ahead and walked down the beach a ways.

When we got back to the camper we decided to hop in their car and figure out how to get to the North Pier. We went over the draw bridge and exited 31 and Ferrysburg exit. We came upon Lakeshore Drive North and just started driving. We came upon some beautiful houses with an incredible view of Lake Michigan. We were looking for a specific house with four garage doors that had cement ramps right from the water. We found it! It was very exciting. Then we parked our cars and walked down the North Pier. It was gorgeous!! The water was crystal clear and we could see fish in the water. One of the locals told us that it is only clear like that two times a year. The next stop on the adventure was at North Beach Park that bordered the North Ottawa Dunes. There were about three hundred stairs so we decided to try that next time. We did however go down to the water on the BEAUTIFUL beach. There were like three other people there and the water and sand was incredible. 

Around 3pm we had dinner and Panera and then Mom and Dad dropped us off at the campground with plan to meet for the Bible conference. We met there around 6:30 and visited and goofed around on our phones until it started at 7:30pm. The lesson was incredible. It was from Proverbs 1:1-5. He called it the "scope of the basis of the Christian life." "They are fools who disdain wisdom and the discipline of instruction." We learn from taking in Bible doctrine or we learn from experience but we have to learn, understand, and apply to grow. Our friends Chris and Melanie were there so we talked to them quite awhile afterwards. Mom and Dad left and Chris and Melanie invited us to Kirby's for some food. There we met their friends from Bob Kreger's church, Lou and Wendy. They were a lot of fun and it was great talking to like-minded believers. We visited until about 11:30pm and then headed back to the campground. It was the first night that it wasn't really cloudy so the stars were pretty bright. Scott and I took a walk down the boardwalk and a little ways onto the beach and watched the stars for a little. It was hazy over the lake so we couldn't see the stars above there. But we saw the Big Dipper, Casseopeia, and Pegasus. The Milky Way was pretty clear, too. It was a perfect ending to a great day! 

September 13, 2017

I was up until midnight trying to get a little work done and slept fairly well, but I was wide awake by 7am. I read in bed for an hour so I wouldn't wake Scott up. When he got up we ate leftover breakfast and did our Bible studies. Around 10am we took my bike wheel to local bike rental place and he replaced my tube in about 2 minutes flat. It was totally blown. I got a phone holder for my bike while we were there too. I'm excited to try it. We saw a HUGE ship heading down the channel. I have never seen such a big ship before!! We couldn't believe it would even fit...

It was another beautiful day so we took a picnic lunch down to the beach and laid out and read. It was so relaxing. After a couple hours we came back up. One of our "neighbors" brought us some fresh tomatoes and we started talking about Christianity. He said he believed Jesus Christ died for our sins. Scott invited him to conference tonight and he really considered it but decided not to. I didn't have any of right books to give to him but maybe we'll see him again this week since I picked up a couple at the conference.

Mom and dad were getting close so I went and took a shower and got dinner stuff set out. When they arrived Mom and I walked as far down the pier as we could. They really have it ripped up right now. I saw some type of fish in the water - basically just a flash of white. When we got back Scott grilled burgers and we visited. They left around 5:30 to head back to the hotel and get ready for the conference. We met at the community building at 6:30pm and got our back row seats. We chatted with Chris and Bruce. Matt and Sonya (some "tapers" from the UP) sat in front of us again this year so we visited with them some more. The lesson was sobering. It was about Israel in Jeremiah and Hosea's time and how the United States is paralleling many of their choices and errors. He said that "God's plan is still apart of our lives and regardless of where we find ourselves it is always there. It never fails and lets us down. It is truly an amazing love that is not dependent up on circumstances." It's amazing how applicable that is to every situation. It's applicable to my friend whose husband's health is failing; it's applicable to the hurricane victims in Houston and Florida; It's applicable to me and the tests that I am currently facing... Anyway tomorrow night he is going to give us the encouraging side of it. I think it will mostly be in Proverbs. I'm looking forward to hearing it. So about thirty minutes into the lesson, I need to cough. I cough as quietly as a can a couple times when I realize, that I can't breathe. One of the weirder experiences in my life. I'm thinking what am I going to do even thinking I might have to go the hospital. I take a deep breath and confess and ask God about ten times to take it away. Then I held my breath for a couple seconds and let it out really slowly like I was breathing through a straw. (Strategy someone taught me a long time ago, but it never works instantly.) In a matter of seconds, I was okay. It had to be a God thing... Then I start to get acid reflux which I haven't had very often but I survived that ... not as bad as not being able to breathe!

When the lesson was over we went out and were visiting with people... mostly standing there awkwardly because we don't know too many people. Scott starts talking to an older gentleman that was eating some cake. It turned out he was from Houston, up visiting his mother in Fort Wayne, Indiana and had a reunion to attend there on Saturday. He had attended this Michigan conference in 1978 when the Colonel was here. Anyhoo he was talking about having to leave tonight and sleeping in the Walmart parking lot for the night. So my kind and generous husband invites him to sleep in our camper with him. He insisted three or four times that we have plenty of room and he's more than welcome. Long story short, Philip, is sleeping on our pull out couch in the camper... Not saying this again is one of the stranger experiences in my life... Not sure what the morning will bring...

September 12, 2017

Scott woke up about 5am and turned the heater on. He didn't get out of bed until 10am. I had finished my Bible study and was starving. After he got back from talking to maybe 800 people, I started breakfast. We had our traditional sausage, egg, potatoes, and onions fried in a skillet. It was good! While Scott finished his Bible study I went out to see if it would be good for kayaking. I talked to a couple of couples. The latter, Gary and Cathy, had kayaks too. I talked to them for quite awhile and even saw them out on the water later.

WHen we were unloading the kayaks we discovered that the front tire of my bike was so flat that it was falling off the rim. We got everything packed and headed down to the water with kayaks in tow. It's definitely good exercise to carry all that way through all that sand. We got in the water and headed north toward the lighthouse. After checking out the construction we rounded the corner and crossed the channel. It was a little intimidating. Crazy though the water was a totally different color more of a turquoise color. I wondered if it was because of the currents or wind that the water from the river doesn't flow that direction? 

It was rougher water on that side too so we headed back. We beached the kayaks and Scott went and got our Kindles. We laid there and read for about an hour. Then I took off in my kayak again. I went about a mile south then headed back. The wind had picked up so it was a little harder getting back but fun. I stopped on shore to get Scott's phone to take pictures of the construction. There was a barge being pushed by a tugboat. It had a crane on it and two pillars. Evidently they used the pillars to pivot around. They put one down into the sand and then turned the barge. It was pretty cool to watch. 

Cathy and Gary had been out there for about two hours watching them work. I talked to Cathy awhile and then headed back to shore. I read some more with Scott but started to get cold so we trudged back up the beach with our kayaks. When we got back we didn't really have any place to store them because our space was already pretty full. SOoooo we had to load them back on the truck which can be a real pain. We got them all tied down and decided to grill dinner BUT the steak we had bought was still frozen solid - Plan B - pick up dinner. We of course had to take showers which of course was an adventure in itself. Scott was complaining that he wanted the shower I took so I told him to check another and come back if he didn't like it and I would trade him sooooo I forgot to lock the door. I had just finished washing and was trying to turn off the water BUT accidentally turned on the child water which hit me right in the gut with really cold water. I was scrambling trying to turn it off when I heard the door start to open. Yep there was a man and me completely naked. I grabbed the door and shut it. I think he was apologizing but I couldn't hear. Needless to say he will have nightmares for years!! I am really hoping he did not see my face so that I don't run into him in camp. I didn't see him very closely but he had on a tan polo so maybe he was a park ranger. I'll probably end up in his life story sometime...

We headed to Mr. Scrib's pizza supposedly a local favorite. We took the tire to get fixed but it was three minutes too 7:00 and all the bike shops were closed. We ordered pizza. It was actually pretty good! 

Back at the camper we started a movie but saw the sun was going to be really pretty again so we went for a short walk and took pictures again. 

September 11, 2017

On 9/11 I was teaching at Custer Park Elementary School. We were glued to the TV all day. Most of these students came already knowing so it wasn't a matter of breaking the news to them but there were so many questions and discussions. Heading toward Grand Haven, Michigan for a getaway almost seems flippant. I fear that our country is forgetting what happened... 2 Chronicles 7:14, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 

Anyway we left around 8:30AM and made it without any incidents. We had about an hour to kill so we stopped at Walmart on the edge of town. We got a couple supplies and Subway for lunch since it would be awhile before we got everything set up. We it Grand Haven State Park Campground around 3pm Michigan time. There was a line in the office, a line to fill our tanks, a line in the camper road; even after we unhooked the camper and I drove back around, there was a line. We had to figure out how to get the camper in and still have room to park the truck. It took a little while but we finally figured it out. We finally got the important stuff down and headed down to check out the water and the beach. It was beautiful. We used our beach blanket under our towels and it worked great! It kept our towels from getting loaded with sand. We payed there and read for a couple hours until the breeze started to make me cold. We headed back to the camper and had ham and grilled cheese sandwiches. We watched a couple episodes of season 3 of The Librarians. In the middle of it, I noticed a lot of people looking at the beach. The sun had almost set and it was beautiful. Pictures didn't do it justice. Back to the shows - we both fell asleep so decided it was time to go to bed. I woke up about six times but fell asleep right away each time. So I almost slept ten hours! I really needed it.