Handwork Wednesday---and a trip to Oscoda

I didn't post on Wed. because I really had nothing to show you. We went on a little trip to see my friend Denise. She lives in Oscoda Michigan. We drive right through East Tawas too and it is gorgeous this time of year. I can't stitch in the car anymore because my eyes are bad and no place to put my STUFF. So I got it ready to go by using my water dissolving blue marking pen (used for marking quilts) and I made a 10x10 graph, which makes counting so much easier. It takes forever to keep finding your spot if you don't have a grid.That took me over an hour to do but it will be worth it and save lots more time in the long run!

Here is a close up of the grid pattern. Solid lines every 20 spaces and dotted lines in between. Makes it easy to find your spot with the chart. When the cross stitch is done I wash it in cold water and the lines disappear like magic!


I didn't want to be rude and stitch while I was at Denise' and we were gone until Monday so I only got a tiny bit done. Here is my pathetic efforts for the week.
About the trip, we dodged a bullet on the way down. There was an area on I75 that splits off one lane surrounded by cement barriers on the left and two lanes on the right and they are working on the center area. There was an accident on the one lane (can't get around it) side and there was a back up for M I L E S!

We saw lots of people sitting in lawn chairs, tops of their cars, talking on cell phones, etc.
These people had a radio out and kind of looked like they were having a good time. I learned my lesson though and will ALWAYS take the two lanes side as to not get trapped. When we got to Tawas, I heard it finally cleared up. We could have been stuck for over two hours and I'm so glad we weren't one of the unlucky ones who were.
The canoe races on the AuSable river were going on and it is a big deal to watch the canoes cross over the finish line. We tried to go but we couldn't get a spot close enough and I can't walk that far so we did something else instead. Denise always tries to show us the local sites while we are there. I feel bad because I can't remember the name of this place but it had to do with logging and the history of Michigan. It was a nice place. They had this cool statue and others too.

There were beautiful views of the AuSable river from different vantage points
They had a stair case with a sign by it warning everyone who dared to go down to the water, how exhausting the climb would be. Me and Denise sat it out but Mark took the challenge. This little tent like place was at the bottom.
Looking up....
Yeah, he's the MAN!