Aigist 11, 2018

We headed home today.

August 9, 2018

We went to a different campground yesterday.  This one has a river we can go tubing down.  Everyone was also fascinated with the coin dozer machine.

August 4, 2018

We went on vacation this week to Washington DC.  Our campground was in the woods of a farm.

June 9, 2018

We made pie iron pizzas for supper, after we went swimming in the lake.

June 8, 2018

We went on a weekend trip to a campground not too far away. 

August 21, 2017

I am going to break my one picture a day rule today.  These are some of my photos from the eclipse.  We did not drive down to totality.  We heard of the the expected traffic and crowds, worried about finding a place to park, and the thought of standing on an asphalt lot in 90+ degree heat and high humidity for 5 hours or so did not appeal to us.  We remained at the camper, relaxed, and enjoyed a quiet family experience in a deserted campground.

12:22 PM  I don't know if it will show up, but there are several sunspots visible.

12:55  Our deserted campground.  There may have been one other family still there, on another level.  The previous night, the place was booked solid.

1:21  A big dark cloud blocked the sun for a few minutes, which turned out quite interesting, as we could see the sun without the dark protective glasses.

1:23  The decrease in light was so gradual, our eyes adjusted.  My camera did not.  This picture has the same settings as the one above showing the campground, but came out a lot darker.  I could see a difference in light, but didn't know how drastic it was until my camera wanted to use flash in what I perceived as broad daylight.

1:26  My son turned on the awning lights, which glowed much more than they should have in the middle of the day.  He was also excited to note the lights for the interstate came on as well.

1:29  This is about as small as the sun got for us, so I guess this is approximately 1% of the sun's light.  The sky was not dark, the filter makes it appear black.  It was still very blue, as the next photos of us show.

1:30  I took the filter off for a few photos at the peak.

1:30  This one is also without a filter, but with different settings on the camera.

1:32  Here is the family near the peak of the eclipse.  This approximates how much light we had.  My eyes didn't see the shadows that dark, however, but it was dark enough to need a flash.

1:35  The moon's shadow is now on the other side of the sun.

1:37  The family photo.While it appears fairly bright out, it is dark enough for the awning lights to glow.

August 19, 2017

We drove southwest to get closer to the solar eclipse.  Our campground is about an hour away from totality, with 99% coverage of the sun.  The roads were busy, as a lot of other people have the same idea.  We heard one man on the radio say it's the biggest migration of people for a natural event.  It was interesting to see how much more traffic was heading south compared to northbound.  The campground was full.

June 9, 2017

We're back home.

October 15, 2016

We cooked on the campfire tonight.  Once we figured out we could make pizza in our pie irons, it became a tradition.

October 14, 2016

We stayed at a state park near Toledo.  Today we ran up to Greenfield Village to see all the stuff we missed when it was excessively hot in August.  They had it decorated for Halloween, with hundreds of Jack-o-lanterns.  I saw more carved pumpkins today than I have the rest of my life combined.  This picture is from our campground.  It was a nice, clear night, with a full moon.

October 13, 2016

The kids had Thursday and Friday off school, so we took a long weekend vacation.

August 12, 2016

This was our spot.  There's a lake in the background with a beach where we swam.

August 8, 2016

We went to the Detroit area for vacation.  We stayed at Camp Dearborn. 

July 17, 2015

We headed home today.  This campground was nice, but this site was rough to back into.  It was hot while we were here, which made the swimming pool nice and warm- no need to adjust to the water temperature.

July 6, 2015

There is too much rain in the forecast, so we're going home to wait for clear days.  We got the hay in from the worst fields, there's just the smaller, nearby fields left. 

June 29, 2015

I made a soft bag to go over our new towing mirrors.  They came with a handy bag, but just laid in there together and I didn't want the mirrors to get scratched.

June 5, 2015

We went on a short weekend camping trip near Toledo this weekend.  Here is my daughter looking over the types of fossils we might find at a fossil park.

December 15, 2014

This is one of the pictures I took for our Christmas card this year.  The kids enjoyed pretending to camp at the North Pole.  Once I was done, they took the frozen root beer into the house and grated it up to make slushies.

July 30, 2014

We were starting to pack up to leave.  Short vacation, but Niagara Falls was one place I wanted to take the kids while they're still kids.  Hopefully next year we'll be able to go a little further!

July 15, 2014

The camper fits in the barn, with a foot to spare.