A Little Further West

Our adventures over the past two days have been pretty unadventurous. We drove through very high winds in Canada, spotted 3 of the Great Lakes, inadvertently had the dogs go for a swim right before loading up into the truck, and broke a Corelle dish while driving. Pretty much run of the mill stuff for the Stringer Zoo. Oh, and Beth has developed a nice chest cough, and Hailey is running a mild fever. Yahoo!!! :)

Right now the older 3 are attempting to fall asleep with the sound of rain overhead. This is the first time the girls and I have slept in the trailer with it raining. I can only pray that the leak in the window above my bed has miraculously sealed itself so I don't wake up to a wet bed. Actually it may not be rain that makes my bed wet tonight - with Hailey not feeling good I had to put her to sleep in my bed. (The big girls were still eating dinner on her bed - AKA the kitchen table.) Hmmm, let the adventures begin.

Actually, it has been a pretty good couple of days. The winds were rough as we drove from Niagara Fall, NY to Port Huron, MI, so I kept two hands on the wheel at all times - no phone calls to friends or IM'ing with Scott. Yet, we safely landed at the campground at Selfridge ANGB in Michigan, right on the shore of Lake St. Clair. It was GORGEOUS!!! The campground was just yards away from the water, the skies were cloudy, but it was sunny. All of the girls enjoyed playing on the grass as I set up camp for the night.

This was where the dogs "accidentally" took a swim this morning. Beth and Katelynn were in charge of walking them as I prepared the trailer for our drive. They left the dogs with a "stay" command and walked away to play. Does 2+2=4??? Two retrievers + two geese on the water = WAY TOO MUCH TROUBLE. Abbey went in, leash and all, and was swimming out to catch the geese before I realized what was happening. Eli, being older and stiffer, had barely made it over the rocks at the edge of the lake before I called him back. So, Abbey was soaked, Eli was wet from his belly down, and we needed to load up and get to the commissary for groceries.

I guess it was an appropriate punishment that Beth and Katelynn sit closest to the dogs, and had to smell wet dog for the first part of the drive. :)

We are now north of Chicago in some extremely green farm land. The KOA here is very nice, even if their wireless access seems a bit spotty. All the girls piled out of the truck tonight and RAN around in circles in a grass field across the gravel drive from the trailer. This was a great thing to have tonight, as I wouldn't let anyone into the trailer until I had a chance to clean up the shards of Corelle scattered around the middle of the floor. Hmmm, maybe the curb I ran over at our last pit stop wasn't as benign as I had thought.

Tomorrow we will catch up with my grandma's sister and husband who live just outside of Chicago, as well as attempt to get a hold of a friend from high school who lives nearby with his wife and kiddos. Who knows what adventures lay ahead for tomorrow? :)

Please pray for our health, spirits are high, but I'll need HIS wisdom to know how to care for the girls. I'm off to bed for now, I'm looking forward to cuddling with Hailey - she likes to give lots of kisses in the middle of the night. :) Plus, I LOVE the sound of the rain on the trailer roof. It reminds me of my childhood when the rain would beat on the roof of an old metal shed in our backyard. Mmmmmm...I love good memories.