Hello friends! It is a blustery day here on Lake Michigan as I type. The past months have been full, so much so that each week we procrastinate the blog seems to add ever more to the burden of getting one writ. But they say the best way to get going is to start, so here we are.
In a couple weeks we head to Scotland (and Germany! and Norway!) for five weeks! We are joining dear friends Sarah and Tom for two weeks of Inn-to-Inn traveling in Scotland. Next we’ll head to Hamburg to check in on some German Boettchers, with dear niece Sophia joining us for some of that ride. We’ll close out with a trip to Lillehammer to visit some American friends who’ve tucked themselves up there for many years now. Whew!
But first we better do a little catching up on what’s been happening since our last post. Let’s see…
In March we took a quick trip to Chicago to celebrate Kayla’s birthday.
Then we headed down to Storm Lake with the Table Ease trailer to haul stuff, sell stuff, and give stuff away as the Boettcher Family prepares to sell Lloyd’s house.
We sorted through stuff … 
made piles here … 
and piles there … 
then made new, more organized piles in the garage … 
and a lot of that stuff found new homes! 
It was a little chilly for this early-season garage sale. 
And that garage ain’t heated! 
But we left Dad’s house pretty tidy, 
with just enough stuff to host one more family gathering, 
which will happen later this summer.
In April we meandered our way back to Virginia (with the BettieMobile!) to help Matthew’s parents out with some projects there. This included getting the Turners’ boat trailer (which had been parked in a field for 10+ years) back into rolling condition.
From Coastal Virginia we drove to Kentucky to catch up with the Bluegrass Chapter of the TearJerkers at Big Bone Lick State Park. TearJerkers is a national “organization” (loosely defined!) for folks with teardrop campers. There are chapters across the US, and the active ones meet once a month somewhere in their area. They also have an online forum that mostly talks about meet-ups, but also serves as a place to ask questions and share advice on building campers, which Matthew took advantage of several times during our build. We’ve been talking about getting to one of these gatherings for two years now, and we finally found one that fit our route!
Another resource Matthew discovered while he was building our camper is a YouTube channel called Camp & Camera, where a guy goes around interviewing DIY camper builders and asking them about their special features and what they’d do differently. Matthew learned a lot from those interviews, and guess what!? That guy was at this gathering in KY and interviewed Matthew! He really liked Matthew’s custom-made awnings and curtain design. Unfortunately, the audio didn’t record very well, so that interview didn’t make it to the YouTube channel.
The TearJerkers host evening potlucks for all the teardrop campers. We won the day with our bahn mi sliders! 
During the day, everyone wandered around the campground and admired the other trailers. 
We were especially interested in other DIY – there were some amazing inventions! 
Matthew being interviewed by Camp & Camera. 
We took a sidetrip to historic Rabbit Hash, KY, right on the banks of the O-hi-o.
And that gets us to May! We’ve spent the whole month in Michigan, enjoying some on-again/off-again spring weather while working on more building projects.
Projects range from insulation & vapor barriers … 
to replacing windows … 
…and even creating new windows! 
Now the garage/shop has a view of the lake too! 
Big remodel being planned for the little cottage, which starts with a dumpster. 
This bathroom will be redone this summer. 
But the first project is building a murphy bed! 
Matthew and Iris spent a week building the murphy bed frame … 
…sanding it … 
…and making it beautiful. 
Just yesterday we installed it. 
Voila! 
In addition to the projects, we’re enjoying walks along the shore, 
marveling at the trees that keep hanging on. 
Spring blooms: irises, of course! 
And lovely sunset porch times.
We also took two trips to northern Michigan – one to Traverse City and Leelanau, where we had a lovely combo of friends, family, and community theater; and a camping trip to Grand Marais, MI in the U.P.
In early May, we spent the weekend with Iris, our niece Hannah, and Iris’ dear friend David, who hosted us in his lovely home near Leland. We had some blustery dune walks … 
some fun auto touring… 
and nice reflective time enjoying the view of the Manitou Islands with Norman the wonder dog. 
But the real highlight was seeing our friend Ed in his tremendous community theater performance. 
Ed portrayed 9 characters in the show! It was magnificent, 
and involved some splendid costuming! 
Over Memorial Day weekend, we made the pilgrimage to Shorts Brewery in Elk Rapids, to pay homage to some of our favorite beers, notably: Psychedelic Cat Grass. 
We camped 2 nights in a sweet township campground near Elk Rapids. 
Not many pictures of our time in the UP because it was actually quite chilly! But we took a nice hike near Pictured Rocks, 
caught some glimpses of Lake Superior, 
and then managed to find a local watering hole.
Thanks as always for tuning in! Check back again in a couple of months for stories of our European escapades.
Really nice.
Love love love the updates. What a hoot to to finally get to the all things teardrop gathering. I am amazed you got that trailer out of the woods.
You are going to have so much fun in Europe, look forward to the stories.
As always I’m left with a desire to travel and love your travel space. So impressed with Matthew’s carpentry and building skills. Have fun in Europe. I await the tales.
Sounds like the great adventures don’t stop coming! Good to get an update, and have a fantastic time in Europe. I look forward to hearing about Norway.