9/25/09 (Saturday): We're in Gladstone, Michigan, at a campground on the shores of Little Bay de Noc (Lake Michigan). Check out the map. It's a rather industrial, down at the heels, little town, with barges loaded down with what looks like coal docked just above us. But the campground looks fairly new and there are lots of nice RVs here. We'll only be here a couple of days, and it's conveniently located. In a later blog, I'll talk about what we did today. But first I want to finish talking about our adventure when we were in Newberry.

Continuing our quest to see as many lighthouses as possible, we drove to Manistique. This lighthouse, unlike many we've visited, is still an active aid to navigation, guiding ships into the Manistique harbor. It dates to 1916. It isn't open to the public. Wiley fished a bit from the breakwater and I walked the beach.

Then we took a very scenic drive to see the Seul Choix (pronounced "sis-shwa) Point Light near Gulliver on Lake Michigan's southern shore. Seul Choix is French for "last chance." Native Americans and French fur traders who crossed the rough waters of Lake Michigan in canoes toward the straits of Mackinac could only find safety in this harbor. It's known as the haunted lighthouse, because visitors and workers have reported strange happenings, including items being moved, footsteps on the lighthouse stairs and the smell of cigars.

We hadn't intended to visist the Soo Locks, but we were so close and had the time, so we dropped by. This ship was just leaving the locks. It was an interesting experience, but the ship moved so slowly that it was a little tedious. The visitor center was interesting. There's some amazing engineering going on at the locks.

You may be wondering why we've done most of our driving and camping along the southern shore of the Upper Peninsula (Lake Michigan) rather than the northern, Lake Superior, shore. Our adventure getting to the Grand Marais lighthouse illustrates the reason for our route. There are almost no paved roads along big stretches of the Lake Superior shore! We drove 20 miles on a dirt road to get to this shot of the Grand Marais lighthouse. There were deep forests and, toward the end of the drive, glimpses of Lake Superior, but there were almost no homes. It was unbelievable that we were still in the Midwest. It was quite an adventure.The leaves are just beginning to change and they look really lovely with the deep green evergreens in the background. We kept a sharp eye out, especially in the open marshy areas for moose, but haven't spotted one yet.

Grand Marais is a funky little town. One of the things we enjoyed was the pickle barrel house. It was built in 1926 for a Chicago Tribune cartoonist and used as a vacation cottage by various others after that. It's really tiny!One last lighthouse in this blog. The Crisp Point Light was also a long drive on a dirt road. It's really hard to believe how wild the Upper Peninsula is! We reached the lighthouse from Paradise, MI. It was an even longer drive on dirt roads than the one to the Grand Marais light. I should have gotten a picture of our truck after this drive--it looked like we'd been mud bogging!One of the highlights of our trip so far was our visit to Tahquamenon (rhymes with phenomenon) Falls. We stopped for gas first and off to one side of the gas station was this humongous log. The attendant told us that it was one of a grove of large trees that had been lumbered in the area.
The falls are the second highest east of the Mississippi. They are tannin colored because the Tahquamenon River flows through lots of forest land. There's an upper falls (above) and a series of smaller cascades called the lower falls (below).The trails to the falls are paved, with stairs, so access is pretty good. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, which we topped off with some great ice cream in the visitor center.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to some of these beautiful sites in the Upper Peninsula. I'll be blogging again soon about what we've done the last couple of days, so tune again!

9/20/09 (Sunday): The adventure continues! We're still in St. Ignace, just across the Mackinaw Bridge from Mackinaw City. We've taken several scenic drives in the last couple of days. The way Wiley has planned this trip, we stay for several nights at a campground and explore the area surrounding the campground.

While we were still in Mackinaw City, we went to Colonial Michilimackinac, a 1770's fort and colonial village. It was burned to the ground in 1781, but many artifacts have been recovered. Buildings have been reconstructed and reenactors interpret the buildings. My favorite part of the whole experience was the demonstration of the muskets and cannon. If you want to check out some more of the history, here's a link to a Wickipedia article about it.

The next day we started out at the Ojibwe Museum right here in St. Ignace. It's a small place, but does a very nice job of portraying life in the Straits of Mackinac over 300 years ago when Ojibwa, Huron, Odawa and French cultures all had to co-exist in this area. We only spent about an hour at the museum, but it was very interesting. As we left, this visitor to the garden out front was a nice diversion.After that, we just took a drive through the Hiawatha National Forest. The forest is named for Longfellow's poem "Song of Hiawatha." (As an aside, I got so wrapped up in reading this great poem aloud to Wiley that we could hardly put it down. We'll finish reading it tomorrow.) It's about 880,000 acres that touches three of the Great Lakes. It's criss-crossed with gravel roads beside creeks, rivers and through the deep north woods. We stopped for a while on the Carp River so Wiley could wet a lure.Meanwhile, I took a walk across this bridge and down the road a ways. Some of the trees are just starting to show some color, and the temperature is a glorious mid-1970's.

Another day, we drove east along the northern shore of Lake Michigan to DeTour (check out our route with this link to a map). Our primary goal was the lighthouse that we thought was in DeTour, but it turned out to be well offshore and only barely visible. (This picture is courtesy of an internet site.) It's a good thing we enjoyed the journey and that there was fishing and a pretty spot for me to "set a spell."

Yesterday we took another drive, this time to Paradise (Michigan, that is). Here's our route: map. We stopped to see the Point Iroquois Lighthouse. It's in a beautiful location where Lake Superior goes into the St. Mary's River. There was a massacre here when the Iroquois indians invaded Ojibwa territory.

I climbed all 72 steps to the top of the lighthouse. Quite a climb up narrow steps, but the view was really incredible! Check it out.

We also enjoyed a walk of the beach of Lake Superior. We looked for agates, but didn't find even one. The driftwood was gorgeous!

That's it for today. Wish you were here to enjoy this great adventure with us!

9/17/09 (Thursday): Here we are in the beautiful, slightly chilly Upper Peninsula! We're having so much fun that it's difficult to find time to blog, but I've got pictures backing up, so I'd better get to it.

We're in the little town of St. Ignace, just across the Mackinac Bridge from lower Michigan. Here's a map. Before we go any further, let me say something about Mackinac/Mackinaw. The bridge and island are "Mackinac" the city on the mainland is Mackinaw. Apparently, the French Pronounced it "aw" but spelled it "ac". The British heard it pronounced "aw" so they spelled it that way. Whichever way it is spelled, it is always pronounced "aw." I'll probably flub that up a couple of times in this blog, so bear with me.
The bridge is really mind boggling. Here's a link to the official web site (Macinac Bridge) so that I don't have to go into all the details. It was a little overwhelming to think about driving across it pulling 10,000 pounds behind me, but I triumphed (and enjoyed it, too).
On Tuesday we visited Mackinac Island (see the map). What a great day! The weather was beautiful, the ferry was fun (chilly!), and walking the roads and trails was educational, good exercise and fun. The island was formed by ancient seas, ice age glaciers and various upheavals. It's about 4 square miles and lies in the Straits of Macinac, between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. It was inhabitated by Native Americans even before the arrival of European explorers. From the 1700's onward, it was important to the Great Lakes fur trade. This led to the establishment of Fort Mackinac by the British during the American Revolution. It was also the site of two battles during the War of 1812.It's a short ferry ride from Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island. As you enter the harbor of the island, you see the Round Island Lighthouse and the Round Island Passage Light.
Then the village spreads before you, crowned by Fort Macinac. The entire island is a national historic landmark. It's been dubbed a living Victorian village. About 80% of the island is preserved as a state park.
Motorized vehicles have been banned on the island since 1898, which has gone a long way toward preserving the old timey feel of the place. There are lots of bikes on the roads and tourists can take horse drawn carriage tours. We opted to hike.
We took the paved path up the hill past the fort. It was very steep, but the view from the top was worth the shaky legs.
Here we are at the top. Note the Passage Light and Round Island Light in the background.
Arch Rock is a natural limestone arch, 146 feet (45 m) above the ground. We could see people on the shore far below.

We followed some shaded dirt roads to see Skull Cave.

Here's the story of how Skull Cave got its name. It looks mighty small to have spent a night in, especially on a bed of skulls! You can't go in the cave now. I presume the skulls have been removed.

It was getting close to lunch time, so we headed back to Market Street in the village and had lunch in one of the many cafes that line the street. Of course, we couldn't pass up a piece of famous Macinac Island fudge for dessert. People have been buying fudge on the island for more than a century and there are fudge shops everywhere. This has led to tourists being called "fudgies" by locals. I can attest that Macinac Island fudge deserves its reputation for yumminess.

I guess we got our second winds with lunch and the fudge. We decided to walk the perimeter road and get a look at Arch Rock from below. It was a pretty walk along the Straits past Victorian homes large and small, resorts and numerous beautiful gardens. Unfortunately, the sun made a good picture of the arch impossible. But you get the idea.

We probably hiked at least 5 miles that day and I was absolutely exhausted. Wiley, on the other hand, came home and went metal detecting! It's really great to be traveling the country and still go to sleep in my own bedroom at night. On Wednesday, we went to Fort Michilimackinac. That will be the topic of the next blog. Stay tuned!

9/14/09 (Monday): We've arrived at Macinaw City, gateway to Upper Peninsula, Michigan. Click on this link to the map of our route. It was tough to say goodbye to the grands, but we'll be back at Christmas. We had a wonderful time.
In addition to being present for the first day of school, I got to got to Margo's dance class. That's Margo in the blue costume. She is 5 and just started kindergarten. She's naturally very graceful and really seems to enjoy it.Anna's birthday isn't until next week, but we wanted to celebrate while we were there. Anna decided that for her birthday present, she wanted to have lunch and go shopping for her present with Granny. So the two of us had burgers and a sundae at Red Robin's and then went to a toy store for the all important choosing of THE GIFT. She came out with a stuffed animal and some other special things.As if that weren't exciting enough, when we got home, some college kids were giving horse cart rides in exchange for recyclables. What fun!We closed this great day of celebration with a small birthday party at our campsite. We had a little hike around the lake, caught and released a few fish, ate burgers cooked over the fire, and roasted marshmallows. Happy 7th birthday, Anna!

On our last day in Ypsilanti, we went to the church picnic. There were rides and games for the kids, a wonderful pot luck lunch and some very good young fiddlers. Claire (just turned 3) really got into the music. In fact, she got up and spontaneously started dancing. She's a sweetie.

As I said earlier, we arrived late this afternoon in Macinaw City. The ride was really gorgeous once we got out of the metropolitan area. The geography is gently rolling hills. The trees are just barely starting to turn. Near Gaylord, we crossed the 45th parallel--half way between the equator and the North Pole. Cool! We walked a little near the Old Point Macinac Lighthouse and found some fossils at the edge of the Straits of Macinac. I've got some lighthouse pictures that I'll post as soon as I download them from the camera. Then we took a quick stroll through the shops in the village. We had pasties for supper. These are Cornish pastries that the copper and iron miners from England and Wales took into the mines for dinner. Here's an authentic recipe for Copper County Pasties courtesy of Terry Meyers' internet site.
Copper Country Pasties

Pastry:
• 3 c. flour
• 1 1/2 sticks butter (cold and cut into bits)
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 6 tbsp. water

In a large bowl, combine flour, butter and salt. Blend ingredients until well combined and add water, one tablespoon at a time to form a dough. Toss mixture until it forms a ball. Kneed dough lightly against a smooth surface with heel of the hand to distribute fat evenly. Form into a ball, dust with flour, wrap in wax paper and chill for 30 minutes.

Filling:
• 1 lb. round steak, coursely ground
• 1 lb. boneless pork loin, coursely ground
• 5 carrots, chopped
• 2 lg. onions, chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 c. rutabaga, chopped (can substitute turnip)
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper

They are truly yummy!

Tomorrow we catch the ferry over to Macinac Island.

Stay tuned--more fun is coming soon!

9/10/09 (Thursday): I only have about 15 minutes before the grands get home from school, so I'll get right to it. I finally downloaded the pics from my camera, so I'll share a few with you. I think I had mentioned the very nice KOA campground near Lima, OH. The sites were large and shaded and there was farmland all around.

Each site had a little wooden deck or patio and a picnic table. We really enjoyed it.
There were corn fields and soybean fields on both sides of the campground.And there were several pear and apple trees on the property.
The day we spent at the botanic gardens was really special. We really enjoyed the children's garden, where everything was perfectly sized for the kids.
Anna and Margo started school the Tuesday after Labor Day. Margo goes to kindergarten half a day and Anna is in second grade. I was privileged to go with them and meet their teachers. Both the girls are good students--they make their granny proud! Claire starts pre-school three days a week next week.
Yesterday Wiley and I went to Greenfield Village while the girls were in school. We had a thoroughly good time--walked our legs off! I've got tons of pictures that I'll share with you another time. For now, I'll just show you my two favorite things. This is the Cotswold Cottage and its beautiful gardens. Julie, you would have spent the rest of the day here!
We also spent a lot of time in this tiny 1700's silk processing plant. It was amazing! The cocoons are boiled to kill the silk "worm." Then the end of the silk thread is found and pulled up between two spikes on a board and secured to a bobbin. The bobbin is wound by hand and the tiny, thin thread doesn't break. Eventually the threads are twisted together and then woven into silk fabric. In a space no bigger than most folks living rooms, they could process enough silk to make a man's necktie in a day! By hand!!
Today Wiley and I toured a Ford F150 factory. That was very neat, too. We couldn't take any photos, but we actually saw the factory with cars being assembled. In addition there were two movies and some exhibits.

We're having fun and recuperating rapidly from the trials and tribulations of the past year. Hope everyone is staying healthy and enjoying the beginning of another autumn.

9/6/09 (Sunday): I don't have long--Kristin and the girls are at church and I'm using Tom's computer to give everyone a quick update. When they get back, we're going to the botanic gardens. They're having a celebration for the holiday weekend and we'll enjoy a long walk with the girls.

This has been some really special time for me. I haven't seen my granddaughters in a year. They've grown up so much! Friday night is pizza and family movie night for Tom's family. Kristin makes frozen pizzas, they spread a quilt on the floor and everyone eats in front of the TV movie (TV is not on very often in this house). Then we made our own ice cream sundaes with a variety of toppings for dessert. The girls talked about movie night all day! It was really fun.

On Saturday Tom, Kristin and Wiley weeded and mulched all the flower beds. I stayed inside and did arts and crafts with the girls. Everyone was exhausted, but we enjoyed it a lot. Kristin had a variety of yummy breads, cheeses, olives and some home grown tomatoes for dinner. Wiley and I stopped on the way home for ice cream. Kristin says she's cooking steak for Wiley tonight to thank him for all his hard work.

That's about it for now. We've got some fun in our lives again!

9/4/09 (Friday): We arrived in Ypsilanti last night (see the map). The campground is only a few miles from Tom and family, it's on a lake, and we have a lovely, shaded site. The only downside is that the trees prevent us from getting WiFi and satellite TV at our site. But it's worth it. I'm posting this from the clubhouse, where I can get WiFi, but I probably won't blog again for a while because we'll be spending most of our time at Tom's.

The weather is gorgeous! It's been cool enough at night that we've hauled the blankets out and only into the mid 70's during the day. What a pleasure! Wish you could all be here.

9/2/09 (Tuesday): We're in Wapakoneta, Ohio, tonight at a lovely little KOA sitting in the midst of corn and soy bean fields. The weather has gotten progressively cooler--90's in FL, 80's in GA and upper 70's in TN and KY. Tonight it's supposed to go down into the upper 50's! Love it!

We saw LOTS of the financial recovery dollars at work on I-75. I'd guess that more of it was under construction than not. That being said, we really enjoyed seeing the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky. They're lovely and green with pretty wildflowers scattered in the open meadow areas.

We're only about 200 miles from Ypsilanti, but we've still got to get through Toledo, and we didn't want to do it during rush hour when we were tired. But tomorrow we'll be there. Yay!

9/1/09 (Tuesday): Greetings from Sweetwater, Tennessee (see the map)! We've been traveling through the southern Appalachians today. It's wonderful to see mountains again! But I'm ahead of myself.

We enjoyed our evening in the KOA in Valdosta, GA, last night. Even though it was right of I-75, it was quiet and there were lots of trees and a small lake. Wiley caught (and released) a couple of small bass. We had a good WiFi connection and cable TV. This morning we enjoyed a pretty lavish free breakfast. There was an extensive selection. I had oatmeal and a sweet roll. Wiley had cereal and a sweet roll. There was coffee, milk and juice, bagels, donuts--not bad for free! We also enjoyed talking with Chet, a Workamper like us.

Our drive today was uneventful. Traffic was pretty bad around Atlanta, but no accidents or anything. We saw many fields of cotton in bloom and some fields of peanuts and sorghum. The highway is boring, but fast. Since we got off to a late start yesterday, we have about 500 miles to go. So we're kind of thinking we'll have to camp again tomorrow night, maybe in Ohio. But we should reach Ypsilanti by the 3rd, as planned. Can't wait to hug the grands! It's been too long.