TD2 2021 Adventure - Week 8 - "The Final Push!"

Hello again friends,

Here's your tenth -- and final -- installment of Thistle Dew Too's (TD2) 2021 Adventure.  This is Week 8, and we made it up into Michigan's Northern Peninsula on 7/20, only to learn that Canada would *not* be opening their border on 7/21.  Had they done so, we could have taken a short-cut to New England on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes, and hey, Tim Horton's Timbits would have been in play 🤣.  (Turns out, Trudeau delayed opening the border until 8/9, and we were home by then.)  

We decided to turn south and follow along the Great Lakes to the extent that would prove to be a scenic drive.  It was for a while, but then you've got to get around the congestion of the major cities.  So we reluctantly tried another approach -- interstate highways.  At some point in all of our trips, once we feel like getting home, we just want to put the pedal to the metal!  Except, around Chicago, it got painfully crowded, with too much construction and delays, and we literally could not take it.  

So we opted to take State roads that seemed to parallel the interstates but we could skirt around the cities.  RT 20, for example, proved to be quite useful and enjoyable for us.  Along the way, the weather and still some residual smoke impacted the skies and made picture taking a little less ... well, picturesque.  So in this installment you see just a couple of places where we stopped and took some pictures.  

One funny story -- for our last night on the road, we couldn't find a suitable campground (it was a Saturday night) and instead opted for a roadside pullout where someone online said they had stayed.  Only to wake up and find two patrol cars parked behind us!  Were they going to roust us?  Turns out they did not, but that did get our attention!  Never a dull moment boondocking on this side of the Mississippi -- always easier out west.

And then, after zipping through a total of nine states in less than a week ... we made it home!  To our cottage that's been in our family since 1964 (when I was 7 years old, and still have my name in the dried cement to prove it ;-).  And do you know the name of our cottage?  Well, let's just say the reason we named our RV "Thistle Dew Too", is because my late Mom named our cottage "Thistle Dew".  It reflects the fact that both of these living spaces are a little small, tired, and rustic, but with the right attitude, adequate for our needs.

You will actually see more pictures from around the small pond that our cottage shares with about 50 other families.  It's a wonderful community, and having sold our Amherst, NH home in 2019, it is now our snow-bird summer home.  We've got lots of work to do to it, but like all the houses we've ever owned, we tell ourselves, it's got "lots o' potential" 🤣.

So without further ado, here are some preview shots from the Week 8 finale:

Back to the Future in 1937?

Walking on water and fisher of men?

Back home and floating on a cloud

The high-bush wild blueberry thief has been identified ;-)

Please click this link to access the full set of photos for Week 8 ("The Final Push!") of our TD2 2021 adventure.  As you move your cursor over each photo, you will see a descriptive caption, and if needed, place the cursor on the caption itself to read the whole thing, or just double-click the photo.  

I still owe you all a couple more recipes which will be posted to this blog within a week.  And I really thank you for following along with our TD2 2021 Adventure.  It's been a blast seeing the sights, visiting with people, taking pictures and sharing them with you, and ... as always ... just following our noses!

Steven and Carol Crisp wish you all the best, and hope in your own way, you can benefit from Thistle Dew Too's motto: