A weekend away with friends............

My friend Nancy has moved from Traverse City back to her home town. She has two daughters who have been on at her to make the move. When she agreed I dont think she was ready for her house to sell practically before it hit the market. Well she made the move and is staying in a small town called Shepherd. Its not a town, its a few houses. Not even a grocery store. Anyway she is staying in her friend Marilyn's home for now (Marilyn died recently and her kids want Nancy there) Its a beautiful house and I would snap it up in an instant but Nancy says its too big for her, and it really is. Its just that Marilyn did so much to the house to make it beautiful. Well...........Edna and I went down to visit Nancy. It's a two hour drive from here. It was a wet Saturday but the leaves were brilliant when the sun came out now and then. We chatted all the way so it didn't seem too long. Nancy was so happy to see us. She has been lonely and we missed her. She will soon settle in because its close to her home town and she does know people there so its just a matter of time.

We sat around the table and ate lunch that Nancy had ready for us. It was just so nice and even though it was not her house that we are used to, Marilyn's house made us welcome. We sat and just enjoyed each others company. We talked about the usual stuff, our husbands, both Nancy and Edna are widows now and we talked about remarriage and how different men are. They both agree they would never remarry. We talked about women friends and how men seem to lack that close bond we share, at least the ones we know. My husband does not have friends of his own. He has mine, or rather the husbands of mine. We seldom see them any more since I don't work now. Do men talk like we do?

After lunch we set off to see the area she is making home. I forgot my camera darn it. I left it in Edna's car so I would remember it and then we went in Nancy's. We saw several Amish horse and buggies and some washing on the line I would have loved a picture of. It was so Amish. Ah well.We went to a very small town close by called Blanchard. By the time we got there it was around 3.30 and so we didnt have a lot of time to look around. We decided we would go out again on Sunday to take pictures. There were 3 antique shops and we only got to explore one of them. We saw some abandoned buildings and a lot of farms. We decided we would go out on Sunday and explore everything then. We ate out and spent the evening putting together quilt fabrics for Nancy. She always buys stuff and never know what to put together and both Edna and I love to do that. So we got her sorted out. We had found two new shops, new to us anyway and We have to go back there again soon.


Sunday we were all up early and went out to breakfast. I remembered my camera. We decided we would go back along the same lines as Saturday, we knew we would not see the Amish or the laundry but ah well. We found a little wayside chapel and went in. So cute...........


Hand hewn seats

In that same area was a one room school house.

There is a park where these places were, it looked like it was made for the whole areas schools and churches, it is huge. Nice ....it overlooked an old abandoned mill. For some reason the water was all drained out of the lake. We could not figure out why.

We had so much fun, Nancy kept saying I just love doing this............we stopped at a little church yard and explored the graves, it was quite cold so didnt stay long.


Right close by were some derelict buildings. They looked like grain barns. We didnt go in but loved the old wood buildings and I got a few pictures
How I would have loved to have gone in and explored but we are not that brave.

This is a different building also derelict


I took a lot of pictures of farms and fields, old buildings and so on. I wont bore everyone with all that.

we went back to Nancy's for lunch, not that we needed more food but.....well it gave us reason to stick around and make the afternoon last longer. We decided next time we will go on a Friday night, that way we would have all day Saturday to explore. Lots more places we want to go to. However, the season is winding down and snow is coming soon. Will we make it again this year?

Time speeds on and next time we have to take Barb with us, we can not give up the time we spend with friends. Its important to keep friendships alive, to be there for each other and to cherish these times together. More so now there is a distance between us. It's not so easy to get away having Tristen but I will do it. I must..........