ART PRIZE

 We arrived in Michigan on Wednesday. On Thursday we went to Grand Rapids for Art Prize.

 It is the world's largest art competition. with art displayed through out the city. The dots on the map show where some art can be viewed.The art can be found all over in galleries, restaurants, shops, police station, store windows, etc.. Part of the fun was finding the art. There was over 1500 works of art (we only saw about 200), You get to vote for your favorite art piece and a grand prize is $200,000

 This wooden ball was as tall as I am, and when you put your ear against it it made a humming noise.

 Theses Native American portraits were made with little squares of paint.

 You had to use a magnifying glass to see what this artist had drawn and written.

 Here he is doing it on a circle of paper. Some of the artist were around to talk with.

 This is made out of Lego's

 A chess board of wood, each piece had gears and moved.

 This sculpture was carved from the trunk of a wild black cherry tree that had blown down in 1995. It took the artist 825 hours to create it.

 This building was three stories tall and this wooden chain went from ceiling to floor several times. It was carved from one piece of wood.

 This beautiful butterfly was made from paper dots.

 There was some beautiful stain glass pieces. The lights they used behind them really showed the glass off.

It was a fun and unique trip to start our visit here in Michigan.

TRAVELING THE TURNPIKE

On Sunday afternoon we left Lancaster headed to Michigan for the NOMADS annual meeting. We decided to get on the turnpike to head west. The last time we traveled the turnpike with the RV we couldn't understand why we didn't get a ticket when we got on. Stopping at the next exit we found  out it read our E-Z Pass on the tow car. In Florida the Sunpass does not work for our RV when it is on the car, so we were surprised.

When we entered Ohio and went on to the turnpike we received a ticket, so we got off at the next exit to explain that we had E-Z pass and that it hadn't read it for the RV since it was on our tow car.  They told us it had to be on the RV and had us move it, fixed the toll and helped us make a U-turn back onto the turnpike. Lesson learned to keep it on the RV. WE are now enjoying a few days in Ohio and will be at Kalamazoo on Wednesday. Looking forward to seeing all our NOMADS friends.

CELEBRATIONS

 The VA offers a program to veterans called MOVE. It is a weight lose program through exercise and diet.Tina was the instructor and was a great teacher. I was able to join in as Larry's support. The first week they were given a pedometer and encouraged to walk a little more each day. Larry has walked over 10,000 steps every day since. He is reading nutrition labels, realizing serving size and how many calories are in foods at restaurants A great web site is calorie king. The program ran for eight weeks and on the last day he was given a certificate congratulating him on his lose of  18 1/2 pounds and 4 inches at his waist and is motivated to lose a little more.  

Ashtyn will be one on October 1st, but we will not be here so we celebrated a little early.

 Her first piggy bank. That will take a lot of coins to fill it.

 She loved her little beach house purse with the sea critters in it. I hope this will remind her of us while we are in Florida.

 Bob's birthday was on Saturday. We met him in Downingtown for a meal at Texas Roadhouse. Larry gave him a YETI cup and he loves how it keeps his beverage cold.

 We also gave him a new paddle for his kayak.

Saturday evening we went to the Cavalcade of Band competition at Hempfield High School.  It is really amazing the performances these bands put on. Hempfield band looks and sounds great and since they were the host they were not in competition. Glad we got to see their shows this year.

BUSY WEEK

 Tuesday we had an early morning appointment at Stoltzfus RV in West Chester to get new steps installed. Our steps were not going in and out. Larry called the company and tried to repair them himself but they finally agreed to replace the whole step system.  Since we were camped at Hershey Thousand Trails it meant leaving real early in the morning, so I left Monday night and took the car to visit my sisters. Larry couldn't find the cat in the RV when he arrived at Stoltzfus to take her out with him, so when the repairman opened the door to check the steps Godiva ran out. Everyone searched for her for awhile but with no success.

 I checked in with Stoltzfus RV on the way home from my sisters on Wednesday, but Godiva still hadn't been seen. My son used Face book to get the word out at Lost Pets in Chester County and he made some posters to be put up at stores in the area. Godiva has a microchip and part of Home Again, so they were also notified and contacted all the shelters and vets in a 25 mile radius.

 Earlier this summer Larry had replaced the light in my sister's kitchen. Since it was smaller then the previous one the ceiling needed painting.

  I painted the ceiling while I visited her. It took two coats of white to cover the blue.

 On Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday we babysat Ashtyn. She is walking up a storm now.

Playing with the mail that was trash that Grandpa threw on the floor was great entertainment.

On Saturday we decided to go to Stoltzfus and spend the day there looking for her. When we arrived we were told she had been seen around the grounds a couple of times. They had a humane trap out and some food but had not caught her. We spent the day walking around the acres of RV's calling her. We told some of the customers that were looking at RV's about her being lost. At the end of the day a dealer rushed up to us on his cart saying they have your cat. A mother and her two daughters heard her meowing and she came out from under an RV. Luckily Godiva has the harness on her so they were able to hold her for us till we got there. We are all glad to be reunited and she is back home safe and sound. What a week!