Detroit Loopback to Chicago

We made it back to Detroit for the boys to spend the last days of summer vacation with their buddies.

We made it back to Detroit for the boys to spend the last days of summer vacation with their buddies. Detroit also happens to be sort of on the way between PA and Chicago where we were heading to for Kyle and and Carolyn’s wedding. Being that our storage units are here, too, I guess we might as well dump off 800lbs of unused gear from the truck. Stuff like tools and building materials that I never came close to having enough time to use but thought (dreamed) I would. I honestly thought I would build a bed-slider for the truck while camping and working from the road. I made plans and everything.

The first thing we did when we arrived back in town was park the rig at our former local grocery store and walked to Deb’s. The boys had unloaded the bikes and rode on ahead. So here we were, Erin, Mini and I walking down Campbell road and feeling pretty relaxed. We had kind of left Michigan in a big rush after working to pack up the house to within 15 minutes of closing. Move out day was a stress-ball tornado. The camper and truck were backed into the driveway where we were frantically loading them with a seemingly endless stream of stuff! Right before we hopped in and drove away for the last time, we all kind of huddled in the doorway and had a pretty sudden emotional farewell to the old sticks and bricks. We lived here nine years and enjoyed and endured countless events, changes and transitions within her walls. Nine years of it came flooding in at the realization of leaving it behind forever.

We spent the next few days camped out at Deb’s. It was amazing how very stable the floor felt after living in the shaky camper for the last two months. We also took care of some tasks and had great dinners, gatherings and breakfast with all the grandparents. We caught up with Jagers and boys swam in frigid waters while baby Kennedy napped extremely comfortably in the breeze. Burgers and beers night out with the Snearys and Rickles where we debated “historical” monuments, learned about the chemistry of ink and embarrassed our wives.

With the truck unloaded and squat reduced we needed to get the camper re-leveled to the new height of the hitch. This should also help out with the porpoising effect the weight and unlevel load would create.

The boys spent much of their time back in Detroit at the skatepark. They were pumped to get there and catch up with their buddies and get some sessions before school starts. School being the on-the-road variety provided by Erin and some online resources. The biggest challenge here would be adapting our funky travel routine and daily schedule.

Nuptials in the 312

We left Detroit ahead of everyone else heading to Chicago for the family wedding to get settled in to our spot at the sort-of-nearby campground. We arrived without incident and pulled in to our spot to find the campground 90% empty. All summer we had been just another family out camping with our kids at the packed campground. Now we’re the ONLY family camping at the campground! It was odd to say the least. There was no one around except an African Gray Parrot across from us. It took me a long time to figure out that it was the parrot that was doing all that cat-calls and singing and not some hidden creepers! The owner eventually came around we went over learned that Tito the parrot was about 30 years old.

The top priority out of everything we had going on was to figure out how to watch the Lions now that we’re out of the Detroit NFL market. Apparently the NFL goes to great lengths to make sure the advertisers only get what they pay for. But this was the Lions so we had to pull out all the stops. We ended up going with YouTube TV that plays live television over the internet. I signed up it for while we were in Detroit and it’s only supposed to work in the city you signed up in. We masked our location through a VPN out of Southfield that was being provisioned through China. Since it was still baseball season we were able to set it all up and work out the kinks while watching the Tigers.

Skate day

The following day we headed into Chicago for a skate day. Grant park is incredible. Great views of the city while still being in the thick of it all. The park has a great flow and all the fun stuff that the boys like to skate. Also in town was their fellow Modern Skate park rat, Christiana who came up and worked on some lines with the boys. Fun stuff! We skated around the city for a bit and stopped for some lunch on a patio.

Marriage at the Chicago History Museum was Historical

Saturday was Kyle and Carolyn’s. Uncle Keith did a fantastic job ministering the ceremony. The setting was amazing and the reception a blast. Kevin crushed it on the best man speech. I took the long way to where ever I was going at the reception to walk past this photo more than once. Made me feel like he was there.

Leos’ season opener

We had great weather, great wifi, great company, and the hacky out of market NFL stream scheme worked! Best of all, Lions won.

Next we head south and have a close encounter of the thick-skinned quadraped kind!