If You Don’t Like The Weather, Wait a Minute ~ Moving Home Part Five, AKA The End

October 19, 2013 at 11:53 pm · Filed under About, cats, ethnic food shopping, home, Michigan, Travel

welcome to (beautiful!) michigan

Back in Moving Home Part Four, we were blown across Ohio by a hot wind.

After a much needed rest, we packed up the trusty Subaru with two kitties in the back and some leftover Tony Packo’s in the cooler, and set out on the last leg of the trip home. The day was blustery and a bit rainy — though some cooler than the 100F temps of the day before, it promised to be a weather-ridden ride.

It mattered not.

Nothing could erase the excitement that accompanied one fact: at the end of the day’s drive lay the end of the journey. Today, come what may, we would be home. This was momentous for me — the long and longingly awaited over-the-rainbow day. I shed a few tears of joy when we crossed the state line into my beloved Michigan.
I even called my folks on the cell phone — I was that excited.
My mom said, “oh, wonderful”! Then my dad told me to hang up because it’s not safe to drive while on the phone!

I love my parents 🙂

Of course we stopped at the first rest area so I could get the last requisite welcome sign pic.

home at last ~ in many layers of outerwear 😉

We headed northwest to the VIP destination of Ann Arbor,
where I could stock up on some fresh curry leaves, yogurt, and other goodies at Patel Bros. Proximity to my old-haunt Indian groceries is one sacrifice I made in order to live amongst the wild things in the north woods, and I don’t regret it (as a matter of fact, I got my sister to mail me some fresh curry leaves in the heat of summer and they came through just fine!). Still, it was fun to see what will be available to me here, within a few hours’ drive. Patel Bros. is an orderly, modern store with great variety.

Somehow I prefer the smaller mom-and-pop places, so I think our ethnic shopping trips will be made to (closer) Grand Rapids.

Armed with the necessities, we departed populous “downstate” for the relative wilderness of the northern lower.

I took no photos en route. I had been here so many times before. What I had not encountered in my previous travels was a snow-squall near Clare. We drove straight into that snow squall, then straight back out again, in the space of ten minutes or less. It was like driving through a curtain, literally. I will never forget that.

The weather here is so dramatic. No wonder I feel at home 😉

At the end of that relatively short drive, I left DG at the airport to pick up his car. He had parked there when he flew to NH, to drive back with me. He was anxious to hurry along and check on his own three kitties: Lemur, Squeaker and Gib. They had been home alone for nearly a week. Pinks, Daisy and I landed at the little cottage I had rented for a month, hoping I would find a place of my own before summer. It was a cute place.

the cottage south of traverse city ~ kitties’ and my first home in michigan

The very next day, it snowed!

if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute…

It’s six months to the day that we landed back home.

Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.

kitties at the hometel ~ january 2013

kitties at dear S’s place in nh ~ february 2013

kitties in their first michigan home ~ april 2013

pinks and daisy with their new brother and sister, gib and squeaker ~ in the kitchen looking to eat ~ october 2013

Welcome home, kitties! 🙂

P.S. How ’bout those sox!

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