Weather was bright when we got up this morning so Mike decided it would be a good day to do some repairs and upgrades to the trailer. He fixed the awning before I even got out of bed; the wind gets under the edges of it while we are driving so it had to be stuck down to stop it tearing. That's now done. A few weeks ago we bought some vent covers to go over the skylights so we can leave the vents open and not have the rain come inside and those got put on today too. I had to help with this project since it involved climbing on the roof and we don't have a ladder; I had to anchor the step ladder so Mike could scramble over the bed and onto the roof. I bet you didn't know mike was capable of scrambling did you? He did an excellent job and now we have no leakage when it rains. To be honest I'm just glad they are installed and that we don't have any Mike sized holes in the roof!
After getting cleaned up (we have to use the parks bathhouse this week) we took a trip into Gaylord. Known as the Alpine Village it's a really nice town, with lots of shopping and some nice parks and trails. The builidngs in the town are all Swiss looking and in the winter this is a busy ski resort so there are loads of winter sports stores. We stopped off at the tourist office to get an idea of the area and found a really cool car there (forgot to take the camera though). They have the only exisitng Gaylord, a car built in Michigan in 1911, and it still runs. Pretty cool although it didn't look like the most comfortable mode of transport.
Afterwards we stopped off to visit the Elk. Gaylord has a herd of elk that roam on about 100 acres that is enclosed; they are pretty much left to their own devices other than to get some food and vitamins provided by the town people. The herd started with three elk about 15 years ago and is now upto about 70 in number. When we first got to the viewing area the whole herd, plus the herd of deer that share the enclosure, where laying down some ways away and we couldn't really see them too well so we went to Aspen Park and had a nice stroll through the trees. There was lots of activity at the elk viewing area when we were driving out so we stopped to see them again. It turns out that food gets them up off their butts; some people had brought bread and bagels for them and they were in hog heaven. They were right up against the fence taking the food out of peoples hands. They are gorgeous animals with beautiful, almost sad faces. The males are magnificent, there were two with amazing racks - the fighting is gonna be intense in a couple of months. Some of the deer had pretty large racks of their own too.

Mike: Nothing I like more than a nice rack!