Wildflowers at Presque Isle

 

 

 

Or maybe just weeds?

  

No matter, they brightened up another dreary day in Erie.

Presque Isle State Park

 

Wish I could say we took the above photo but I found it on Wikipedia. It does give a great perspective of the Presque Isle Peninsula, which we biked around this afternoon.

The sun actually came out off and on today and it was in the 70’s so we had to take advantage of the nice weather. Jim took a few pictures along our 16 mile ride.

The Perry Monument. This one isn’t quite as big as the one we saw on Put-In-Bay Island a couple weeks ago. The ships used in the Battle of Lake  Erie were actually built in Erie, which is why the monument is here.

Downtown Erie across the bay. Very deserving of the “Dreary Erie” nickname.

Presque Isle State Park Marina.

And the best part of the ride, a stop at Sara’s diner, just in front of our campground, for ice cream.

Sara’s Campground, Erie, PA

 

Since we didn’t want to wear out our welcome, yesterday we moved from our friend’s driveway to Sara's, a campground just at the entrance to Presque Isle State Park. It’s the only campground near the peninsula, so it tends to be crowded during the summer season. As of Labor Day, it honors Passport America, so we’re paying $20 a night with full hookups and cable that works. The best part is that the 13 mile paved trail through the state park starts just next to the campground, so it’s a great place to walk and bike.

After our miserable weekend of the 90’s, the weather changed overnight, and for the past two days now it’s only been in the 60’s, cloudy and windy with occasional rain just like the Erie weather I remember.

We took a few pictures from our walks along the bay and lake.

White caps in the bay, looking towards downtown..

 

It was much calmer on Lake Erie.

 

We both went to the dentist yesterday afternoon to get our teeth cleaned, so we got that chore out of the way for awhile.

On the way to the campground yesterday we stopped at a local tire store to get them to check the tires on the Lazy Daze. The sidewalls on the original Michelin tires have had cracks for several years, but they are getting much worse. The guy didn’t try to push new tires on us, but said they should probably be replaced soon to be safe. Since they are 5 years old anyway, we are going to have it done while we’re here. Jim is just researching and deciding which ones we should go with, since we know quite a few people with Michelins who’ve had premature cracking.

Today we did laundry, retrieved something from our friend’s trash that I accidently threw away, and visited the cemetery where my parents are buried. i was stunned that there was no headstone on my dad’s grave. I called the funeral home and they said it had been ordered in August 2007 and should have been placed within 6 months. My brother and sister-in-law came over tonight, so I asked him about it. He said he got some paperwork in the mail several years ago asking him to come in and pay another $75 but he never did it. I think I got the ball rolling again so maybe it will get done one of these years. Family can drive you crazy sometimes! (They have no computer so they never read the blog.)

Family

 

We’ve been spending most of our time visiting and camera shopping since we got to Erie. Still haven’t decided on a camera. Is it that we are getting old and can’t make decisions or are there just too many choices these days?

Saturday night we had dinner at Boston’s Pizza with my brother, nieces and one great niece. My great nephew was at grandma’s so we haven’t seen him yet.

Nieces Lisa and Kara.

Lisa and her husband Rick.

Cute almost four year old Alexis, Rick and Lisa’s little girl, with her favorite grandpa, my brother Bob. She was the best kid we’ve ever had dinner with, sat still and colored during the whole meal.

 

Yesterday we went to a local assisted living facility to visit my only remaining aunt, Kay. When we were here three years ago she wasn’t doing well and I was afraid I wouldn’t see her again, but she’s still hanging in there at almost 89.

This is only the second time I’ve been back to Erie since my dad died in July 2007, and it just doesn’t seem the same here without him, but life goes on.

This afternoon we had lunch with my nieces again, and both their kids. This is Marques, who will be 5 next month. He was only 2 the last time we saw him and has turned into a very cute, polite, precocious little guy. I am impressed with how my nieces are raising their kids, since they still seem like kids themselves.

Then we stopped by my brother’s house to see their two new kittens, which we were so busy playing with we forgot to take pictures of. This is actually the house we grew up in. Dad sold it to Bob and Sue in 1983, a couple years after Mom died. Always brings back good memories going back there.

Erie, PA

 

We arrived back in my hometown of Erie, PA late Thursday afternoon after a sleepless night of thunderstorms, which flipped a breaker and caused the inverter to quit working. It was a good learning experience as it turned out to just be a reset switch on the inverter, but it took a few hours to figure it out.

We  are now tucked away in the driveway of good friends Joe and Joann, who also have an RV which they moved to let us squeeze in among the plants.

Good thing they have nice neighbors who said it was fine for us to walk through their yard to get out. It’s a pretty tight campsite but the price is right!

And the flowers are lovely.

As is our luck this summer, it got into the low 90s yesterday, way too hot since we can’t run the AC on their 15amp outlet. While Joann and I went to a friend’s house for a birthday drink, Jim stayed home and ran the generator and AC for a couple hours to cool things off. It did get in the upper 60s overnight and is only supposed to get to 88 today. By Monday the high is predicted to be 67, so I’m sure we will then be complaining about the cold.

Birthday girl Denise on left, and Joann, friends since junior high!

Punderson State Park, Newbury, OH

 

 

We drove just about 100 miles yesterday, and are now east of Cleveland at Punderson State Park. Driving through Cleveland we were happy to have our new GPS with the lane assist feature, which shows a little picture of what lane you need to be in for the next exit or turn. Too bad the navigator didn’t quite understand the picture, and we ended up in the wrong lane, which when it recalculated took us through the ‘hood! We were hoping we didn’t have a mechanical breakdown, but made it out and finally into a really scenic neighborhood of huge old homes. The problem was the road was very narrow, rough, and only had a 35 mph speed limit. It was a long last 20 miles to the park!

We got a nice site on the lake, but the trees are so dense it is hard to see it.

 

Last evening we took a bike ride to explore the park, which has a golf course, lots of cabins, and a lovely lodge and restaurant.

Unfortunately this is not one of the Ohio parks that honors Passport America, so we are paying $25 a night for our site. What surprised us is there are almost 200 sites, 5 with full hookups for $31, and the rest with only 20 amp electric. This is the first time we’ve stayed at a campground that didn’t have at least 30 amp service. We tried the AC and it didn’t trip the breaker, but it is cool enough that we didn’t really need it anyway.

The zoom on our camera is malfunctioning and the lens is scratched, so today we drove to Mentor, 20 miles north, to check out Best Buy and for me to get a much needed haircut. Jim would like a camera with a better zoom, but we got so confused and overwhelmed with all the choices, we didn’t buy anything.

After we got back we hiked a few miles around the lake. We are getting tired of trees and woods, and long for the vistas we were seeing out west. Didn’t see anything interesting on the trail until right at the end when we found these colorful mushrooms growing on a fallen log.

It has been a week since Oreo died and we miss him horribly. Fortunately our other boy Quincy doesn’t seem to be aware that he is gone. Probably because he is getting all the attention now.

Put-In-Bay, OH

 

On Saturday we took the Sonny S, a passenger-only ferry, from Middle Bass Island to Put-In-Bay, a village on South Bass Island, and only a 10 minute ferry ride away.

Put-In-Bay is the party island, whereas Middle Bass is the quiet one.

Everyone rents golf carts or walks and rides bikes to the various restaurants, bars, and shops on the island.

It was really crowded, but we went in a couple bars and listened to some live music from the 60’s and 70’s played by a bunch of guys who looked older than us. The crowd wasn’t real young, either.

Then we walked to the Perry Memorial, part of the National Park system. They have a large piece of land on the water with a very nice visitor center and a huge monument, which is currently under reconstruction. Put-In-Bay was the location of the squadron of U.S. naval commander Oliver Hazard Perry, who sailed from the port on September 10, 1813 to fight the British just north of the island in the Battle of Lake Erie.

A view of the memorial from the ferry.

Kim and Dave, with the monument on the side of his head.

We had a very pleasant weekend and left today on the 12:15 ferry. The weather was much better, light winds and sunshine. We were even able to get out and go on the upper passenger deck during the ride.

We are in the front, and there was a big Class A behind us. There were also two large dump trucks and many cars. Kim said she never saw so many large vehicles on the ferry at the same time. Luckily we made to the mainland without incident..

Approaching land. Good thing Jim washed our roof this weekend.

The car was still there when we got off the ferry and we drove a whole 5 miles back to East Harbor State Park to spend the night. I forgot to mention when we were here last week that many of the Ohio state parks honor the 50% off Passport America discount Sunday-Wednesday, so we are only paying $13.50 a night to stay here, a great deal.