Buffalo

4/26/11 (Tuesday):  It's still cold and rainy here, so we've been spending a lot of time inside reading and visiting with Tom's family.  Finally, feeling stir crazy and tired of watching the birds and squirrels from our tiny camper, we took a drive in the rain.  We headed out U.S. 12, the old "Chicago Road."  What is now US 12 was originally Chicago Road, which ran from Detroit to Chicago.  It follows the route of the old Sauk Trail, an important Native American trail.  Purportedly, the explorer LaSalle was the first European to travel along it. It now travels through pretty farm land and little villages. There was a whole herd of buffalo at one of the farms.

Manchester Mill

Many of the villages were industrial centers in the mid-1800's.  Manchester used the power of the Raisin River to run this flour mill, built in 1832.  The mill burned down several times, the bridge washed away several times, and there were assorted other disasters, but the mill is still here.  The site now hosts community events.  We had an ice cream at the Dairy Queen on the other side of the river.

Several local Irish Catholic families funded construction of this church, which was designed by the priest and built of stones collected from local farmer's fields.  It's an amazing piece of work--all the stones fit together so beautifully.

Hopefully the weather will clear soon and I'll do some Spring blogs!  We've already noticed trillium and mayapples in the campground and the forsythia in bloom in the nearby houses.