A few things that burn my a** !

There are some things that should have NEVER been allowed on TV... Lawyers and pharmaceutical commercials. Lawyers have changed the laws and verdicts in our country (for the worse), and pharmaceutical commercials have forced doctors to order unnecessary meds which raised insurance costs. The other thing that drive me nuts is the amount of advertisement commercials between a single show segments. I once counted 10 commercials which lasted nearly 10 minutes before the show continued. REALLY? When you pay more than $90 a month for 250+ channels, you should not have to be forced to watch junk. When I watch TV, I want to watch a show, not continuous advertisements!

2014 Summer travels and happenings

I know, I have been slacking on our posts. No excuses. I just get caught up in different things and forget. Well anyway, here's what happened since the last one. In mid-June, Nancy, Scooter our dog and I left pulling the 5th wheel for the Great Lakes area. Eventho I lay-out a route, it's got to be flexible, and it was. We tend to like the secondary roads more than freeways unless we want to get to somewhere fast. This is the condensed version of our stops. We stopped in Dodge City Kansas and then on the Springfield Illinois and visited the Lincoln Museum and his home. A day well spent.

I got a chance to visit with the family. Then off to Starved Rock State park. Don't know where they got that name. Hiking was fabulous. Waterfalls, canyons and, of course, A LOT of trees and green stuff. Not like Arizona.

Then on to near Chicago to visit with our youngest son and his family, some dear friends and the couple who bought my 36 Ford street rod last March.

Continuing North to Milwaukee and the Harley-Davidson Museum. WOW! What a place! Motorcycles, history, interactive exhibits, restaurant and shopping abundant.

Nancy told me she wanted to look for these quilt barns. I thought it was a quilt with barns on it, but it was barns with quilts on them. OKAY!?

Following the west side of Lake Michigan shoreline, we arrived at the Mackinac Bridge. Boy, is it big! We took a ferry over to the island and spent the day touring around. No motor vehicles allowed on the island except emergency vehicles. Did you ever see UPS deliver by horse?

The Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan and Huron that we saw on this trip) have huge shipping lanes between cities and Canada. And for decades have depended on lighthouses to guide their way. Now GPS takes that job, so the lighthouses are sold to organizations to preserve or they decay away. We took several tours and learned a lot about what a "Keeper" life was like.

Now heading southwest toward home, we stopped in Pipestone Minnesota where, for centuries, Native Americans have travelled to mine for a certain rock to hand carve "Peace Pipes" (as we have called them). Had to buy one. 5400 miles and 4 1/2 weeks. Great trip, good to be home.