Our HomeMonday, July 7
We started the day in Illinois, ended in South Dakota, briefly detoured through Nebraska and spent the rest of the day in Iowa. We crossed the Mississippi in the early afternoon and circled Omaha later in the day with a certain Counting Crows song playing in the background. We must not forget to mention stumbling upon the Bob Feller museum (Hall of Fame professional baseball player) in Iowa. Jeff was very happy! Renee spotted a sign leading to where we could have seen the bridges of Madison County in Iowa-Renee secretly loved the movie-but decided not to visit for fear of the causing a collapse beneath the weight of our Super Sized budget truck!
We stayed the night in Mitchell, South Dakota and learned two lessons about hotels in the state. First, many don't care for kitties. Second, if you pass a hotel along the highway in the middle of the night, it's best not to be greedy and keep looking, you will not see another one for about 50 miles.
Even in Iowa we can't get away from Holland, Michigan.
American Gothic
Sunday, July 6
Our time in Michigan on Sunday was short as we needed to hit the road. After a trip to church in the morning we finished packing our truck and hit the road mid-afternoon. Traffic in I-94 around Chicago was awful but once we hit I-80 it was smooth sailing the rest of the night until we stayed in Geneseo, Illinois, about 300 miles from home in Michigan.
We have discovered that Tiger is a much better traveler than Bonnie. For the eight hour car ride today Tiger sat in exactly three spots the entire time. Bonnie, meanwhile, couldn’t sit still and was moving around every 5 minutes (or less).
Saturday, July 5
Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad (Lubbers)!
Saturday morning we had our post-wedding Michigan reception for friends and family who couldn’t make it to New York for the wedding. Nearly 50 people showed up as we celebrated our marriage for what should be the last time-well until our first anniversary. The reception was at a relatively new restaurant called Boatwerks in Holland, Michigan which overlooks Lake Macatawa and was a beautiful setting for the party.
Following the party we took the boat out onto Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan. Jeff and Bryan (our brother-in-law) both went water skiing and Renee enjoyed a chilly and brief dip in the lake!!!
Cake from our reception
The Lubbers clan outside of Boatwerks (location of the reception) while overlooking Lake Macatawa
Waterskiing on Lake Michigan with the Holland Lighthouse (Big Red) in the background
Friday, July 4
Happy 4th of July! We loaded up the family SUV and went to the Kentwood 4th of July parade. Bryan displayed his patriotism while waving a mini American flag, even when there was no apparent reason for him to do so. However, he also coaxed out of the parade participants what could amount to about 1,000 or so free donuts so we can’t make fun of him too much. Renee was very proud of the first piece of candy she caught during the parade as well.
Following the parade Grandma and Grandpa came over for lunch. Unsurprisingly the lunch turned into a trip down memory lane, and for whatever reason we decided to pull out Jeff’s 5th grade Halloween costume, which Mom inexplicably still has (presumably to pass on to the grandchildren). Little did we think that when we woke up that day that Jeff would have his picture taken looking like Garfield but you never know what you’re going to get in Michigan.
We also took the boat out in Holland later in the day and Jeff and Bryan jumped into the rather chilly (60 degrees of so) water of Lake Michigan. Following a boat ride we got ice cream and set up on the beach to watch fireworks over the Holland channel.
Recreating the 5th grade Halloween costume
Holland, Michigan
Renee celebrating her first piece of candy during the Kentwood, Michigan 4th of July parade.
Bryan DePotty (brother-in-law) displaying his patriotism for no apparent reason
Bryan and Jeff jumping into a chilly (60 degrees) Lake Michigan
Thursday was a day of relaxation following two days of nothing but driving and packing. After taking our sweet time getting out of the house, we spent the afternoon in Saugatuck, Michigan, a beautiful town on Lake Michigan that we like to call the San Francisco of the Midwest. We climbed Mount Baldhead, which is a dune with 282 steps to the top and which overlooks both the town of Saugatuck to the east and Lake Michigan to the west. It also happens to be the spot where Dad Lubbers proposed to Mom Lubbers quite a few number of years ago.
We took a bunch of pictures on the beach and after eating dinner on the water we drove to Holland where we were able to see some of Jeff’s college friends, including Doug and Blaine, also known as Best Man and soloist from the wedding.
Wednesday, July 2
Wednesday was a long day of driving from, Pennsylvania to home in Michigan. The drive was smooth through Pennsylvania and Ohio until we hit Michigan where we ended up driving through a nasty storm. Although we avoided the hail we did have to pull over a couple of times. Tiger, however, couldn’t burrow his head into Renee’s body far enough as he was not a big fan of the pounding rain hitting the truck.
A couple of important numbers from the trip:
9 – the number of vehicles we passed the entire trip from Washington, DC to Michigan.
10.5 – our approximate gas mileage for the first leg of the trip. Although this sounds pretty bad considering we’re carting all of our possessions (including our car), this really isn’t too bad.
Tuesday, July 1
Tuesday turned out to be quite the long day. After we picked up our rental truck we spent the next 7 hours loading everything we have into a 16 foot Budget truck. Needless to say it took longer than we thought it would and didn’t end up leaving our now-former home until after 8pm. Bonnie and Tiger were pacing around the increasingly-empty apartment all day wondering what was going on. Unlike the cats, however, Renee was very happy to finally be loaded up and ready to take off in our truck for our BIG adventure west.
We each spent six fun years in Washington, DC (a little over three while knowing one another) but are ready to move on to our next challenge on the west coast.
Finishing packing in DC
Moments before leaving DC - Bonnie has no idea what she is in for
No comments:
Post a Comment