Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Windy Grand Haven and Adventure On Way Home


Amanda and I headed out to Grand Haven, Michigan today.
We knew that the winds were high and so must the waves be. Reports have been up to 26ft high waves. As we got out of my vehicle, we knew we were in for it by getting blasted with sand as we started to take off walking down the pier.

As you start off in this one area we noticed a new sculpture. I thought that it was pretty cool. The other side has fish on it. Which I did not get a picture of that side.

We felt the sand whipping at our faces-felt like a facial scrub at some points. Good thing I had my sunglasses on because that kept the sand out of my eyes. Amanda had to walk backwards at certain points. Sand even got in our mouths and you could just feel it when you bit down. Grind grind!!!! Amanda was chewing gum and it got in that too. LOL
By the time we got finished out at the beach there was at least a cup of sand in my shoes. When I got home I could feel it in my socks. Yepper--a foot scrub!!!!

There are so many things to take pictures of, just have to be creative and have a steady hand. The tripod did help on this trip.
Holy Cow! There were times when I thought the camera and tripod were going to blow away. Even when we were walking back from the beach there was a few gust of wind that blew us forward a few steps. We laughed so hard!



The mighty waves are just a churning!

The next few pictures will be of the lighthouse as the waves crash against it.

















This is great with the seagull trying to fly against the wind!














We did happen to see a few dozers and trucks out to get the sand out of the street. One side of the road was covered and there was the middle turning lane and the NW side was clear.
You can see in some of the pics the sand just a whipping! There was so much blowing that I had sand in my pockets!












On our way home I decided to pull over and try to get a shot of this next picture (Mugs). I wanted to get this because a good friend of mines Mom was called this nickname in school. So, thought it would be great to capture and tag her in Facebook.
Well, as I was pulling over to the side of the road I hear this thunk. Then we stopped. I got out and heard my back passenger side tire making a hissing sound. Thought to myself and told Amanda, lets go over into this little store area to park and call Tom. Amanda calls Tom while I go to the parking area instead of on 31 with all the busy traffic. I thought it would be more safe to change the tire there. We thunked our way over there and I got out and the tire was totally flat. Then Amanda says, 'now what'? Well, I have to get the spare tire out, but where is it on my Santa Fe???? I got the tools and the jack out, then looked in the handy dandy car manual. Take a coin or screwdriver to this one little area to get the spare tire. Good thing I had some spare change. I never carry a screwdriver in the car plus it is a good thing that I had some spare change. LOL I used the coin, then there was a bolt. Got the Tire wrench to get that bolt loose. Kept unwinding and unwinding but the bolt does not come out. Then thought, well, how do you lift this little plastic area to get the tire???? How could they fit a tire in the back of the Santa Fe? HMMMM??? Looked under car and the tire was laying on the pavement with the cable that I must have loosened. Funny! We laughed and laughed! Then got the tire off the cable, then a few seconds later.
Tom shows up. Thank goodness! Those bolts were really tight and normally I would be able to do it, but the little wrench thingy that came with the car was so small that you could not get leverage on it. Plus those mechanics have those power tools that make it so hard to get the tire off in the first place.
Tom struggled a little. Got out his handy dandy tools from the truck--the jack wrench with extension---must be nice to have one with an extension!---and the WD40 because the aluminum tires tend to tighten up and need heat to make them loose to get off. We thought, crap, cannot get this tire off. Well, I will call my handy dandy roadside assistance. 'I GOT IT', Tom said! So, I hung up my phone and went to help him do the rest of the work of putting on the donut-aka spare tire.
So, it was not a nail, guess what it was? In the next picture you see this huge medal thingy sticking out of the tire!
OH MY WORD!!!!!!!!!
Can you believe it???????????????

So, to end the adventure, we came home with sand in our hair, ears, nose, shoes, and a medal thingy in the tire, a donut on the Santa Fe and not one that you would want to take a bite out of.

1 comment:

Mari said...

What a post! The pictures are cool and your post made me laugh. I'm sorry about your troubles though. :)
I wanted to go check out the waves, but had to work late today because of the Dr. Now I'm still kicking myself for not going, but I have a feeling it's so crowded I wouldn't be able to see anything.