Niki and Bob Andrews live outside of Grand Rapids, MI where our next destination was. Katrina had met them playing pickleball down in Florida. We stayed with them for a few days enjoying the fellowship, eating, and (of course) playing pickleball on the court that they just installed at their house. When we arrived we scoped out the best place to keep the coach and decided on leaving it at the top of their driveway. The only problem with that placement was keeping the batteries on the coach charged as it was too far for an electrical cord and with the issues of our generator we couldn’t rely on that power. Bob to the rescue as he had a portable generator that could keep the house batteries charged enough to keep the refrigerators and other critical equipment up and running. I needed to start the coach periodically to keep the chassis batteries charged. The ups and downs of moochdocking!
I can’t wait to get to Newmar in October to get this issue fixed!
They have a beautiful house:
Walking back and forth from the house to the coach reminded me of the Beatles song, The Long and Winding Road….
Their welcome mat states it all:
Bear loved being able to run around and of course kept all the local critters in check.
Together with their two dogs, Scout and Worley (Golden poodle and standard poodle) Bear enjoyed all the loving and running around. They even got a little tuckered out:
Niki loves her new Traeger Smoker and made a wonderful dinner for us. So nice to get some homemade food!
The following day Niki had some friends over to play pickleball.
All six of them had a great time rotating around with different partners.
After they completed play we headed over to Thornapple Brewing Co. and Distillery for a late lunch.
Their beers were outstanding and the food was even better. Bob and I tried some different types of pizza. Bob had The Granny Goat (Olive oil, grilled chicken, applewood bacon, mixed peppers, and fresh basil) while I tried the Krab Rangoon (Ginger scallions cream cheese base mixed imitation crab, topped with mozzarella cheese, sweet chili sauce, and wonton chips).
Both were very delicious!
That night Niki made smoked cream cheese (she loves her smoker) and Katrina made guacamole and salsa. Nice light meal after a late heavy lunch. Afterwards we had a campfire with our Solo Stove.
The next day I was able to try pickleball again after laying off of playing for months due to my frozen shoulder. The shoulder felt pretty good and I was able to play, of course not as good as all them but not too bad for not playing for such a long time. The girls ran some errands while Bob and I chilled at the house. I smoked a tenderloin (thanks Niki for letting me use your Traeger), Niki made potatoes, and Katrina made a salad. We cracked open the bottle of rhubarb wine that we purchased from the 4e winery where we stopped earlier. Delish! Another wonderful meal!
That evening Bob’s daughter Linsey and her husband Matt stopped by and stayed with them on their ways to a wedding. It was nice hearing about Matt’s recent trip to Europe around the campfire. We played a new game for us called “The Game”.
It was fun and a little different as all the players play together against the cards. Interesting and fun!
The following day Katrina got to play some more pickleball with other friends of Niki and Bob:
Good play and such a beautiful venue!
Afterwards we went to lunch at the Railtown Brewing Co.
Great food and beer selection!
The highlight for me was the loaded tater tots! As we pulled up to the place Katrina and I realized that we were there last year when we were visiting the area. So funny that they purchased a house nearby.
That evening Katrina made some fish that I had caught deep sea fishing in April. Tasty!
Then we taught them how to play Qwixx, the dice game that we found last year.
We had a really fun time playing!
On our final morning with them Bob had some male pickleballers over and when one of them had to leave Katrina jumped in.
Great play but it put us off to a later start than anticipated as we were on our way to moochdock at the Hockstra’s house.
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