We have lived in Michigan for 22 years and have spent very little time exploring this state. Usually when Brett has some time off and we want to go somewhere, we head to Arkansas or Texas to visit family, or to someplace out of state we want to see, like Mt. Rushmore. Brett had to burn off a couple of vacation days this week, so we decided to visit three Michigan towns we've heard about a lot since moving here, but had never visited. And of course we went geocaching in each town because that's what we do.

Our first stop was Hell. Literally. We took the highway to Hell.

I had a little fun inverting the colors and some other editing on this photo. There is a geocache on the sign; we always like it when we can combine a geocache with a photo op. We got to Hell around lunchtime.

Turns out, there are some pretty good sandwiches in Hell, made with homemade bread and served on coffin-shaped plates.

Turns out, the Gates of Hell lead to a kitschy miniature golf course. Who knew?

There were also several of those signs with holes in them to stick your face through. Who even does that anymore? So tacky.

I have no idea who those people are.

Hell was not an easy place for geocaching. We got three or four caches there and quit before I was completely devoured by mosquitoes. Brett didn't get a nibble. When I complained about it, he explained it to me in scientific terms. "Genetically, you are chocolate and I am turnips," he informed me.

We left Hell and drove to Chelsea. It's a very pretty town with a gorgeous clock tower.

I also spotted this cool cow hanging off the side of a building. I was so focused on the cool cow, I didn't notice the sign above it's poor, doomed head.

We didn't have much luck geocaching in Chelsea, mainly because it was so freaking hot and we'd been guzzling water and couldn't find a public bathroom. We did find one cache at the clock tower. While Brett was looking unsuccessfully for another cache, I wandered down the road about a block to see the Purple Rose Theatre.

The Purple Rose is owned by actor Jeff Daniels and I've been wanting to see a play there for a long time. I'm going to keep an eye on their productions and make an effort to get there in the next year.

We left Chelsea and continued northeast to Frankenmuth. Well, technically we went to Birch Run, crashed a local geocachers' monthly Meet & Greet, and spent the night at the Hampton Inn. A funny thing happened at the Meet & Greet. There was a woman there from Texas who was visiting her mother. She looked at Brett's geocaching name (waldowalking) and asked, "Are you the one I heard about that was at GeoWoodstock?" Yep, that was him! He wore his Waldo costume at a gathering of thousands of geocachers in Missouri and somebody from Texas recognized him on the other side of the state from where we live. A couple of other people said they'd either seen him or pictures of him. Small world. He was so tickled he went out to the van, put on his Waldo costume and posed for pictures. (Of course we travel with a Waldo costume. Doesn't everybody?)

The next morning we picked up a few caches in Birch Run before heading to Frankenmuth. We could tell from the very beginning that we were going to have a great day. Frankenmuth was definitely the most geocacher friendly town we visited on our mini-trip. For those of you not from Michigan, Frankenmuth is a picturesque town with a Bavarian theme. There was a covered bridge...

... and a quaintly painted barn...

... and lots and lots of Old World Bavarian architecture. While we were walking near the covered bridge, somebody stopped their vehicle and asked us, "Pardon me, could you direct us to the glockenspiel?" I'll bet you've never been asked that. We ate lunch at the Bavarian Inn and were serenaded by a man in lederhosen playing polkas on the accordian. No photo because Brett fled, and whither he goest, I goeth when we're far from home and he's got the car keys. After awhile, the cuteness and quaintness began to feel like a humongous version of It's a Small World. But we found every single geocache we looked for that day.

We ended our time in the area at Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. It's like a Christmas version of the Vegas strip. We bought our Christmas ornament for this year and found something for a friend. We also found the geocache hidden under the giant Christmas tree at the bottom of the giant man-made hill with the giant Santa Claus on top.

One hour at Bronners had us suffering from sensory overload, and we only went into the West Addition of the store. I couldn't help thinking that we'd begun our little trip in one Hell and ended it in another.

It was fun getting to see some bits of Michigan we hadn't visited before.

Many years ago I bought my mom a climbing peace rose for her birthday. She planted it outside my dad's bedroom window and it flourished. When my dad was bedridden and dying, he enjoyed looking at the beautiful yellow and orange roses through the window. Mom would cut bouquets of roses and put them in a vase on his nightstand. After Dad's graveside service, Mom placed a bouquet of peace roses she had cut that morning on his coffin.

Last summer, Brett and I helped clean out Mom's house after she was placed in a nursing home. The peace rose was as high as the roof and in glorious bloom. The last day we were at the house, Brett cut the blooms, cut back the rose plant and dug it up. He dug up as much of the red Arkansas clay as he could with the roots and placed the plant in a five-gallon bucket in the back of our van. We stopped at the cemetery on our way out of town and left the cut roses on Dad's grave. It was a week before we got home, but the rose still looked healthy in spite of sitting in the van in the summer heat. Brett transplanted it into the sandy Michigan soil in his butterfly garden at the back of our yard.

The past winter was very hard on the garden; both butterfly bushes and all three climbing roses had to be severely cut back. One of the butterfly bushes will probably have to be removed. The roses fared better, and the peace rose survived its first northern winter better than any of them. The other two climbing roses have put out leaves, but no blooms yet. The peace rose puts forth more beauty every day, which I've been recording with cell phone photos.

The first bloom opened up on June 11 in a gorgeous shade of deep orange with yellow highlights.

Five days later, it had turned a pinkish red hue and another flower opened that was yellow with orange along the edges of the petals.

That was Monday, June 16. By Tuesday morning, the yellow rose was turning orange and several new flowers had opened.

After the trauma of being cut back and dug up while it was in bloom, stuck in a bucket in the back of a van for a week, transplanted to entirely different soil and climate, and cut back again after a particularly long and vicious winter, this little plant not only survived, but thrived. It surprises us every day with its vibrant beauty displaying itself in unexpected ways.

The peace rose is a beautiful, living reminder of both my parents, and an encouragement that no matter how stressful the situation, how hostile the environment, and how radical the changes we face, we can not only survive, but grow in unexpected and wonderful ways.

It’s my birthday! Five years ago I made a list of 50 lessons learned in my 50 years. For the next three years I added one thing to the list on my birthday. If you want to see that list, you will have to CLICK THIS LINK , because this year I have decided it’s time to write a whole new list (although, looking back on the old list, there are some things that are the same). This one is a mix of lessons learned, good advice, and a few things I need to work on, 55 total; one for every year I've graced this earth. Listen up, whippersnappers! There's some good stuff in here that can save you some grief down the road.

1. Start eating healthy while you’re still healthy.
2. Start wearing sensible shoes before your feet, knees and back get bad.
3. Dye your hair the color you always wished it was.
4. Drive with the windows down and don’t worry about your hair getting messy.
5. Take that road trip you’ve always dreamed of.
6. Learn a craft or develop a hobby that will engage you when you’re bored.
7. Keep in touch with aunts, uncles and cousins, no matter how busy your life becomes.
8. Get off the interstate and take the back roads.
9. Stop hiding from the camera.
10. Adopt a pet from an animal shelter.
11. Learn how to cook three things really well.
12. Do volunteer work, even if it’s only an hour a week.
13. Get all those digital photos printed.
14. Write letters using paper, stamps and envelopes.
15. Do something that frightens you.
16. Make a conscious effort to smile at people.
17. Walk with confidence.
18. Look for moments of beauty, joy and gratitude each day.
19. Keep a journal, even if it’s boring.
20. Appreciate a boring life; excitement is usually related to disaster.
21. Think before you speak.
22. Think before you blog.
23. Think before you post those photos online.
24. Never, ever send naked photos to anyone. Never…  Anyone.
25. Reuse what you can.
26. Recycle what you can’t reuse.
27. Send postcards to your friends when you travel.
28. Act silly in public.
29. Take selfies with children; you will be the coolest grownup in the room.
30. Walk in the woods.
31. Stargaze.
32. Mail funny birthday cards to your friends when it’s not their birthday.
33. Call your mother.
34. Listen when your parents or grandparents tell you stories about their lives.
35. Learn to play an instrument.
36. Taste new foods.
37. Retry foods you didn’t like when you were a kid.
38. Sing Christmas carols in June.
39. Buy yourself flowers for no particular reason.
40. Always keep a road atlas in your vehicle.
41. When you get lost, make it an adventure.
42. Learn to be alone without being lonely.
43. Sing in the shower.
44. Sing in the car.
45. Dance when the spirit moves you.
46. A good mattress is one of the best investments you will ever make.
47. Paint your toenails an outrageous color.
48. Watch as many sunsets as you can.
49. Play in the rain.
50. Eat chocolate without guilt.
51. Go to a movie at a drive-in theater.
52. Wear earplugs at concerts. You’ll thank me later.
53. Keep your cookie jar filled at all times.
54. Always keep Bandaids and ice packs on hand.
55. Look for the good in people.

And that's it - my birthday gift to you. Go out and sing, dance, paint your toenails, take selfies with children, call your mom, eat chocolate, play in the rain, bake cookies, act silly, and make my birthday the best day ever.

So, last night began no differently from any other night. Brett went off to bed and I stayed up a bit longer. Sometimes I watch old episodes of Bones, sometimes I watch the late night talk shows, sometimes I read, sometimes I mess around on the computer, and sometimes I just stare off into space thinking I should really go to bed if I could just work up enough energy to get off the couch and climb the stairs. Last night was a combination of the last two.

I'd had a tiring day of limping around Meijer because every last one of the electric carts was in use by people who surely weren't in as much pain as I. It's so easy to start judging. I sucked it up and got most of the stuff I knew I'd forgotten before I left the store last time, but didn't feel like making another round to get them. Of course, it involved limping from one end of the store to the other, but I did it. And then, on the way home, I realized I'd forgotten to get black spray paint and toothpaste and hand soap. Sigh. I stopped at the Dollar Store that was on my way and grabbed the spray paint that was for a special project. I then drove home, elevated and iced my knee and rested for about an hour before going back out to get the toothpaste and soap at Walgreens. They also had my makeup on sale, so BONUS!!

After I got home from Walgreens, I got serious about the little project I'd been putting off because May was so insanely busy I was lucky to get the important stuff done, like buying food and toilet paper, and doing laundry. This was a fun project, so of course it got pushed off until I had some leisure time. It was for a photo scavenger hunt site on Facebook and was an attempt to recreate a famous photograph. It had to be instantly recognizable. I chose this photo of Neil Armstrong planting the American flag on the moon.

The spray paint was the only thing I had to purchase; I already had everything else I needed to make the shot. The pocked rock was out in the flowerbed, the Neil Armstrong Christmas ornament was in the basement, and the pieces of cardboard were next to the recycling. All I had to do was spray paint a couple of pieces of cardboard black, set them on two sides on the big rock in the flowerbed, pop the Christmas ornament on top of the rock, take the shot and do a little airbrushing in Picasa.

Maybe not an exact replica of the famous shot, but instantly recognizable, and you've got to work with what you have. Plus, I'm running out of time for this hunt and I've only got half the list done so far.

Back to my story. I'd been working on this photo and generally goofing off on my laptop for awhile and I was tired and my knee was hurting. So I shut down the computer, put Boo in his crate, gave him a treat, filled his water bowl for morning, took my arthritis medicine and a sleeping pill, puttered around a little, and finally began the laborious and painful (but not as bad as the day before) process of getting upstairs. I carried a bag of stuff upstairs, including two bottles of hand soap I'd purchased at Walgreens. For some reason I always have a hard time remembering to buy hand soap, so when I do remember to get it, I buy two.

I got upstairs and began my usual nightly routine, which starts with writing in my journal (usually in the bathroom where there's a place to sit and I can have the light on without waking Brett). I wrote in the journal, put on my nightgown, brushed my teeth and replaced the empty hand soap container with a new one. I opened the cupboard door under the sink to put the backup hand soap away until it's needed... and discovered standing water and a bunch of soggy crap I'd been meaning to clean out for several months.

I started pulling stuff out and tossing it in the tiny bathroom trashcan. Then I realized I'd carried stuff upstairs in a Walgreens bag so I started putting trash in that. Then I found a soaking wet towel and some washcloths under there, which I tossed into the bathtub (which is where I also ended up putting the wet bag of wet trash). By this time my sleeping pill was kicking in and all I was capable of was clearing enough junk out from under the sink to throw down a couple of dry towels to soak up the water and catch the drips from whatever was leaking.

When Brett got up at 4 AM to do his nocturnal wandering, he found the under-sink cupboard doors open, a lot of stuff shoved to one side, two sopping wet towels in the middle, and some wet towels and a bag of trash in the bathtub. When I woke up this morning, I found the bag of trash and all the other contents of the cupboard in a laundry basket on top of the sink, all the wet towels gone (later discovered in a laundry basket on top of the washing machine), and a fan inside the cupboard drying it out (and also drying the rug in front of the sink which I'd managed to soak while removing wet stuff in my addled state). He woke to mayhem and I woke to find most of the mess magically cleaned up.

The bright side of all this is that the cupboard is finally getting cleaned out, and since all those old curling irons were sitting in an inch or so of water, there was absolutely no temptation to keep them anymore. They went into the garbage bag with the rest of the soggy stuff. I still need to wipe down the few things I salvaged and I'll need to wash the wet towels, but I'm waiting to do that until after Brett fixes the leak because I figure there's a slight chance there will be more wet towels by the time he's finished.

Brett left me a note saying I'd handled the "midnight madness" well and it looks like a bad faucet seal but he'll have to tear it apart when he gets home this afternoon to know for sure, and he hopes I didn't lose any of the healing progress I'd made in my knee. And there I was feeling badly about leaving such a mess for him to find!

We are trying to work in an early birthday celebration today. Everyone's schedules are so busy, it's hard to find a time the three of us can all be together and birthday celebrations tend to last for several days as we block off three or four hours at a time. I think the main plan for this afternoon is to go to a movie. Tomorrow maybe we can squeeze in dinner at a restaurant. Now we need to figure out where the plumbing repairs will fit into the schedule. Hopefully, sometime before midnight.

Speaking of which, I should hobble on upstairs and start wiping down all that stuff I tossed into a bucket this morning.

I arrived home on Tuesday afternoon. I do not recommend back to back trips, but if you must, I do recommend making one of them with a long lost cousin.

One of the first things I did after pulling into my driveway was check out the growing things in our backyard. The long, harsh winter did some damage, but Brett cut back the butterfly bush and the climbing roses and they appear to be growing back healthy.

The peace rose has healthy green leaves growing on it. The butterfly bush has several new shoots growing out of the older, sapling-sized stalks. The butterfly garden is looking green and lush even without the towering butterfly bush.

The plum trees did not fare so well. They have produced leaves and look nice and green, but there were hardly any blossoms on them this spring. I am not expecting any plums this summer.  The cherry trees, however, are producing.

And for the first time since Brett has been planting them, the strawberries are looking like they might ripen without being ravaged by vicious hordes of bunnies!

I ran a few errands yesterday. I was on my second-to-last stop at the vision center to pick up my new glasses when my left knee, which has been giving me trouble for several weeks but seemed to be on the mend, popped loudly and caused sudden, excruciating pain. I was in the process of sitting down at the time and got kind of stuck in limbo, holding myself up with my hands on the arms of the chair as I tried to figure out how to lower myself the rest of the way down without causing further pain. I eventually made it into the chair, got my new glasses fitted, got myself out of the chair and into my van, and sat there deciding whether to go on to the grocery store or go to the walk-in clinic. That right there should tell you how much pain I was in. I do not go to the walk-in clinic lightly, especially at the moment when my husband's employer has decided to switch flex spending card companies and has deactivated our current card and won't be sending the new card until sometime next month. I had vowed I would not go to a doctor until we had our new card, and I made time before leaving on my last road trip to stop in and order my new glasses while I could still pay for them with the old card.

So, I went on to the grocery store and I used one of those motorized scooter/carts. It was annoying. Not the cart, but the shoppers who just stopped and blocked aisles and the stocker who blocked the entire Yoplait section and wouldn't move himself or his cart out of the way so a crippled shopper could get some yogurt. People are really clueless about how challenging it is to shop in those scooter/carts.

By the time I got home, unloaded my three bags of groceries and put them away, I could barely limp from the counter to the refrigerator. I decided that maybe I should go see if something serious was going on with my knee and drove to the walk-in clinic. I parked near the door, limped inside and saw a sign that the walk-in clinic had moved to the other end of the building. GRRR!!!! I was already tempted to turn around and go back home, but instead I limped through the building and found the walk-in clinic. I have no idea why they tell you to fill out a form with all your personal information in it, and then they run your name and birthday through their computer and find your entire record with all the information you just wasted 10 minutes filling out while standing in pain because sitting down and standing back up are even more painful than standing. And then they wait until you grit your teeth and lower yourself onto a chair to say, "Oh, you have a $20 copay. Let's take care of that right now." GRRRRRRR!!!!!!

I had an ice pack in my purse and applied it while I was waiting to be seen by a doctor. The doctor examined my knee and that's when I discovered that the pain was in the back of the knee (I was just feeling waves of pain until she poked, pushed and twisted my leg). She sent me for x-rays and found (A.) Arthritis - no surprise there, I could feel it taking hold in that knee over the past few months. (B.) Tendinitis - a repetitive motion injury. This is what has been causing the pain in my knee for the past month. Here's a nickel's worth of free advice: If you have problems with your knees, lift with your back. (C.) Nothing to explain why the back of my knee is so painful I was feeling ill. No baker's cyst, which is good, but also no sign of anything that could be treated to alleviate the pain. GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

This is why I do not go lightly to the walk-in clinic. Almost every single time I decide I'm sick/injured enough to warrant a doctor's expertise, I am told to just keep on doing what I've been doing. In this case, keep elevating and icing the knee. Keep taking Celebrex and Tylenol for the pain. Wear an Ace wrap (I just pulled out my old knee brace from when I sprained my other knee). So I paid $20 copay out of pocket and will be receiving a bill for the x-rays (hopefully after the new flex card arrives) only to be told once again that there's not really anything they can do to help me. RAWRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'm going to limp outside and look at the garden and calm myself down. I can't do tai chi at the moment or I'd go outside and do that in the soft, green grass. I'll be fine; I just needed to vent.

I've been in Arkansas for my aunt's memorial service. I saw a lot of family members while there. I'd like to say that I saw a lot of family members I hadn't seen for a long time, but sadly, I saw most of them in March at my cousin's memorial service. I rode down to Arkansas with my cousin who lives in Chicago. I am embarrassed to admit that we have lived a couple of hours from each other for a couple decades and hadn't seen each other for about 15 years. It was so much fun reconnecting with Debbi; we are planning more get-togethers in the near future.

Debbi and I were sharing a hotel room, and our cousin Ginny (from California) joined us because every hotel room in the area was booked. We were in the south and there was a country music concert, a monster truck rally and an NAACP track meet going on at the same time. In fact, they were going on at the exit to our hotel, about the time we hit town.

After my aunt's service, I drove down to Fort Smith to visit my mom and spent the night there. Ginny and Debbi stayed in the hotel room. At about 1:45 in the morning, the hotel fire alarm went off and the guests were evacuated. I can't believe I missed all the excitement! The deafening claxon of the alarm, the blinding strobe lights in the hallways, the fire trucks, standing outside in my nightie... How could I be so unlucky to miss all that?

I did not miss the experience of opening a bottle of wine without a corkscrew, though. Ginny had seen on Facebook that you can pop a cork by beating the crap out of the bottom of the bottle with a shoe. Maybe it works, but not with a rubber sandal. I happened to have a hemostat with me (because who doesn't travel with a hemostat?) and we tried to use it to pull the cork out. That didn't work, either. Debbi called her husband for advice and he suggested pushing the cork into the bottle. I had a pair of scissors in my knitting bag and used them to push the cork into the bottle. It worked! It also made the wine spray out of the bottle like a geyser, showering Debbi and me with Chardonnay.

I did manage to take a few photos, mostly just shadowy shots of family members, but a few fun ones you might enjoy. When the kids are a little shy about talking to me, I pull out my phone. and we take selfies. It's amazing how quickly kids will warm up to you when you take a bunch of silly selfies with them.

After getting my Tommy and Savanna fix, I got my Lincoln fix. He's such a happy baby!

My sister and I picked up our mom at the nursing home and took her for a drive to Natural Dam, Arkansas. Mom was feeling good and for some reason she wanted to sing Jingle Bells all afternoon. Every time I pointed a camera at her, she started singing, "OHHHHHH... Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way..."

We sang it with her and she had a great time. The funny thing is that I never remember her singing that song when we were kids. Maybe she did occasionally around Christmas, but I don't remember it being a particular favorite of hers.

The natural dam for which the town is named is a lovely spot. It was a hot Sunday afternoon and many families were playing in the water above the dam, dangling their feet in the pools below the dam, and one young lady was enjoying a leisurely horseback ride up the little dirt road that runs next to the dam.

I have a lot of catching up to do. Grocery shopping, water aerobics, tai chi, salsa making, laundry, sleeping... My knee is telling me I really need to go to water aerobics, while the rest of my body is encouraging me to sleep. I was dithering about which to do when my wonderful husband informed me that it is, in fact, Tuesday and not Wednesday. Yay! Sleep it is!