You are right! Seems like I just got home from the spring hunt! Well, the club board wants me to tell each of you to start planning for the fall hunt! The Fall Hunt will be on Sunday, September 20th, at Tom and Jackie Latterner's. I'll put much more information into the September newsletter.
The August club meeting falls on Tuesday, August 18th, this month so don't get confused when I tell you that the third Tuesday comes early in September. The month of September starts out on a Tuesday and so the meeting is on the 15th! As the newsletter writer that is a little soon for me.
Tom and Jackie live at 4339 North 3rd Street, a short drive west of Kalamazoo. The hunt will be open for camping, but only come to stay Saturday night. If it is not too dry, as it has been, there will be an evening bonfire. I'm jumping ahead of myself. There will be things to do most of the day Saturday and at 3:00 there will be a fellowship hunt. Between this meeting and next, John Dudley will be scouting the area for a good location. If he does half as well as he did for the spring fellowship hunt, it will be great!
It really is none too early to think about prize donations. You don't need to donate a prize for the hunt, but if everyone does, it makes for all the more fun! I'll have a map and more details in the next newsletter. If you have never been to a seeded hunt before, treat yourself to this one; they are a lot of fun!
We can count ourselves very fortunate to have two great Huntmasters! John Dudley is a member of the Michigan Flywheeler's Club in South Haven and, when we have our hunts over there, he really takes the bull by the horns and makes sure everyone has a great time!
Tom Latterner is another great Huntmaster. When we have our hunts at his property, he usually comes up with some great plans or contests. The last time we had a hunt at Tom's, he had a detector quiz where everyone got a chance to test their target ID skills! Some of those who felt highly skilled came away feeling like they needed practice, to say the least!
What we thought was common trash turned out to be rare gold coins, rings, platinum and other treasure! Much of it was not the foil, tabs and screw caps we thought it was! I'm sure Tom will find something new to amaze you. With as many new hunters as we always have, I don't think you could run that same contest too much!
It was someone like me who started that business of being 'quiet' in the library. It is a warm summer day and my wife took her book out on the deck to read it. In the mean time, our cat is at the back door begging to go out. Both of our cats are 'indoor's cats,' but on some nice summer days we let them snoop around in the back yard. The problem is that they love to locate some dry dirt to roll in and really get dirty! I'm told that is how they bathe!
Anyway, Deb is outside, Patches is inside, and he wants out! Is it is a test of my endurance? How many hundreds of meows can I listen to before I finally let him out or go completely nuts? Patches is our older cat by about 5 years -- we think he is about 14 years old.
Last week we came home from work and he was really out of it! I thought he was about dead! Patches, like me, is a diabetic. My wife, forever a good nurse, figured his blood sugar was low so she put some corn syrup in his mouth and that bought him around some. We took him to an after hours animal hospital and $600.00 later we found out that his diabetes is in remission! I wish people could do that!
One year we took Patches and Gabby on vacation with us and frankly that didn't work out very well. We have a 20 foot Jayco trailer that we love to travel with. It really is very comfortable. The small trailer has more than enough room for my wife and me, even when we take our granddaughter. However, we found that there are not enough hiding areas for the cats.
This year we spent far more time inside the trailer than outside, except when we were at Deb's parent's house. As we love to do, we take a couple weeks and retreat to Michigan's western Upper Peninsula.
I look forward to this vacation, perhaps more then is healthy! As I mentioned in the July newsletter, I went in to see my cancer doctor just before we left for vacation about having surgery to remove any dead cancer tissue in my neck. There was some concern about some traces of the cancer still being alive and active. The way the doctor spoke to me about the surgery, it sounded like it was going to take place instead of my vacation.
I had the idea that I would have the operation and then spend my vacation time recovering up north. I went through months of daily radiation treatments and three strong chemotherapy treatments and to the amazement of the pros never missed work. I wasn't trying to impress anyone, Ron Jenner said that I should get some sort of 'Iron Man' award! The reason that I pushed myself so hard was so that I didn't want to feel guilty about taking my vacation! When the doctor's words made me think that this awful cancer was going to steal my vacation, this "Iron man" wept in the doctor's office!
The operation went smoothly, the doctor removed the tissue and found no more cancer! What they saw on the CT scan that looked like more cancer activity was just lots of scar tissue from the radiation! I stayed one night at the hospital and that was really my choice, then went home and started preparing for our trip north.
I packed up our trailer with nothing but priceless memories to guide me. I loaded up all my toys! I had two detectors, one land machine and one submersible. The land machine was a Teknetics Delta 4000 and the water machine was a late model Fisher 1280-X. I had all my diggers, scoops, dive boots and, as I packed the gear, it was easy to see myself using each item. I also took along my bottle digging tools!
I am so fortunate to have spent many hours treasure hunting with my father-in-law the deep north woods and I was ready to do it again! My mind was ready, but my body was not! By the time I pulled the trailer into our favorite campground, Old Mill Creek in Mackinaw City, I was dead tired! We didn't even take the trailer off from the hitch! I just shut off the truck, we climbed into the trailer and went to sleep.
The next day we were rolling across the Big Mac bridge by 10:00 am and I was feeling a little better after a night's sleep-- but not much. By the time we pulled into my in-laws drive in Amasa, I was feeling like I died 12 hours earlier! I'm sure I looked as close to dead as anyone could!
We were only a couple hours north of Kalamazoo when we started thinking about all the stuff that we forgot to pack. I look forward to that time every year! It means that we finally hit the road! I was thinking over my packing and I recalled toting two heavy cases of canned liquid food for my feeding tube. In my weakened condition, these cases are heavy and it was hard to pack them into the space below the dinette seat.
As I was thinking about that, a feeling of fear flushed through my being! I had forgotten to pack even one feeding tube syringe! Drat! Where on earth was I ever going to find one of those things? Especially in the U.P.! It really was a problem because if you go into a drug store to buy one in Michigan you cannot have it without a prescription!
I figured that if I pulled into a hospital and threw myself at their mercy, as one who is going to starve to death soon, someone would find a large plastic feeding syringe!
My wife phoned ahead to her mother, who in turn contacted her cousin, who is also a nurse, and she found me a great feeding syringe! I had packed loads of shorts and T-shirts for hot weather, and boy that was a real mistake! It was cold and rainy almost the whole time we were gone.
Even though we were confined to the indoors, we spent quality time with two of our favorite people, Deb's parents. It was fun to visit and catch up on the latest news. They have a lovely home located in one of the nicest little towns in the U.P. Deb's mother is a good cook as well! She makes authentic U.P. pasties that are something I look forward to each year! Deb always brings a large box of Michigan blue berries and each year my mother-in-law makes a beautiful and delicious blue berry pie!
I must admit, one of the reasons I take our bikes on vacation is selfish. When we are at my in-laws, we are less than 1/4 mile from downtown. When the freight train sounds its horn at the crossing north of town, I have enough time to hop on my bike and scoot down to watch it. Well, this year I took the bikes, but I was too sick to unload them!
Being sick and weak after this cancer battle had really got to me at this point. Instead of doing all the fun things that I fondly remembered, I laid in bed much of the time. I should be thankful enough to be pronounced 'cancer free' than to feel sorry for myself! I told my wife, "I came up here to find Allan. He is not here either!"
The doctors told me that it could be 6 months to one year before I start feeling like my old self--- I just need to be patient.
While I was away and feeling sorry for myself, our good friend Ronald Davis passed away on July 14th at home. Ron was just a little over one year older than I am. He as born March 20, 1950 in Arkansas.
What is it about that state? I have known several super nice people over the years who originated from that state. Ronald graduated from Pontiac Central High School and worked as a machinist and foreman for Grand Trunk & Western and Canadian National Railroad.
Ron was especially close to several members of our club, including our club president, Mike Walker. Mike spoke at the funeral about our friend and he tells me that it was a touching funeral. Ron was not without some real health issues the last few years, but he always remained upbeat. I know that on the very hour he heard about my fight with cancer, he called me up to let me know he would be praying for me! At the time I was thinking that he was in more need for prayer than I. Well, Ron left the suffering behind to actually go home with his Lord.
At the last meeting the club passed the hat and $110.00 was raised for Ron's family which will go towards a headstone. I have Ron's Fisher 1280-X to repair. Somehow the coil cord was almost cut in two. I see so many of these 1280's cross my work bench for minor repair or coil replacement because they have been in production for so many years!
It was refreshing to work on this one because it isn't ancient and worn-out to a frazzle like the others. Once I get it finished, I think Mike Walker will be selling it and that money will help the family as well.
