Singapore, Michigan

On our way back from Ohio we decided to have a late lunch in Saugatuck.  As you can read in the plaque below, this area used to be called Singapore.  We have similar pictures of this from years before but they are pre-digital and of course pre-grey hair (or lack of it).

Go Ahead Blow Up the Picture and read

No R in front of the SYC!

Ripley, Ohio

Well, we went to see Beth and Al in Ripley.  While we were there we got to see a little of why they settled there other than that Al was born there.  The house they bought has a fantastic view of the river and is right on the edge of town for walking through lots of beautiful old houses and buildings.

Other than being a pretty little own, it turns out that it played a major part in the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century slaves to escape to free states with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause.  Two key people from there, the Reverend John Rankin and John Parker were responsible for hundreds of slaves escaping.  Often the slave bounty hunters got aggressive and chased them into Ohio, which was supposedly where they were free.  The Reverend Rankin and his sons were often at risk.  John Parker was a former slave who bought his freedom and moved to Ripley and became a metal worker.  He was credited with many patents but was most famous for sneaking across the river and leading the runaway slaves to safety.  Harriet Beecher Stowe was influenced by these guys and wrote the book Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Also, as this is the edge of Appalachia, there is an appreciation for this type of music.  We went to the local library one night to watch a local Jam Session.  The stage area kept getting bigger and bigger with more people as they came with their musical instruments and the music seemed to keep getting better as well.  Unfortunately we had to leave early but it was a great hour and a half that we watched. All kinds of special string instruments as well as the standard fiddles and guitars.

Before attending the music night we took the local ferry across the big river to Augusta, Kentucky for lunch and sightseeing and then drove back via the Maysville Bridge.

A view of the sunset over the river from the living room

A Wefie

Another river pic

History

The Rankin House

The Ferry Ride (Al is in the car)

Augusta, Kentucky

Grant's Birthplace

A few miles before we got to Ripley, we stumbled on to Pleasant Point, which is just a small community but has the history of being Ulysses S. Grant's birthplace.  It also has a rest area and we needed to pee.  So after the quick stop, we walked around and snapped some photos.  It was quite a pretty spot along the river.  There was a bridge across one of the feeder creeks that was originally built and dedicated to Grant.  So he has more than a picture on the $50 note

The plaques describing the bridge

Going to Ohio!

Wow, Mark is volunteering to drive to Ohio and spend two nights there.  Not sure if he would even do that to celebrate a Michigan Football win.  But we are heading to Ripley, Ohio to visit long time friends Beth and Al.  They sold Sunflower a few years back and swallowed the anchor.  They bought a house overlooking the Ohio river of the famous 'looper cruiser' fame and use that as their home base now.  They still travel a lot and were in Costa Rica when we drove up from Annapolis so we missed them then.

The number of people rolling into town for the weekend after that sounds pretty exciting as well.  So stay tuned and watch for some pics.

Work - a week to go

We have a week left at work.  Then it is play and get ready for our return to Seward, Alaska where Sari Timur sits patiently waiting.

We had an interesting time at the factory where we work.  An eye-opener and quite different from what we were used to back in Singapore.  We want to express our appreciation to the management and staff with whom we worked.   They helped us find our way around and showed us the ropes to work effectively.  We were offered jobs if we need one the next time we're back in the area.  They even gave us thank you notes and some gift cards!  This is an assembly job and we are only temps sent from an agency so the company didn't have to do that but it is really good to feel appreciated for our work.  Thank you, Stanco Metal Products for what you've done!  And thank you to the agency (Workforce) for sending us there.

We Just Gave Notice!

Well, we finally started to get our lives back on a schedule.  We decided it was time to give our notice at work and start planning our future.  Our boss was kind of bummed but too busy to get details from us for now.  We suspect we will get quizzed more later.

 There is a lot happening around here in the next few weeks so we booked our tickets to head back to Seward on the 6th of May. We are having a Cinco de Mayo party on the fifth.  Chris Poel is coming the 28th of April for a few days so we decided to quit in mid April and enjoy West Michigan for a couple of weeks before heading back to dewinterize Sari Timur and get cruising again.

Right now we took a road trip down to Indiana to see Mark's sister, Chris and her family.  Second of April and it is snowing, it was 72 F on Thursday.