Over the River and Through the Woods

 Yesterday, we visited my grandmother.  While we did go through the woods to get there, I don't think we actually went over a river.  So perhaps I should have said, "Around the big lake and through the woods".  We left early on a very sunny but chilly Saturday morning with John at the wheel.  At the Michigan border, we stopped at a rest stop, which is our usual routine.

This is really the only rest stop I've been to in Michigan, but it is a really nice one.  There is also a person who works there that always has a Grogu doll on their shoulder and is very welcoming.  

This is us outside the rest stop.

There is a small natural area in front of the rest stop, where these pictures were taken.  The pond was steaming, but I'm not sure how well that comes across in this picture.

 The travel brochures I picked up at the rest stop.

After purchasing coffee from the left most machine pictures above, John and I were back on the road, this time with behind the wheel.  We made a brief stop at the Kalamazoo Meijer to pick up supplies for Grandma, which I forgot to photograph.  I figure you probably know what a grocery store looks like?  Then it was on to Grandma's house.

My grandmother has lived in this house for almost 70 years.  (She is 96.)  Recently, we have been helping her get things organized with a view to perhaps hosting a garage sale someday.  (We had originally hoped to have the garage sale in July, but it turns out 70 years worth of stuff is a lot of stuff and it might take us a little longer than anticipated.  John and I don't mind - we like spending time with Grandma!)

For a few months, we were working on the basement.  While it isn't completely done, we did make a lot of progress and Grandma has had us move on to other projects.

That last picture is of a part of the basement we haven't really gone into.  I think it was my grandfather's workshop.  He died in 1987, but was paralyzed for the last several years of his life.  I don't really think anyone has gone in there in a very long time.  I think that, on the upper left of that photo, we are looking at cages that he made for my grandmother to house animals from the wildlife center in.  She would help care for animals that had been injured or abandoned as babies.  At various times, they had a raccoon, two red squirrels, a grey squirrel, and probably more things.  The squirrels ran up under my great-grandmother's skirt in a notable incident.

This visit, we helped my grandmother tackle these two bedrooms.  She had used them to store some non-perishable food items, so we gathered those up and took them down to the pantry shelves in the basement.
 

So I guess technically, we did work on the basement again!

 

These are just a few other pictures that I took.  After eating supper, a thing we only do when visiting my grandmother, John and I were back on the road home, with me starting out in the drivers seat this time.  After a pit stop at a different Meijer to recycle expired medication (not pictures), get Starbucks, and fill up the gas tank, we were on our way.  Just over the border into Indiana, we stopped at another rest stop.

They had up some cute Halloween decoration which had not yet been taken down.

However, I was unable to pick up any travel brochures as there were NONE, as you can see in the photo above.  

About an hour later, we were entering our home to the chirps of Bundle reminding us that her dinner time was quite well in the past and that she was fading away to fur and bones.  (I am just kidding - she is fine!  Her dinner was late and she did want to eat, but she is a very good kitty and not pushy at all.)