What a week! Around fifteen years ago, my mom discovered some half sisters she'd never known about. She was able to fly to Michigan to meet them all, but I never got that chance until now. We just spent a week with my new Aunt Edna, where I got to meet all sorts of relatives. It would be nice sometimes if I had a better idea when I would be where. We showed up a week earlier than the August 28 date we originally gave for our arrival, but it worked out anyway. Edna's husband, Rick, was kind enough to add a 50 amp plug (he had the wires already from an old hot tub) for us so we could run AC and everything else. The heat was around 90, and the humidity was around 100 - that might be an exaggeration, but it was high. The AC is great not only for keeping the temperature down, but for keeping the moisture inside the RV down. I don't mind humidity, I actually prefer it, but it can get to be too much when I go to bed at night and my sheets are damp. The second day we were there, Edna saddled up her horse, Dallas, for me. Dallas is getting over being sick so I only rode for a few minutes because she started coughing, but it was really special riding the same horse that my mom rode a dozen years ago. Abe wasn't able to ride Dallas, but he found another horse to ride.
Wednesday, Abe did some more finagling with the paddleboard setup so we could go to a nearby lake. He added a couple wooden crossbars to the front trailer, with a bolt in the center that allowed the top bar to pivot. Basically, he made a 5th wheel hitch for the boards. It worked perfectly! We rode our bikes to the lake and spent a few hours paddling around. Usually, Abe is the first one in the water, but this time I was hot and the water was almost too warm so I "fell" in after a few minutes. That was a fun time. We tried to knock each other off our boards. Abe succeeded several times. I'm not strong enough to tip his board if he's trying to prevent me, and I'm not sneaky enough to surprise him. But he did let me knock him off a couple times. I still can't get over how warm the lakes are around here!
My new family showed Abe and me around the area, taking us to Lake Michigan, where we ate dinner on an anchored boat/restaurant on the lake, walked down a pier, and ate ice cream. The entire week, Abe kept repeating, "You guys are definitely related!" It's fun finding so many similarities with family that I didn't know existed for most of my life. We're all the run around barefoot, wear our good clothes to take care of the animals, not afraid to get dirty type. It was a fun group to hang out with.
We got to go to dinner with most of the family before we left. I have another aunt that lives nearby that I wasn't able to meet, but maybe I can meet her in a couple weeks. The plan is to stop by one more time after we leave Abe's dad's place around the 11th, on our way to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. I wasn't ready to leave and I really hope we get to go back to spend some more time. I feel like I missed out on a lot by not having that part of the family around me growing up. I'm sure my mom felt the same way after meeting them when she was able to. At least I was finally able to get to know them a bit.
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